Primoz Roglic is aware that the biggest test of this year's Vuelta a España is yet to come, but compared to the day before the race, the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe leader is already looking much brighter.

At a pre-Vuelta press conference, Roglic did not reveal the residual pain from a vicious crash in the Tour de France that left him with a back injury and a fractured vertebra that forced him to abandon stage 13.

The impressive and powerful ride he showed in the Vuelta's opening time trial on Saturday may not have allayed all concerns about his back. But when the 34-year-old Rogli spoke to reporters at the start of the second stage, he certainly seemed more positive.

Roglic was even ready to make a joke about his missing tooth the night before the race and now having it replaced. But as for being in good shape in general, Roglic's results in the time trial spoke for themselves.

“I am definitely happy with my run. It was fast, but I ran well at that speed. It was only 10 kilometers, but I'm super happy,” Roglic told reporters. [In the time trial, he was eighth, 16 seconds behind winner Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), the best positioned of the pre-race favorites to win.

A quick look at the TT results shows that he was 2 seconds behind Joan Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), 5 seconds behind Matthias Skjelmoes (Lidl-Trek), and 5 seconds ahead of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammates Alexandre Vlasov and Tyment Arensman ( 12 seconds ahead of Ineos Grenadiers and 17 seconds ahead of Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates). Leading players such as Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Sepp Kus (Visma Lease-a-Bike) lost even more time to Roglic.

Asked what such a strong showing says about himself and his rivals, he replied, “I had a good run. In any case, the race will be decided more by the climbs than the flat stages.”

In a good mood after such a good start, Roglic was even ready to make a joke about his missing tooth (an incisor that fell out on Friday).

“Yeah, it fell out,” he said. But when I put it back in, I lost a gram.” But the race wasn't even into the climbs yet, so I had to put the tooth back in for the flats.

Roglic's light-hearted sense of humor continued on the second stage, as he finished safely in the pack and held on to eighth place overall, 20 seconds behind new race leader Wout Van Aert (Vimaris A-Bike). Aside from an emergency visit to the dentist and the major challenge of Tuesday's summit finish on Pico de Vilhuelcas, at least his 2024 Vuelta a España is off to an ideal start.

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