STA, 23 August 2022 - Slovenian cycling star Primož Roglič has taken the lead in La Vuelta after winning the 152-kilometre stage four on Tuesday on the last climb.

Having led the peloton in the last twenty kilometres, the Jumbo Visma rider secured the win with a dash up the Laguardia that left his closest competitors in the dust.

The 32-year-old also won the earlier climb up the Puerto de Herrero to win a three-second bonus.

Roglič now has a 13-second lead on the American Sepp Kuss in the overall rankings, with the Brit Ethan Hayter in third 26 seconds adrift.

STA, 17 July 2022 - Slovenia's rider Primož Roglič has been forced to pull out of the Tour de France for a second year in a row due to injuries sustained in a crash in the chaotic 5th stage on the Paris-Roubaix cobbles.

Ahead of the 15th stage on Sunday, Roglič's team Jumbo-Visma announced the 31-year-old was quitting the race to be able to recover from his injuries.

Roglič had a bad crash when he hit a hay bale that appeared to have been moved onto the road by a race motorbike in stage 5. He dislocated his shoulder, put it back in himself and continued the race but lost over two minutes overall to his key rivals.

Roglič then moved into a support role and kept riding despite his pains. Ahead of today's stage he was 21st overall, with a gap of 33 minutes and 39 seconds behind his teammate Jonas Vingegaard, who took the yellow jersey from the defending Slovenian champion Tadej Pogačar in stage 11.

"I'm proud of my contribution to the current standings and I trust that the team will realise our yellow and green ambitions. Thanks to everybody for your great support," Roglič said in a brief message on pulling out.

STA, 8 July 2022 - Slovenia's Tadej Pogačar, the man favoured to win the Tour de France, dominated the first mountain stage on Friday to extend his lead in the overall standings.

In a close finish to the Super Planche des Belles Filles, Pogačar defeated the Dane Jonas Vingegaard after yesterday's surprise win.

Slovenia's Primož Roglič was third, 12 seconds adrift.

In the overall standings, Pogačar now has a 35-second lead on Vingegaard, with third-placed Geraint Thomas of the UK a minute and ten seconds behind.

Roglič advanced to 13th place and has a gap of two minutes and 45 seconds on his compatriot.

STA, 12 June 2022 - Slovenian rider Primož Roglič won the eight-day Criterium du Dauphine road cycling race after letting Jumbo Visma teammate Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark take the final mountain stage between Saint-Alban-Leysse and Plateau de Salaison.

The 32-year-old three-time winner of La Vuelta is the second Slovenian to win this race leading up to the Tour de France after Janez Brajkovič attained the feat 12 years ago.

It is Roglič's 64th career victory and the fourth this season. He is only the fourth rider in history to win the biggest week-long races in France, the Paris-Nice and the Dauphine, the same year after French Jacques Anquetil (1963, 1965), Belgian Eddy Merckx (1971) and Briton Bradley Wiggins (2012).

Coming in second today, Roglič finished the race with an overall lead of 40 seconds ahead of Vingegaard. The pair reached the top of the Plateau de Solaison hand-in-hand but the Dane was the first to cross the finish line. Australian Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroen) finished the stage and the race third.

"Finally I got to win a few races in France, the feeling is really great," Roglič said in his first comment.

He praised the whole Jumbo Visma team for their excellent joint effort as they controlled the stage the whole way from the start to finish.

"Jonas was very strong on the last climb, it was really a crazy, amazing finish for the team," he added after his last test ahead of the start of the Tour of France in Copenhagen on 1 July.

STA, 10 March 2022 - Slovenian riders took the lead in two elite stage races that are part of the UCI World Tour on Thursday. Primož Roglič put on the leader's yellow jersey in the 5th stage of the Paris-Nice race as Tadej Pogačar won the 4th stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico race to take the overall lead.

Roglič, who rides for the Dutch team Jumbo Visma, finished the 189km stage between Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert and Saint-Sauveur-de-Montagut as 25th, coming in with the first group with a lag of 5:43 minutes behind the winner, Brandon McNulty, the 23-year-old American UAE rider.

The latter broke away 40 kilometres to the finish line, on the climb to the Col de Mure. The tempo proved too hard for Belgian Wout van Aert, who had to concede the lead to Roglič. The Slovenian is now 39 seconds ahead of Briton Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) and 41 ahead of French Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies).

"This jersey is a big honour. I had to try, that's all we had now with the team. I was talking with Brandon [McNulty] this morning and I knew he wanted to make the break [...] He definitely was the strongest today. If I had gone his pace, I would have quickly exploded," said Roglič for the organisers.

McNulty secured the 14th stage win for the UAE Emirates team this season as his teammate Tadej Pogačar went on to clinch the 15th for his 5th this season by winning the fourth stage of the Race of the Two Seas in Italy to climb from third to first overall.

Pogačar attacked on the last kilometre of today's stage, but no other rider responded to the challenge. Roglič's teammate, Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark, came closest, two seconds behind, as much as Victor Lafay of France and Belgian Remco Evenepoel, who is now second overall, nine seconds behind Pogačar.

"A great effort of the team, we pulled all day, and I was thinking that if I did not give it a go it would be a bad day for us," Pogačar said on Eurosport. "We did it right and in the end it was a good day for the victory."

STA, 25 November - Slovenian Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar has received the 2021 Velo d'Or, a prestigious cycling prize awarded by the French sports publisher l'Equipe. Last year's laureate Primož Roglič came in second.

The Velo d'Or has been awarded since 1992 by Velo Magazine for outstanding achievements in the sport and Pogačar really did have an outstanding season.

The 23-year-old ended the year at the top of the World Cycling Union (UCI) rankings, having become the 13th rider to defend the Tour de France title.

He also won two major one-day races, the Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro di Lombardia, and finished third in the Olympic road race.

He notched up a total of 13 individual victories in the season.

Roglič also won 13 times this year, but had to end the Tour prematurely due to injury. He made up for that by winning his third consecutive La Vuelta and the Olympic time trial.

STA, 5 September 2021 - Slovenian cycling star Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) won Sunday's 33.8km time trial between Padron and Santiago de Compostela to win the Spanish race for the third time, while today's win is his fourth stage victory in the last three weeks.

 The 31-year-old rider has become only the third cyclist to win three consecutive Vuelta races, after Swiss Tony Rominger (1992-1994) and Spanin's Roberto Heras (2003-2005).

At the end of July, Roglič outclassed the competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games in the men's time trial by more than a minute to win gold for Slovenia.

STA 1 September 2021 - Slovenian cycling star Primož Roglič has recaptured the red jersey at La Vuelta with a win in the mountainous 17th stage on Wednesday that puts him on track for the third consecutive overall victory.

The Jumbo-Visma rider was the only one to join the Colombian Egan Bernal for a runaway 67 kilometres before the finish.

With seven and a half kilometres to go in the 186-kilometre stage, he left Bernal in the dust on the last climb, winning with a gap of one minute and 35 seconds.

In the overall standings, Roglič now has a comfortable two minutes and 22 seconds on the Spaniard Enric Mas and three minutes, 11 seconds on the Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez.

The riders face another mountainous stage tomorrow.

STA, 25 August 2021 - Slovenian cyclist Primož Roglič won the 11th, hilly stage of the Vuelta a Espana from Antequera and Valdepenas de Jaen on Wednesday to claim his second stage win in the race. There is however no change in the overall standings for Roglič, as he remains in third place.

The 31-year-old defender of the 2019 and 2020 titles in the race around Spain crossed the finish line three seconds ahead of his main challenger in the race, Enric Mas of Spain. Miguel Angel Lopez of Colombia was third.

Roglič's advantage gained in the 133-km stage was too small for him to change the overall standings ten stages to go, remaining in third place.

Overall, the member of the Dutch Team Jumbo-Visma is a minute and 56 seconds behind the leading Odd Christian Eiking and 58 seconds behind Guillaume Martin of France.

STA, 28 July 2021 - Rider Primož Roglič has outclassed the competition by more than a minute in the men's Olympic time trial on Wednesday to win the second gold for Slovenia in Tokyo and the second medal for Slovenian cycling at the ongoing Games.

Bouncing back from difficulties in the Olympic road race, which saw his national team mate Tadej Pogačar win bronze, Roglič entered confidently into the 44.2 kilometre time trial, stepping up the pace throughout the course, to crush the field in the second of two laps for a winning time of 55 minutes 4.19 seconds.

This was as much as a 1min 1.39sec clear off Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands, his team mate in the UCI World Team Jumbo-Visma, in second. Australia's Rohan Dennis came in third with a lag of 1min 3.90sec to claim bronze.

"Amazing ... It goes to show how fortunes can turn fast if you believe in yourself and work hard for new challenges ahead. Absolutely amazing," Roglič told RTV Slovenija in his first comment.

Roglič's is the fourth medal for Slovenia at the Tokyo Games and the second gold after canoeist Benjamin Savšek secured the Olympic title in the men's C-1 slalom on Monday.

"I wouldn't say I'm a specialist for time trial or anything, but I can do a good time trial. I'm exceptionally proud and happy," the 31-year old added.

At the first time check, Roglič was still in second, half a second behind Italian Filippo Ganna, the reigning world champion, and three seconds ahead of Dumoulin with the rest of the pack close behind.

However, 22.1 kilometres into his trial, he has build an 8sec lead ahead of Dumoulin, with Ganna falling as much behind.

Stepping up his rhythm further, he extended his lead ahead of the Dutch rider further to 31 seconds on the first, longest climb, pacing up through to the finish line.

In fact, Roglič was so much focused on his ride that he kept on peddling beyond the finish line at the Fuji International Speedway until he was waved to a halt a hundred metres on.

Commenting on that for the Slovenian public broadcaster after the medal ceremony, Roglič said there was just no one there to tell him it was over and with all benchmarks looking the same he thought: "What the heck, I'll keep going."

Roglič's is the 27th medal for Slovenia at Summer Olympic Games since independence but the first gold in cycling in any discipline after Pogačar won the first ever Olympic medal for the country in cycling.

"We were aware we had a team that can make anything possible ... Primož was phenomenal," Andrej Hauptman, the head coach of Slovenia's Olympic cycling team, commented.

"You could already see before the road trainings that Primož is back in shape. It wasn't his day in the road race, but today he's back at the top where he deserves to be," Hauptman told the Slovenian public broadcaster in a reference to injuries from two bad falls that forced Roglič to withdraw from the Tour de France this year after he came in second last year, bested by Pogačar.

Roglič says he is yet to take in the feat he has achieved today, but he will not have much time to spare as he is due to appear in La Vuelta on 14 August to defend the title of the overall winner for a second time after he first won the tour of Spain in 2019.