Primož Roglič (; born 29 October 1989) is a Slovenian professional racing cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam . A former ski jumper, Roglič switched to cycling after an accident suffered at Planica. Despite becoming a professional at the relatively late age of 23, Roglič has since become one of the most successful cyclists of his generation, with many notable wins in time trials, one-week stage races, and Grand Tours.
Roglič has won five Grand Tours, including the Vuelta a España a record-tying four times (2019, 2020, 2021, and 2024),Primoz Roglič wins Vuelta a Espana for 4th time, ties record after year of change. NBC Sports, 8 September 2024 and the Giro d'Italia in 2023. He was the first Slovenian to win either race. Roglič has also finished second overall at the 2020 Tour de France, becoming the first Slovenian to wear the yellow jersey before losing out to compatriot Tadej Pogačar.
In 2020, when Roglič won the cycling monument Liège–Bastogne–Liège in addition to his Grand Tour success, he won the Vélo d'Or, which is awarded to the most successful cyclist of the racing season. In 2021, he won an Olympic gold medal in the men's individual time trial, Slovenia's first cycling medal.
Between 2019 and 2021, Roglič held the No. 1 ranking in the UCI Men's road racing world ranking for 75 weeks (a former record) and has twice finished as the year-end No. 1.
Career Ski jumping Born in Trbovlje, Slovenia, Roglič pursued ski jumping from the age of 10, practicing at a local jump in Zagorje ob Savi, 3 km from his childhood home. In 2003, at age 13, Roglič participated in his first FIS competition in Villach, Austria.
In 2006, Roglič earned a place on the Slovenian team for the 2006 FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships, where they won silver. The next year, competing in Planica, Slovenia, Roglič won gold in the team event.
In 2007, Roglič suffered a crash as a test jumper during official training in front of his home crowd at Letalnica bratov Gorišek, the ski flying hill in Planica, Slovenia. Despite being airlifted to the hospital, Roglič was not significantly injured and continued to compete. Roglič would continue to compete until early 2011, but his progression as a ski jumper had largely stalled, and he did not achieve any other major victories and was not selected to the Olympic team. Roglič finished his career with a personal best of , set in Planica, and two Continental Cup victories, the second-highest level of international ski jumping.
Transition to road cycling
After officially retiring from ski jumping in 2012, as he felt unable to reach the high levels of the sport, Roglič explored other sports including duathlon and triathlon. During this period, he was enrolled at the University of Kranj studying organization and management, and worked various jobs including selling cleaning products door-to-door.
Roglič began participating in local amateur cycling races, and despite limited experience—Roglič later estimated he had only ridden in his life up to that point—decided to pursue the sport professionally. Inspired by a meeting with former professional cyclist Andrej Hauptman, now a directeur sportif at , Roglič sold his motorcycle, bought a racing bicycle, and began riding with the development team affiliated with the UCI Continental team .
While he initially lacked bike handling skills and knowledge of racing, Roglič showed immediate promise as a climber. At the age of 22, Roglič underwent testing at a sports lab, where his VO2 max was recorded at 80.2, close to the best numbers of riders such as Chris Froome and Egan Bernal. Roglič has credited the work he undertook on building core stability, balance, flexibility and acrobatics as a ski jumper as being beneficial in his switch to cycling.
Adria Mobil (2013–2015) After less than a year of focused training for cycling, Roglič signed his first professional contract for the 2013 season with the continental team. His best result in 2013 was 15th place overall at the Tour of Slovenia. He took his first professional win the following year, taking a mountainous stage of the Tour d'Azerbaïdjan by winning a two-up sprint against Will Clarke. After three seasons with the team – culminating in a successful 2015 season, including wins at the Tour de Slovenia and the Tour d'Azerbaïdjan – he signed a contract to ride with for the 2016 season.
LottoNL–Jumbo (2016–2023) 2016 - Grand Tour debut During his first year at the World Tour level, Roglič immediately showed his talent when placing 5th overall at the Volta ao Algarve. Just one month later Roglič finished 2nd on stage 7 at the Volta a Catalunya, when he lost the sprint to Alexey Tsatevich. Roglič started in the Giro d'Italia, where he surprised with a second place in the opening time trial in Apeldoorn, a hundredth of a second slower than winner Tom Dumoulin. He won the 9th stage, a individual time trial in Chianti. That victory came as a surprise for many as Roglič had to use his spare bike because his bike did not meet the UCI requirements. Roglič did not manage to transfer his cycle computer onto his spare bike in time for the start, and it was therefore hard for Roglič to know how much time he had left of the stage, and what his power numbers were. Just two weeks after finishing the Giro d'Italia, Roglič won the Slovenian National Time Trial Championships. He finished 10th in the Time trial at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
2017 - first Tour de France stage win
During the 2017 season, Roglič started out by winning the overall title at the Volta ao Algarve. One month later he finished 4th overall in Tirreno–Adriatico, and at the Tour of the Basque Country, Roglič won stages 4 and 6 – the latter of which was an individual time trial – and finished 5th overall. It did not take long before Roglič secured another win; at the end of April, Roglič participated in the Tour de Romandie where he won the stage 5 individual time trial, en route to placing 3rd overall. At his final preparation race before the Tour de France, Roglič won the prologue of the Ster ZLM Toer, and finished 2nd overall.
In June 2017, Roglič was named in the startlist for the Tour de France. He won stage 17 of the race becoming the first Slovenian to win a stage of the Tour de France. He had also collected so many points on the climbs that he finished 2nd in the Mountains classification. At the World Championships in Bergen, Roglič targeted the individual time trial, which finished on Mount Floyen, a climb averaging 9%. He finished 2nd in the event behind Tom Dumoulin.
2018 - stage race success
The 2018 season showed Roglič's potential in stage races and grand tours. He managed to win the general classification in the Tour of the Basque Country, the Tour de Romandie and the Tour of Slovenia. During the early stages of the Tour de France, Roglič managed to avoid the crashes and mechanical issues that many other general classification riders fell victim to putting him in position to compete with the elite riders including Geraint Thomas, Tom Dumoulin, Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana, Romain Bardet and Mikel Landa among others. Roglič was able to stay with the elite riders through the high mountains answering nearly every attack to the point that, after he attacked on the descent and won stage 19 of the race, he was in a podium position in third place overall, behind only Thomas and Dumoulin. Roglič finished the 2018 Tour in fourth overall, after Froome was able to regain the final podium position in the final time trial.
2019 - first Vuelta win
Roglič won the 2019 edition of Tirreno–Adriatico as well as the Tour de Romandie and was one of the pre-race favourites going into the Giro d'Italia. He finished on the podium in 3rd place, wore the race leader's pink jersey for six stages and also won two stages, both individual time trials. In August 2019, Roglič was named in the startlist for the Vuelta a España. Going into the stage ten individual time trial, Roglič trailed the race leader Nairo Quintana by six seconds; Roglič recorded the fastest time over the stage by twenty-five seconds over the next closest competitor, and at least one-and-a-half minutes into all of his rivals for the general classification. He became the 98th rider to win stages at each of the three Grand Tours as a result of the victory. He held the red and green jerseys – as the leader of both the general and points classifications – for the remainder of the race, as he became the first Slovenian rider to win a Grand Tour. A successful 2019 season was crowned with wins in two Italian races in October: the Giro dell'Emilia, and Tre Valli Varesine.
2020 - Tour runner-up, second Vuelta win
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Roglič's first race of the season was the Slovenian National Road Race Championships, on 21 June. On the final climb to the finish at Ambrož pod Krvavcem, Roglič soloed away from Tadej Pogačar in the closing , winning the national road race title for the first time. The following weekend, Pogačar beat Roglič by 8.5 seconds in the Slovenian National Time Trial Championships. Roglič started strong at the Tour de France, winning the fourth stage, ahead of Pogačar; he took the overall race lead on the ninth stage, finishing second, behind Pogačar, in a five-rider sprint finish in Laruns. After Egan Bernal lost seven minutes on stage 15, Pogačar was the only rider that was within a minute of Roglič in the general classification; Roglič had extended his advantage from 40 seconds to 57 seconds on the summit finish to the Col de la Loze, maintaining that lead going into the penultimate day, a individual time trial that finished at La Planche des Belles Filles. He rode fairly well in the final time trial, being bested by several riders, but Pogačar managed to overturn the advantage that Roglič held, bettering his stage time by almost two minutes, giving Pogačar an ultimately race-winning margin of 59 seconds.
The following weekend, Roglič recorded a sixth-place finish in the road race at the World Championships, finishing at the back of a five-rider group that had been battling for the silver medal. At Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Roglič took his first Monument classic victory, pipping world champion Julian Alaphilippe on the line, after Alaphilippe had slowed down to start celebrating his presumptive victory. Roglič then contested the Vuelta a España as defending champion; he won the race's opening stage at the Alto de Arrate in Eibar, before losing the race lead to Richard Carapaz on stage six, after encountering issues putting on a rain jacket. However, he bounced back on stage eight, which finished atop the Alto de Moncavillo. After following attacks from Hugh Carthy and Carapaz on the steepest section of the climb, Roglič put in an attack in the final kilometre that was answered only by Carapaz. Although Carapaz tried to distance Roglič, Roglič countered his attack, eventually soloing across the line 13 seconds ahead of Carapaz. This win elevated Roglič to second place overall, 13 seconds behind Carapaz.