"We were still two steps away from the support that Primoz Roglic received at Visma" - Departing BORA staff member admits "there are things that need to be improved"

The Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe secured two game changing additions to their team in 2024, namely, proven Grand Tour winner Primoz Roglic and the extra investment from new title sponsor, Red Bull. Both, as detailed by departing team nutritionist Dr Tim Podlogar, caused a big shift in expectation within the team.

"In the team, we were aware that we were going to the Vuelta to win. Anything short of victory would most likely be a disappointment," Podlogar explains to Siol. "Primoz was by far the best of the riders on the start list in theory and had to show it in practice. He already had many accidents this season (falling in the Basque Country and the Tour) and in the end the team bet all their cards on the Vuelta."

Before this year, the team had only ever taken one Grand Tour victory, that coming through Jai Hindley at the 2022 Giro d'Italia. So to come to the 2024 Vuelta a Espana with an expectant winner in the team marked a big change for a team that, in Podlogar's opinion, still wasn't up to overall levels of Roglic's former employers, Jumbo-Visma (now Team Visma | Lease a Bike ed.).

"At Visma, they had an extremely well-organized nutrition department. Not from the point of view of science or knowledge, but above all from the point of view of resources. The team understood the importance of nutrition," Podlogar explains. "Most teams are lucky to have their own chef and a kitchen truck at a race, while at Visma they have two chefs at important races. They have an excellent system for controlling food intake down to the gram. They have recipes prepared in advance, and the ingredients always come from the same store, as they have Jumbo as their sponsor. Everything is precisely defined. We simply could not achieve such a level of accuracy in our team."

As such, Roglic often demanded more. In the middle of the season, we finally got a dietitian who helped us with this, but we were still two steps away from the support that Primoz, at least in my opinion, received at Visma. It was simply impossible for us to be on the same level. And Primoz, as a perfectionist, wanted things to be arranged as they should be," the doctor concludes. "He's right and that's how it should be. There are things that need to be improved for next season."