The Slovenian has described a recovery so slow that dressing himself became a milestone.

“Just putting socks on my feet was the hardest thing for these three weeks. Luckily, at the end I could start to move. I still cannot lie on my right side, but I feel good enough to ride my bike and come here to start the Vuelta,” Roglič told the pre-race press conference in Monaco.

The 36-year-old was hit by a car at the end of July, an incident he first disclosed on 31 July in a short Instagram post showing heavy bruising across the back of his thighs. He had been in the Salzburg area, where his Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe team runs a performance centre. The collision ruled him out of the Clásica San Sebastián and the Vuelta a Burgos.

No fifth-title bid this time

Roglič has never before started a Vuelta without designs on the overall. What makes this year different is the record within reach: a fifth Spanish win would move him past Roberto Heras and leave him the outright record holder. Instead, he comes to Monaco with a race-by-race brief, the first proper testing of his body since he took the Slovenian national time trial championship in late June.

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Sports director Sven Vanthourenhout has told his squad to plan around stage wins first, with any general classification opportunity a bonus.

“We have to be realistic because his preparation has been very different from what we originally anticipated after his crash,” Vanthourenhout said as the team confirmed Roglič would start.

Roglič cast simply making it to Monaco as a result in itself.

“Sometimes win means to be on the start,” he wrote on Instagram on the eve of the race.

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Pogačar left without his familiar rival

His diminished status reshapes the top of the classification. Tadej Pogačar returns to the Vuelta for the first time since 2019, chasing the last Grand Tour missing from his palmarès and eyeing a Grand Slam of Grand Tours after his fifth Tour de France win in July. The natural billing was Pogačar versus Roglič, cycling’s most familiar rivalry in the sport’s most volatile Grand Tour.

The most credible names left to challenge Pogačar are João Almeida, Mattias Skjelmose and Felix Gall. Almeida is named as UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s second leader; Skjelmose comes off a strong Tour de France, where he finished sixth; and Gall took the overall at the Vuelta a Burgos earlier this month.

A 9.4-kilometre opener to expose the damage

Stage 1 is an individual time trial through the principality, starting at Place du Casino with the first rider off the ramp at 4:17pm local time, race organisers confirmed. It is a technical, corner-heavy course rather than a pure power test, and it will offer the first honest read on where Roglič’s body is.

The first leader of the Vuelta will be crowned on Boulevard Albert 1er, at the finish line used by the Monaco Grand Prix.

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