"Roglic won't win another Grand Tour in his career" - Jens Voigt

The Vuelta a Espana will have it's three-time defending champion Primoz Roglic at the startline looking to defend his title, but many don't believe that will be the case, with former pro rider Jens Voigt being one of them.

"Primoz wouldn't start at the Vuelta a Espana if he had won the Tour de France first. But that hasn't worked out for him yet," Voigt told Eurosport. "Sometimes a crash intervened, sometimes he came in a close second. If it goes well, he will be third. In other words: From my point of view, Roglic won't win another Grand Tour in his career".

Roglic will start the Vuelta as the leader of Jumbo-Visma, supported by the likes of Sepp Kuss in the mountains, Edoardo Afinni and Mike Teunissen in the flat treacherous days. His form is unknown, seeing as he as yet to return to competition since his abandon at the Tour de France, but he has several times in the past had strong form upon return. Two dislocated vertebrae were not simple injuries to recover from however. "For my taste, he crashes once too often. Roglic's crash rate is very high, too high," Voigt justified. 

"In addition, the accidents were sometimes bad, hurt and he lost a lot of skin in the process. Last year he lost Paris-Nice on the final stage because he crashed twice. He has already had to abandon the Tour de France twice because of crashes, and in 2020 he gave it away on the penultimate day in the mountain time trial," he added. The nature of the Vuelta - with more hard and mountainous stages in the opening week - leads to less stressful racing to that that has seen him crash at the Tour, however it will nevertheless be a big challenge for the Slovenian.

"When he triumphed in the Criterium du Dauphine this season, he was no stronger than his best aide Jonas Vingegaard. I still believe Roglic is capable of winning stages, a mountains jersey or top-five finishes in the Giro, Tour and Vuelta - but he is no longer a contender for the victory," the German commentator concluded.