Four-time Vuelta a España winner Primož Roglič has revealed the toughness of his battle to ensure he will start this year's race on Saturday, following a bad training crash less than a month ago.
The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider had a major training crash when he was hit by a car in July. The pain from the major hematoma he suffered on his right leg as a result was so bad, he said, that as recently as "10, 14 days ago, I couldn't do anything. Just putting my socks on these last three weeks was the hardest."
Things have turned around relatively quickly, though, in the last few days, and Roglič said he could, finally, contemplate racing the Vuelta. But given how much of a hit his training has taken, his condition remains an incognito, and his ability to mount a GC challenge will be very complicated to calculate before the race hits the hardest stages.
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Roglič pulled a face when it was pointed out to him that three times in the past, in 2021, 2022 and 2024, he's managed to return to a Vuelta GC challenge after a bad summer crash and win. This time round, he said, things were so bad "it's been hard to maintain the positivity."
"When the car hit then, at first I thought it was not such a big thing, the speed was super-slow, and I fell on my side and on my ass. Luckily," he joked - "my big ass saved me.
"But then there was a super big hematoma; I couldn't do much for at least three weeks. If you asked me 10 days back, I wouldn't say I couldn't sit on a TT bike.
"Just putting socks on my feet was the hardest thing for these three weeks. Luckily, at the end I could start to move. I still cannot lie on my right side, but I feel good enough to ride my bike and come here to start the Vuelta."
The idea of a full training program has clearly been out of the question, though, with Roglič summing it up succinctly that "instead of preparation, I did rehabilitation. It's a bit different, I didn't plan for these things, but that's why I come here, I managed to do some training.
"After crashing, I couldn't think about sitting, nor even riding a bike.
"As for what that means, maybe stage 1 and a 9 km time trial should be fine. But then for later on, we'll see how it goes."
Roglič also recognised that being nearly 37 and running out of chances was a motivation to come to the Vuelta, plus, for the first time since 2019, he has not done any other Grand Tour this year.
Although he recognised, too, that there had been conversations with Lotto-Intermarché about a possible contract for next year and a move on from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, it seems logical that that present, concern remained very much uppermost in his mind, too.
"I always say, the older you get, you don't get so many opportunities, particularly ones as big as the Vuelta, specially starting this year in Monaco, that's something special, too.. I didn't do any Grand Tours, yet this year, so it would be nice to race a bit longer."
Rather than focus on Pogačar and what his participation meant for the Vuelta, he said, given the circumstances, he was just looking at his own chances of success or failure. However, while he played down the idea of a repeat of the Vuelta bounceback of previous years, he simply said he had to accept that whatever he could do would be as good as it got.
"I would love it, but for 10 days, 14 days, I couldn't do anything; I was still at exactly the same point as after the crash. It's hard when that happens to maintain the positivity."
"But at the end you need to let it go, what will happen will happen. Either I'm in good shape, or I'm not. I just want to sit without too much pain and move without too much pain."
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