"A historic day for Slovenian cycling", wrote the newspaper "Delo" and added after the double victory on the first mountain finish of the 107th Tour de France: "And that was just the appetiser for Roglic and Pogacar." Two Slovenian professional cyclists at the summit of the Tour - from a country with just two million inhabitants, where children usually play football and basketball or go to winter sports. A miraculous success story.
The two seem to belong to a golden generation. Roglic, the former ski jumper, this exceptional talent, who is said to have had a VO2max value - which indicates the oxygen uptake capacity of the blood - of over 80 at the age of 20 and was therefore in the same range as Chris Froome. And then there is Tadej Pogacar, just 21 years old, who was the youngest rider to win three stages of a grand tour at last year's Vuelta. Not forgetting compatriots Matej Mohoric and Jan Polanc, who also play an important role in their teams at the Tour.
However, Slovenian cycling is also accompanied by a suspicion. Of the bloodletting operation. Some traces of the blood doping affair surrounding the Erfurt sports physician Mark S. lead to Slovenia. The two professional cyclists Kristijan Koren and Borut Bozic were banned for two years by the UCI as suspected customers. The Croatian Kristijan Durasek, a former colleague of Pogacar, has been banned for four years.
And then there is the trail to the bustling cycling manager Milan Erzen, who has been investigated by the UCI for suspected links to a doctor from Operation Aderlass. Erzen, who is considered the grand seigneur of Slovenian cycling - as a former rider, talent scout, coach, consultant and manager. In 2013, Erzen was head coach of the lower-level Adria Mobil team when Roglic began his career.
The new high-flyer of cycling had played down the connection in the past. There had not been much contact, said Roglic. And his Jumbo-Visma team also says that Erzen was by no means Roglic's discoverer.
In any case, 2013 was the year in which Roglic's career took off. The former junior team world champion in ski jumping had had enough of the snow in 2012, bought a second-hand bike for 1,300 euros and was actually given a chance at Adria Mobil. Success quickly materialised, so that Jumbo-Visma took notice of him. At the end of 2015, Roglic was hired for the minimum salary of just under 40,000 euros. And even before the first race, the then 26-year-old Roglic surprised everyone with his plans. He wanted to win the Tour within five years.
"We replied to him: Calm down, we're in the WorldTour here and you haven't won a race yet," recalled sports director Frans Maassen in the French sports daily "L'Equipe". Since then, his development has been brilliant. In 2016, he won a stage at the Giro d'Italia, followed by the Tour de France a year later. And it wasn't long before he was a complete tour rider: fourth in the 2018 Tour, third in the 2019 Giro and finally overall winner of the Vuelta in September last year.
There are now 41 professional victories. "The development is astonishing, but also explainable and comprehensible," said colleague Tony Martin in the dpa interview. Pogacar, who took a different path, is also astounding. He started cycling at the age of nine and was always ahead of his time. In 2018, he won the Tour de l'Avenir - a kind of junior Tour de France as the successor to Egan Bernal.
This year's Tour des France ends on 20 September in Paris. Five days before that, the trial begins in Operation Bloodletting.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:200902-99-399594/3
