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Primoz Roglič schooled Giro d’Italia pretender Juan Ayuso with a winning raid Sunday that proved there’s plenty of life in the old dog.
The 35-year-old’s solo raid for the stage and overall victory at the Volta a Catalunya served as an emphatic reminder that GC racing isn’t all about Tadej Pogačar and a crop of Gen-Z upstarts, 22-year-old Ayuso included.
“These young guys, they’re pushing us. But we still kick and move a bit when we want to be good,” Roglič said Sunday.
Ayuso may count more wins from 2025 than Pogačar, but it’s Rogla who’s the “Original Gangster” of cycling’s “Big 4.”
“He’s strong. He’s a strong young guy, talented. Big respect,” Roglič said of the UAE Emirates-XRG wunderkind.
Things are pointed in the right direction for the big beast of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe after his off-par eighth-place last month at the Volta ao Algarve.
The scarred and plated Slovenian remained upright while his Big 4 rivals fell all around him, and he’s peaking at just in time for his audacious quest to double the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France.
“Now I’ll have a bit of a holiday, then back to the routine and some training camps, and then I’ll slowly build up towards the Giro,” Roglič said.
Let this sink in: excl. the Tour de France
Primoz Roglic @rogla has won
out of the
World Tour stage races
(1 week + Giro & Vuelta ) he finished since @ehitzulia 2018.
That’s 77%!
He is no doubt the best GC rider EVER that has never won the Tour. https://t.co/l0vJONMSoS
— Jonas Creteur (@jonas_creteur) March 30, 2025
Roglič will soar like a champion ski jumper in the Giro d’Italia rankings after he combined brute force and racing smarts to unpick a locked-tight final of Volta a Catalunya.
But will Rog have the jump on battered and beaten rivals Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel at the Tour de France?
Will the 35-year-old be anywhere near the wheels of Slovenian “frienemy” Pogačar in July?
Three weeks in Italy will reveal more.
Old Rog, different tricks with Catalunya raid: ‘I had to do something’
The big takeaway from Roglič’s Catalunya win over Ayuso and Giro d’Italia contenders Mikel Landa and the Yates twins?
It’s not that he won, but how he won.
Roglič and Ayuso pedaled into the final stage Sunday separated by only one second after Saturday’s decapitated queen stage. A series of intermediate primes was touted as where the race would be won.
But Roglič didn’t revert to type and steal the win with his characteristic hilltop sprint.
Roglič attacks, drops Ayuso who was not on his wheel and UAE and mainly A.Yates can’t help Ayuso. Is it over? #VoltaCatalunya104
pic.twitter.com/L6s41PLkNk
— Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) March 30, 2025
Old dog Rog proved Sunday he’s got a full box of tricks after many more years of stage-racing than upstarts like Pogačar, Evenepoel, or Ayuso.
“I don’t want to do sprints, I want to decide a race in the mountains or the climbs,” Roglič said Sunday. “But then it came down to the bonus seconds, and in the end, I had the legs.”
Roglič took the race into his own hands with a searing 20km solo through Barcelona-born Ayuso’s home streets.
“I had to do something,” he said of his winning raid. “I always say that Catalunya is an honest race where the legs are talking. But I really didn’t have a great feeling until the last stage.”
It was pure racing Rogla on Sunday.
Why fiddle about with bonus sprints when you can uncork a move from Pogačar’s own playbook?
Roglič asserts himself as Giro favorite – not that he’ll admit it
Roglič’s GC victory Sunday echoes his last victory at the Volta a Catalunya, which arrived four weeks before he wobbled his way toward winning the 2023 Giro d’Italia.
The big Bora Bull denied that victory Sunday over all his Giro rivals meant anything toward the corsa rosa.
“We have a bunch of 150 guys, they’re all really strong,” Roglič said Sunday.
Rogla may have won Catalunya with verve, but he’s still as low-key as he was 10 years ago when he was just “that cycling ski jumper.”
“We all start from zero, we all have to prove it. It’s still far away,” he continued. “This win doesn’t really influence the outcome of the Giro at all.”
Others may disagree.
Looking good for the Giro, but what of the ‘Big 4’ at the Tour?
Roglič will ride toward Albania’s grande partenza on May 9 with a tailwind.
He’s winning, injury-free, and seemingly reaping the full benefits of life at his R&D-heavy Red Bull super-team.
Meanwhile, Evenepoel and Vingegaard are on the comeback from crashes and concussions, and Pogačar is causing controversy with his push on Paris-Roubaix.
Roglič’s teammate and longtime wingman Jan Tratnik suggested Sunday the Giro-Tour quest is right on track.
“He proved the season will be great,” Tratnik told Cycling Pro Net. “He approached the year differently, with really big goals and the Giro.
“So maybe the approach was a little bit slow so maybe he didn’t pressure himself to win this Catalunya. But he was three weeks on Teide so he wanted to test himself. He didn’t train for nothing,” Tratnik said Sunday.
“He deserved this win.”
Roglič’s performance in Catalunya makes him clear Giro favourite, I’d say. No sign of physical decay, seems to have regained all confidence &, crucially, team will commit fully for him.
— Daniel Friebe (@friebos) March 30, 2025
Roglič will be considered a wheel ahead of next-best Giro contender Ayuso after the Spaniard dropped the ball Sunday in a wildly entertaining, aggressive canter around Catalunya.
Yet in a corsa rosa devoid of Pogačar, Evenepoel, and Vingegaard, it’s the Tour de France that counts as the measuring stick for Roglič.
The iconic maillot jaune is what brought the Red Bull mega-brand to road racing, and it’s what bought Roglič to Red Bull. Crashing out of the “Big 4” brawl last summer dials up the pressure a twist further.
Will a Giro-weary Rog be able to hang Pogi and Visma-Lease a Bike’s “Killer Bees” this July?
Improving the odds on the Giro-Tour gamble
Red Bull is convinced Roglič can grow, recover, and rebuild between the Giro and the Tour.
It’s a gamble, particularly for a rider as scarred and scuffed as the Slovenian veteran.
Yet Roglič reminded the world Sunday that grand tour racing might not only be about his younger countryman. Of the active peloton, only Chris Froome packs more three-week wins.
Pogačar and Evenepoel were only getting started when Roglič dominated in his first GC victory at the 2019 Vuelta a España. Vingegaard was still simply hoping to become Roglič’s domestique.
It’s Roglič who’s the OG of the Big 4.
Top 10 GC Riders in the World:
(Grand Tours, not meaningless one weekers)1 Pogacar
2 Vingegaard
3 Evenepoel
4 Roglic5 Ayuso
6 Landa
7 Almeida
8 Yates (Adam Richard)
9 Mas
10 Rodriguez pic.twitter.com/piQWZM2Iuk— ً (@Na1chaca) March 30, 2025
Roglič’s plan to win the Giro and Tour in one season was seen as questionable when he made the shocking revelation this winter.
And it still is.
But the old dog has made it feel a little more plausible.
