L'Allemand Rolf Aldag, directeur sportif de la formation Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe de Primoz Roglic à l'arrivée de la 19e étape de ce Tour de France 2024 à Isola 2000.
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00:00What kind of shock was for you when Primož crashed and he left the test because he wasn't
00:10your main goal?
00:11Yeah, yeah.
00:12No, I mean, first we already lost Alex where we said, ooh, this is going to be hard to
00:16compensate for Primož, you know, to have help in the climbs.
00:21But at the end of the day, you know, you live with it and then, of course, you know, two
00:24days in a row Primož went down hard and, yeah, it's just frustration.
00:29It's just, you know, like you're just frustrated, you're just like, oh, come on, all that work,
00:34all that hard work, all that training, all that, you know, standing, sitting on top of
00:39a mountain there in Sierra Nevada and continue for what now?
00:43For going home in pain and injured and, you know, disappointed, so of course a tough one
00:49for everybody.
00:50But then the most you feel for the riders because, you know, for us in the car, we have
00:55an air conditioning, we put it on 20 and we have a cold drink and we get over it somehow
01:00because, you know, what you realize is life luckily continues.
01:05But then for the mental status of the whole team, the riders on the bike, like ready to
01:10do everything for their leader, it's a difficult one.
01:13And to redefine yourself, to refine yourself and to say, OK, now, guys, still, you know,
01:19we still have like lots of stages to do.
01:23What we do now speaks for the character of the team that they were, you know, stepping
01:28up and say literally they made every breakaway, couldn't win, still tried.
01:34Next day, couldn't win, still tried.
01:37And we just kept on going.
01:38And I think that really speaks for the character.
01:40And I also think, you know, if Primoz is at home and he understands like what the team
01:44is willing to invest then for the future, that's also good.
01:48If you're a leader to say, well, I have a team that never gives up.
01:52That's super important.
01:53Primoz is always optimistic.
01:55You always say he says that.
01:57But how hard it was to see him in pain going?
02:01Yeah, I mean, obviously, I mean, the morning when we left and he also had the words to
02:05the team and the bus and, you know, thanked everybody.
02:09And yeah, it's hard for us because we know how much he invests.
02:14It's not it's not just coming by talent.
02:15You know, it's not really this type of like, oh, yeah, he just freestyles a lot of talent.
02:20And then, you know, he rides fast and and it's a lot of commitment and it's a lot of
02:25suffering and it's a lot of pain you go through.
02:28And then leaving the tour without achieving the goals, it's it's hard for the rider and
02:34it's hard for everybody.
02:35Now, it's more than a half a year Primoz is in your team.
02:38What is the change for you?
02:41Because first month is a little bit you are touching each other.
02:45But now you have a little bit wider picture.
02:48Yeah, it's a lot of learning, you know.
02:49I mean, we won the Dauphiné with him.
02:52And so for us, you know, being in that position to defend the jersey and stuff like that.
02:57So it's it's a process.
02:59I think we grow together.
03:01He knows us better.
03:02We know him better.
03:03And and as more as you know each other, as more as you can understand what the expectations
03:08are, as better as it gets.
03:09And and it's still a process.
03:12And that's a good thing, you know, you know, without without really naming details.
03:17I don't think we are perfect now in that combination.
03:20I do think we can we can still, you know, grow and we can still do better and we will
03:24still do better.
03:26And in my opinion, that's a it's a very good thing.
03:29For the next year, Primoz is not getting younger.
03:33He's getting older.
03:34Tour de France is still the objective for the second year, 2025.
03:39Yeah, well, I don't really think, you know, he's too old and I think age is something,
03:45but it's like the energy that you still have.
03:47And since he's not a guy who started in the age of 10, you know, started later as still
03:52a like if you see, you know, how shiny his eyes gets when he talks about racing, how
03:59emotionally he gets about racing.
04:01I don't think he's a you know, he's a guy that we should not plan with and that you
04:05think, oh, now he's done and you will never see him or he's just doing the minimum.
04:09I do think he's a very motivated bike rider and we can set a lot of goals with him.
04:15Thank you, man.
04:16Yeah.
04:17Thank you.