'I'm ready, I've done my thing' - Giro d'Italia favourite Primož Roglič unfazed by top contender status

If Primož Roglič's physical form for the 2025 Giro d'Italia is as sharply honed as his ability to field potentially provocative questions in his final pre-race press conference, then he'll likely dominate this year's edition even more than Tadej Pogačar did in 2024.

"Ten," the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe leader blithely answered when asked by one journalist to rate his current form on points out of ten. 

But then, when the reporter in question craftily followed that up with 'Which is good enough to win the Giro, obviously', Roglič fired back with a smile, "But you never know, maybe somebody is at 15. So then, in that case, it's not good enough."

He gave a similarly good-humoured answer-that-wasn't-an-answer to how he felt about the Giro's intermediate sprints, which will be sponsored by his own team's main backer, Red Bull. "It should be fun and will cause some action, but hopefully they don't expect me to sprint every time," he quipped. 

It was notable that despite being just hours away from his fourth Giro d'Italia start and where he'll be the top favourite, Roglič looked anything but pressured in Thursday's press conference of most of the main contenders. 

Wearing his Red Bull team cap backwards to (presumably) transmit his laidback attitude, the Slovenian star chatted quietly with key rival Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and greeted reporters he knew amongst waiting media with a smile, as they waited for the other top names to take their place at the main interview table,. 

His final approach pather to the race had been similarly low pressure, it emerged, with just one training ride in Albania before Friday's start, which Roglič first said "should be enough," and then drily qualified with "It has to be enough."

He was equally untroubled by the reportedly parlous state of some of the Albanian roads that some other riders have highlighted, saying simply, "At the end of the day, in the race, it doesn't really matter where you start, the goal is still the same.

"You try to do your best because at the end it's a three-week race, so you try to go full without any unnecessary problems."

He did recognise that stage 9, which goes over the gravel roads of Strade Bianche in Tuscany could be "an opportunity for things to happen that you don't want." But as he pointed out in his umpteenth defusal of any sense of any potential stress, there was "a long way to go" before the Giro even got there, and the first thing was to get through the three stages in Albania.

Roglič showed no desire, either, to create any tension by naming his four most dangerous rivals, either as he was invited to do in another media question. "I forget," he wisecracked, before adding, "You saw them here, and it's not just these guys either, all of them are dangerous, so it would be really unfair to point out which one.

"Hopefully, I can fight with them and we can have a good show of racing."

To say that this laid-back approach in the countdown to a Grand Tour start is a new kind of attitude for Roglič would be completely inaccurate, though. Time and again, though, the veteran Slovenian has played down his chances before a Grand Tour, start only to show that actually he was in great shape and ready to pan the opposition as soon as the race reached the first summit finish. 

And on Friday, even as Roglič was deadpanning answers to the media and fending off any potential controversy, the true level of his dedication and ambition emerged once again in a telling interview with Nieuwsblad with his Belgian trainer, Marc Lamberts.

“If Primož were satisfied with a fourth place, I would have a very easy job. But for Primož, only winning counts. Then you have to train so hard that it is on the limit," Lamberts explained.

"As a coach, you go so far that it is actually no longer fun. Because there is a risk that he will collapse because we have gone too far, Primož knows that. But we have no choice if we want to win.”

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