“There is a lot of speculation and guessing...” - Primoz Roglic gives cryptic update on future amid swirling rumours of Red Bull departure

Primoz Roglic returned to the Slovenian national championships with a victory, but his first national time trial title in a decade was quickly followed by a much bigger question.

The 36-year-old ended his wait for a first win of the 2026 season in Karteljevo on Friday, yet the growing uncertainty around his Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe future has become impossible to ignore.

With fresh speculation over whether he will remain with the team beyond this year, Roglic was asked directly where things stand.

“If I knew anything and had something to say, I would gladly say it,” Roglic told Slovenian media after his victory, as quoted by Siol. “There is a lot of speculation and guessing and also I myself can only say that anything is possible. After the season we will see what happens.”

Roglic joined Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe ahead of the 2024 season and delivered the team a fourth career Vuelta a Espana title later that year. Since then, however, the team’s Grand Tour picture has changed significantly.

Remco Evenepoel’s arrival has shifted the long-term conversation, while Florian Lipowitz’s emergence has given Red Bull another major stage-race option. Roglic, meanwhile, will not race the Tour de France this summer and has instead been widely linked with another Vuelta challenge, where a fifth overall victory would move him clear as the most successful rider in the race’s history.

Even that, though, is not being treated as a certainty by the Slovenian. “I am not thinking about that yet,” Roglic said when asked about the Vuelta. “First of all, let’s be happy with victories, which in my case are very rare, so I am glad I managed to do it. Then on Sunday I will also take part in the road race. We will think about the Vuelta later.”

Roglic has spent much of the last decade winning Grand Tours, Olympic gold and the biggest one-week stage races in cycling, but his 2026 season had been quiet until Friday’s time trial. His own assessment of the win was telling. “The Vuelta is still too far away,” he added. “First and foremost, let’s be happy with victories, which in my case are very rare.”

The line was striking from a rider with his record. Roglic has four Vuelta titles, one Giro d’Italia crown and an Olympic time trial gold medal on his palmares, but at 36, with no Tour de France on his programme and his team future under scrutiny, even a national championship victory carried a different edge.

Roglic’s return to the Slovenian nationals came because his summer schedule no longer includes the Tour de France. For a rider whose career has so often revolved around Grand Tour targets, that gave the championships added meaning.

“The decision was simple,” he explained. “If I am not going to the Tour, then the national championships are definitely a race I want to be at. It gives me the greatest pleasure to come here and give something back to the people for all the support I have felt over all these years.”

He also pushed back against the idea that reaching the Vuelta start line is a formality. “We have already seen that it is difficult to get to Grand Tours,” Roglic said. “There are a lot of things in between, and even getting selected for the Vuelta and getting to the start is already a chapter in itself.”

Roglic did not hide that he would like to race the Spanish Grand Tour, but even his possible preparation schedule remains open. Asked about the Tour de Pologne, which runs from August 3 to 9, he was cautious. “I have only raced there once, in 2016,” he said. “That is also still too far away for me to say anything, but I doubt it a little because it seems too close to the Vuelta. Maybe, though. We will see.”

Before any Vuelta decision, Roglic is due to line up in Sunday’s Slovenian national road race in Podgorje, where he will be the only Red Bull rider on the start line. Jan Tratnik is absent due to Tour de France preparations, while Bahrain – Victorious are expected to bring a strong group including Matej Mohoric, Jaka Omrzel, Matevz Govekar, Zak Erzen and Roman Ermakov.

“It will be hard. Even harder if I am alone,” Roglic admitted. “I will definitely need the legs, and also a bit of luck, to be in the right place at the right moment.”

Roglic last raced the Slovenian nationals in 2020, when he beat Tadej Pogacar to the road race title on the climb to Krvavec. Six years later, he is back in national colours in very different circumstances: still a proven winner, still a potential Vuelta contender, but no longer able to keep questions over his Red Bull future or wider career direction away from the race itself.