'I just want to be myself' - Primož Roglič on the drive to keep winning and improving at 35

Primož Roglič seldom needs a moment to think when he fields questions from the media. He's well-known for being concise, sharp and able to end pre- and post-race interviews with a clever quip before focusing back on what he's employed to do – win races.

However, with a new season comes another annual media day and a rare chance to pick the brain of the fascinating character Roglič in a longer interview. After answering what the Slovenian press wanted to know for 40 minutes and allowing the anglophone media to substitute in, the question which made Roglič take a breath and ponder the longest was "What would you say motivates you the most to be successful, to win?"

"It's a hard question eh… But hard question, or not, I just want to be myself," says Roglič to a small group including Cyclingnews after a long pause.

"I have a really incredible opportunity, actually, in my life and my time being here. I changed sports from being a ski jumper to riding a bike and I could never imagine now doing quite so good and winning, yes, some bike races. 

"It's a pleasure, but on the other hand, maybe also a responsibility to have that. I just try to be me and try to do my best in the time that I have here, and that's simple."

Roglič has been a serial winner since he came to bike racing as a 23-year-old, racking up 88 wins as a professional, the equal fourth most among active male riders – coincidentally on the same amount as compatriot Tadej Pogačar. 

He's naturally shy in conversation and tends to keep to himself, which couldn't be more contrasting with his propensity to be ruthless and attacking on the bike. 

Roglič of course recognises his role as a role model and the leader at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe because of his winning pedigree and status as a five-time Grand Tour champion but takes on that role by leading through example, letting the legs do the talking.

"I'm shy, normally, I would prefer to be alone or hide somewhere," says Roglič of welcoming in new teammates like Maxim Van Gils before the season's start. "But I try to meet the people and try to get to know each other, especially the guys that obviously we will work together. 

"I don't want to give this kind of impression [of being too shy], I mean, I didn't bite anybody except the bars and the gels for the moment," he laughs.

"We signed a bunch of strong guys. Putting all the best guys on paper at one race, it's necessary that will work, then you need to connect all these pieces together. I'm looking forward to the season and spending more time together on the bike, to get to know each other and build trust between us."

For Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's chief of sports, Rolf Aldag, Roglič's comeback win at the 2024 Vuelta a España was a key highlighter of how he shows his leadership, also acknowledging how much more the Slovenian has settled into his role in the team going into his second year.

"He still has that super positive attitude towards his job, and he leads by example, not with huge words," Aldag tells Cyclingnews a week before Roglič's season debut. 

"But saying that if you give him the forum, if you give him like the stage, say like in October, we had our first team meeting and this year he did come on stage to address the team and I think that was super nice.

"Sometimes, he builds a wall and it's just really difficult to look over that wall. But if he opens up, he has something to say, that is very valid to the staff and to his teammates. 

"Also within the team, of course, performance always helps. There was a time last year when we as a team could not offer him the perfect platform as a rider to cash into results, which also turned around with victory at the Vuelta. 

"I do think, for both sides, it was very important to show that we are there for each other, that we still believe in each other and that this partnership can be very successful."

Resilient like Cavendish and still improving at 35

Last year's Vuelta, where Roglič took a record-equalling fourth title in Spain, was the third he'd won just months after suffering heartbreak at the Tour de France. In 2020, Pogačar snatched the yellow jersey from Roglič on the penultimate stage after a dramatic time trial win. In 2021 and 2024, crashes saw him abandon the Tour and again miss out on his career goal.

The time in Spain was another sign of Roglič's ever-undying resilience. His luck at the Tour over the years might have been abysmal, however, his mental toughness and ability to bounce back can never be questioned. Several big crashes and injuries have left him battle-scarred but this resilience has come to be the story of his career.

Aldag, having worked with perennial comeback artist Mark Cavendish at Dimension Data, has seen similar resilience throughout his time in cycling but only very rarely and from the most special of riders.

"Well, as you know, I worked with Mark Cavendish so I can tell you I went to bigger highs and deeper lows with him as well. That's why I'm still quite relaxed about Primož," says Aldag with a smile. "If you think it's going bad, then you can think back on some of the days with Cav. 

"But these are very special characters. I do think firsthand that it does make them so successful - that they just never give up. They just keep on coming back. They believe in their own strengths and they keep on pushing forward. 

"But, indeed, Primož, considering the whole world of cycling and the 400 or whatever riders in the WorldTour peloton, there's not three of his kind."

With that resilience in mind, Roglič is hoping for another bounce back this coming season, looking to re-find his best form at the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France after being the fourth best of cycling's so-called "big four" before he crashed out last July.

For the Slovenian, the start of the season arrives next Wednesday, at the Volta ao Algarve. It's one of only four races currently on his schedule for the season and, with former teammate Jonas Vingegaard also making his season debut in Portugal, it will be the first meeting of the four main GC stars in 2025.

"The goal is just to reach my best shape. The results will be what they will be," says Roglič in his typical style. "I don't know how fast all the other best guys will go, you know, but looking at myself, what I can strive for is to try to build myself into the best Primož that there was.

What exactly the best level of himself is, Roglič isn't quite sure, however, he sees the level he found at last year's Vuelta as a solid place to start.

"Inside I still feel 20, I can even colour my hair to be more without grey ones to look younger," he jokes, before quickly putting his serious hat back on. "The goal, let's say I had a really high level in Vuelta last year, is to search for that shape and that level."

While Aldag and Red Bull can't control how strong Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel will be at the start of the Tour, they are still confident that their man, even at 35, is getting stronger.

"We still feel, importantly, like he's still getting better and still improving. There's no thought that we're on the top of the hill and now everything is about trying to slow down the downhill – we don't feel like this," says Aldag. 

"Also, to my understanding from the performance team, his numbers are still getting better and that's good to see. What we don't have an influence on is what is Tadej going to do, and what Jonas is going to do. 

"We feel like if we do our protocols and processes perfectly, we will be competitive, but we can't say more than that. T the result will just be the consequence of whether we did everything perfectly."

But Roglič is far from done yet and the Vuelta showed exactly that. There have been several rumours of Red Bull trying to bring in Remco Evenepoel to chase their long-term goal of winning the Tour. However, they are still very much focused on and believe Roglič can bring them that in the immediacy.

"You come to a point where you cannot say 'Now we must win this' if you don't know how fit the others are," continues the team's Chief of Sport. "But I think we're pretty confident and it's important for us to say, do we still see the areas to improve? Absolutely. 

"We get more stability in nutrition. We get more stability in terms of racing to be very consistent over a period of time. We do learn about training, we still adapt our altitude philosophy… and Primož is still sharp as a razor blade."

The mistakes of their 2024 Tour de France approach

Aldag and Roglič have both admitted that some mistakes were made in their first approach to the Tour together last season, with several learnings from the lessons of 2024 to be taken in their run-up to the Giro and Tour this year.

Asked, with hindsight, if he felt the team did too much in their thorough lead-up to the Tour when a hefty altitude camp, followed by competing at the Critérium du Dauphiné and then a second top-up camp in Tignes, saw riders not return home before the race. Roglič could only say yes.

"In that case, I would agree now, for sure. But like they always say, after the war, it's quite easy to be smart," says Roglič. 

"It's also important to always look back, not immediately, but maybe with a bit of distance. Then you can put emotions a bit on the side and really look how it was and try to learn. Hopefully this year, we won't repeat the mistakes and we can react better if we find ourselves in the same situation."

Aldag shed some more light on the situation confirming that it was the mental side of his riders that was worst affected by the burnout.

"I think motivation can also turn into something that you overdo, especially with things that you want to do perfectly," says Aldag.

Problems started when they headed immediately from altitude to the Dauphiné, with cancelled flights causing several riders to arrive at 3:30 am before the race began. 

While they won the important pre-Tour form marker with Roglič, it took quite an effort from the Slovenian and his teammates. Again, with the beauty of hindsight, Aldag, who was head DS in France, believes they could have reined their aggressive racing in slightly.

"Looking back, maybe I should have taken it a little bit more relaxed and told the guys 'We aim here for success, we want to prove ourselves as a team but let's not overdo it'," he says.

"There are some stages where I'm critical of myself. We could have approached it less offensive, not like running head first into the wall, assuming that the wall will collapse and we keep on going."

The real damage, however, was done at the top-up camp in Tignes, where it "was literally raining every single day". Aldag says he would now tell his riders to go home if a similar situation arose.

"When we arrived at the Tour, we were probably physically OK, not fresh enough, but mentally cooked, and you don't want to be like that at the start of the tour. That is irreversible, you cannot, say two days before, take it easy, like in training where you can taper and back off. 

"On that mental status, if you're cooked, you're cooked, what do you do about it? Now we have also added a mental performance department, so that would hold us back from making the same decisions now. 

"I think even if the camp was paid, everything is done right, under that prediction of weather, under the conditions, I would now stop the camp, send everybody home and say 'Relax, refresh, spend time with the family and come to the Tour de France', that will be now my take. But as always, you cannot go back in time."

Dealing with pressure ahead of a Giro-Tour double attempt

Roglič's approach will of course be different from last year with the Giro d'Italia on his plan before the Tour, returning to the Italian Grand Tour for the first time since his overall victory there in 2023. Aldag sees potential success at the Giro being the ideal pre-Tour relaxation method, especially given Roglič's heavily blemished record in France.

"It's going to be straightforward, isn't it? We definitely don't aim to put any race in between the Giro and the Tour so the preparation is clear," he says. "Hopefully with some success and his head up high from Giro, we'll feel ready. And then we can just relax, train and race, which he's really good at.

"I have never seen Primož, if he's not sick or injured, not being race ready after a training camp, so he knows what he can do. He gets his routine. He's not concerned by what his competitors are doing.

"Of course, we will aim for success in the Giro. If we achieve that, then we will be much calmer and much more relaxed going into the Tour knowing what he and his coach [Marc Lamberts] are going to do on day minus 15 to the Tour, minus 12 to the Tour and minus five to the Tour. I see it as a very good path."

Roglič hasn't finished his previous three Tour starts and the pressure will be all the same on the road from Lille back to Paris come July 5. But much of that pressure and need to succeed, despite his reserved and quiet demeanour is self-inflicted. And while his response to what drives him to win may have been "I just want to be myself", that also means being a winner.

"I think the biggest pressure comes from himself," says Aldag. "This is sometimes hard for people to figure out because it's typical of Primož if you do interview him, often he ends up in these phrases like 'If I'm good, I will attack, if I'm not good, they will drop me.' Now, is that his real way of thinking? Of course not. 

"He has an expectation. He knows where he wants to be. Does he show that all the time? Not really. I do think he copes with a lot of that stuff by himself but also works with his sports psychologist. 

"They have a long-term relationship and I think that is important, that he's not alone and that he feels it is something he wants to talk about. He can come to us, but he also has a structure that he knows over years and years that he can rely on.

"I think he wants to win. A Primož who does not want to win is probably considering stopping professional cycling and looking for something else, because winning drives him."