Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe explains why Roglic is doing Giro-Tour combo and Van der Poel and Van Aert need to be on alert

"We had a successful season in which we won a grand tour. But of course, we are ambitious and want to achieve more," CEO Ralph Denk referred to Roglic's final victory in the Vuelta while speaking to IDLProCycling.com and others. "We finished second in the Giro and won the Vuelta, so winning a grand tour again is the logical goal for 2025. That drives us, and with our strong squad, it is absolutely within our reach."

Winning a grand tour should happen initially with Roglic, who remains the team's big star. "He will go to the Giro and the Tour de France," said sports director Rolf Aldag. "As a team, we develop the ideas with our performance staff, and in the process, we look at what is possible. We take the rider's opinion into account as well. There was immediately a good understanding of the Giro-Tour double possibilities."

Roglic will have two excellent domestiques with Daniel Martínez and Jai Hindley in May. Martínez came second in the 2024 Giro; Hindley won it in 2022 and finished second in 2020. "Primoz will also be our leader in the Tour, with normally Martínez for the double. The Tour will be decided uphill, so we will also take Aleksandr Vlasov and the rest of the team, which will be announced later. The Vuelta is the third grand tour, but very important for us. Vlasov and Hindley will be leaders, so we will be competitive there, too, as defending champions."

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"The Giro was an easy decision," Roglic himself said of his return to the tour, which he won in 2023. "We will ride in Slovenia and then the Tour as the second grand tour was also an easy decision. It would be a pity if I didn't start there, right? I would like to be there. A fifth overall victory in the Vuelta? Yes, I would have settled for it. But I'll do the Vuelta again sometime; it's nice to do something different for a change. In the coming years, I'm happy to go for it."

What ultimately stands out is that Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe in choosing these selections, is not playing all its cards in the Tour de France, as in 2024. "This shows that, with our investments, we are focusing on the three biggest stage races of the year. We believe we will be competitive in all three races because all races deserve respect."

Is that the only reason? Or is the German cycling team also shifting its focus to the Giro and the Vuelta now that the Tour showed that Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, and Remco Evenepoel were riding around at a different level? Denk calls Roglic "passionate and professional" and "a role model for young athletes, with an eye for detail. But can he still handle the big stars of the Tour? Aldag: "We feel we are growing as a team, which means we no longer have to rely on one man for everything. Hindley and Vlasov can also be competitive in the Vuelta; in 2024, we tossed everything in just one race. However, Martínez was the best among men in the Giro; we want to offer that opportunity to others."

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In addition to grand tours, the cycling calendar consists of five Monuments and many highly regarded one-day races. As a team under development, success in the classics has not been realistically targeted in recent years, but Denk announced that Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe wants to compete from 2025. "We have invested in what we believe are the stars of the future in one-day work," among other things. "Also, the one-day events are now within reach, and we want to win despite the big competition. Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert ... We want to start attacking them too," Aldag said.

Big statements, but not without reason. "We want to be attractive as a team; you can't do that if you only aim for stage races. In the classics, there is no sitting around waiting; you have to make a decision every second. It is a big, unpredictable drama, and we want to be part of that. With our new riders, we don't have today's superstars, but we can train them to be important players. We want to attack Van Aert and Van der Poel, and we can do that with Laurence Pithie, Oier Lazkano, and Maxim Van Gils. I feel the fierceness in this group, so we can't wait to take up the challenge."

In doing so, Aldag emphasizes that the method will be key. "It is unrealistic to pronounce now that we will defeat Mathieu and Wout on the Kwaremont. If you want to beat them, we think there is a way. Anticipate, so you have several guys in the final. That's what we are going for because there are many possibilities. We must create our luck and not rely on our talent and experience. You have to force something and make the race interesting. The guys want to win a classic in 2025, so the motivation is already there."

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Denk and Aldag are hyper-ambitious as Red Bull reaches full speed with the team. Denk speaks of three pillars. "We want to become the most attractive team in the world. I know it is a big goal, but I am very ambitious. We want to grow and win the Tour de France, and to achieve this, we have also invested in a nutrition program, equipment development, and mental health. Hopefully, these three pillars will be a game-changer for us."

For this reason, there is still a spot at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe for 2025. "In the past, we often wrapped up our selection of 30 quickly, which often irritated me in the last weeks of the year because opportunities still presented themselves," Denk laughed. "Opportunities like with Maxim Van Gils now.... Maybe there will be another chance. Remco Evenepoel? Who has been straightforward at the World Championships? All the different stories were mostly rumors."

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])