Primož Roglič’s Vuelta a España exhibition reminds Red Bull exactly what he can do – Analysis

Primož Roglič hasn’t often dealt knockout blows like the one he delivered on the Alto de Moncalvillo on stage 19 of the Vuelta a España. For most of his remarkable stage racing career, the Slovenian has tended to amass his winning margins in steady increments, delivering the same combination time and again to collect handfuls of seconds and time bonuses on mountaintops.

The strategy hasn’t worked every time – Roglič was famously caught with a late haymaker by Tadej Pogačar on the 2020 Tour de France after missing earlier opportunities to end the contest – but it has carried him to 21 stage race victories across his career. Roglič, understandably, has rarely seen fit to deviate too radically from that repetitive but winning formula.