Primož Roglič

Born in Trbovlje, Roglič is a former ski jumper who started to compete in 2003, and was the Junior World Team event champion in 2007.[8] He also has two Continental Cup wins, the second level of international ski jumping. He set his personal best at a distance of 185 metres (607 feet) in Planica. In 2011, Roglič performed his last international competition in Szczyrk and officially ended his ski jumping career in summer 2012.[9][10]

In 2007, Roglič suffered a crash as a test jumper during official training in front of his home crowd at Letalnica bratov Gorišek, the biggest ski flying hill in the world in Planica, Slovenia.[11][12][13][14]

Roglič took up cycling in 2012, after quitting ski jumping, because he felt it was too hard to be at the highest level of the sport. Roglič quickly made the jump to paid levels for the 2013 season with the continental Adria Mobil team. After three seasons with the team his successful 2015 season, including a win at the 2015 Tour of Slovenia, got him a contract to ride with LottoNL–Jumbo for the next season.[15]

During his first year at the World Tour level, Roglič immediately showed his talent when placing 5th overall at the Volta ao Algarve. Just one month later Roglič finished 2nd on Stage 7 at the Volta a Catalunya, when he lost the sprint to Alexey Tsatevich. Roglič started in the Giro d'Italia,[16] where he surprised with a second place in the opening time trial in Apeldoorn, a hundredth of a second slower than winner Tom Dumoulin.[17] He won the 9th stage, a 40.5-kilometre (25.2-mile) individual time trial in Chianti. That victory came as a surprise for many as Roglič had to use his spare bike because his bike did not meet the UCI requirements. Roglič did not manage to transfer his cycle computer onto his spare bike in time for the start, and it was therefore hard for Roglič to know how much time he had left of the stage, and what his power numbers were. Just two weeks after finishing the Giro d'Italia, Roglič won the Slovenian National Time Trial Championships. He finished 10th in the Time trial at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Roglič on his way to winning Stage 17 of the 2017 Tour de France.

During the 2017 season, Roglič started out by winning the overall title at the Volta ao Algarve. One month later he finished 4th overall in Tirreno–Adriatico, and at the Tour of the Basque Country, Roglič won stages 4 and 6 – the latter of which was an individual time trial – and finished 5th overall. It did not take long before Roglič secured another win; at the end of April, Roglič participated in the Tour de Romandie where he won the Stage 5 individual time trial, en route to placing 3rd overall. At his final preparation race before the Tour de France, Roglič won the prologue of the Ster ZLM Toer, and finished 2nd overall.

In June 2017, Roglič was named in the startlist for the Tour de France.[18] He won Stage 17 of the race[19] becoming the first Slovenian to win a stage of the Tour de France. He had also collected so many points on the climbs that he finished 2nd in the Mountains classification. At the World Championships in Bergen, Roglič targeted the individual time trial, which finished on Mount Floyen, a 3-kilometre (1.9-mile) climb averaging 9%. He finished 2nd in the event behind Tom Dumoulin.[20]

Roglič (left) on Stage 19 of the 2018 Tour de France

The 2018 season showed Roglič's potential in stage races and grand tours. He managed to win the general classification in the Tour of the Basque Country, the Tour de Romandie and the Tour of Slovenia.[21] During the early stages of the Tour de France Roglič managed to avoid the crashes and mechanical issues that many other general classification riders fell victim to putting him in position to compete with the elite riders including Geraint Thomas, Tom Dumoulin, Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana, Romain Bardet and Mikel Landa among others. Roglič was able to stay with the elite riders through the high mountains answering nearly every attack to the point that, after he attacked on the descent and won stage 19 of the race, he was in a podium position in third place overall, behind only Thomas and Dumoulin. Roglič finished the 2018 Tour in fourth overall, after Froome was able to regain the final podium position in the final time trial.[21]

Roglič (centre) won the 2019 Vuelta a España, becoming the first Slovenian rider to win a Grand Tour.

Roglič won the 2019 edition of Tirreno–Adriatico as well as the Tour de Romandie and was one of the pre-race favourites going into the Giro d'Italia. He finished on the podium in 3rd place, wore the race leader's pink jersey for six stages and also won two stages, both individual time trials. In August 2019, Roglič was named in the startlist for the Vuelta a España.[22] Going into the stage ten individual time trial, Roglič trailed the race leader Nairo Quintana by six seconds; Roglič recorded the fastest time over the 36.2-kilometre (22.5-mile) stage by twenty-five seconds over the next closest competitor, and at least one-and-a-half minutes into all of his rivals for the general classification.[23] He became the 98th rider to win stages at each of the three Grand Tours as a result of the victory. He held the red and green jerseys – as the leader of both the general and points classifications – for the remainder of the race, as he became the first Slovenian rider to win a Grand Tour.[24] A successful 2019 season was crowned with wins in two Italian races in October: the Giro dell'Emilia,[25] and Tre Valli Varesine.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Roglič's first race of the season was the Slovenian National Road Race Championships, on 21 June. On the final climb to the finish at Ambrož pod Krvavcem, Roglič soloed away from Tadej Pogačar in the closing 2 kilometres (1.2 miles), winning the national road race title for the first time.[26] The following weekend, Pogačar beat Roglič by 8.5 seconds in the Slovenian National Time Trial Championships.[27] Roglič started strong at the Tour de France, winning the fourth stage,[28] ahead of Pogačar; he took the overall race lead on the ninth stage, finishing second, behind Pogačar, in a five-rider sprint finish in Laruns.[7] After Egan Bernal lost seven minutes on stage 15,[29] Pogačar was the only rider that was within a minute of Roglič in the general classification; Roglič had extended his advantage from 40 seconds to 57 seconds on the summit finish to the Col de la Loze,[30] maintaining that lead going into the penultimate day, a 36.2-kilometre (22.5-mile) individual time trial that finished at La Planche des Belles Filles. He rode well in the final time trial, being bested by only a few riders, but Pogačar managed to overturn the advantage that Roglič held, bettering his stage time by almost two minutes,[31] giving him an ultimately race-winning margin of 59 seconds.[32]

The following weekend, Roglič recorded a sixth-place finish in the road race at the World Championships, finishing at the back of a five-rider group that had been battling for the silver medal.[33] At Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Roglič took his first Monument classic victory, pipping world champion Julian Alaphilippe on the line, after Alaphilippe had slowed down to start celebrating his presumptive victory.[34] Roglič then contested the Vuelta a España as defending champion; he won the race's opening stage at the Alto de Arrate in Eibar,[35] before losing the race lead to Richard Carapaz on stage six, after encountering issues putting on a rain jacket.[36] However, he bounced back on stage eight, which finished atop the Alto de Moncavillo. After following attacks from Hugh Carthy and Carapaz on the steepest section of the climb, Roglič put in an attack in the final kilometer that was answered only by Carapaz. Although Carapaz tried to distance Roglič, Roglič countered his attack, eventually soloing across the line 13 seconds ahead of the red jersey. This win elevated Roglič to second place in the GC, 13 seconds behind Carapaz.[37]

Two days later, on stage ten, Roglič followed a move initiated by Cofidis' Guillaume Martin and taken up by Andrea Bagioli of Deceuninck-Quick-Step in the final kilometer of a relatively flat stage. He passed Bagioli in the closing few hundred meters to win the uphill sprint by several bike lengths. Richard Carapaz, despite having been present in the front positions for much of the final, crossed the line in the second group 3 seconds behind Roglič and by virtue of the 10 bonus seconds for the stage winner both riders were equal on time at the end of the day. Roglič was declared the race leader[38] and reclaimed the red jersey from Carapaz ahead of the 3rd weekend of the race, characterised by challenging mountain stages. Second in the points classification, Carapaz assumed the green jersey on behalf of Roglič who also led that classification: the two riders therefore effectively swapped jerseys.[39] To start stage 11 there was a rider protest lead by Chris Froome regarding a 'three second rule' which was not applied which would have kept Froome's teammate Carapaz in the red jersey. The rule is designed so that GC riders aren't put into dangerous situations on sprint stages. Team Jumbo including Roglič stood with the other cyclists in protest. Froome addressed the race officials, then Roglič and Team Jumbo, then the race got underway. [40]

On stage 12, Roglič struggled on the steepest slopes of the Angliru, crossing the line in 5th place. He lost 26 seconds, including time bonuses, to Hugh Carthy, who won the stage to move up to 3rd on GC. Additionally, he lost ten seconds to Carapaz, yielding the red jersey ahead of the race's lone individual time trial.[41] Following the rest day, Roglič won his fourth stage of the race, the individual time trial, which finished atop the steep climb of Mirador de Ézaro. He gained 25 seconds on Carthy and he gained 49 seconds on Carapaz, reclaiming the red jersey.[42] On stage 16, Roglič gained an additional 6 bonus seconds on his rivals after he sprinted to second place on the stage. This gave him an advantage of 45 seconds over Carapaz and 53 seconds over Carthy ahead of the final mountain stage.[43] On the penultimate stage, Roglič was unable to follow an attack from Carapaz with around 4 kilometers to the top of La Covatilla. He eventually held on to the red jersey by a margin of 24 seconds, as he lost just 21 seconds to Carapaz and 6 seconds to Carthy. With a flat, ceremonial stage to Madrid left to go, this put Roglič in position to win the race.[44] He safely negotiated the last stage to successfully defend the Vuelta title. He became the first rider to repeat as Vuelta champion since Roberto Heras, who won the Vuelta from 2003 to 2005. Aside from winning the red jersey, Roglič also took the points classification for the second successive year.[45] He took the lead in the points classification on the first stage and held it for the entire race, something that has not been done in decades.[46]

• Slovenian Road Cyclist of the Year: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020[47]
• Slovenian Sportsman of the Year: 2019,[48] 2020[49]
• Vélo d'Or: 2020[50]