Primoz Roglič is more than aware that the biggest tests in this year’s Vuelta a España are yet to come, but even compared to just a day before the race, the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe leader is already considerably more upbeat.
In his pre-Vuelta press conference, Roglič made no bones about the lingering pain from his back injury caused by a bad crash in the Tour de France, that led to his abandon on stage 13 with a fractured vertebrae.
His impressively powerful performance in the Vuelta opening time trial on Saturday may not have resolved all his concerns about his back. But it was certainly good enough to ensure the 34-year-old was notably more positive when he talked to reporters at the stage 2 start.
Roglič was even ready to crack a joke or two about having a false tooth falling out the evening before the race, with the missing denture now replaced. But when it came to being in good physical shape in general, Roglič's results from the time trial spoke for themselves.
“I’m definitely happy with the ride, it was fast, but I did well at that speed, so I’m looking forward to the next few days. It was only 10 kilometres, but I’m super-happy about it,” Roglič told reporters.
The Slovenian was right to be satisfied, given he came through the time trial as the best-placed GC contender of all the pre-race favourites, eighth at just 16 seconds back on winner Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates).
A quick glance at the TT results sheet showed that Roglič gained two seconds on closest-placed João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), five seconds on Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), 12 on Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammate Alexandr Vlasov and Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), and 17 on Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates). Other favourites like Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) lost even more time to Roglič.
Asked about what such a strong ride said about himself and his rivals, he replied, “I was performing well, now I have to see how I go on the normal road bike. But in any case, the race will be more decided on the climbs than on the flat stages.”
Such was his good mood at his good start, that Roglič was even prepared to crack a joke about his lost tooth - an incisor which fell out on Friday - saying that had he not had it replaced, it would have been “a marginal gain.”
“Yes it fell off, I lost it” he grinned. “But we put it back and ha, marginal gains, that’s one gram less. But we are still not yet getting to the climbs in the race, so we said for the flat, I could have the tooth put back in again because it’s more aero that way.”
Roglič’s upbeat humour continued in stage 2, where he finished safely in the bunch and remained eighth overall, 20 seconds behind new race leader Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike). Emergency visits to the dentist notwithstanding, not to mention the bigger test of the Pico de Villuercas summit finish on Tuesday, for now at least his 2024 Vuelta a España has got off to an ideal start - and given how uncertain he was sounding at times on Friday about his chances, that’s surely a step forward for the Slovenian.
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