Cycling
Roglic deal fixed: Bora racing team wants to win the tour
Primoz Roglic is moving to the Bora-hansgrohe team. photo
© Alberto Gardin/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
The coup is perfect. The best German cycling team has signed one of the best three cyclists in the world in Primoz Roglic. Now the tour victory is here.
The top German racing team Bora-hansgrohe has a cycling star Primoz Roglic signed up and is aiming to win the Tour de France next year.
Team boss Ralph Denk confirmed the transfer of the 33-year-old Slovenian, who previously drove for the Jumbo-Visma team. With the former ski jumper, the racing team from Raubling, Bavaria, can seriously compete for overall victory in the tour in 2024. The route will be presented on October 25th.
“You saw in this year’s major tours that we are missing something. Primoz can close this gap. We can put together a great team for him,” said Denk. He did not mention a contract term and Roglic is not bringing any other drivers with him. However, an agreement is being reached with his coach Marc Lamberts. “We were able to finance the deal from reserves and equity. It was not necessary for a sponsor to increase,” said Denk. The fixed-term deposit account has now melted badly.
In his Jumbo-Visma team, Roglic had fallen behind Jonas Vingegaard, who won the tour for the second time this year. When he had to bow to team orders at the Spanish Vuelta and let the American Sepp Kuss win, the veteran’s dissatisfaction increased. “He was no longer happy in the situation at Jumbo,” said Denk. At Bora he has first-class helpers in the mountains in Jai Hindley, Dani Martinez, Alexander Vlasow and Emanuel Buchmann.
Roglic is currently the best tour driver in the world alongside Vingegaard and his compatriot Tadej Pogacar. In 2020 he was close to winning the most important race in the world, but was intercepted by Pogacar on the penultimate stage. He won the Tour of Spain three times and the Giro d’Italia for the first time this year.