Primoz Roglic is a rider that throughout the years relied on his time-trialing and strong sprinting – besides his climbing – to gain time on his rivals in the Grand Tours, but nowadays a few riders have surpassed him. Hence he came into this past Tour de France without pressure and in the final days of the race he sacrificed his GC to try and win a stage.Ralph Denk, in a recent podcast of Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe, discussed several topics and amongst those was the attack on stage 19, the final mountain stage. The previous day already Roglic and Felix Gall were part of a breakaway that worked hard to try and make the difference already before the Col de la Loze. But Visma’s aggressive strategy saw the attack caught in the Col de la Madeleine and then he did not try again.
On stage 19, he applied the very same strategy. “When he realised that he is not the third best, he then, in consultation with our team, tried desperately to win a stage,” Denk said. On the 19th stage UAE pushed the pace all-out until the final climb (where then Pogacar did not try to chase down Thymen Arensman), and that was to the damage of Roglic who attacked early in the day, had the company of Lenny MartÃnez and Valentin Paret-Peintre throughout the climbs and then rode solo into La Plagne.
But there he had no legs to keep going, with UAE putting on a fierce chase all day long. “Unfortunately, he did not succeed. I really wished it for him, but all in all, he was in good form, that should be acknowledged. So he was good but others were better. We will now talk to him after the Tour de France about what his goals are and what still motivates him”.
With the reports of Remco Evenepoel joining the German team intensifying by the week, a move seems only a matter of time now. But the team does not depend on the Belgian to fight for Grand Tour wins and makes it clear, due to their current talent.
“It’s another milestone in the team’s history (Florian Lipowitz’ podium and white jersey at the Tour de France). We’ve won the Giro d’Italia, we’ve won the Vuelta a España, we’ve won Paris-Roubaix and we have become world champion. We have already achieved a lot in the team’s history but we had never been on the podium in Paris. So that was the next milestone”.
Lipowitz could himself become the team’s highest priority into the future taking into consideration his 24 years of age, his rapid and still ongoing evolution in the sport and the fact that he was a product of BORA’s development. “The special thing is that we achieved this with our rider, someone who signed their first professional contract with us. Developing Florian from being an amateur rider up to the podium in Paris at the Tour de France is really super cool.”