Primoš Roglic, winner of the 2023 Giro d'Italia, may not be able to compete in this year's race, but his Bora-Hansgrohe team said his Ituria-Basque injury has healed well and that he is well adjusted for the Tour de France.

Like many other top riders, Roglic, in the case of the Slovenian, led the race on stage 4 of Ituria in early April, but was involved in a horrific late crash and retired with a knee injury, though not broken, and subsequently skipped the Ardennes Classic.

However, as Bora-Hansgrohe sport director Rolf Aldag told Cycling News at the start of stage 2 of the Giro, Roglic is now in full training for July.

"I don't know if Primoš is looking at the Giro," Aldag said, "but I don't know if the Slovenian is interested in how Tadej Pogaczal and the early stages of the race he won last year and decided to sit out in 2024. But I do know that I will see him soon for another reconnaissance in the Pyrenees. Then we'll go to the Dauphiné together."

"So Primosz has to live with the fact that for the next two months he will see me more often than his wife and family. I'm sure he lost some [preparation] time as a result of the crash, and I'm sure I wanted to win with him at the Iturria País Vasco GC. But now I think he did really well."

At Beulah Hansgrohe, where he moved from Jumbo Visma, Paris-Nice in March was his first match of the season. He then competed in Ituria-Basque against Remco Evenpole (Sourdal-Quickstep) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Ries-a-Bike), winning the jersey in the first time trial stage.

"The results are still in, but at least Paris-Nice didn't go according to plan.

"Having been on the same team (Jumbo Visma) for eight years, we knew that integration would take time. But País Vasco was a sign that he was on the right track.

The story has always focused on the Tour de France. After winning last year's Giro d'Italia, Roglic skipped the race and his teammate at the time, Vingegaard, won the overall for the second year in a row.

"I'm not afraid of the start of the Tour, of the result, of anything," Aldag said.

As for injuries, Aldag said he had no after-effects from his crash in Ituria. His training has been really good," Aldag said, "so it's just a matter of how he feels. So we have objective numbers as well as how he feels, and he's in pretty good shape."

Aldag said.

As for the teams participating in the ongoing Grand Tour and Giro d'Italia, Bora-Hansgrohe will leave the bunch sprint to Danny Van Poppel, while teammate Dani Martinez (who later finished second in the Oropa stage and third in the GC) will be in Rome, with the overall Aldag says he will be aiming for a top-five finish.

"That's a realistic plan. But realistically, winning the Giro with Pogachar would be in the realm of dreams and hopes.

"But apart from (Tadej) Pogachar, there is a lot of room for maneuver. I hope we can protect him, look for space, take our chances, and finish somewhere between second and fifth [in GC] because of his talent."

Further down the road, Roglic will return to the forefront at the Tour de France, and the team will look to strengthen its GC contention plans in the biggest bike race of the summer. For now, however, Martinez will carry the torch in a race that Bora-Hansgrohe won overall in 2022 with Jai Hindley, who returned to shine this May.