2023 Giro d'Italia "Thoughts on Primoz Roglic’s Victory"

It was Primoz Roglic of Team Jumbo-Visma who won the 107th "Giro d'Italia" in 2023.

While the victory of Roglic, who has won many Grand Tours in recent years, is a familiar sight, this overall Giro d'Italia win was a special one for Roglic and Jumbo-Visma fans, as they reflect on the victories and defeats that Roglic and Jumbo-Visma have experienced over the past few years.

A series of victories, defeats, and repeated bad luck

In 2013, at the age of 22, Roglic switched from ski jumping to cycling road racing, and since joining LottoNL-Jumbo (now Jumbo-Visma) in 2016, he has steadily improved his performance in a short period of time, finishing fourth overall in the 2018 Tour de France and became one of the leading GC riders.

In 2019, he took on the Giro d'Italia as one of the favorites to win the overall, showing strength in time trials and consistent climbing ability from the beginning of the stages and wearing a Maria Rosa, but he faltered in the second half due to illness and regretfully finished 3rd overall.

In the following year, 2020, with the overall Grand Tour favorites still undecided due to the schedule confusion caused by Covid-19 and the end of the long-standing dominance of Team Sky (now Ineos Grenadiers), Roglic, who has steadily improved his abilities, is one of the most likely candidates for the Maillot Jaune. Jumbo-Visma was the frontrunner to win the Tour de France 2020.

Jumbo-Visma dominated the stage, as its reputation had indicated, and many fans thought that Roglic was almost in control of the overall victory, but on stage 20, he suffered a shocking defeat in the individual time trial by Tadej Pogacar from Slovenia, the same country as Roglic, and finished second overall.

After that, he became the biggest threat to Tadej Pogacar, who was aiming to win the Tour de France again, and was one of the main contenders for the yellow jersey. However, for the second year in a row, he wad unfortunately abandon from the race and failed to reach Paris on the final day in both years.

On the other hand, Jumbo-Visma, as a team, switched to "Plan B" after losing their absolute ace, Roglic, in 2021, and made their presence felt with stage wins led by Wout Van Aert, and Jonas Vingegaard showed a glimpse of his ability to compete with Tadej Pogacar, finishing 2nd overall.

In 2022, immediately after Roglic lost a lot of time from GC contenders due to a crash, the team chose a plan to make Jonas Vingegaard the sole overall leader and attacked the Tadej Pgacar to win the overall leader's jersey and the the young Danish overall leader could wore Maillot Jaune.

Although the team showed its determination and competence on the Tour de France after losing Roglic, some fans felt a sense of loss.

On the other hand, Roglic personally, without being disappointed by the Giro/Tour defeat, won the overall classification of the Vuelta a España in 2019, 2020, and 2021, and has accumulated a great achievement of winning three consecutive Grand Tours in the scorching heat in Spain.

While he is one of the world's top overall riders, he has not been able to achieve the best results in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, he has always proven himself in the Vuelta A España, giving the impression that "Roglic is still strong,".
However, the Vuelta A España was also marked by misfortune.

In Vuelta a España 2022, Roglic, perhaps recovering from an injury sustained in the Tour de France, was restrained in the first and second weeks, and the end of second week, when he was gradually beginning to show the difference in strength from his overall rivals, he crashed and regretfully abandoned from the race.

With young overall riders such as Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepool, and colleague Jonas Vingegaard becoming more and more prominent, many fans thought that Roglic's peak would come to an end, due to his repeated injuries from crashes and his age of 33 years.

Even during the 2020 Tour de France, Roglic said, "Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose," and proud of his second place overall finish and showing a clear mindset as if to say that sometimes you lose because the game is luck of the hour.

It is rare for an athlete to have such a string of brilliant victories, shocking defeats, and unfortunate accidents, but Roglic's own optimistic commentary is also appealing. However, in the 2022 season, there were moments when we thought it might be difficult to continue to count on Roglic, who is struck by bad luck every year.

But, Roglic has come back again.

The Giro d'Italia, where he once suffered, and the stage of the mountain individual time trial before the final day of the race is reminiscent of the 2020 Tour de France.

In the 2020 Tour de France, he was chased in the mountain time trial, but on this day, he was 29 seconds behind the leader, Geraint Thomas, who had never fallen behind in a mountain stage in this Giro d'Italia and was showing consistent conditions.

Geraint Thomas was the last to go and Roglic started just ahead of him. Although there was no significant time difference in the flat sections at the beginning of the race, the time of Roglic improved in the latter half as they entered the uphill sections, and entered the final version at a pace that he can reverse Geraint Thomas.

However, just as many fans were getting excited about Roglic's come-from-behind victory, a mechanical problem occurred to Roglic at a time when everyone did not want it to happen and when it should not definitely have happened.

During the uphill climb, the chain on Roglic's bike came off and his foot touch to the ground.

At this moment, everyone thought that “Once again, Roglic and Jumbo-Visma had bad luck."

Nevertheless, on this day, Roglic had the strength and luck to overcome this situation.

While the support staff was momentarily unsure whether or not to change bikes, Roglic put his own chain back on and started riding again, then improving his time and eventually finishing 40 seconds ahead of Geraint Thomas, who took second place on the stage and the Maria Rosa in an upset.

An athlete who is loved by many fans.

After his victory, Roglic said, "We did it together".

There were some symbolic moments in this Giro d'Italia, such as Koen Bowman immediately giving up his own bike when Roglic fell off the bike, and Sepp Kuss towing Geraint Thomas and Joa Almeida to minimize the time loss when Roglic cracked behind on the climbs.

But these were just symbols, and throughout the stage, Roglic seemed to be well protected by his team members, creating a good situation for the individual mountain time trial that would decide the Maria Rosa.

Jumbo-Visma, the defending Tour de France champion, naturally focuses their start list on the Grand Depart in July, and there is no denying that the members of Giro d'Italia will be less experienced.

In addition, before the start of the Giro d'Italia, strong domestiques Jan Tratnik and Wilco Kelderman were left off the start list due to Covid-19.

The team members did really great job in sending their ace to the individual mountain time trial just before the last day of the race, where he was able to challenge for Maria Rosa.

Few years ago, Roglic said, "I am not a young man, but I have been cycling for less time than most of the other riders. There is still room for growth." This is how Roglic once described his career.

Roglic is said to be loved and respected by many people in his home country of Slovenia. Once again, he has shown fans around the world that he is an athlete worth to continue to support.

After the Giro d'Italia, Roglic said, "I have completed my priority for the 2023 season.”
What will be the next spectacular scenario for the Slovenian star with his teammates whom literally shared the hardships of the past?