On paper, it looked simple. Primož Roglič claimed another hugely-prestigious stage victory at the Vuelta a España on Wednesday as Jumbo-Visma turned in yet one more remarkable display of team strength to sweep both the top three places on the Angliru and boost their collective grip on the top three places overall.
But as Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard's joint attack saw them drop race leader and teammate Sepp Kuss and squeeze down the American's overall advantage in the process, suddenly it got a lot more complicated. In a nutshell, after Vingegaard's win 24 hours earlier and now Roglič's on the Angliru, the questions regarding the Jumbo-Visma Vuelta a España juggernaut, and which of the triumvirate of leaders is actually in the driving seat when it comes to going for overall victory in Madrid, are steadily intensifying.
Roglič and Vingegaard both expressed their hopes, post-stage, that Kuss wins the Vuelta. But Roglič also recognised he has his own ambitions for triumph in Madrid a fourth time. Squaring that particular circle can only be anything but straightforward. Particularly as after losing time to his teammates for two straight days, Kuss’ grip on the overall now hangs by the slenderest of threads, with Vingegaard a mere eight seconds behind and Roglič at 1:08.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the first question Roglič faced in his winner’s press conference was not concerning how he has now triumphed on two of Spain’s toughest climbs, the Lagos de Covadonga in 2021 and the Angliru in 2023, but who he would bet on to win the Vuelta outright.
“I’d wish it was me,” Roglič answered, before instantly qualifying that with the comment, “but at the moment Sepp is in the red, and I wish him to finish in red and it’s also my responsibility to do my best.
“At the end, the road will tell who wins this year,” he added. “When it’s so steep, it’s man on man, so I just did my best and we see what it means. All three of us are together and we just keep fighting. When Sepp was dropped, it’s a bit of a strange feeling, but in this race we all have the freedom to go for it.”
What ‘everyone can do their best’ meant on the Angliru in real terms was that when Roglič made a steady, drawn-out acceleration 2.8 kilometres from the line, only Vingegaard was able to follow, and an isolated Kuss struggled.
Kuss then briefly regained contact with the two ahead after working with Bahrain Victorious’ Mikel Landa, only to fall behind again when Roglič and Vingegaard moved ahead for a second time.
“It was a lot nicer than last time,” Roglič said in another interview when asked to compare 2023 to his more irregular, less successful 2020 ascent of the Angliru, "It was not really tactical. I did my own tempo and then the climb will tell who is first, second.”
Bahrain Victorious put in a lot of work on the climb and Roglič explained that “I let them [Bahrain Victorious] go for it, then when the pace was dropping I said [to myself], 'OK go for it and I will ride my own pace'.”
Did he realise Kuss was dropped? “Yes, but I just did my own tempo. It’s a weird feeling, a weird, thing, just on such steep climbs everybody goes as fast as possible and then we see.”
As for whether he thought Kuss could win the Vuelta, Roglič answered that he was convinced that was the case.
“I said to him, keep fighting, keep believing and he will make it.”
Yet for all Roglič’s evident goodwill towards Kuss, the questions persist about who would decide on the leader or who will win the Vuelta.
“Our bosses,” Roglič replied, before laughing and making it clear that was a joke. “The thing is we will see, we all need to do our best and do it honestly and whoever has the legs will be there.”
The ideal scenario, he concluded, was that all three of them would finish on the podium in Madrid, something which after the Angliru, as all of Jumbo-Visma' rivals struggled, appears to be all but a foregone conclusion.
But as for the order of the top three, and how Jumbo-Visma will resolve that issue, the dilemma - or should that be a ‘trilemma’? - remains a mystery. And there are only four days left to resolve it.
