The scene was not that long ago, two years to be precise when the racing bike professional Primoz Roglic arm was in arm in arm with seven teammates on the streets of Rome. His followers wore the yellow-black gap of the Visma team. Roglic, however, was in the pink jersey of the overall best on this last stage of the Giro d’Italia 2023, when he only had to finish the finish -free to win the second most important bike tour in the world. This is how it happened: Roglic brought 14 seconds ahead of the British Geraint Thomas about the finish line of Rome-and secured the first Giro team victory of a Slovenian.
The pictures from May 2023 appear almost like a different cycling age two years later. Above all, because a compatriot from Roglic has written a lot of impressive sports history since then. Tadej Pogacar succeeded last year to win the Giro and shortly afterwards the Tour de France, before Roglic won on the third and last Grand tour of the 2024 cycling sports and won the Spanish vuelta for the fourth time. So much was recently in the top sport of racing cyclists in Slovenian hands, at least when it came to the big victories. A central question before the start of the Giro d’Italia almost automatically arises: does that stay that way?
:Pogacar eats everyone again
With a 35-kilometer solo at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Slovenian wins its fourth classic. Good for the competition: he is now taking a break. Bad for the competition: he then travels for the Tour de France.
The romance of cycling is not very useful that one Slovenian does without the start of the Giro. Defending champion Pogacar, 26, who may have to expand his trophy cabinet after the spring classics, does without defense this year. So free travel for his nine -year -old competitor?
Since moving to the German-Austrian team of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Roglic has been wearing blue and white instead of yellow-black. And even in the pink jersey of the overall Giro leader, the former ski jumper has not been seen since Rome’s award ceremony. Last year he had left the Giro to concentrate on the Tour de France, where he had to get out after a violent fall due to injury. Recorated long ago and decorated this spring as the winner of the Catalonia Tour, Roglic 2025 only completed the Algarve tour, where he finished eighth. The victory was secured here by the two-time Tour-de France winner Jonas Vingegaard from Denmark-who traditionally skipped the Giro to prepare for the tour. In Italy, a duel between Roglic and a less prominent teammate from Pogacar can be expected in Italy in the absence of the two tour dominators of the past few years.
The 22 -year -old Juan Ayuso from Barcelona could make Red Bull and Roglic difficult life
The Spaniard Juan Ayuso had already clearly offered Roglic in Catalonia during the seven stages. The 22-year-old from Barcelona was 28 seconds at his home race after 1095 kilometers behind the Slovenia. Sometimes it is as scarce as the more than three times as long as Giro from two years ago and other examples from cycling history show. Ayuso has been listening since 2023 when he secured the white jersey of the best young professional at the Vuelta before he won the Basque Country Tour and in March the seven stages of long races Tirreno-Adritico, which is held like the Giro on Italian terrain. Although this does not apply completely this year.
The tour of Italy starts this Friday in Albania, more precisely in the city of Durrës on the Adriac coast. During the first three stages, the drivers cross Albania to Vlora, a port city in southern Albania on the road from Otranto before the entourage moved to Italy. The program includes 3400 kilometers and 52,000 vertical meters, almost 10,000 more than in last year’s edition. The Peloton escapes the Dolomites this year, but in the final week there are three mountain arrangements in the Alps – with the climbing highlight on the penultimate day: the 20th stage to Sestrière.
184 drivers from 23 teams are at the start, another guest station is on the plan, for which Roglic should be particularly interested in: The 14th stage leads from Treviso to Nova Gorica, a place that is directly behind the Italian-Slovenian border. So a little home game for the favorite.
“Primoz is in very good shape, and we have a well-coordinated team at his side, which also gives us tactical options,” says Red Bull team boss Ralph Denk before the start. The goal of the team is, according to the fact that Roglic reaches the overall podium, ideally the space at the top. The racing team, headquartered in Raubling near Rosenheim in Upper Bavaria, has actually appointed a more than passable helper troop. At the Giro, for example, the Australian Giro winner from 2022, Jai Hindley, and the Giro team of the previous year, Daniel Martínez from Colombia, are starting, both of the miners with the status of noble helpers. And in the event that Roglic checks his involuntary talent to have to fall and give up, two more potential podium drivers would be ready.
From a German perspective, the question of this year’s Giro d’Italia should be central, whether the only German Giro team with the Bad Aiblinger Ralph Denk as a boss will be the overall victory. Ten professionals from Germany are at the start, led by state champion Marco Brenner from Augsburg (Team Tudor Pro Cycling) and the previous year’s depending winner Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-Easypost), he is the nephew of Jan Ullrich. Red Bull driver Florian Lipowitz, 24, most recently overall sieve at the Vuelta, is missing in the contingent-and may be spared for the Tour de France.