"They try to keep Primoz at their side by giving him a lot of compliments" - BORA's Rolf Aldag slams Team Visma | Lease a Bike for continued Roglic comments

Having made the switch from Team Visma | Lease a Bike to BORA - hansgrohe ready for the 2024 season, Primoz Roglic is arguably best placed to end his former employers' Tour de France dominance next summer.

Speaking at a BORA - hansgrohe press day attended by In de Leiderstrui in Mallorca however, sports manager Rolf Aldag was not very complimentary about Team Visma | Lease a Bike and in particular, Merijn Zeeman and Richard Plugge's continued talk of the Slovenian since his move. "They try to keep Primoz at their side by giving him a lot of compliments," Aldag slams. "That's history now, Primoz is now here. And Visma, UAE and INEOS are our opponents. There is a lot of respect, but we are not going to build friendships."

"The experience Primoz gained at Jumbo-Visma has now been brought to us. And that was exactly what we were looking for, because we share the same goal: winning the Tour," continues Aldag, who also makes sure to give a mention to Marc Lamberts, who coaches Roglic and has joined him in making the switch. "Primoz shares that form of leadership with us in a very positive way. It is important that Primoz has his coach Marc Lamberts with him. He knows his history."

"We are in an upward trend, while Team Visma | Lease a Bike will remain on the same footing... next year they will not have Wout van Aert and Nathan Van Hooydonck, for example in that gravel stage," Aldag concludes fierily. "They have shown that they can deal with problems, but we feel that we are improving and that we are gaining confidence. We believe in our capabilities and with that we also know that we do not have to copy them, even though history shows that they have done many things well."