'Life's a daily struggle and cycling helps me with that' – Primož Roglič turns philosophical before 2026 season with Remco Evenepoel

As he nears his 36th birthday, ends his tenth season at WorldTour level, and prepares for a new, perhaps final year of his career, Primož Roglič is more reflective and more philosophical than usual.

"I'm still here, you know, I'm still riding the bike," he tells Cyclingnews during an exclusive end-of-season interview.

He will continue to ride – and race – the bike into 2026, too, continuing for another year with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, but as what could be his last season approaches, it's clear he is reflecting on his life in cycling so far.

"My whole career has had its up and downs, but I wouldn't change anything, even the crashes and disappointments. Cycling is a challenge but teaches you about yourself and life," he says.

"Cycling has given me so much and taught me how to be happy. You feel alive, you suffer a lot, especially when you lose or crash, but it's incredible, it's beautiful. Life's a daily struggle and cycling helps me with that."

This week, Roglič will join Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz and all the 2026 Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe roster and staff in Salzburg, Austria at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre. Like with other teams, this pre-winter get together is a team bonding event, away from the pressures of racing and the demands of winter training. The days will be filled with medical checks, meetings, calendar planning and vital time together.

Primož Roglič became the team leader when he joined the German team in 2024, now Evenepoel will take the role of top dog, perhaps sharing team leadership at the Tour de France after Lipowitz's breakthrough third place in July. Roglič is likely to move down the team hierarchy but that does not worry him.

2026 with Remco Evenepoel – 'We'll see, uh?'  

In recent weeks, Roglič's simple phrase: "we'll see, uh?" has sparked headlines about his own future in 2026 and about his future relationship with Evenepoel, and especially about team leadership at Red Bull and the Tour.

"How did the wise man say it? We will see, uh. We will see how it is in the next days, weeks, but yeah normally I'm next year still riding the bike," Roglič told Eurosport at the start of Tre Valli Varesine in early October.

Before falling for the clickbait, it's important to better understand Roglič's thoughts.

"I said that because I don't really want to think about the future, we don't even know if we are alive next year…" he tells Cyclingnews, the fatigue of 2025 clearly stopping him thinking too much about 2026.

"I still have a contract, so normally I'll still ride the bike, and then we see what happens during the season. I take life day by day, happy that I'm still here and still riding my bike.

"I've achieved quite a lot already, I was a ski jumper for 15 years and I've been a cyclist for 15 years, that's a big deal. I'm sure that a guy who started racing aged 22 would not have a chance to be a professional now, they just wouldn't consider him. I'm really happy that I had the chance and that I took it."

Roglič and Evenepoel are similar riders but very different people in very different moments of their careers.

"We have bigger opponents to try to compete against, why should we compete against each other?" Roglič asks, knowing that Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard are their true rivals.

"It's about how we do our best together. Remco's an incredible guy and already has some really big results. Hopefully he can continue to both do well together.

"I don't really know him, we've never really talked to each other, only on the bike to say hello, which isn't much. We'll get to know each other at the team camp. That's the first step for us to work together."

Roglič recently admitted to the Slovenian media that he is looking forward to Evenepoel and Lipowitz sharing the burden of team leadership.

"I hope to have a little more peace, a little more freedom," he says.

"Remco's arrival is a good thing. It means I can step aside a bit from all the responsibility and all the things outside of cycling. Now we have one younger guy that everyone can look to.

"I want real things, real conversations and real goals for 2026. We will sit down with the team management and talk about what we can achieve together next year.

"We've grown up and have people around us to worry about the best nutrition, aerodynamics and materials. I can really focus on just being a cyclist. That's enough for me."

2025 – A classic Primož Roglič season of success, crashes and comebacks

2025 was a classic Roglič season, for better or for worse, for success crashes and satisfying comebacks.

Roglič was on fire at the Volta a Catalunya, cracking Juan Ayuso on the last stage to win overall. The Giro d'Italia was a major goal and he pulled on the maglia rosa and seemed ready to fight for overall victory, only to crash hard on the gravel stage to Siena. Further crashes left him in huge pain and so he abandoned on stage 16.

He was beaten up and almost broken, needing antibiotics to recover but still trained at altitude in June and still rode the Tour de France as planned.

He gave up on an overall result even before the start in Lille but that allowed him to ride carefully in the peloton. He lost time but then he began to show signs of form in the Pyrenees. He moved up to fifth and could have challenged for the final podium spot but preferred to risk it all for a stage win in the Alps. Two major attacks failed and he finished eighth in Paris, just happy to have reached the French capital for the first time in five years.

Most GC riders who had taken on two Grand Tours took it easy in the final weeks of the 2025 season. Not Primož Roglič. He went to altitude yet again, rode the World Championships in Rwanda before riding the Italian Classics and Il Lombardia.

"I suppose it was a classic Primož Roglič season, with lots of different highs and lows and lots of different emotions," he admits to Cyclingnews.

"I'd definitely have liked more, especially after all the training and all the work I did. But a cycling season, like life, depends on how you look at. You can say it was difficult and shit or be more positive, more balanced. Everything happens for a reason, so I take it all, good or bad."

Some interpreted Roglič's downbeat attitude at the start of the Tour as a lack of enthusiasm and desire. He proved them wrong by the time he reached Paris.

"If I didn't care, then I would be on Bora, Bora island, not in Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe," he jokes with a true Roglič sense of humour.

"Cycling is still my life and I think human beings need to have goals in life. If you can be happy in the morning, you've achieved your first goal in life.

"The Tour was different this year and it made me happy. I almost won the Tour de France once…. So finishing fifth or tenth doesn't really give me anything. But trying to have some nice moments, and good results was nice. Finishing in Paris was beautiful."

Roglič hints that reaching Paris in July gave him some kind of Tour de France closure after all his crashes and tough times in the sports's biggest race. With Evenepoel and Lipowitz likely to lead Red Bull at the 2026 Tour, Primož Roglič knows and seems to accept he may never ride the Tour again.

"I can draw a line under the Tour now, without any bad feelings," he admits.

"I'm satisfied with the Tour and with everything in my career. As long as you are doing something you enjoy, you still want to win, you want to do your best. That's how I feel about cycling now."