New major sponsor
Attack on the Tour throne with Red Bull – “Now or never”
With Primoz Roglic, the German cycling team Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe wants to fight for the overall Tour victory. Photo
© Jasper Jacobs/belga/dpa
The entry of the new major sponsor has been completed. With captain Primoz Roglic, the German team Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe wants to fight for victory in the Tour de France.
Three years after the Slovenian’s bitter defeat, when his compatriot Tadej Pogacar snatched the yellow jersey from him on the penultimate stage, the German cycling team Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe is planning a coup with its new captain. “You can’t rewrite the results list. Maybe there will be a rematch at some point. He doesn’t have much time left. In five years it will be too late. You can already say: now or never,” team boss Ralph Denk told the German Press Agency.
On Wednesday, the new main sponsor presented the new design with blue jerseys and the team tailored entirely to Roglic for the Tour de France, which begins on Saturday, in Salzburg. “I’m still missing the Tour de France and that’s a nice goal,” said Roglic, who won the Giro d’Italia last year after three Vuelta victories (2019 to 2021). Now it’s finally time for the Tour; at 34, he doesn’t have many chances left.
Roglic has strong competition
And the competition is bigger than ever. Last year’s winner Jonas Vingegaard is fit in time after his bad fall in the Basque Country, and the young Belgian star Remco Evenepoel is attacking for the first time in the Tour, but the big favorite is exceptional talent Pogacar. “Man against man, if Tadej arrives in the form he was in from the Giro, it will be terribly difficult,” said Denk, adding: “But it’s three weeks with an incredible number of hurdles. It’s not just the high mountains. It’s the race with the highest level of stress.”
A team for the captain
To ensure that the stress is not too great, the team is completely geared towards Roglic. Former Giro winner Jai Hindley (Australia), Alexander Vlasov (Russia) and Matteo Sobrero (Italy) are to help in the high mountains, while Nico Denz, the only German, Bob Jungels (Luxembourg), Marco Haller (Austria) and Danny van Poppel (Netherlands) are also called upon to help on the sometimes tricky flat stages.
With Red Bull’s entry, the team is moving up financially to the level of top teams such as UAE, which have a budget of around 50 million euros. The team will be restructured next year. Denk does not want to say anything about potential new recruits, but Pogacar or Vingegaard are unlikely to receive an offer: “The best thing would be if we discovered and developed a young athlete and then he won the Tour de France for us in three or four years.”