The coach of Primoz Roglic on his incredible road to Vuelta victory through pain: "We doubted whether we should not stop his season"

Primoz Roglic did it. He equalled Roberto Heras for a fourth Vuelta a Espana title. As has become the Slovenian's sad custom, it was once again possible only after a failed Tour de France attempt. Roglic's coach Marc Lamberts admits he didn't even really think it was possible for Roglic to win the race with the back injury he carried over from Tour.

"What I've seen in the past three weeks has left me speechless several times," the Belgian trainer told HLN. "In terms of elevation, it was incredibly tough, eighteen percent more elevation than in the previous Tour. Sometimes you see stages during the Tour or the Vuelta in which they have barely pedalled 2.8 watts per kilogram of body weight. In this Vuelta I have to look for stages in which they have pedalled 3.8 watts per kilogram of body weight. On average, Primoz pushed more than 4 watts per kilogram of body weight every day."

Roglic abandoned the Tour after he crashed in stages 11 and 12. The latter causing him a vertebra transverse process fracture. "After his abandonment, he stayed off the bike for one week and went to the Red Bull Performance center in Salzburg for three days of rehabilitation, where they treated him intensively. We then doubted whether we should not stop his season, but we got the approval of the orthopedists and doctors that he could cycle, but with pain," Lambert looks back.

"We then rushed to Tignes for three weeks of altitude training," he continues. "We were able to complete three weeks of training in the altitude, but always with pain. That pain did not go away during the Vuelta either, but it did become bearable to be able to perform."

According to Lamberts, Roglic appeared at the start of the Vuelta at "between 95 and 97 percent" of his ability. Partly because of that, his trainer also only believed in the final victory for his leader extremely late. "Only Saturday evening after the penultimate stage. Especially because he had to race so atypically."