After Giro crashes and withdrawal, the big question is how good Roglic can be in the Tour. Chief of Sports stays optimistic

The German team will start the Tour de France with, among others, the sprint train Jordi Meeus, Danny van Poppel, and Mick van Dijke. Alexandre Vlasov, Florian Lipowitz, Gianni Moscon, and Laurence Pithie will also support Roglic. What is the team's main goal? To reach the final podium in Paris with Roglic.

However, the big question is how good Roglic is after his crashes and subsequent withdrawal from the Giro d'Italia. “Certainly we believe in him, and certainly we think it's realistic he can bounce back again, because it is like that: when something went wrong, he comes back better, that's his nature,” Rolf Aldag told Cyclingnews.

The Chief of Sports explains his optimism. “That's his normal behaviour, and we do hope that it happens at the Tour. But it's not just only hope. It's also looking at data, looking at numbers – he will be ready. Therefore, we absolutely do not see a reason not to be optimistic about the Tour de France with him.”

Aldag goes into the statistics and data in a little more detail. Without mentioning specific numbers, he makes an interesting comparison. “If you compare [his Tour build-up] to last year's Vuelta, it's pretty similar. So if the outcome would be the same, we would all be very happy. That is Primož, isn't it: 'Okay, I'm beaten down, but I'm standing up and I fight back and find my balance'," says Aldag. The 2024 Vuelta fell prey to Roglic.

Despite Roglic's unsuccessful finish in the Tour of Italy, that will not be an obstacle for Him, according to his Chier of Sports. “He knows the challenges of the Tour de France, obviously, of a Grand Tour, obviously, and we know that the Tour will be decided in the high mountains, and that's what he trained for. So we do think that he will absolutely be on that level of the Vuelta.”

And so Roglic will have to be physically fit. “We have to play it smart, and like everybody else, we have to avoid crashing with all our riders. How do we do that? Stay together as a team. Work as a team. Be prepared, know the course, and even then, still things can happen, but I do believe we can't be prepared better than we are this year.”