Fellow Vuelta winner offers friendly advice to Roglic and Evenepoel: "Seems like page 1 problem for Red Bull"

“It's a huge transfer, but I do see some complications,” the American begins. "Roglic is already there with his little group, and then you also have Florian Lipowitz. Let's not even mention other guys like Daniel Felipe Martinez, Jai Hindley, Aleksandr Vlasov, and Giulio Pellizzari. Some questions need to be answered, and I don't think it's a guarantee that this will really be Remco's team."

“Can Evenepoel and Roglic get along?” Horner wonders. "In 2023, Roglic found it challenging to let Sepp Kuss win the Vuelta, and then Visma left him behind. This year, we saw in the Tour that Roglic didn't wait for Lipowitz when he was third in the GC and wearing the white jersey. So, the Page 1 problem for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe seems to me to be: can Roglic and Evenepoel get along?

"You can send them to other races for most of the season, but in July you'll need them both," explains the former rider. "If I were the sports director of that team, I would actually line them up together in other big races as well. That way, they learn how to fight for victories together and you get a different chemistry in the team, where they trust each other."

"I've seen that Evenepoel has no problem helping teammates in the past, so I don't see that as an issue. The big question is: can Roglic do the same for Evenepoel?", says Horner. “Together, they can take on Tadej Pogacar, even in the classics. But they also need domestiques like Vlasov, Martinez, and Hindley for that: everyone has to be on the same page."

Horner also cites Evenepoel's collapse in several races as an area for improvement for his new team. "We saw that this year in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour de France, but also in the 2023 Vuelta a España won by Sepp Kuss. That's a problem that Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe will also have to figure out."