Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d returns to the 2026 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a on Saturday as the biggest wild card of the season\u2019s final grand tour.<\/p>\n
At 36, Rogli\u010d rolls into Monaco short on racing, unsure of his form and future, and with Tadej Poga\u010dar waiting for him at the height of his powers.<\/p>\n
Even Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe is hedging its bets.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur main goal is to win a stage, and hopefully more than one if the opportunities are there. Our second major objective is the GC with Primo\u017e, but we have to be realistic because his preparation has been very different from what we originally anticipated after his crash,\u201d lead sport director Sven Vanthourenhout said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will assess things step by step. We will support him to achieve the best possible GC result, but we also have to be ready to adapt if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe the old Rogla<\/em> is still in there.<\/p>\n Or maybe three weeks of bashing heads with Poga\u010dar across 58,000 meters of climbing and seven summit finishes finally reveals the limits of those 36-year-old legs.<\/p>\n Not long ago, Rogli\u010d was part of cycling\u2019s \u201cBig 4.\u201d These days, the grand tour conversation has largely moved on without him.<\/p>\n Then again, this is Rogli\u010d. You never quite know what\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n Nobody really knows which version of Rogli\u010d will roll down the start ramp Saturday, August 22, for the stage 1 time trial in Monaco.<\/p>\n A rested and dangerous Rogla<\/em>? Or an aging gunslinger facing a peloton full of younger legs?<\/p>\n \u201cI have a very good history with the Vuelta and I always enjoy racing there,\u201d Rogli\u010d said. \u201cWinning it four times is already something I could never have imagined, so I don\u2019t want to put extra pressure on myself.\u201d<\/p>\n For the first time, the four-time winner starts the Vuelta and nobody really expects him to win it.<\/p>\n He hasn\u2019t raced since the Slovenian championships in June, when he won the time trial and finished fourth in the road race. An incident in July, when he was struck by a motorist while training, wiped out his planned Vuelta buildup at Cl\u00e1sica San Sebasti\u00e1n and the Vuelta a Burgos.<\/p>\n But Rogli\u010d is wildly unpredictable and stubbornly hard to kill off.<\/p>\n Maybe that\u2019s why fans still love him. Rogli\u010d has spent half his career hitting the deck, brushing himself off, and diving straight back into the fight.<\/p>\n And who\u2019s waiting in Monaco? Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n Their first Vuelta together was in 2019. This one could be their last grand tour showdown.<\/p>\n Back in 2019, Rogli\u010d won his first Vuelta and announced himself as a grand tour force.<\/p>\n But standing with him on the final podium in Madrid was a skinny, 20-year-old kid named Tadej Poga\u010dar, who won three stages and finished third in his grand tour debut.<\/p>\n We all know what happened next.<\/p>\n Less than a year later, Poga\u010dar detonated the 2020 Tour de France with one of cycling\u2019s great ambushes to crush Rogli\u010d in the final time trial at La Planche des Belles Filles and take yellow into Paris.<\/p>\n Rogli\u010d has been chasing that ghost ever since.<\/p>\n That Tour was supposed to be Rogli\u010d\u2019s coronation. Instead, it launched the Poga\u010dar era.<\/p>\n Seven years after that first Vuelta, they\u2019re back.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar returns as the king of the sport, and Rogli\u010d faces a future up in the air.<\/p>\n Rogli\u010d turns 37 in October, his Red Bull contract expires at the end of 2026, and Belgian media has linked him to Lotto for next season.<\/p>\n So far, Rogli\u010d hasn\u2019t said where he\u2019s going, or even how much longer he wants to keep racing. Three weeks in Spain should tell us plenty.<\/p>\n Even with a chance of winning a record fifth Vuelta crown, beating Poga\u010dar would require something extraordinary.<\/p>\n The rest of the Vuelta GC field, however, gives Rogli\u010d a real opening for the podium in Granada on September 13.<\/p>\n Enric Mas, Oscar Onley, Felix Gall and Mattias Skjelmose all have legitimate podium ambitions, but Rogli\u010d has beaten deeper fields than this.<\/p>\n The big question mark is his form. Rogli\u010d has posted videos training in the Alps and he sounds optimistic.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will take it day by day, do everything we can as a team and try to achieve the best possible outcome,\u201d Rogli\u010d said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Seven years after Madrid, Pogi<\/em> and Rogla<\/em> meet again.<\/p>\n King Pog arrives widely tipped to add the one grand tour still missing from his palmar\u00e8s<\/em> and burnish his GOAT credentials.<\/p>\n Rogli\u010d returns to the grand tour he once ruled, trying to squeeze out some of the old magic one more time.<\/p>\n Rogli\u010d doesn\u2019t need another podium to prove anything. But he\u2019s a racer, and he isn\u2019t coming to the Vuelta just to fill a spot on the roster.<\/p>\n It might be his last dance, but don\u2019t count Rogli\u010d out just yet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/vuelta-a-espana\/primoz-roglic-vuelta-espana-2026\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8B_4078.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated August 19, 2026 04:42AM Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d returns to the 2026 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a on Saturday as the biggest wild card of the season\u2019s final grand tour. At 36, Rogli\u010d rolls into Monaco short on racing, unsure of his form and future, and with Tadej Poga\u010dar waiting for him at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2102681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2102681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102681\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2102681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2102681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2102681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Rogli\u010d brings mystery form into 2026 Vuelta<\/h2>\n
One more Vuelta showdown with Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/h2>\n
Can Rogli\u010d reach Vuelta podium?<\/h2>\n