Primož Roglič says he's 'not really frightened' of Movistar or Ineos at Vuelta a España
The defending champion put time into all of his rivals on the ninth stage of the race
Primož Roglič says he is "not really frightened" by the claims that Ineos Grenadiers and Movistar both have plans to beat him in the final two weeks of the 2021 Vuelta a España.
The defending champion, Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) currently leads the overall standings by 28 seconds over his closest rival of Enric Mas of Movistar with the Spaniard's team-mate, Miguel Ángel López in third at 1-21.
Meanwhile, Ineos Grenadiers hold fifth and sixth spots in the general classification, with Egan Bernal and Adam Yates sat either side of the two minute mark after the first week.
>>> Vuelta a España 2021: Five things to look out for in week two
Both teams have come out and said they have plans to beat Roglič, but the Slovenian star seems unfazed by this.
Speaking to Spanish paper, Marca, Roglič said: "They [Movistar and Ineos] have two cards to play at the moment. I'm not really frightened, because I have confidence in myself and in my team, but Movistar and Ineos have strong teams and we cannot make any errors,
"Having two such strong riders up there allows them to come up with strategies that could put us in difficulty. We know the strength of those teams, but if my team-mates are going well, we can face up to them as we have on other occasions."
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He added that he is very pleased with how everything has gone so far with the two-time Vuelta winning describing his first week as "encouraging".
Mas, Roglič's closest rival and only rider inside a minute, looked very strong on the Alto de Velefique as he managed to attack clear with the leader of the race.
Roglič added he was impressed with Mas' performance, calling him is main rival but he did add that there is a long way to go and other riders can improve and cause him problems.
His final point was: "I believe this second week is going to be more controllable - There are short days, where I go well, and also some opportunities for the sprinters.
"But, as I said, I have to be alert at all times, and the weekend will bring difficult mountain stages, so I'm expecting a hard race."
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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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