(ANSA-AFP) - MILAN, MAY 8 - Primoz Roglic is hunting his
sixth Grand Tour triumph at this year's Giro d'Italia and will
have the chance to snatch the title from Tadej Pogacar with his
superstar compatriot sitting out a gruelling three-week race.
Despite being one of the best road cyclists of his generation,
Roglic has been in the shadow of all-conquering Pogacar ever
since being beaten by his fellow Slovenian to the 2020 Tour De
France in gut-wrenching fashion. But the 35-year-old is a strong
pick to claim the pink jersey for the second time as a Grand
Tour specialist backed by a powerful Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
team, which included 2022 winner Jai Hindley and last year's
runner-up Dani Martínez. "The goal is just to reach my best
shape. The results will be what they will be," said Roglic of
his season back in February. "I don't know how fast all the
other best guys will go, you know, but looking at myself, what I
can strive for is to try to build myself into the best Primoz
that there was... Inside I still feel 20." Roglic is gunning for
both the Giro and the Tour this year, with the latter still a
thorn in his side after giving up the chance of a lifetime on
the penultimate stage five years ago. He looked in fine fettle
when he won the Tour of Catalonia in March, pipping home
favourite Juan Ayuso on the final stage in Barcelona.
Ayuso will be one of Roglic's key rivals on the Giro, the
young Spaniard -- and Pogacar's teammate at UAE -- already a
winner in Italy this season with success at the week-long
Tirreno-Adriatico. But the challenge awaiting both at the Giro
start line in Albanian town Durres on Friday will be far harder
than anything else they have experienced this season. In total
this year's Giro will feature 52,200 metres of climbing, over
10,000m more than the 2024 edition, over the 3,413 kilometres of
riding towards Rome where the final stage will honour deceased
Pope Francis with an unprecedented ride through the Vatican.
Riders will depart Albania, where controversial Italian-run
migrant processing centres became operational in October,
following a difficult third stage which starts and finishes in
Vlore, before riders snake their way up mainland Italy from
Lecce in the deep south. (ANSA-AFP).
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