After 74 wins, four Grand Tour victories, a Monument and an Olympic Gold Medal, Primož Roglič has closed the curtain on his time at Jumbo-Visma, eight years after joining the Dutch team in 2016 and will head to Bora-Hansgrohe for at least the next two seasons.
Roglič bookended his stint at Jumbo-Visma with a podium finish at Il Lombardia behind fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Andrea Bagioli (Soudal-QuickStep) after he watched his compatriot go up the road on the descent of the penultimate climb and was unable to follow him.
There were no regrets for Roglič after the finish, happy with his final appearance in the yellow and black jersey he has donned and honoured so often for the last eight years, happy with a top-three result on the day.
“I’m satisfied. This third place was a victory for me,” said Roglič after Il Lombardia. “I just didn’t have the legs uh... I’m happy it’s finished. The pain has finished."
“For sure I could have been better in the moment of the attacks and maybe tomorrow could have been different but in that moment I didn’t have the legs and so third place was my victory.”
Roglič left everything out on the road throughout the nearly six hours of racing and went into the day alongside Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) as one of the big favourites.
Pogačar used his teammates well in the crucial phase of the race as he allowed Adam Yates to split the front group with an attack before bridging across to the Brit, surprising Roglič and forcing him into an extended chase.
Roglič had to expend significant energy to chase Pogačar, only making the catch over the crest of the Passo di Ganda, just prior to the eventual winner launching into the descent in what would become the race-winning move.
“I left everything out on the road,” Roglič said. “Obviously I didn’t have the legs huh and was dropped but wanted to do well."
“I was fighting, fighting, fighting to come back. So third place really was the maximum I could achieve today. I have no regrets.”
Roglič’s final season at Jumbo-Visma has been one of his finest with victories at all of Tirreno-Adriatico, the Volta a Catalunya, the Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a Burgos and the Giro dell’Emilia, alongside third-place finishes at both the Vuelta a España and today’s Il Lombardia.
He’ll head to Bora-Hansgrohe as a 33-year-old, dreaming of victory at the Tour de France and should have the full support of the best squad the German team can provide for him, ready to do battle with Pogačar, Evenepoel and his former teammate Jonas Vingegaard at the biggest race of all.
