“After a season like this year’s, we can head to the World Championships with a positive approach and with our heads held high. I’ll be honored to compete with seven of my friends in Innsbruck. We’re going to show the world who we Slovenians are. We’ll give it our 110 percent,” said Roglič at a meeting for the press in Zgornji Brnik after the cyclists’ training sessions. He will spend the next 13 days making sure that he is in top form for the 260-kilometer race on September 30. He will not be able to defend his silver medal from Bergen in the time trial because of elbow issues; he will also skip the team time trial. National team coach Andrej Hauptman has selected the following cyclists for the World Championships: Matej Mohorič, Jan Polanc, Simon Špilak, Jan Tratnik, Grega Bole, Luka Pibernik, and Domen Novak. Only Tratnik will compete in the time trial.
A 28-degree slope
Hauptman, the only Slovenian with a medal from the road race (a bronze from the 2001 Lisbon Championships), cautions cyclists that they are facing a difficult challenge: “We are looking forward to the last race of the World Championships, which will be very challenging. The last round is exceptionally difficult; it’s 2.5 kilometers long, and one kilometer has a very steep slope – as much as 28 percent. The past season has been exceptional. Our approach is positive. We’ve met several times and trained together. I’m sure that we will compete well. Everything is possible in these single-day races,” adds Hauptman. Mohorič says that the race is likely to be somewhat different: “We won’t have to defend ourselves, but we will have to get our handle on the race. Primož is among the favorites. We took part in some of the training sessions together, and I saw that he is good enough to win.”
A record number of Slovenian cyclists: 24
The World Championships in Innsbruck will begin on Sunday, September 23, with team time trials. The championships will end a week later with the most prestigious event, the men’s road race in the elite class. The women’s team includes Polona Batagelj, Špela Kern, Urša Pintar, and Urška Žigart, while the team of U23 cyclists, overseen by Martin Hvastija, is made up of Tadej Pogačar, Izidor Penko, Nik Čemažar, Žiga Horvat, Žiga Jerman, and Jaka Primožič. Penko and Primožič will also compete in the “hour of truth.” The men’s junior team consists of Aljaž Omerzel, Boštjan Murn, David Čadež, and Anže Skok, while the women’s junior team is made up of Nika Jančič and Vita Movrin. Murn, Čadež, Jančič, and Movrin will also compete in the time trial. The women of BTC City Ljubljana will represent Slovenia in the team time trial.
Pogačar’s final World Championship in the U23 category
In addition to the elite-class road race, Slovenian cycling fans are also interested in Friday’s U23 race (180 kilometers), in which Tadej Pogačar will compete for a medal. “Tadej is one of the best in his category. He’s not the only favorite, even though he won the Peace Race and L’Avenir. There are also cyclists who are a year or two older and were absent from those races. Among the participants are teams that race elsewhere, even in the World Tour,” says Hvastija. Pogačar’s colleagues are unanimous in their assessment that Pogačar will be able to compete for the highest positions – for the last time in this race, as he has announced that he will not compete in the U23 category next year because he will already be a part of the World Tour. “All season long, the guys have done everything to make sure that I perform well. I hope I won’t disappoint them,” says Pogačar, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Friday.
