The legendary football manager Vujadin Boškov tended to draw a line under polemics about decisions that went against his Sampdoria team with a simple phrase and philosophy. “It’s a penalty when the referee blows his whistle,” he would say, reasoning that such debates were both a distraction from the task at hand and a costly waste of energy.
Primož Roglič, it seems, subscribes to the same worldview as the Serbian soccer coach.
He was handed a twenty-second time penalty by the UCI race commissaires for drafting behind a Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team car on stage 15 of the Vuelta a España. But he saw little point in complaining about the sanction when asked on Monday morning before a rest day ride.
“About the time penalty I got yesterday, I cannot really change it,” Roglič said in a video call.
“They put me 20 seconds more to get back. Like I said, if I agree or disagree… For sure I don’t like it, it’s better with 20 less, but, OK, I also have to go with 20 seconds more.”
Roglič was chasing back up to the red jersey group at the time, having switched his regular bike for a single chainring, low-gear set-up ahead of the punishing final climb to Cuitu Negru.
Although Roglič was briefly distanced by Enric Mas (Movistar) on the harsh upper slopes, he recovered to come home alongside the Spaniard in fifth on the stage, gaining 38 seconds on race leader Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R).
That effort initially appeared to have slashed his deficit on O’Connor to just 43 seconds, but the race jury later docked Roglič, Daniel Martinez and Roger Adria 20 seconds for staying too long behind a team car on the approach to the long climb to Cuitu Negru.
The sanction leaves Roglič 1:03 behind O’Connor in second place overall with six stages remaining.
Still, Roglič could make light of the situation during his short press conference on Monday morning, laughing when asked if the call to the switch to a bike with lower gears had been the right one.
“I think now looking back we lose more than we win, eh?” Roglič laughed.
“But at least, let’s say, it was as nice as it could be in the last 3km, because I had more light gears, I could spin a bit more going through the steep parts there. But looking back, I wouldn’t do it again, because it cost me way more than we gained.”
That doesn’t mean that Roglič wouldn’t consider a similar switch in the future. He used a single chainring set-up to win the Giro d’Italia at Monte Lussari last year, and the dramatic slipped chain incident he overcame there didn’t discourage him from using the system at Cuitu Negru.
“Why not? You have options. You have to try things,” Roglič said.
“When you do things, sometimes it works out, and some of them don’t give such positive results. It was how it was, we did what we did, and now we have to look at the next few days.”
Taking on Ben O’Connor, not feeling his age
Roglič will be on familiar terrain when the Vuelta resumes on Monday, with the race taking in a summit finish at Lagos de Covadonga.
He won on the Vuelta’s most emblematic climb back in 2021, seizing the red jersey back from surprise leader Odd Christian Eiking after a long-range attack in the company of Egan Bernal on the preceding Collada Llomena.
There are limits to the parallels with the task facing Roglič in 2024, not least the proven calibre of the man in the red jersey. O’Connor may have snatched the jersey in unexpected circumstances in Yunquera on stage 6, but the Australian has a fine track record in Grand Tours, placing fourth at the 2021 Tour de France and again at this year’s Giro d’Italia.
“He’s in really good shape, definitely,” Roglič said with respect.
“He’s a great rider, he already achieved some really big results, so in those terms, it’s not such a big surprise that he’s leading the race. He gained the time with an incredible performance, he just rode alone away from all of us, and for the moment he’s still riding really strong.”
Roglič had looked to be marching inexorably towards the overall lead when he put almost two minutes into O’Connor in less than 4 km on the slopes of the Puerto de Ancares on stage 13, but this has been a Vuelta of fluctuating fortunes for everybody, including the three-time winner.
Although he once more gained ground on O’Connor on Cuitu Negru, the Vuelta remains open, with the Australian, Mas and Richard Carapaz all firmly in the mix ahead of the final week.
“With all these things, it’s quite hard to predict,” Roglič said, echoing Boškov’s old line that all football matches were unpredictable because they all start with the score at 0-0.
“It’s really hard to point out in which places you could gain some time, because sometimes it goes the opposite. Sometimes you gain more than you thought, sometimes you lose more than you thought. We’re still a good minute behind, definitely better than one week ago, but still quite some work to do. We just have to give our best from tomorrow until Sunday.”
If Roglič wins the Vuelta, he will equal the record of four victories held by Roberto Heras, and he will also become the second-oldest winner in history behind Chris Horner, who was 41 when he claimed his most unexpected 2013 title.
Roglič, a latecomer to cycling, will turn 35 at the end of next month, but he politely shrugged off any discussion about how long he can endure at this level.
“No, don’t ask this,” he smiled.
“I still feel 18 inside. But yes, when you wake up, it’s definitely not the same as when you’re 20 years old. The older you get, the more things start to come out, but for the moment it’s a pleasure to be still racing with those young guys around. It keeps me young, as long as I can be in this circle. Hopefully I can stay there as long as possible, or for as long as I enjoy it and like it.”
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