Up to twenty-five kilometres before the finish all went according to plan for Team Jumbo-Visma. The yellow and black formation controlled the early breakaway. In the descent of the penultimate climb Ineos accelerated at an unfortunate moment for Roglic as the peloton split into pieces. Team Jumbo-Visma got surprised by that action, but managed to solve the situation before the final climb. On this climb Roglic had to pay for his efforts to return to the peloton, though he limited his time loss.

“Today it didn’t go as we had hoped”, Roglic explained. “In the descent of the penultimate climb I had problems with my clothes, so we were a bit too far back when the peloton broke. We had to pull out all the stops to get back. Eventually we managed to do that, but on the final climb I had not much left in my legs to counter the attacks. We have given everything. Sometimes you win some and sometimes you lose some. Today we lost some. The Vuelta is not over yet and we will continue to fight until Madrid”, a combative Roglic concluded.

Sports director Grischa Niermann regretted the incident. “This was a big mistake from us and should not have happened. As a team we were able to solve the situation, but we couldn’t do more than that. That’s a pity. Today was a bad day. The race is far from over. There are plenty of opportunities to come still and we will of course keep fighting to the end.”