Denk: Bora-Hansgrohe's Primoz Roglic signing 'inspiring' for Tour de France goals

Bora-Hansgrohe team manager Ralph Denk has said that one of his top reasons for signing Primož Roglič for 2024 and beyond is his belief that the Slovenian star continues to be a leading candidate to win the Tour de France. 

In what is by far the biggest rider transfer story to date for the 2024 season, Denk confirmed in a lengthy press conference on Friday that Roglič would be leaving Jumbo-Visma to join Bora-Hansgrohe at the end of the year and also provided some details of the backstory of what would have been a most unlikely team switch for 2024 as little as a month ago.

Denk explained that the 2023 Giro d’Italia winner had "not been happy" at Jumbo-Visma's strategy in the final week of the recently completed Vuelta a España, won by Roglič's teammate Sepp Kuss. He also hinted strongly that when combined with Jumbo-Visma's ongoing focus on Jonas Vingegaard for the Tour de France – which Roglič also wants to target– the chance for Bora to make an offer to Roglič suddenly became a viable option. That was despite the 33-year-old having a contract with Jumbo until 2025.

However, the main focus of the press conference was, logically, not so much on the plotline that had brought Roglič to sign for Bora-Hansgrohe as the new contract itself and his options on winning the Tour with the German team. "After the departure of Peter Sagan, it's the next milestone for us," Denk said, referring to the last superstar to race for the German team.

Regarding the Tour de France, Denk said that winning cycling's top race was a personal dream and that signing Roglič represented "the chance to work with one of the biggest contenders."

"We are realistic as well, he’s not the only contender. [To win] we'll need luck, a super-strong team and an outstanding performance from Roglič.

"But it's already a nice feeling for me to be a real contender, and hopefully this will give the whole team, not just the riders an extra push. It's inspiring."

In an introductory speech where he confirmed the news, Denk called Roglič "one of the best riders in the world. He won more or less every race he did of the 2023 season and we’re looking forward a lot to this. I'm also proud Primož took the decision to sign with us, and I think it's a big boost for our whole team, for the riders, for the staff."

Up until the Vuelta a España this September, Roglič had enjoyed an unbroken run of victories in all of his races in 2023, including the Giro d'Italia, the Volta a Catalunya and Tirreno-Adriatico. 

However, that series was dramatically curtailed at the Vuelta, where Roglič came in as a co-leader with Jonas Vingegaard, and Jumbo-Visma ended the second week with three riders filling the provisional podium – race leader Sepp Kuss, Vingegaard and Roglič. 

A few days later, Jumbo's initial policy that the strongest of their riders should win was superseded by a collective behind-the-scenes decision that top climbing domestique Kuss would become their main GC rider.

Following this U-turn in strategy, Kuss won, and Roglič, who had been gunning for a record-equalling fourth outright victory, finished third overall. On top of that, as Denk himself said, even as the situation between Jumbo's three leaders changed, the rumours of the possible merger between Jumbo and Soudal-QuickStep were also beginning to fly.

"I had heard about the rumours of that in the final week of the Vuelta," he said. "And I listened very carefully to Primož's interviews and I was finding out he's not really happy anymore.

"Because it's understandable that Jumbo-Visma are looking forward to [focussing on] the leadership with Jonas Vingegaard, he’s a bit younger and a two-times Tour champion. But on the other hand, Primož was not really happy with how things were run in the Vuelta.”

"I asked him if he was open to talks, and from the Vuelta onwards things went quite quickly."

Denk's comments on Roglič's lack of conformity with the way the Vuelta was played out provide an interesting contrast to Jumbo-Visma's much-vaunted proclamations of their 'samen winnen' [winning together – Ed.] slogan at the Spanish Grand Tour. Be that as it may, the final contract with Roglič was only signed, though, on Wednesday, and Denk did not reveal its duration, either. 

He would only say it was for "more than one year", and said that no new sponsors would be joining Bora-Hansgrohe, with partner Red Bull also not contributing to the deal. Rather the squad had "spare money" saved from previous season budgets, and that, he said, would be used to pay the 33-year-old Slovenian.

From beergarden to Bora-Hansgrohe

The real timeline to Denk and Roglič joining forces at Bora-Hansgrohe, he added, began back in a beer garden in Salzburg, Austria, in 2015. That was where he met with Roglič immediately prior to the Slovenian signing for Jumbo-Visma – at that point LottoNL-Jumbo – to try to persuade him to sign for the German squad instead. 

Denk did not clarify why Roglič and he could not agree on terms back then. But what had changed between the offer he made in the autumn of 2015 and now, Denk joked, was the asking price.

"I can confirm that the meeting took place eight years ago in a beer garden and I placed an offer too," he said.

"Yesterday [Thursday] in my office I found this offer again, but this offer is bigger. I can tell you if you put added a zero again to the [2015] number it wouldn’t be enough."

For now, it would appear that Roglič is not bringing any staff or riders with him to Bora-Hansgrohe, and at least initially it seems likely there will not be any further signings to back him up at Bora-Hansgrohe, Denk said. Negotiations for Marc Lamberts, Roglič's coach, to join him are currently a work in progress rather than a done deal.

By the time Roglič and Denk did ink their deal, the rumours about the rider signing with Bora-Hansgrohe had been swirling for several days, and the presence of the 'Primož Roglič shop' as one of the attendants on the Zoom call hosted by Denk and Bora in their press conference on Friday morning rather gave the game away about its likely subject matter.

But in any case, Denk said he had not believed Roglič was not coming to Bora-Hansgrohe until had actually signed the contract.

"These days, a handshake is sometimes not enough," he reflected.

The key thing, he insisted, was that he and Roglic were very much on the same page when it came to their attitude for racing and for his future in the team.

"I think he's proved already that when he's on a race start line, he's able to win and from my conversations with him, I know how much he loves to win," Denk said.

"He hates the word 'preparation race' and so do I, because we should race to win, not race to race. It's true that a rider's race days are lower than 10 years ago, but this is the kind of philosophy that will continue in our team going forward."

Working alongside Hindley, Uijtdebroeks and Vlasov

Denk said that he had talked to the team's current GC leaders like 2022 Giro d’Italia winner Jai Hindley, Vuelta revelation Cian Uijtdebroeks, and Alexandr Vlasov to make sure that they were on board with the new mega-signing, which will inevitably have a knock-on effect on how the other stage race specialists in Bora-Hansgrohe handle the upcoming season as well.

"I felt it was very important to be transparent to the current roster and keep all those guys informed," he said. "And the feedback was quite positive.

"As I already mentioned, this is a big push for the whole team and it’s important to keep them on track and believe in them. What Vlasov, [Lennard] Kämna, and Hindley did for us has been super-helpful and we’re expecting more good things from them."

Denk pointed out that the race calendar was a large one, saying that, even if Roglič was now "the highest priority" once the routes of the other Grand Tours had been published, "we will take time to sit together and speak, not just with Roglič and find a good balance. I'm super optimistic that we can find this balance."

But the main subject for discussion in the press conference was, logically, Roglič and what the signing will represent for both team and rider in the seasons to come.

"His main reason [for signing] was that we believe in him, I believe in him," Denk concluded. "I think I showed that in my meeting eight years ago, when nobody in the whole cycling cosmos was there, but I was, and we still believe in him now.

"For sure, we will create a good environment to work with him, but the motivation to support Primož is there. That was really a key point for him and I give him full credit for that."