Primož Roglič took a step into the unknown on Sunday morning as he got set to ride in new colours and with new teammates for the first time at Paris-Nice.
Last year’s Giro d’Italia winner is making his debut for Bora-Hansgrohe after joining the German squad during the winter from Visma-Lease a Bike.
He will lead the line for his new team at the Tour de France in July as he gets set to go up against former teammate Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogačar.
The Slovenian is one of the hot favourites for victory at Paris-Nice, his first race of the season, but told gathered reporters in Les Mureaux that he would be taking each day as it comes in his first outing in Bora colours.
"We will see, we’ll certainly try to do our best,” Roglič said when asked about his chances of overall victory in Nice next weekend.
"Obviously we don’t know each other that well, we’ve never raced together so a bunch of things will happen and you have to be open to everything,” he added. “The most important thing is that you take the learnings out of it all and carry that into the next races that follow.”
The sight of the Slovenian rolling to the start line in green as opposed to yellow and black, the colours of his former team, certainly took some getting used to.
Roglič joked himself that he was still adapting to his new surroundings which included the new kit.
He said: "Yeah it's beautiful, I like it. So far, so good [with Bora-Hansgrohe]. Everything's been fine. I’ve just been looking forward to coming here and getting the season started.”
Roglič has enjoyed mixed fortunes across the years at Paris-Nice. Back in 2021 he dramatically missed out on overall victory on the final day after two heavy crashes left him injured.
However, he returned to the race a year later and beat Great Britain’s Simon Yates to the overall title.
After skipping last year’s edition, Roglič explained it was nice to return with positive memories of his last appearance.
"After all the years, you collect a lot of different emotions but you definitely always keep the best ones,” he said. “It's a really great race, and I'm looking forward to going day by day towards home now.”
The acquisition of Roglič by Ralph Denk’s team has immediately seen them labelled as a genuine contender for Tour victory in July.
Speaking late last year as he announced news of his new signing, Denk explained that Roglič would help him achieve a life long ambition.
"My personal goal is for us to win the Tour, it's a dream for me,” Denk said. “This was the chance to take one of the biggest contenders. We are realistic, he's not the only contender. So we need luck, we need a super strong team and an outstanding performance from Primož Roglič.
"But it's already a nice feeling for me for the whole team, to be a contender, a real contender."
