Tour de France: five things to know about Primoz Roglic

Tour de France

Published on Friday, July 27, 2018 at 21:24

Winner of the last mountain stage, this afternoon, the Slovenian Primoz Roglic took the opportunity to climb on the podium of Tour, before tomorrow's individual time lapse

He is junior world champion in ski jumping
                                            

This is the heart of his story. Originally from Kisovec, Slovenian starts like most kids in the area by ski jumping: "I started at seven, my neighbor was ski jumping coach and it was the normal way to start by a sport that was closest to my home. " In 2007, in Tarvisio (Italy), he won the world title with the Slovenian national junior team but without breaking through on the individual level, which brings him to ride a bike: "I realized that I will never be the best in this sport."

He suffered an impressive fall
                                            

The same year, a little later, on the 215-meter jump of Planica (Slovenia), he fell violently but fortunately without serious consequences, only a few bruises. What does not detract from discipline as he confided last Monday in Carcbadonne during the day of rest: "The fall has not changed anything for me because I continued a few years later and I I even realized my longest jump. You must accept the fall in skiing as in cycling. If you fall and you think you're fed up, then you will not get anywhere. "

He sells his bike to buy a road bike
                                            

Victim of recurring knee pain and frustrated by the feeling of not being able to go higher, he borrows the bike from one of his friends on the ski jumping team and returns only a few hours later, in love. Following another loan, he entered a race in the region and finished on the podium. In the process, he sells his bike to buy a road bike, his this time.
                    

He starts in a World Tour team in 2016
                                            

After a season with amateurs in 2012, he committed two years with the Slovenian team Adria Mobil. This is where the Lotto Jumbo team sees him, after a call from his Slovenian coach, recalls Franz Mabaden, his current sports director: "At first, I thought, this is not for us, it's a ski jumper, Slovenia, it's weird! I looked at his results, I followed him and at the end of the season, Primoz came to our home for a test and it was crazy: he developed exceptional watts! At the end of the test, he was made to sign his contract (laughs). "

He won a stage by Tour de France disputed
                                            

Novice last year on the Tour, he won the stage of Serre Chevalier before, to put it Friday in the descent after the Col de l'Aubisque. This year, the Slovenian scored in all the races of one week, which he won: Tour of the Basque Country, Tour of Lombardy and Tour of Slovenia. Two days before the finish on the Champs-Elysées and before the decisive chronograph of tomorrow, he climbs, at twenty-eight, for the first time on the podium of a grand Tour.
                    

Y.H., In Laruns