On Monday, at the offices of the Slovenian Olympic Committee, the press conference for the Slovenian National Team ahead of the 2022 UCI Road World Championships was held in a quiet room proudly displaying the country’s impressive array of Olympic memorabilia.
Present at the conference were the selectors of the men’s, women’s, and under-23 national team, and riders representing each.
The event came at a particularly tense time in Slovenian cycling, with Primož Roglič having crashed out of the Vuelta a España, after which the team released a rather incendiary press release blaming the incident solely on Fred Wright.
That was, in turn, rebutted on Cyclingnews by fellow Slovenian Matej Mohorič, who came to the defense of his Bahrain Victorious teammate with the equally fiery comment: “We know that Primož crashes a lot”.
Jokes abounded equivocating the kerfuffle to Šmarna gora, a famous Slovene football scandal, wherein the 2002 national football team was torn apart by bitter internal rivalries ahead of the World Cup, for which Slovenia had rather miraculously qualified. However, neither Mohorič nor Roglič will be present at this year’s World Championships in Wollongong, Australia.
Mohorič, after a poor Grand Tour showing and suffering from the lingering effects of COVID-19 and Epstein-Barr, opted to take a break between the Canadian races and the final Classics of the season. Roglič’s program for the remainder of the year after his spectacular exit from the Vuelta remains unknown.
Suffice it to say, via an Instagram post of him lounging in the sun reading a book on alpinism, he will not be at the World Championships.
This leaves Slovenia in a rather interesting position.
Despite, in recent history, having one of the strongest men’s teams, Slovenia’s showing in the World’s road race has been relatively weak. Its best result came in 2020 when Roglič finished 6th after the peloton was worn down earlier by a long-range attack from then-Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar.
Despite a stacked line-up in 2021, the team underperformed, with Mohorič being dropped after the final selection was made, from which only Julian Alaphilippe broke free. Similarly, in the time trial, Slovenia’s best result was surprisingly far down in the standings: Pogačar’s 10th place in last year’s World’s.
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