PRIMOŽ ROGLIČ SAME, BUT DIFFERENT

There were gales of laughter in the Vuelta a España press room when Primož Roglič announced that the only word of Spanish he knew was “cerveza”, later qualified when he added, “Oh, and ‘dos más’”. There were also shakings of heads in bafflement and admiring murmurs of “cojones” when he followed Egan Bernal up the road with 60km to go on the Lagos de Covadonga stage. And appreciation as he and Enric Mas battled for victory on the steep climb to Valdepeñas de Jaén.

Welcome to the 2021 Vuelta a España, where Primož Roglic held the race, the media and the cycling world at large in the palm of his hand. A lot can change in two years. When Roglic won the first of his hat trick of Vuelta titles in 2019, the Slovenian’s press conferences were glacially chilly. An alleged ‘refusal to smile’ produced a painfully charged and almost hostile atmosphere off the bike, and things got so strained in his ridiculously brief press conferences that one renowned local journalist asked Roglic, “Are you actually happy being here?”

In between the first and third wins came the suspended animation and discombobulating atmosphere of 2020, where few members of the public stood by the roadside, only a handful of media were at the race in person and the race went well into November. Roglic only just won against a fast-closing Richard Carapaz, so when the Slovenian looked mostly invincible for his third and most crushing victory, you might have expected a sense of tedium to descend.

But in fact the atmosphere among the returning fans and journalists was one of sincere appreciation at the Slovenian’s return to the Vuelta, even if the GC