Primož Roglič's hopes of staging a last week raid on La Vuelta took a battering today when he crashed while attacking off the front and gaining time on the man who leads the Grand Tour, Remco Evenepoel. These videos from fans on the roadside show just how hard Roglič crashed.
The Jumbo Visma rider had attacked on the uphill finish with 2.7km to go and opened a gap, while also catching Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) napping. Initially only Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) could match Roglič, though three others then got across: Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Danny van Poppel (Bora-hansgrohe) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious).
As that group was opening a gap, race leader Evenepoel pulled over to the roadside with an apparent rear wheel puncture. That incident occurred in the last 3km, ensuring he would get the same time as the section of the peloton he was in at the time.
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Up front, Roglič drove on the front of his group all the way towards the finish. And when he pulled over just before the sprint began he crashed hard with about 150m to go, apparently making contact with Wright's bike at the rear of the group.
Pedersen sprinted in to win the stage from Ackermann, Van Poppel and Wright, in that order, some eight seconds ahead of the front section of the peloton. Roglič was left to pick himself up, with lots of road rash on his leg, arm and upper body. Meanwhile, Evenepoel pedaled calmly to the finish, safe in the knowledge he was not losing time.
When Roglič was credited with the same time as the breakaway and Evenepoel the same time as the front section of the bunch, the gap between them at stage end for the general classification was just eight seconds. More significantly, Roglič looks badly injured and his hopes of staging a big effort on the climbs to come have taken a serious knock.
