Primož Roglič has had a slow start to his season at new team Bora-Hansgrohe. And that should worry his rivals, says Felix Lowe
First, Remco Evenepoel won his opening race of the year with a 55km solo attack in Portugal. Jonas Vingegaard then upped the ante with a clean sweep of all road stages of the O Gran Camiño in Spain. Not wanting to feel left out, Tadej Pogačar blew off the winter cobwebs by blasting clear 81km from the finish in Siena – just as he had told reporters he would do – to win Strade Bianche at a canter.
By contrast, Primož Roglič’s 17th place in the opening stage of Paris-Nice was not such a portentous curtain-raiser for a rider who wants to beat the other three in July to get that Tour de France monkey off his back. Nor was his 61st the next day or, come to think of it, Bora-Hansgrohe’s 11th place in the team time-trial the day after that.
Roglič did finally crack the top ten on Mont Brouilly in Stage 4, but still found himself 40 seconds down on Evenepoel on GC at the end of the day. By the end of the race the gap had ballooned to 5min 33sec behind overall winner Matteo Jorgenson – of Visma-Lease a Bike – and 5min 3sec behind runner-up Evenepoel, while over in Italy Vingegaard was celebrating a dominant victory at the Tirreno-Adriatico. Roglič’s new life away from Visma-Lease a Bike has coincided with his rivals apparently ramping things up another collective notch.
If anything, Roglič appears to be playing second fiddle at Bora to another new arrival in Colombia’s Dani Martínez, who managed to pip Evenepoel to two stage wins in the Volta ao Algarve despite the Belgian coasting to a third overall title in as many appearances. Remco’s long-awaited Tour debut will certainly add a fresh dynamic to what has become a two-horse race in recent years. Even Egan Bernal is showing flashes of his former self, setting up the tantalising prospect of the 2019 winner joining a five-way battle for yellow.
Should Roglič be worried? Not in the slightest. For the first time in nine years, the 34-year-old triple Vuelta winner and reigning Giro champion starts a new campaign in a new team surrounded by new teammates and a fresh focus. It’s only natural he’s taking time to settle. And with no real ambitions for the spring, his season is all about the Grande Boucle and getting the better of his former teammate Vingegaard, Tour virgin Evenepoel and that man Pogačar.
Too much too soon
Fellow Slovenian Pogačar looked imperious at
