COMO, Italy (AP) — Cycling superteam Jumbo-Visma is losing one of its trio of Grand Tour winners this season with Primož Roglič announcing Friday his transfer to join Bora-Hansgrohe.
Roglič’s move, despite a Jumbo-Visma contract through 2025, will let him focus on the 2024 Tour de France as a team leader and was confirmed at a Bora-Hansgrohe news conference ahead of the Tour of Lombardy race.
The Tour is the only Grand Tour title the 33-year-old Slovenian rider lacks after winning the Giro d’Italia in May and the Spanish Vuelta each year from 2019 to 2021.
Roglič’s Giro win started a season sweep for Jumbo-Visma before Jonas Vingegaard retained his Tour title in July and American Sepp Kuss won the Vuelta last month.
The Vuelta podium sweep by the Dutch team – Vingegaard was runner-up and Roglič third — suggested what its priorities might be next season.
Explaining his transfer, Roglič said: “The decisive factor was that the team is really motivated to work with me, and that we hold the same ideas.”
Roglič, a former ski jumper, rode for Jumbo-Visma for eight years and also won an Olympic gold medal in the road time trial at the Tokyo Games held in 2021.
His farewell race for Jumbo-Visma is Saturday in the Lombardy one-day classic.
“We want to end Primoz’s time in our team with a top performance and hope that the polished diamond that Primoz is will shine again,” sports director Marc Reef said.
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