Primoz Roglic attacked in the wet and cold fifth stage of the Tour de Pologne today. The Slovenian rider of Team LottoNL-Jumbo formed part of a leading group of 18 riders, with eventual winner and new race leader Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal). Roglic had to let the leaders go with 20 kilometres remaining and lost 15 minutes and 29 seconds.

“I do want to call this day an apocalyptic one,” Sports Director Addy Engels said. “It wasn’t freezing, there was no storm or thunder, but it was wet during the whole day and only 10 degrees. Everyone was freezing. The stage was very tough and long. 100 kilometres before the finish, the peloton was completely in pieces.”

Move

At that moment, Roglic had already taken some initiative. He attacked and was part of a large leading group.

“That was a good move by Primoz to get with that break,” Engels continued. “It went quite well for a long time, but with one lap to go, he had difficulties. He was freezing and was dropped.

"He was good for the first three-quarters of the stage, but it was too hard for him afterwards. The differences are very big and that tells the story quite accurately.”

“Of course it’s a disappointment that Primoz wasn't able to ride high in the general classification because that was what we aimed for,” Engels added. “But he couldn’t have done more than this, clearly. He lost it because he wasn’t strong enough. If he didn’t take part in that leading group, it would have been a different story. That he managed to be there, first of all, means that he is developing. Now, we have to take the next step so he will be able to deliver a good overall in the future. Today, tough, it was too much.”

Heaviest day

Roglic looked back at the heaviest day in his cycling career. “I never faced these kind of circumstances before,” he said. “It was extremely hard and terribly cold. I gave everything I had to finish in front, but I failed in the end. I can’t be disappointed about this result because I just wasn’t able to push harder than I did today.”