Giro d'Italia: 'He needed us and we weren't there' says Roglic's Jumbo-Visma DS
You've no doubt seen the TV footage by now: The Jumbo-Visma team car had stopped for a nature break during the final 20km of stage 15 of the Giro d'Italia on Sunday, but suddenly get the message on the radio that race favourite Primoz Roglic needs a new bike. Cue some seriously frenetic driving.
Speaking to Cyclingnews on the second rest day of the Giro d'Italia on Monday, lead directeur sportif Addy Engels explained the sequence of events that led to Roglic having to take teammate Antwan Tolhoek's bike, which Roglic then crashed on coming down the Civiglio, eventually losing 40 seconds to main rivals Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and race leader Richard Carapaz (Movistar).
With the opportunity for teams to still 'feed' their riders until the top of the climb of the Civiglio, with just under 20km of the stage still to go, teams were trying to give out bottles on the approach to the climb.
"At that moment, each team was asked [over race radio] to give out drinks," Engels argued, keen to put the record straight with Cyclingnews.
Roglic was on his own in the group of favourites at that point, with no teammates, and the Slovenian had missed a bottle from a staff member standing at the side of the road on the Ghisallo earlier on the course, Engels explained.
"Sometimes these things happen," he said. "But after the descent [of the Sormano], things calmed down in the group. The pace was steady, but everyone started calling for drinks. The only disadvantage we had was that Primoz was on his own.
What happended to Roglic's broken bike?
— Eurosport Nederland (@Eurosport_NL) May 27, 2019
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