Primož Roglič

Born in Trbovlje, Roglič is a former ski jumper who competed from 2003 to 2011, and was the Junior World Ski Jumping champion in 2007.[6] He set his personal best at 183 metres (600 feet) at Heini-Klopfer-Skiflugschanze flying hill in Oberstdorf, Germany in 2011. He suffered a crash in front of his home crowd in 2007 at the Letalnica bratov Gorišek ski flying hill in Planica, Slovenia.[7]

Roglič took up cycling in 2012, after quitting ski jumping, because he felt it was too hard to be at the highest level of the sport. Roglič quickly made the jump to paid levels for the 2013 season with the continental Adria Mobil team. After three seasons with the team his successful 2015 season, including a win at the 2015 Tour of Slovenia, got him a contract to ride with LottoNL–Jumbo for the next season.[8]

At his first year at World Tour level, Roglič showed his talent straight away when placing 5th overall at the Volta ao Algarve. Just one month later he finished 2nd on stage 7 at the Volta a Catalunya, when he lost the sprint to Alexey Tsatevich. Roglič started in the Giro d'Italia,[9] where he surprised with a second place in the opening time trial in Apeldoorn, being only one hundredth of a second slower than winner Tom Dumoulin.[10] He won the 9th stage, a 40.5-kilometre (25.2-mile) individual time trial in Chianti. That came as a surprise for many as Roglič had to use his spare bike because his bike did not meet the UCI requirements. This meant he did not manage to get his cycle computer onto his spare bike in time for the start. It was therefore hard for Roglič to know how much time he had left of the stage, and what his watt numbers were. Just two weeks after finishing the Giro d'Italia, Roglič won the Slovenian National Time Trial Championships. In 2016 he finished 10th in the Time trial at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Roglič on his way to winning Stage 17 of the 2017 Tour de France.

In the 2017 season Roglič started out by winning the Volta ao Algarve overall. One month later he finished 4th overall in Tirreno–Adriatico. At the Tour of the Basque Country, Roglič won two stages, stages 4 and 6 – the latter of which was an individual time trial – and finished 5th overall. It did not take long before he got another win; at the end of April, Roglič participated in the Tour de Romandie, where he won the individual time trial on stage 5, en route to 3rd overall. As his last preparation race for the Tour de France, he won the prologue of the Ster ZLM Toer, and finished 2nd overall.

In June 2017, he was named in the startlist for the Tour de France.[11] He won stage 17 of the race[12] becoming the first Slovenian to win a stage of the Tour de France. He had also collected so many points on the climbs that he finished 2nd in the Mountains classification. At the World Championships in Bergen, he targeted the individual time trial, which finished on Mount Floyen, a 3-kilometre (1.9-mile) climb averaging 9%. He finished 2nd in the event behind Tom Dumoulin.[13]

Roglič (left) on Stage 19 of the 2018 Tour de France

The 2018 season showed Roglič's potential in the stage races and grand tours. He managed to win the general classification in the Tour of the Basque Country, the Tour de Romandie and the Tour of Slovenia. During the early stages of the Tour de France Roglič managed to avoid the crashes and mechanical issues that many other GC riders fell victim to putting him in position to compete with the elite GC riders including Geraint Thomas, Tom Dumoulin, Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana, Romain Bardet and Mikel Landa among others. He was able to stay with the elite riders through the high mountains answering nearly every attack to the point that after he attacked on the descent and won stage 19 of the race he was in a podium position in 3rd place overall, behind only Thomas and Dumoulin. Roglič finished the Tour with an impressive 4th place finish, after Froome was able to regain the 3rd podium position in the final time trial.

Roglič lifting the trophy of La Vuelta winner on 15 September 2019 in Madrid.

He won the 2019 edition of Tirreno-Adriatico as well as the Tour de Romandie and was one of the pre-race favorites going into the Giro D'Italia. He finished on the podium in 3rd place, wore the Maglia Rosa for six stages and also won two stages, both individual time trials.

In August 2019, he was named in the startlist for the 2019 Vuelta a España.[14] Going into the individual time trial in stage 10 he stood in 2nd place overall at :06 behind Nairo Quintana, 0:11 ahead of Miguel Angel Lopez and 0:14 ahead of Alejandro Valverde. Roglič would win the ITT in convincing fashion over his primary rivals and following this stage he took over the lead in the General Classification by nearly 2:00 on Valverde, just over 2:00 on Lopez and exactly 3:00 on Quintana. The Red Jersey would not be in question for the remainder of the race as Roglič dominated in the high mountains, answering every attack to come against him and only gained more time on his rivals as the race progressed.

A successful 2019 season was crowned with the wins of two classic races in October; Giro dell Emilia, which was his first win among the classics[15] and Tre Valli Varesine.

Primož Roglič at the 2020 Slovenian National Time Trial championship, where he finished as second, 8,5 s behind Tadej Pogačar

Due to COVID-19 pandemic his first race, Slovenian National Road Race Championships, was on 21 June. At strong competition he passed finish line on Ambrož pod Krvavcem in front of Tadej Pogačar and for first time become Slovenian National Road Race Champion.[16] One week later situation was quite opposite on Slovenian National Time Trial Championships, where he finished as second placed, 8,5 second behind Tadej Pogačar.[17]

Slovenian Sportsman of the Year: 2019[18]