Primoz Roglič is well aware that the biggest tests of this year’s Vuelta a España are still ahead of him. But even compared to just one day before the race, the leader of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe is already much more optimistic.
In his press conference before the Vuelta, Roglič made no secret of the ongoing pain from his back injury, which he sustained in a serious fall at the Tour de France and which led to him having to abandon the race on stage 13 with a fractured vertebra.
His impressively strong performance in the first time trial of the Vuelta on Saturday may not have eradicated all of his back problems, but it was certainly good enough to ensure that the 34-year-old was significantly more optimistic as he spoke to reporters at the start of stage two.
Roglič even made a few jokes about the fact that he lost a denture the night before the race and that it had now been replaced. But as far as his good physical condition goes, Roglič’s time trial results spoke for themselves.
“I’m definitely happy with the ride. It was fast, but I managed well at that speed, so I’m looking forward to the next few days. It was only 10 kilometers, but I’m super happy about it,” Roglič told reporters.
The Slovenian could rightly be satisfied, as he was the best-placed overall candidate in the time trial among all the favorites before the race: he finished eighth and was only 16 seconds behind the winner Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates).
A quick look at the TT results page showed that Roglič gained two seconds on the next placed João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), five seconds on Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), 12 seconds on his Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe teammates Alexandr Vlasov and Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) and 17 seconds on Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates). Other favorites such as Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) lost even more time to Roglič.
When asked what such a strong ride says about him and his rivals, he replied: “I did a good job, now I have to see how I do on the regular road bike. But in any case, the race will be decided on the climbs rather than the flat stages.”
Such was his good mood after his good start that Roglič was even willing to make a joke about his lost tooth – an incisor that fell out on Friday – saying that it would have been “only a marginal gain” if he had not replaced it.
“Yeah, it fell off, I lost it,” he grinned. “But we put it back in and ha, marginal gains, that’s a gram less. But we’re not getting to the climbs in the race yet, so we said, for the puncture, I could put the tooth back in because it’s more aerodynamic that way.”
Roglič’s optimistic mood continued into stage two, where he finished safely in the peloton and finished eighth overall, 20 seconds behind new race leader Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike). Despite emergency visits to the dentist and the greater challenge of Tuesday’s mountain finish on the Pico de Villuercas, his 2024 Vuelta a España is off to an ideal start, for now at least – and given how uncertain he sounded at times about his chances on Friday, that’s certainly a step forward for the Slovenian.
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