The stage with four heavy dolomite cols was characterised by a very high pace from the start. Roglic was well surrounded by his Jumbo-Visma teammates until he was halfway down the Passo Manghen. Due to an attack by Miguel Angel Lopez and the fast pace of Astana, Roglic ultimately rode all alone. In the remainder of the stage, he countered a few attacks from his main competitors, but Nibali’s attack at five kilometres from the finish proved too much. Roglic also received a ten-second time penalty because a spectator had pushed him on the final climb.

“How am I feeling at the moment? Tired”, Roglic said. “We will see tomorrow, after the time trial in Verona, wether I had the legs to finish on the podium today. I gave 110 percent and kept fighting until the finish. I cannot blame myself. This was a very tough queen stage. About the spectators I can only say that it is impossible to keep everything and everyone under control. There were many Slovenian supporters today who came to encourage me. I am very grateful for that.”

Sports director Addy Engels is focusing on the podium. “We are going to prepare ourselves as well as possible for tomorrow. If Primoz rides a good time trial it is certainly possible for him to finish on the podium. But it has to happen first. Looking back at today’s stage, I am proud of how Primoz fought. That was good to see. He gave everything he had and he suffered a lot. The rest of the team have done their best to assist Primoz as well as possible, but you cannot expect these boys to be able to do the same as De Plus and Gesink. I am proud of how the team has fought this Giro.”

The Giro d’Italia ends tomorrow with a seventeen-kilometre time trial in Verona.