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Jumbo-Visma made Primož Roglič a cycling megastar, and Primož Roglič helped make Jumbo-Visma the team that steamrollers grand tours.
But is it time for this fairytale relationship to strike a divorce?
Ineos Grenadiers, Movistar, Bahrain-Victorious, Bora-Hansgrohe, and Lidl-Trek are all waiting at Roglič’s balcony for the 33-year-old’s hand in marriage, and it seems he’s going to take one of them up on it.
“These are good things!” Roglič laughed about the transfer speculation when he spoke to Flobikes during the Vuelta a España. “If someone wants me then obviously it means that I am doing good.”
But why would Roglič want to leave the team that turned him from ski jumper to grand tour-slayer?
Growing momentum behind the possibility of the Jumbo-Visma/Soudal Quick-Step mega-merger threatens Roglič’s Tour de France dream.
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Not even the most zealous “Rogla” fan would believe he’d top Jonas Vingegaard or new teammate Remco Evenepoel in a “Soudal-Visma” TdF team sheet.
If Roglič is going to add the Tour de France – the race that truly matters – to his blockbuster palmarès, his time with the Dutch toppers is done.
And for Roglič, it’s now or never.
Jumbo-Visma boss Richard Plugge once called the Slovenian the team’s “king”. Just a few weeks ago, Plugge would never want to see Rogo go.
The Slovenian has been on the Jumbo-Visma books since its second season, won them its first grand tour, and brought a constant stream of marquee wins.
Yet it seems Roglič has become a pawn in the unfolding soap opera that is the Soudal-Visma alliance.
Roglič is contracted to Jumbo-Visma through 2025, but Wielerflits got the rumor-mill whirring this week with reports that he’s been cleared to leave ahead of time.
Jumbo-Visma needs to plug the financial gaps that will be left by an incoming budgetary exodus, and Roglič’s exit would make the perfect stopper.
Supermarket chain Jumbo is on the way out, as is second-tier sponsor Gorilla. A big buyout clause in Roglič’s contract would be the perfect plug in Plugge’s balance-sheet.
Time ticks on Primož Roglič’s Tour de France dream
It could be a crowded team bus on the merged team with Roglič, Evenepoel, Vingegaard, Kuss (Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Roglič could ride out his existing two-year contract with Jumbo-Visma and retire at the age of 36 as a very happy man.
Yet if he were to do that, it’s likely one big line would forever be missing from his palmarès: The Tour de France.
For Roglič, it’s the race that got away, and the race that would earn him a place in the pantheon of riders that won all three grand tours. And with a 34th birthday arriving in late October, Roglič’s time is running out.
Vingegaard will top the “Soudal-Visma” Tour de France hierarchy in 2024, and in the possibility that Evenepoel remains at the muted new supersquad, Roglič could be resigned to the third step.
And maybe Roglič’s eight-year love-in with his Dutch crew is turning sour.
The Slovenian was the surliest of Jumbo-Visma’s triumvirate of himself, Vingegaard, and Kuss in the heat of the Jumbo-Visma dramas at this year’s Vuelta a España.
He’d spent all summer at altitude preparing for the Spanish tour while maillot rojo-to-be Kuss and maillot jaune-in waiting Vingegaard dominated the Tour de France. Yet one month later, he suffered seeing his two teammates climb above him on the podium in Madrid.
Where does Primož Roglič go?
Could Roglič become teammates with Mas at Movistar? (Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
So where is Rogo going to go? So far, he’s been linked to half the WorldTour, and at this stage, Ineos Grenadiers, Lidl-Trek, and Movistar appear to be front-runners.
Ineos Grenadiers is desperate for a ready-made grand tour winner and the Brit crew would provide Roglič a certain ride at the 2024 Tour. And with aero aficionado Dan Bigham on the team, Roglič’s quest to defend his time trial title at the Olympic Games would gain a lot of watts.
Movistar has long been at the front echelon of grand tour racing.
Enric Mas finished up second three times at the Vuelta – with Roglič overshadowing him on the podium on two of those occasions. But is Mas going to win the Tour de France against Vingegaard or Tadej Pogačar? Even Eusebio Unzué isn’t counting on it.
And Lidl-Trek? It’s gone on a bonafide off-season shopping spree that could make it a grand tour force in 2024. Roglič would link up with fellow newly-signed GC candidate Tao Geoghegan Hart for a podium-threatening combo.
More news of Roglič’s future is expected to come Sunday, October 1. Roglič will have the date circled in the calendar as bold as he does the 2024 Tour de France.