Rad-Star leaves Jumbo-Visma
Roglic escapes from the shadow of Tour winner Vingegaard
September 30, 2023, 2:29 p.m
Farewell to the top team: Giro winner Primoz Roglic is leaving the Jumbo-Visma cycling team at the end of the season. This means he can now lead his own team and step out of the shadow of Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard. Maybe Roglic is also fleeing the upcoming super team?
Giro winner Primoz Roglic will leave the dominant top team Jumbo-Visma at the end of the season. The Slovenian announced this in the run-up to the Giro dell’Emilia. “I can only confirm that I will be leaving the team. I will say after the races where I will go,” said Roglic. The 33-year-old has a contract with the Dutch team until 2025.
Jumbo-Visma confirmed at midday that Roglic has been cleared to move to another racing team. “After an unforgettable journey together, the team is giving Primoz Roglic the opportunity to pursue his ambitions elsewhere in the future,” the team said on social media.
The media had already reported on Friday that Roglic had received approval from the team management to move to another racing team. The prerequisite is the payment of an undisclosed lump sum. The hottest candidate is said to be Ineos Grenadiers, the former Dominators team is desperately looking for a classification driver.
Escape from super team Jumbo-Soudal-Quick Step?
For Roglic, this could be the chance to step out of the shadow of Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard and lead his own team. Because the supermarket chain Jumbo is leaving as the main sponsor after the 2024 season, according to the media there is also a spectacular merger with the top team Soudal-Quick Step around former world champion Remco Evenepoel from Belgium, which could increase the competition among the Dutch.
Mergers of two racing teams are not uncommon in professional cycling, but they have concrete consequences for the riders. A total of 50 drivers are currently under contract with Jumbo-Visma and Soudal-Quick Step. If a merger were to actually take place, numerous well-known players would suddenly be looking for a new employer, because only 30 are allowed on a World Tour team.
Because the supermarket chain Jumbo is leaving as the main sponsor after the 2024 season, the Dutch are looking for new sources of money. The fact that these could now be developed through a merger with the Belgian top team was also a surprise in the scene. “I also found out about it from the press,” said Ralph Denk, team boss of the German racing team Bora-hansgrohe, a few days ago.
Jumbo-Visma drivers won all three major tours this year. In addition to Roglic’s Giro victory and Vingegaard’s success at the Tour de France, the American Sepp Kuss somewhat surprisingly triumphed at the Tour of Spain in September – ahead of Vingegaard and Roglic. The former ski jumper Roglic joined the team in 2016, which was then called Lotto-Visma.