Slovenia is now synonymous with Grand Tour champions in the WorldTour ranks. The small country packs a punch as a world heavyweight in men's road racing, bringing their super duo Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglič to the 2024 Road World Championships in Zürich. Between the two riders, Slovenia have bragging rights to the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and the Vuelta a España in the same calendar year.
However, neither Pogačar nor Roglič has a rainbow jersey. While both are rivals on the road, both are accomplished climbers and could make, or break, the Slovenian effort to grab the country's first gold.
Roglič was a favourite for a medal in the elite men's time trial last Sunday, but finished a disappointing 12th. He admitted after the ITT that he was "still a bit tired from the Vuelta", having won the Spanish three-week race for a record-tying fourth time.
Pogačar has had his sights on the climber's course in Zürich for months. It was a year ago that he finished third at the Glasgow Worlds, and since has dominated stage races and one-day races at will, netting the Giro-Tour de France double victory. A world title would give him the Triple Crown.
There are 273.9km in the race to decide who has the best legs of the two, but they aren't the only two riders on Team Slovenia. There are five other riders present in Zürich, though Continental-level Matic Žumer is now part of the group to replace WorldTour veteran and reigning gravel world champion Matej Mohorič, who was expected to be a key pacemaker for Pogačar in the final laps of the hilly Zurich circuit. He pulled out due to an injury to his hand suffered last week when pre-riding a gravel course at Sea Otter Europe Girona.
While Slovenia has had at least one men's professional team for 74 years, it was not until 2014 that the country fielded a professional team for women. Two of the riders on this year's Worlds elite women's squad, Spela Kern and Urška Pintar, were among that ground-breaking roster.
History
Until Pogačar finished third in the elite men's road race in Glasgow last year, only one other Slovenian man had ever stepped on the Worlds podium since 1927, Andrej Hauptman doing so in 2001. Hauptman is now a sports director at Pogačar's WorldTour squad UAE Team Emirates.
No Slovenian woman has yet reached the podium in the 66-year history of the elite women's battle for rainbow stripes. Urška Žigart, a five-time national champion who this year won both the road race and time trial events in a two-day span, has developed into Slovenia's best female road cyclist. She was 17th in this year's time trial, marking her seventh trip to the Road World Championships.
Lineups
Elite men: Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič, Jan Tratnik, Domen Novak, Luka Mezgec, Matevž Govekar and Matic Žumer
Elite women: Urška Žigart, Urška Pintar, Spela Kern, Eugenia Bujak
U23 men: Gal Glivar, Jaka Marolt, Anže Ravbar
Junior women: Zoja Ferlež, Sara Pestotnik, Dominika Štrukelj, Anet Trakonja, Eva Potočnik
Junior men: no riders
Key riders
The 27-year-old all-rounder is the only woman cyclist from Slovenia who has achieved top 10s in Women's WorldTour stage races. In 2023 she finished seventh overall at Tour de Suisse Women and followed this year with ninth on GC. She also added a top 12 at the weeklong Giro d'Italia women.
Žigart swept both road events at this year's nationals but was not named to the Olympic team. She's motivated to perform on the international stage, especially on a course suited to her climbing abilities.
A superstar at the age of 26, Pogačar has six victories at Monuments already, including wins at Strade Bianche and Liège-Bastogne-Liège this spring. Then he won Volta Catalunya with ease and doubled the number of Grand Tour victories on his resume, now four, going back-to-back with wins at the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. Across those three stage races, he won 16 stages.
After passing on an opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games, which seemed to be a combination of Tour fatigue and a defiant stance against his federation for leaving his fiancee Žygart off the Paris-bound team, Pogačar actually lost a race at Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec. He rebounded two days later to capture the victory at Grand Prix cyclist Montréal.
And it has been common knowledge since the beginning of the season that Pogačar has had his sights on September's road race at Worlds. After doubling up with more Grand Tour hardware at the Giro and Tour this summer, he can now complete the 'triple crown' of cycling with a road race world title. That would move him into another stratosphere alongside only two other riders, Eddy Merckx in 1974 and Stephen Roche in 1987.
Roglič comes off a fourth GC crown at the Vuelta a España to add to the Giro victory of last year, which is one Grand Tour better than Pogačar. He also has Monument wins to his name and a gold medal in the time trial from the Tokyo Olympic Games. But the rainbow jersey from the Worlds has eluded the 34-year-old.
His best finish in a Worlds road race was sixth in 2020 and he last competed in the Worlds in 2021, going 48th. He is one of the world's best climbers, so the 273.9km route with a total elevation gain of 4,470 metres is a challenge he relishes.
Roglič is out to prove he is resilient, not just from 12th place in the ITT a few days ago at Worlds, but from an overall challenging year. He was involved in the now infamous mass-crash on stage 4 at Itzulia Basque Country on stage 4, but resumed racing two months later and won the overall at Critérium du Dauphiné. Then he suffered a fracture to his lower back on a crash on stage 12 of the Tour de France, when he was fourth on GC. Six weeks later he was back at the Vuelta and fought his was to another victory there.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
With a pair of WorldTour powerhouses in the men's race, Slovenia have the best odds to secure their first-ever gold medal. In fact, Pogačar and Roglič could pull off a pair of medals. National Coach Uroš Murn called the scenario, "In the era of modern sports, this is something unimaginable, what our riders are doing".
A lot has to go right for the second scenario to develop, but as long as all seven riders follow through with a game plan, Slovenia will have a second consecutive year with one medal to celebrate, which they hope is gold.
Weaknesses
The other side of the coin in having a pair of WorldTour powerhouses is that a power struggle could develop and lead to a lack of cohesion in an all-for-one united force. How will this play out against strong teams from Belgium, Netherlands, Italy and France, but also with a possible internal struggle if both have great legs? Big questions will be answered on Sunday.
What appears to be the biggest challenge for Slovenia is not who the federation sent to the start list this year, but the lack of future riders in the pipeline to take over for Roglič, and later Pogačar. The country did not qualify any spots for junior men in the two disciplines, no spots for U23 men in the ITT and only three U23 riders in the men's road race.
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