“The marriage between Jumbo-Visma and Primoz Roglic has come to an end. Two years before the contract’s expiration, the Slovenian decided to compete for BORA-hansgrohe next season. While with the Dutch team, he was the great mentor of Jonas Vingegaard. However, the student ended up surpassing the master.
‘Be careful: Primoz can win the Tour de France,’ stated Jonas Vingegaard to the Dutch website WielerFlits.”
“The presence of Vingegaard may have given a boost to Roglic’s departure, heading to Germany. The Slovenian knew that at Visma-Lease a Bike, he would never be able to be the main leader in the Tour de France while Vingegaard is there.
It was Richard Plugge, the team owner, who informed the Danish rider about Roglic’s departure. ‘This will be very strange,’ says Vingegaard. ‘He raced on this team for eight years and has always been here during my five years on the team. It will be a big change for everyone. From teammate to one of the biggest competitors.'”
Competing against Roglic is madness
It was Roglic, of all people, who early on realized that the Dane would be a Tour winner. Vingegaard learned a lot from the Slovenian during all these years. “We always rode together when we were in the same place. He always helped me with everything. And now he is an opponent. It’s crazy to compete against him later.”
“We know his strengths”
“We have to get used to it. He knows what we are good at, but we also know his strengths. However, he has so many of them that it’s hard to name them all. Primoz is a very strong cyclist. He is good in every aspect, but above all, he is mentally super strong. He will be a very tough opponent.”
Vingegaard is mainly referring to the Tour. “In the next Tour, we will have four guys fighting: Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel, Roglic, and me. We all have good chances to go for the overall victory. We need to make a very good plan to see what we can do in France so that we can try again to bring the yellow jersey to Paris. Oh, I need to say: that’s nice,” concludes the Dane, while laughing.