Primoz Roglic will be at the start of the Vuelta a España. Tomorrow the Slovenian will take his place on the starting ramp in Monaco to face the last Grand Tour of the season, but this time without the obligation to pursue a fifth victory. After four triumphs in the Spanish race, the last one achieved in 2024, the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe champion arrives at the most important appointment of his summer with a condition that remains to be discovered.

His presence, until just a few days ago, was far from certain. Three weeks ago Roglic was hit by a car while training and that accident completely changed his plans. Instead of specific work to prepare for the Vuelta, the Slovenian had to dedicate himself to recovery and rehabilitation. The races that were supposed to lead him to Spain were cancelled and, for several days, his participation in the Grand Tour also remained hanging by a thread.

Now, however, Roglic is in Monaco, but no one, not even he, really knows what to expect.

«I didn't think I could start from here». The words spoken on the eve of the Vuelta tell better than any classification the situation of the 2023 Giro d'Italia winner.

«Instead of preparing properly for the Vuelta, I had to face rehabilitation. So things didn't go as planned. In the end, I managed to train a bit, but I have no idea how it will go. Maybe I'll have to stop after one stage, or maybe everything will be fine».

Then comes the sentence that perfectly captures the moment. «Ten days ago, I wouldn't have even thought I could put on my socks, let alone pedal on a time trial bike. Fortunately, things went the right way. I still can't lie on my right side, but I'm well enough to start».

It is therefore a completely different Vuelta from the one Roglic had imagined. His body will be the first opponent to defeat. Before Tadej Pogacar, before the great climbers and the Spanish climbs, there will be a need to understand how he will react after the accident and after an inevitably compromised preparation.

Four-time winner of the Vuelta, Roglic knows perfectly the taste of success on Spanish roads. In 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024 he built a fundamental part of his legend precisely in this race.

This time, however, a fifth triumph does not seem to be the objective. It couldn't be otherwise. Arriving at the start after an accident, with little training in the legs and without the planned warm-up races necessarily means changing perspective.

The Vuelta will be lived day by day, almost like a long test. Roglic will first try to understand how he is. If his body responds well, then he can start thinking about stages, the classification and maybe some big attacks. But today it would be impossible to set a concrete objective. Also because the Slovenian hasn't worn a race number for weeks and arrives in Monaco in completely different conditions than those he had planned.

And then there's the future. The Vuelta will not be important only to understand which Roglic we will see in the race. The Spanish Grand Tour could also represent one of the concluding chapters of his experience with Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. The Slovenian's contract will indeed expire at the end of the season and his future has become one of the most interesting topics in the market.

In recent weeks there have been several rumors. Pinarello Q36.5, Bahrain Victorious and Movistar have been linked to the Slovenian champion, but no negotiations seemed to have taken a concrete direction. Then Lotto-Dstny appeared and this time it's not just a rumor.

On the eve of the Vuelta, Roglic confirmed he had spoken with the Belgian team. «I can confirm I spoke with Lotto-Dstny once, but very recently», he explained. «The news of my conversation had already leaked for weeks. So the thing surprised me. But yes, we talked».

A brief sentence, but enough to officially open a market scenario.

Roglic has decided to continue his career. The retirement hypothesis, which had circulated initially, now seems to be overcome. The problem is understanding with which team. Lotto-Dstny could represent a particularly interesting solution. The Belgian team will lose Lennert Van Eetvelt, destined for NSN, while Jarno Widar has just entered the world of Grand Tours and will inevitably need to gain experience.

A rider of Roglic's caliber could therefore become the team's reference in stage races and, at the same time, a valuable guide for the young riders. But the Slovenian doesn't seem yet willing to give up his personal objectives.

The Tour de Suisse, for example, is one of the few major stage races still missing from his palmares. And the Tour de France hasn't completely left his thoughts: this year there was no room for him in Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe's selection, but by changing teams he could regain the opportunity to present himself at the start of the Grande Boucle.

The season shows that Roglic can still be a protagonist: the results obtained before the accident demonstrate that the Slovenian is not yet a rider who has reached the end of the line. He was fifth at Tirreno-Adriatico and eighth at the Tour de Suisse, two results that certainly don't belong to his best version, but that confirm his ability to remain competitive at the highest levels.

Now, however, everything starts again from Monaco and ahead of him are 21 stages and a race that he knows like few others. There will be Pogacar, favorite for the general classification, there will be the climbers and there will be the mountains. But for Roglic the real challenge will be much simpler and, at the same time, much more complicated: understanding if his body is ready to withstand three weeks of Vuelta.

«Maybe I'll have to stop after one stage, or maybe everything will be fine». This is the uncertainty that will accompany Roglic on the starting ramp.

For someone who has won the Vuelta four times, who has conquered the Giro d'Italia and who has built an entire career on major stage races, it is an unusual situation.

But precisely for this reason, the 2026 Vuelta will be even more interesting to follow. Because tomorrow not only will a four-time winner of the Spanish race start: a Roglic to be discovered will start, with a future still to be written and an entire Vuelta to understand how much further he can still go.