Report from the archive First published in TOUR 10/2018 (issue out of print)
Andrej Hauptman still remembers the phone call well. It was six years ago. A young man was on the phone and wanted to know if he could train with Hauptman's small professional team, Radenska, because he wanted to start cycling. How old was he? 22, was the answer. That is generally considered far too old to start a competitive sporting career. But, the caller added, he had already been a top athlete, a ski jumper.
Ex-professional Hauptman still rolls his eyes today when he tells the story. A ski jumper wants to try his hand at professional cycling at an advanced age? Hauptman thought what many initially thought about Primož Roglič and his ambitions: that there is a huge difference between winning a cycling race after 250 kilometres and being able to fly 200 metres down a mountain with skis on your feet - even if you were Junior World Champion with the Slovenian team in 2007. Hauptman was not the only one who believed that the two sports required completely different talents that were difficult to combine. Until this young man came along.
Six years later, Hauptman, now national coach of the Slovenian Cycling Federation, stands on the town hall square in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana and watches as the fans celebrate the former ski jumper's return from the Tour de France. Primož Roglič has become the country's best cyclist in just a few years. He finished fourth in the Tour of France - only narrowly beaten off the podium by serial winner Chris Froome. And the fans are celebrating him because they all believe that this incredible story is not over yet. They dream of the first Tour winner from Slovenia. The same captain who once tried to get rid of Roglič now says when asked whether Roglič could become world road champion or win the Tour de France: "We don't know his limits yet."
Slovenia, the still young country that broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991 and then defended its independence in the Ten-Day War, has already produced many good cyclists: Andrej Hauptman was third in the 2001 World Championships, Janez Brajkovič won the Dauphiné, Simon Špilak won the Tour de Suisse twice; eleven Slovenians alone are currently riding in World Tour teams. But one who has helped shape the most important cycling race in the world - there has never been one before. In 2020, Roglič told Slovenian television during his visit home, he wants to wear the yellow jersey in Paris. And bring it to Slovenia.
Yellow, far and wide Yellow - Primož Roglič sees nothing but this colour when he visits his old home in central Slovenia, in a deeply incised side valley of the River Sava. Friends, relatives and neighbours greet him at the small concrete bridge that leads to his parents' house. And with a Bengal fire that bathes everything in a thick fog - in yellow, of course. They also quickly painted the concrete bridge that leads across the Medija river to the professional cyclist's parents' house yellow. The now famous son, neighbour, buddy and nephew greets hundreds of people, takes dozens of photos and signs autographs, including for the police, who are actually supposed to keep the general frenzy of joy away from the country road passing by. It's only a short stop - but Roglič patiently shares his joy and success. With everyone.
His compatriots celebrate Roglič's fourth place like a victory. This place is often considered ungrateful. But the fans see it differently - they are grateful for the good show and for the fact that Primož Roglič has put their small country on the world cycling map. And Roglič is grateful because he knows that he has what it takes to compete for victory in the most important cycling race. And he enjoys the excitement, the popularity. Roglič, who now lives in Monaco with his girlfriend Lora, is a folk hero at home. And, it seems, he likes being one.
Nickname. "Bravo Primož" is written on a cardboard sign painted by a little boy. A dozen three-year-olds hang from the barrier, watching the video screen showing the best scenes from the Tour together with their idol. Even the ambassador of the Netherlands appears on stage - after all, Slovenia's cycling hero rides for the Dutch team LottoNL-Jumbo. "We have taken you to our hearts. You are an ambassador for cycling in Slovenia and an ambassador for cyclists in the Netherlands. What an achievement!" says Bart Twaalfhoven, touched.
The following day, Roglič visits his parents' house in the Strahovlje settlement, where he once went on adventures with friends in the wooded hills along the stream valley and never missed a test of courage. An hour later, in Zagorje, just a few kilometres away, there is the next reception, the next press conference, the next TV interviews, the fire brigade greets him from an extended turntable ladder and sounds the siren. Roglič's parents stand movedly on the edge of the crowd of thousands that greets the now most famous son of the small town. Children run around excitedly - there's a lot going on in the town where coal mining ceased 20 years ago.
Why are people so excited when Roglič turns up? Even his companions can't explain it exactly. "He brings people together. Only a few Slovenian athletes have managed to do that," says Boštjan Mervar, who worked with Roglič as sports director of the small Slovenian team Adria Mobil and led him to victory in the Tour of Slovenia. "Primož wants to win. But he also wants to celebrate with everyone afterwards," says his old mate Klemen Štimulak, who has shared a room with him at many races. Roglič is basically no different now - except that he no longer just celebrates with his team-mates, but with the whole country.
And he clearly enjoys it, taking a selfie at the top of the stage in Ljubljana with the large fan community behind him. As if he wouldn't believe it until it was documented in a photo. Then he tirelessly signs autographs, takes photos, hugs people - and always seems a little shy. But he emphasises: "I enjoy it. I want to be an idol for young people." That's another thing you have to learn first: being an idol. Even if you learn as quickly as Roglič.
He's already pretty high up now. Yet his cycling career actually began with a terrible fall. In the spring of 2007, Roglič, who had recently been crowned junior world champion with the Slovenian team, jumped off the ski jump in Planica, got air on his skis from above and fell headfirst like a stone onto the landing hill. You can see the video of the fall on the internet - and how they transported the bloodied ski jumper, 17 years old at the time, away in a rescue sled with a neck brace. Concussion, broken nose, but the crash was a minor one. "I lacked fear and the necessary respect," he says today about the crash. And yet he dared to jump again. Fear? His athlete was never afraid, says his longstanding ski jumping coach Zvone Prograjc. "He got back on the hill as quickly as possible. But afterwards his results were not what he would have liked,
The slender 1.77 metre man seems to have a special drive. When knee problems were added to the mix, he put an end to ski jumping in 2011. And he decided to become a cyclist - after his ski jumping coaches had advised him not to train on a bike for years. Roglič sold his KTM motocross bike, got himself a Wilier racing bike and collected the 5,000 euros that Team Radenska allegedly demanded as a dowry.
Hard years of training followed. "Crashes are a particularly painful way of realising mistakes," says the high-flyer today. And at the beginning of his cycling career, he crashed often and badly - for example, because he simply turned round in the middle of the peloton. Bang, he was lying on the tarmac. A rookie mistake. "But he never makes a mistake twice," says his former team boss Bogdan Fink. He signed the ex-ski jumper for Team Adria Mobil for the 2013 season after a performance test at the University of Ljubljana left no doubt: an incredible, late-blooming talent. The values for maximum oxygen uptake and pedalling power per kilogramme of body weight were outstanding for an athlete who had only trained properly for one season.
The conditions were therefore good, and the newcomer learnt quickly. In his first year as a professional cyclist he crashed a lot, in his second year he won his first small professional race and in his third he won his first stage races, including the Tour of Slovenia ahead of Sky pro Mikel Nieve. Fink then offered his talent to several top teams. Sky turned him down, he says. It should not be overlooked: Steep cycling careers are also always a bit suspect. Frans Maassen, the sporting director at Team LottoNL-Jumbo, also turned down Fink's first call in a friendly manner. An ex-ski jumper who was called up late wants to try his hand at a World Tour team? That seemed too bold for him.
Until they realised in the Netherlands towards the end of the season that they needed additional racing drivers for the coming season, but had no money in their coffers. That's when the newcomer from Slovenia came in handy. A performance test, to which Roglič was called straight from his beach holiday in Croatia, dispelled all doubts. The talent was measurable in numbers. And soon visible in results. At his first three-week tour, the Giro d'Italia 2016, Roglič immediately won the long individual time trial - ahead of Fabian Cancellara and Tom Dumoulin. The following year, he also surprised insiders and the sports press when he won the difficult mountain stage over the Galibier Pass at the first start of the Tour. With an announcement. He had sent his girlfriend Lora to the finish instead of somewhere along the route as usual.
"I'm going to win today," Roglič said before the start of the stage, recalls his long-time team-mate Štimulak, who was on the route at the time. "He can focus extremely well," emphasises the 28-year-old former pro, who has now ended his professional career, runs a bike shop in Celje and organises trips for cycling fans to the Tour de France. "Thanks to Primož, this is now much easier to sell," he says with a grin. It's not just cycling holidays that are now flourishing. Fink, who is also the organiser of the Tour of Slovenia, now finds it easier to find sponsors and obtain permits for his race. President Borut Pahor, a cycling fan, enjoys travelling in the support car. And in the small town of Novo mesto, which they call the home of cycling in Slovenia, they are currently building the country's first covered cycling track - on the remains of the old track, from which the wooden slats are breaking. After all, they have heard that some of the last Tour winners came from track cycling. They are now laying a new foundation for Tour winners made in Slovenia.
Telemark landing in Paris?
And what's next for Roglič? "I've gained enough experience," he said on Slovenian television about the last Tour. At Team Sky, they should take Roglič's words as a warning - he was less than a minute short of a place on the podium this year, 3:22 minutes behind winner Geraint Thomas. And the new challenger rode with a handicap. Roglič was wearing a bandage on his right elbow during a visit home at the beginning of August. The result of a minor operation, as he explains. After the Tour, it was discovered that he had had a stone stuck in his arm for weeks - in the very place where you lie on your arm shells during a time trial. The result of a training crash at an altitude training camp. Roglič, it seems, always provides new material for stories. Of falling and getting up again. He has now turned his past as a ski jumper into a trademark. On the winner's podium, he likes to perform a telemark landing with a lunge, just like in ski jumping. There are quite a few who believe that the telemark landing will soon celebrate its premiere on the Champs-Élysées. Primož Roglič thinks so too.
Is Primož Roglič the true combined world champion? The Slovenian's career is very unusual in two respects. Firstly, he was a world leader in a sport that has very little to do with an endurance discipline such as road cycling: ski jumping. There, it's all about the right timing, jumping technique, feel for the air and speed when jumping - and as his chequered jumping careers at the top of the world show: The head plays a very important role.
Secondly, Roglič started cycling very late: at the age of 22. However, German cycling coach Sebastian Weber, who has worked with athletes such as André Greipel, Tony Martin and Peter Sagan, believes that age is only partially an obstacle to a competitive career. He says: "The idea that you have to have trained in a sport for 10 to 15 years still comes from training theory in the East." This is how talents were trained in the GDR, among other places - and later, as a legacy of this tradition, in sport throughout Germany. Today, sports science takes a more differentiated view. "It is known that you can train up your maximum oxygen uptake capacity relatively quickly," emphasises the training expert. And this is an important element for success in cycling.
Roglič's team coach Merijn Zeeman speaks of a "very steep learning curve" for the former ski jumper - probably not only in his head, but also in his body. The body also learns to adapt to the demands. Not everyone can do this equally well. "Maybe someone was a ski jumper who had a great talent for endurance sports," Weber points out. The great thing about sport is that results cannot be predicted using scientific methods - and sometimes they cannot be explained.
About the person: Primož Roglič
Nationality Slovenian
Born 29 October 1989 in Trbovlje (Slovenia)
Height 1.77 metres
Weight 65 kilograms
Place of residence Monaco
Marital status married to Lora
Professional cyclist since 2013
Teams
Adria Mobil (2013-2015),
LottoNL-Jumbo (since 2016)
