"The yellow jersey is the medium-term goal" - BORA - hansgrohe counts on Primoz Roglic winning the Tour de France
CyclingFriday, 31 May 2024 at 09:08
Ralph Denk dreams of overall victory in the Tour de France. At the most important cycling event of the year, his team with top star Primoz Roglic will try to win the yellow jersey while Jay Hindley and Alexander Vlasov should be ready to assist the Slovenian in his chase for Maillot Jaune.
"The yellow jersey is the medium-term goal," the BORA - hansgrohe boss told media. We can only imagine what bigger goals could up for the German team, but with the ambitious Red Bull set to debut by the team's side, it's very well possible the goal is to see the German-Austrian formation rise to the no.1 team in the World ranking at some point. With the big names reportedly in negotiations to join the team in next years, it might not be just a wild dream.
However the current focus is solely on Grande Boucle, where Bora nominates the best they have (at least in the climbing resort). "Primoz should not and must not crash, we have a lot of technical stages," said Denk. The Slovenian should ride as far up the field as possible.
To get him in position, the team should "protect him with massive manpower." This duty will be assigned to strong engines Nico Denz and Marco Haller. In the past, Roglic has repeatedly had bad luck with crashes. In 2022, he infamously crashed out of the Vuelta a Espana while sitting second overall.
Read also
In 2020 and 2021, it was Tadej Pogacar who stood between Roglic and Tour de France title and the situation won't be very different this year in that regard. Only a hard and strenuous path will lead past the two-time winner. On Sunday, Pogacar won the Giro in a dominant manner - almost ten minutes ahead of another Bora rider Daniel Martínez.
However Pogacar won't be Roglic's only challenger. Another two-time champion Jonas Vingegaard is racing against the time to get into shape after the Itzulia Basque Country crash where Roglic was involved as well. Another victim of the said incident was Remco Evenepoel, ambitious Belgian is targetting his Tour de France debut this summer.
Read also
claps 3visitors 2
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- The good thing about being young is that you recover faster than older people after a good night sleep and in the interview he said he had the best sleep after a rough day yesterday.
KerisVroom28-05-2025 - I don't know where you are referring to "points," given that I was looking at wins in different categories (overall, monuments, world tour) and trying to make different comparisons to illustrate my point. Could you clarify?RidesHills28-05-2025
- His contract is until 2028. Isaac's contract is until 2029 and will be revised if he can keep the GC podium. Like it or not, it will be very hard for other team to secure Juan Ayuso's service before the end of the contract because UAE has money and won't let go of him that easily.KerisVroom28-05-2025
- In a team where Pogi is present, the others would be helpers was already known. Yet Ayuso, Almeida, Adam all signed up due to money. Now they cannot demand anything over Pogi. Leftovers is the best that they can get.abstractengineer28-05-2025
- How long does Ayuso have left at UAE? That might open up a slot unless Del Toro takes it.Renz28-05-2025
- That’s a rather large number of bonus seconds he earnt, is it from the 2 weeks or just today?Mistermaumau28-05-2025
- When ever will he learn, always has a excuse.
Senna196028-05-2025 - Yeah, the way Del Toro took those downhill corners with his body lowered when he was with Carapaz reminds of me Pidcock's daredevil descend at the Tour.KerisVroom28-05-2025
- He looked like Pogi today. Even did the Hulk celebration haha!
ScottG28-05-2025 - Pidcock is not a factor in any Grand Tour. Never will be.ScottG28-05-2025
Also, I forgot :
“Primoz should not and must not crash, we have a lot of technical stages," said Denk. The Slovenian should ride as far up the field as possible.
Really?
Remind me where he was positioned in his last 2 crashes (or maybe 2 of the 3 last coz if my old memory still serves me, he may have had 2 crashes in the race before or where he had the big one)?
Considering Rogliç results and what they might have been without abandons due to crashes and that unfortunate last-minute loss to Pog (which incidentally did wonders for the progress to Pog’s stats, anyone would be a fool to underestimate him, even after his latest crash.
Medium-term is a really weird term to use here, especially now the Tour is about to start, does that mean they’re not even going for it this year???
Their newest investor doesn’t invest for fun, if they are entering, they have a bigger plan, maybe to combat black oil with red bull? Using an ageing Rogliç to prepare a team riding for a younger leader they’ll snap up later?
Also, reading into Pogis comment for the Vuelta, maybe it’s his way of admitting he’s actually feeling tired after the Giro, not like him to avoid a challenge ;-) Good subtle news for the Tour?