Is Primož Roglič The Best Rider Who Never Won Le Tour de France?

This week on Racing News, we dive deep into the Primož Roglič debate: Is he the greatest rider in history to have never won the Tour de France, and what’s next for him after his recent quotes? We also bring you all the drama from the European Cyclo-cross Championships, including thrilling wins from Eli Iserbyt and Inga van der Heijden. Plus, a wrap-up of the latest rider transfers as Victor Lafay and Remco Evenepoel’s futures are confirmed.

Chapters: ⏱️
0:00 – Intro: Primož Roglič & European Cyclocross Champs
0:24 – Race Wrap: Vingegaard Wins Saitama Criterium
1:51 – Primož Roglič’s Situation: Age, Team & the Pogacar/Vingegaard Era
3:38 – Primož Roglič’s Palmarès and WorldTour GC Wins
4:13 – Primož Roglič vs. Tour De France Greats
5:29 – Comparing Roglic to Raymond Poulidor
6:50 – Men’s European Cyclocross Championships
7:52 – Women’s European Cyclocross Championships
8:52 – Latest Rider Transfer News

Is Primož Roglič the best Grand Tour rider who hasn’t won the Tour de France, or does that title belong to another legend like Raymond Poulidor? 👉

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Welcome back to the GCN racing news show. Coming up this week, is Primos Rogitz the best rider in history to have never won the tour to France? I’ll be discussing that with myself based on some quotes that he gave recently. I’ll also wrap up the European Cyrocross Championships and a few more last minute rider transfers. This week in the world of racing, we learned that Yonas Vinugor is back to winning ways. He took victory at the Saitama Criterium in Japan at the weekend despite a crash midway through the race. He got away with former teammate Primos Roglitch, but dropped him with 2ks to go in the exhibition race. The question is, who wore the hat the best? We also learned that Tourfront stage winner Victor Lafé is not going to move to Japan to sell cheese, at least not yet. He signed a deal with Unibet Rose Rockets to continue racing next year. So his retirement plan will have to wait. Whilst double Zift Academy finalist and hugely popular Matia Guri has gotten himself a world tour contract at last with Picnic Post and L. Love to see it. And finally, we learned that Primos Roglitch is considering a tilt at a fifth world Spania title next year. If he’s successful there, it would take his tally to five, putting him one ahead of the man he currently holds the record with, Roberto Harass. Speaking to AS at the Saitama Criterium in Japan, Rogich said that although it was the correct decision to miss the race this year, he missed competing there and would like to go back in 2026 if his team Red Bull Bour Hans agrees to it. Now, it was a quote that made me wonder whether he’s now given up on winning the tour to France. And if that is the case, will he go down as the best rider in history who hasn’t won the tour to France? Before I get on to that second question, I think it’s worth looking at the situation that Rogich now finds himself in. He is 36 years old at this point. And although he came to the sport later than most, 2026 is going to be his 11th season as a pro rider. He also finds himself in a situation where he’s no longer the kingpin of his team. Red Bull Bora Hanser. Not only has Florian Lipovich a home rider emerged as a potential Grand Tour winner, they’ve also signed Remco Aven and his entourage. Have they signed Aanapool to win the Jurro or the Welter? Almost undoubtedly not. They’ll be hoping that they can help develop him into a tour to France winner. That’s obviously a big gamble in the Pagata and Vinegar era, but you have to try and you have to believe. So that leaves Roglitch to some degree at the mercy of his team’s focus and of his teammates focuses. Yes, he’ll still hold a decent amount of sway on what his calendar of racing looks like, but he can’t demand to be sole leader at the Tour to France. And perhaps given his recent quote about Lab Welter, he doesn’t want to be either. I get the impression that Roglitch is quite a pragmatic and realistic kind of guy and he’ll know better than anyone how much Pagatra has improved since 2020 where he took that tour to France win on La Plon de Belfie time trial and I’d imagine that Rogich no longer thinks it’s possible to beat Pagatra at the Tour to France if they both go into it at 100% capacity and neither has bad luck. Personally, I think it’s a real shame that Rogich hasn’t won the tour to France during his career. I’d have loved to have seen him do it. I think he really deserves it. 2020 obviously was his best opportunity and as much as he says that he’s put that defeat behind him, I do wonder whether he thinks back to it and ponders where he or his team could have done things differently. So where does that leave him? Well, still in my opinion as one of the best riders the sport has ever seen. So far, Rogich has racked up 91 pro race wins, but it’s the level of those wins that’s astounding. Almost threearters of them have been at world tour level. 23 of those 91 wins are general classifications. Along with his four welter wins, he’s won the jural parony and then the doofen terrain, bass country, Catalunia and Ramdy twice each. Add in the UAE tour and that is 17 GC wins at world tour level. How does that compare to other active riders? Well, Pagatcha is the obvious place to start, isn’t he? He’s won 14 at this point. That said, he’s been pro three years fewer than Rogich and he’s an alien. Chris Froom has won 12, Nar Canana 7, Jonas Vinegor six, and Aeen Bernal five. But what about Rogich’s own teammates? Well, somewhat surprisingly, Remco Aenport has only won three World Tour level stage races in his career. The Wasp Spania, the UAE tour, and the Tour to Palona. Whilst Lipovitz has never won a world tour GC, not even a stage in fact. So Primos Roglitch has won three more world tour level stage races than Vinegor, Bernal, Aanapool, and Lipovitz combined. He’s also won seven one-day races in his career. So he’s far from a onetrick pony. Back to the original question though, is he the best rider in history to have never won the tour of France? It’s always a funny one, isn’t it? trying to compare different eras. But if we look at the all-time grand tour winners list, Rogit sits equal ninth and there’s nobody ahead of him who hasn’t won the tour to France. The only rider who’s also won five Grand Tours without a tour to France is Alfredo Binda, who took all of his at the Jiren Italia about 100 years ago. Now, the rider who many tout as the best to never win the tour is Raymon Pulidor. He became known as the eternal second, courtesy of his three second places in the race. He also came third four times, so a total of seven times on the podium. Riding in the Merks era wasn’t very easy. Very similar in fact to the Pagatra era. So in some ways that gives Roglitch and Pulidor something in common. However, despite his many podiums at the Tour of France, Pulidor didn’t win as many races overall and didn’t win as many stage races either. He did win more one-day races, but like Rog Glitch, only one of them was a monument. So personally I think Roglitch will end his career with the better Palaras of the two. But then comparing the two is really just opinion isn’t it? They’re both amongst the best riders in the history of the sport. And of course Roglitch has not finished just yet. Whilst we don’t know whether he’ll continue his career beyond next year, we can be fairly sure that he’ll be up there fighting for the win at the sport’s most prestigious stage races next season. Rock Collector has won at least one world tour level stage race every year since 2018, which is a remarkable feat. Anyway, let me know your thoughts. How does Roglitch compare to the sport’s other great stage race riders who haven’t won the tour to France? Or perhaps it doesn’t even matter. Either way, you can let me know in the comment section down below. Okay, I will move on to cycross now and the European Championships which took place in Milka in Belgium at the weekend. The men’s was a really thrilling race right down to the wire. The Belgians and Dutch were amassed at the front on the opening laps, but later in the race, poor Pim Ronhaar was outnumbered by the Belgian Armada, and he fought incredibly well. At times, he used attack as the best form of defense. He certainly wasn’t making it easy for them. Let’s put it that way. Now, for much of the race, he was with Nace, Visura, and Bastringer, but in the closing stages, they were also joined by Tone Arts and Cameron Mason. In one of the last of the many sandy sectors, Ronhaar made a small but costly error. But at exactly the same time, Tonarts flew through that same sector straight onto the wheel of Nace and soon going past it. He led out the sprint to the line and Nace had no answer. That was Art’s second win at the European Championships. It came nine years after his first and Belgium ended up taking all three medals on the day with Bura in third whilst Ron had to settle for fourth, Mason fifth. In the women’s race, it was much more clear-cut. Inga Vander Hiden had an incredible start. She seemed to have a pretty big gap over everybody else after about just 2 minutes of racing. And I was wondering whether she might have gone out too hard, but I was wrong in questioning her. She never looked back and never looked like being caught. That was in part though due to some good work from her Dutch teammates behind who made Sarra Casolo of Italy do most of the work in chasing. Unfortunately though for the Italian, she touched Lucinda Brand’s wheel in the closing stage of the race and crashed quite heavily. She did remount to finish fourth, but it was a real shame for her. So Brance took the silver medal on the day and Anique Van Alfan made it all Dutch podium with the bronze medal. Now this is a good time to remind in fact that you can watch a full season of bike racing live on Discovery Plus or Max. Cyclcross racing will continue tomorrow with the next round of the Super Prestige in Neil and then again on Saturday in Merks Plast and there’s more action from Hammer this coming Sunday. Okay, I’m going to finish again with more transfer news. As mentioned at the very start of the show, Victor Laay has decided to continue his career despite previously saying that he was happy to retire from racing. Uh the 29-year-old Frenchman is the latest big name to be signed by Unibet Rose Rocket who looked to have a very good chance of a tour to France wildcard entry next year. I think it’s fair to say that Lefay has been fairly inconsistent over his career. So it’s going to be interesting to see whether this move helps him refocus or if it’s the point at which he drifts into retirement relatively anonymously. I have a feeling it might be the former. I reckon that team is going to have a great motivation and atmosphere throughout next year. The other really interesting sign that I already mentioned is Matia Gaffuri who signed for picnic postell. A lot of you going to remember Gaffuri because he twice made it to the finals of the Zift Academy but both times missed out on the final contract of Alperson Dernig. Hats off to him though because he persevered this year with the SWAT club and amateur team who won the Italian national champs this year and now he’s been given a chance to prove himself at the very highest level. And I have no doubt at all he’ll be absolutely determined to prove himself. He’s a class rider and very methodical with it. And I’m really looking forward to tracking his progress next season and beyond. Luke Lampertie is leaving Sudal Quickstep and heading over to EF Education Easy Post. Whilst Michael Leonard also heads there after a few years at Inos. The team has also signed 19-year-old Matias Schwzbacher, their first ever Slovakian rider. Gleb Seritzer has been promoted back to XDSAN’s world tour team after a year in their development squad. Whilst Pascal Akaman has signed on the dotted line for Jacob Alula. Right, that is all for yet another week. I look forward to seeing you again next Monday. Bye for now.