Primoz Roglic has been fined 200 Swiss Francs for a sticky
bottle incident on yesterday’s stage 15 of Giro d’Italia but escaped a time
penalty.
After losing 40 seconds to Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) and race leader Richard Carapaz (Movistar) yesterday, any more time lost due to a penalty would have been serious news.
But in-keeping with similar penalties in the past for
what you might call a ‘medium’ sticky bottle, he was punished with a fine only.
The incident occurred, and was broadcast live on TV, when
Roglic needed a bike change before the final climb and was getting back on.
His team had stopped to allow the directeur have a pee right at the moment Roglic had a problem with his gears and needed a new bike.
Incredibly the commentators on RAI TV in Italy were critical of Roglic, clearly having forgotten how Nibali bridged the gap from chasing group to leaders in the 2015 Vuelta via sticky bottle.
That case was so bad he was removed from the race. But
other riders have been fined in the past.
While Roglic (Jumbo Visma) beat the opposition by a clear
margin in the opening two TTs on the Giro, he looks slightly weaker now.
And any more time lost, especially to Carapaz, may put
the race win out of his reach, even though a TT remains on the final stage.
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TDF Dumoulin got a time penalty for drafting his own team car for 20 secs. Roglic takes a sticky bottle in the last 20km when he’s already got 2 bottles on his bike and this is fine. He freewheels and speeds up to about 6kmh 😂 #Giro #stickybottle #Roglic #giroditalia2019 pic.twitter.com/6A56wJ74uf
— Martin Lonie (@Chipolonie) May 26, 2019
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