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It’s not all goofy telemark celebrations and Vuelta a España jerseys for Primož Roglič.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s veteran leader revealed this week how he questioned his cycling future after he crashed out of the Tour de France for the third year in a row.
“When it happened to me again, which it did, my thoughts went in the direction of ‘what do I need this for, I don’t need to be part of the cycling world anymore and suffer all this,’” Roglič told Slovenian outlet Nedelo. “After all, I’m only human.”
Roglič endured a wildly up’n’down debut season with his Red Bull “super team.”
He came off relatively lightly in the crash that brutalized Jonas Vingegaard at Itzulia Basque Country, but his Tour de France ambitions blew apart when he crashed on stage 12 into Villeneuve-sur-Lot.
Roglič left the race the day after his high-speed spill. It was the latest chapter in a torrid Tour career marked by a penultimate-stage denial by Tadej Pogačar in 2020 and three-straight DNFs.
It was like the nail in the coffin when Roglič later learned he broke his vertebrae.
“I only found out a few days later what kind of injury it was, that something was broken after all,” Roglič told Nedelo of his Tour de France injury.
“At that time I had to take care of my health,” he said. “I had to get to a state in which I felt fairly normal.”
From career crisis to Vuelta doubt
Roglič’s career crisis gave way to racing doubt.
The 34-year-old revealed to Nedelo the difficulty he faced rebooting for his push on a historic fourth Vuelta a España victory.
“I didn’t want to jeopardize my health by returning to training,” Roglič said of his post-injury comeback. “I was advised that the only obstacle would be the pain, which would not go away for some time.
“At that time, I was quite happy,” he said. “I perceived it as nothing bad and that I could keep going.”
Roglič claimed his fouth Roja and leveled to Robeto Heras’ record through gritted teeth.
He was plagued by lingering pains from his broken back and looked out of legs several times in the opening weeks.
“What followed was a look ahead and the realization that I never run out of new challenges,” he said. “Of course I feel the pain, it’s not pleasant.”
Toilet troubles, and a ride with Pogačar
Roglič went on to unseat underdog red jersey Ben O’Connor with a late-race bulldozing win that all-but sealed the first grand tour victory for sporting superpower Red Bull.
But Roglič is Roglič.
Things aren’t always so simple.
Stomach sickness tore through Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in the final weekend of the race. Roglič’s wingmen rushed out of the race and into the rest-room.
Roglič went on to reveal to Flobikes he too suffered the stomach bug and went to the toilet “20 times” the day of his race-concluding time trial.
“There was no big celebration after the race,” Roglic told Nedelo. “Because of the health problems that plagued us at the end of the race, we stayed close to the toilets even after finishing.”
Roglič reboots from his historic fourth red jersey this weekend by taking dark horse status at the world championship time trial. Remco Evenepoel, Josh Tarling, and Stefan Küng stand in the way of Rogla securing his first rainbow jersey.
He’s slated to play race-breaking bulldozer for Slovenian teammate and road race top favorite Pogačar one week later, and will close his season mid-October at Il Lombardia.
One short off-season later, and Roglič will be back for the 13th season of his career.
