Primož Roglič cut a forlorn, reflective, almost defeated figure when he spoke at a press conference before this year's Tour de France, revealing how his Giro d'Italia crash, abandon and slow recovery derailed his Tour ambitions. He indicated Florian Lipowitz as Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's possible GC leader, without setting any real personal ambitions.
"I was finished after the Giro, I was on antibiotics and stuff because I also had some kind of bacteria. I was suffering, I was on my knees," Roglič said before the team presentation on Thursday on Lille.
"Now we'll see what I can do. I have nothing to prove. We'll see at the end what it means. I just want to get to Paris, drink some champagne and end there."
Roglič is now 36. He has a contract with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe for 2026 but seems ever near the end of his career, hinting this could be his last-ever Tour de France.
"Every day that we live is close to our last day. Every Tour I do is probably close to the last one I will do," he said cryptically.
"I don't really care. I know the races I won and didn't yet win yet. I have unfinished business with the Tour de France but winning it or not… I'm 36 years old, it won't change my life in any way now.
"I'm happy and proud to still be able to come to the Tour and be a part of the biggest cycling event in the world, just that, I'll take it day by day."
More than ever, Roglič appeared affected by the crashes that have taken him out of the Tour in recent years and out of this year's Giro d'Italia.
"Shit things sharpen you. Without bad things, you don't know what the good things are," he said.
"For some things you can say it's your fault or you are in the place where things happen. What matters is how you take it and go with it. I try to learn from every situation. It's easier to learn when something goes wrong or not the way you want it to go. Winning is a hard way to learn and be realistic."
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