Primoz Roglic is one of the most successful professional cyclists of recent years. In 2019, 2020 and 2021, he won the Vuelta a Espana and 2023 the Giro d'Italia. To complete his tally of victories in all Grand Tours, the Slovenian only needs to win the Tour de France. In 2020, he narrowly missed out on the title when he was caught at the last second by Tadej Pogacar in the time trial on stage 20. In 2024, this missed title with his new team Bora-Hansgrohe now be made up for.
Primoz Roglic's race programme up to the Tour de France
- Paris-Nice: 03 March - 10 March
- Tour of the Basque Country: 01 April - 06 April
- Fleche Wallone: 17 April
- Liège-Bastogne-Liège: 21 April
- Criterium du Dauphine: 02 June - 09 June
Primoz Roglic: Minimum number of races for maximum success
Only three races are planned for Primoz Roglic to optimise his preparation for the 2024 Tour de France: From 3 March, he will start at Paris-Nice, after which his racing programme will only include the Tour of the Basque Country at the beginning of April and the Criterium du Dauphine at the beginning of June. Only he contests so few races Jonas Vingegaard from the circle of Tour de France favourites. Tadej Pogacar For example, he will even compete in the Giro d'Italia in May, a three-week tour before the Tour de France, in an attempt to do the double. In the preparatory races for the big goal, Roglic will be up against well-known competitors. This could be the first sign that the experienced Slovenian is still capable of the big time.
Paris-Nice
Primoz Roglic's first race for Bora-Hansgrohe will take place from 3 to 10 March. The long-distance race already marked the start of Primoz Roglic's World Tour in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. While he gave up the overall victory on the final stage in 2021 due to two crashes, he brought it home in 2022. This year, Roglic and his team could also be aiming for overall victory in the place where the Tour de France victory is to be added a few months later. He has rivals in the Tour in Remco Evenepoel from Soudal - Quick Stepwhom he will also meet at the Tour de France, and Joao Almeida from the UAE Team Emirateswho finished third in the 2023 Giro d'Italia.
Basque Country Tour
The Tour of the Basque Country will take place from 1 to 6 April 2024. It will be Primoz Roglic's fifth participation, with the now 34-year-old taking overall victory in 2018 and 2021. However, this will not be a foregone conclusion this season, as he will be up against some formidable competition in the form of Remco Evenepoel and his two former team-mates Jonas Vingegaard and Sepp Kuss from Visma | Lease a Bike.
Criterium du Dauphine
Primoz Roglic's last race before the Tour de France is the Criterium du Dauphine, which takes place from 2 to 9 June. The Slovenian has only taken part in the tour twice - most recently in 2022, when he was also the overall winner. He is one of the favourites again this year. The competition is similar to that of the Tour of the Basque Country - Evenepoel, Vingegaard and Kuss will also be at the start here.
Primoz Roglic will not start a race to win it. He will always be at the start with the aim of getting in shape to be victorious in July - Rolf Aldag, Sports Director at Bora Hansgrohe in the kicker
Training camp on Mallorca and Tenerife
In order to be optimally prepared for the start of the season, Primoz Roglic and his team have already been to two training camps at the beginning of the year: in January on Mallorca, and in February he then spent his first altitude training camp with his new team at the foot of Mount Teide in Tenerife. The Slovenian is also likely to take part in further training camps between the tours - at least one of which will take place at altitude.
Primoz Roglic chooses the same programme as 2022 - with a better outcome?
Primoz Roglic was already preparing for the Tour de France in 2022 with the three stage races Paris-Nice, the Tour of the Basque Country and the Criterium du Dauphine. With victories in two of the three tours, he went into the Tour de France with confidence. However, the Slovenian dislocated his shoulder in a crash on stage 5, meaning that he abandoned the race after stage 14 - also due to pain, he was only in 21st place overall. This year, after the same preparation, he is aiming for a different result in the world's most important stage race.
Fabulous year 2023 lets Bora-Hansgrohe dream of Tour de France victory
Although Primoz Roglic has been replaced as captain of Jumbo-Visma by Jonas Vingegaard in recent years and is one of the more experienced professionals at the age of 34, he can still hope for overall victory in the Tour de France. The past season gives reason for this:
In 2023, he won every tour in which he competed, including Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour of Catalonia, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Burgos - with one exception: he was only beaten by his two team-mates Sepp Kuss and Jonas Vingegaard in the Vuelta a Espana. He also showed that he is far from finished in one-day races: he won the Giro dell'Emilia and finished a strong third in the Tour of Lombardy. In 2024, the new Bora-Hansgrohe team is focussed on winning the Tour de France, so this is not an impossibility.
How Primoz Roglic sees his role in the new team
Primoz Roglic also wants to help his team-mates with his role as leader for the Tour de France. "We immediately had a common path that we want to work for. I feel honoured to be in this position. I want to take everyone to a new level - including the riders," Roglic explains in the Eurosport interview clear.
The Slovenian is combative: "I have a clear goal. We are all trying to prepare for it as best we can. We have to look for our opportunities, which are always there." Bora-Hansgrohe also seems to be happy with its new star. Rolf Aldag expressly praised Roglic: "Primoz Roglic is a role model. He is punctual at meals, on the descent, he always wears the right clothes. There is a learning effect for many people in the team, Primoz represents success."
Bora-Hansgrohe and Roglic put everything on the "Tour de France victory 2024" card
At Bora-Hansgrohe, everything is subordinated to the big goal of winning the Tour de France in 2024. To achieve this, Roglic is relying on the tried-and-tested preparation that he also carried out in 2022: With only three tours, he may not be collecting many competition days compared to the competition, but the plan seems well thought out. Paris-Nice could now be the first indication of whether Roglic is ready for the big time with his new team.
