Diario Sur - Diario de Málaga. Noticias de Malaga

Sections

Services

Highlight

Delete
Primoz Roglic, Alejandro Valverde and Tadej Pogacar.
An astonishing leap by Primoz Roglic
CYCLING

An astonishing leap by Primoz Roglic

A champion ski jumper until he was 22, the Slovenian has won the Vuelta before his 30th birthday, ahead of Valverde and Pogacar

J. GÓMEZ PEÑA

Friday, 20 September 2019, 11:13

Compartir

At the age of 22, Primoz Roglic, from Slovenia, was still a ski jumper. He was junior world team champion in 2007 and in his last season he stood on the podium several times in European events, but never as number one. He felt he had gone as far as he could and decided to try cycling instead. Now, just seven years on, he has won Spain's cycling tour, the Vuelta a España, beating 39-year-old champion Alejandro Valverde and fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, who is just 20 years old.

Roglic was born in a mining village in the former Yugoslavia, and was already skiing at the age of eight. He reached elite level, suffered a terrifying fall in one of his jumps, but carried on. Being good wasn't enough. "I wanted to be the best skier in the world, but I couldn't. Then I dreamed of being the best cyclist," he said last year on the Tour, when he finished fourth.

This year, he has achieved that and on Saturday, when the race passed through the Sierra de Gredos, it was the most-watched programme on TV at the time in Spain, attracting 2,146,000 viewers.

Publicidad

Top 50
  1. 1 Project to modernise and revitalise six streets in Costa del Sol town draws to an end
  2. 2 Costa del Sol public swimming pool to reopen in summer after three-million-euro investment
  3. 3 Costa del Sol town confirms date for new market after failure to announce postponement sparked anger
  4. 4 This is the moment dolphins were spotted unusually close to the shore on the Costa del Sol
  5. 5 Excellent weather attracts huge turn-out for residents' day festivities in Torremolinos
  6. 6 New Costa del Sol health centre set to open in 2027
  7. 7 This is the foodie fair where you can try different flavours of the traditional gazpacho dish in Malaga province this weekend
  8. 8 Seville's world-famous April fair offers grand display of culture, tradition, revelry and pride
  9. 9 Road in poor state in Malaga province 'must be urgently repaired' say local residents
  10. 10 'Quiet please, we're breeding': Signs put up to help protect wildlife on Costa del Sol river delta

Publicidad

Publicidad

Publicidad

Espacios grises

Reporta un error en esta noticia

* Campos obligatorios

Política de privacidad