Primoz Roglic has blood on his face after Giro stage 15. He suffered a mechanical and in the panic that ensued he crashed while on his team mate's bike.
Having looked so solid over the opening phase of the Giro before the mountains and surged ahead in the TTs, Primoz Roglic as his team have looked less sure footed in recent days.
And on stage 15 yesterday the vulnerability of
Jumbo-Visma combined with bad luck to result in Roglic losing time.
He suffered a mechanical problem at first and got going
again only after waiting on a team mate to catch him and give up his bike.
And then going down the final climb, having been dropped
by race leader Richard Carapaz (Movistar) and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida),
Roglic crashed.
He quickly got back to his feet and bike on his bike. However, having only been a few seconds down on the Carapaz and Nibali over the top of the climb, he lost time all the way and ceded 40 seconds in the end.
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All of his problems stemmed from the mechanical problem; the chase back on weakening him for the final climb and his descent made trickier by being on another rider’s bike.
After the stage his team revealed the team car following
him had been stopped to allow on the directeur have a pee.
As the car was stopped – and Roglic and the favourites
group went ahead – the Slovenian race favourite suffered his mechanical.
And with no team car right behind to ensure a spare bike
was handed up instantly, Roglic’s panic began.
“I had a problem with a broken front shifter, so I needed to change the bike,” Roglic said of his first problem just before the racing reached the Civiglio climb.
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And as he was handed up Antwan Tolhoek’s bike when the
incident occurred with about 20km to go, he said descending on it was not as
easy as his own set-up would have been.
“Everything is a little different and I was a little too fast in the corner,” he said of falling on a sweeping right hander.
He added there was a long way still to go; that he was
glad to finish the stage and was looking forward to today’s rest day.
Jumbo-Visma directeur sportif, Addy Engels, has already looked very nervous on this race.
And having been unlucky enough to stop precisely when his rider needed him; those nerves will likely be worse now.
However, he was honest in explaining what had happened; something that could happen to anyone, to be fair to him.
“We supplied him with a few bottles,” Engels said of
Roglic coming back to the team car with just over 20km to go.
“(Then) we needed a quick break to take a pee. The moment
we got into the car, I don’t know what happened, but we heard on the radio that
he needed a new bike.
“In terms of timing and bad luck, it was the worst that
could happen. Luckily at that moment, Antwan’s group was coming back and he was
able to change bikes.
“Luckily, he has almost the same position. But it was a
lot of stress and a lot going on. He had to chase back, which cost energy.
“We discussed changing to his own bike, but with the
speed they were doing it was impossible and he said it was OK.
“In the crash it looks like he was risking too much and
just going a little too fast.”
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