The first mountain stage of the 2024 Vuelta a Espana was claimed by Primoz Roglic after the Slovenian narrowly defeated Lennert Van Eetvelt to take his 13th stage win in the Spanish race and the red jersey.
“I still feel my back pain,” Roglic said afterwards. “It was not actually the main objective of today, but when you see our guys riding hard in this heat, I was happy that I could then finish it off. Nobody asked me [how I was feeling] if they did then I probably wouldn’t have said it, to go so hard and to control it for the victory, but I had no option.”
“But that doesn’t change about seeing how I will go, how my body will react, and hopefully my back will definitely improve during the Vuelta.”
“He [Van Eetvelt] got off to a fast sprint, but luckily I could get back to him and just finish in front of him at the end,” Roglic said.
“Definitely it shows you have to fight to the end. I believed in my chances, but it’s not over til it’s over and you don’t know what place you will get. Just giving everything and doing a nice sprint was enough this time. So once again thanks to the team, because it was them that made it possible to fight for the win.”
“But the fact is this is just the start of the race, a lot of climbs are yet to happen and the hardest climbs are yet to come,” he added. “We just have to enjoy the stage, take it day by day, do our best and that’s all we can manage and all we can do.”
