Primož Roglič has laid the blame for his crash and exit from La Vuelta squarely with Fred Wright, saying the British rider rode into him and caused him to fall at the end of stage 15, with his team's chief executive also speaking out in strong terms.
Roglič (Jumbo Visma) said while some people “move on swiftly as if nothing happened” that was not the case for him. He has blamed Wright (Bahrain Victorious), in some detail, for his heavy crash, saying the British rider was directly responsible and the sole factor in the incident.
Roglič was sitting 2nd overall in the race behind Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) and was looking to take on the Belgian, and take the race lead from him, this week. He was on the attack in the finale of stage 15 when he connected with Wright and crashed at the back of the five-man group the Slovenian's attack had pulled clear. Roglič limped to the finish but did not start the next day such were his injuries.
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"This was not okay. This shouldn't happen,” he has said in remarks released by Jumbo Visma. “People move on swiftly as if nothing happened. For me, that doesn't apply. This is not the way I want the sport to continue and I want to make that clear."
He said while he was now feeling “slightly better” today, he would not say if he would race again before the end of the season.
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"I can walk a little bit. I am happy with that for the moment. After the crash, it took me time to straighten things out. I asked myself: how can this be? My conclusion is that the way this crash happened is unacceptable.
"Not everyone saw it correctly. The crash was not caused by a bad road or a lack of safety but by a rider's behaviour. I don't have eyes on my back. Otherwise, I would have run wide. Wright came from behind and rode the handlebars out of my hands before I knew it."
Richard Plugge, chief executive of Jumbo-Visma and president of the AIGCP, the association representing the team's interests, said he was glad Roglič was speaking out and naming the fact another rider caused his crash. He said there had been extensive research on the causes of crashes in races and that about half the incidents were caused by rider behaviour.
“It doesn't surprise me because every rider has the will to win. I would like to say: brake and use your brains. It requires a change of behaviour, driven by awareness and consistent judging. Shortly after the incident in Poland, it almost went wrong in Milano-Sanremo for the 3rd and the 4th place. Fortunately, that ended well, but the behaviour remained unpunished. We have to deal with that properly,” he said.
"Ten years ago, the older riders were sounding the alarm because the younger ones showed less respect, took irresponsible risks, and pushed their way through everything. The younger ones of yesteryear are the older riders of today.
"But you still hear the same discussion, even though we are a generation ahead. So that has to change. I'm glad that Primoz is speaking out, looking in the mirror and naming the behaviour of riders as well."
