‘He will be concerned’ – How Primoz Roglic will react to a second crash in just three days

A second crash in three stages could impact how race favourite Primoz Roglic approaches the remainder of the Vuelta.

That’s the view of the Breakaway panel who watched the defending champion go to ground with 54 kilometres to go of Stage 12 following a pile up involving a number of other riders.

The Jumbo-Visma rider appeared to emerge without any serious injury to continue the race, eventually finishing in 12th place.

However, following a previous spill following an attempted attack on Stage 10, Sean Kelly believes the incidents will play on the Slovenian’s mind going forward.

“For Primoz Roglic, he had the crash already and today again another crash,” said Kelly. “He’s going to be thinking about that and it makes you a bit nervous because you think luck is not on your side and you need a bit of good luck to be in the right place and when the crashes occur.

“He will be a little concerned, but I don’t think it will affect him in the race.

“We didn’t see any close up shots of if he had any damage, I don’t think there were so then you say ‘I was unlucky again today but I came out lucky because I didn’t do any major damage.’”

Nico Roche agreed that Roglic will consider how he approaches upcoming stages in the race, perhaps taking fewer risks when the chances present themselves.

“His morale might not be damaged but tomorrow he might not squeeze in a gap, he might touch the breaks, or on a descent might take it that little bit more chilled.

“You could have a crash and start losing a bit of faith in your grip.

“Although it may have nothing to with your tyres, twice the bike goes underneath you and you start to question your material, saying ‘alright, maybe I might not go too fast on that corner, I can breath’, or you don’t dive into a corner, you don’t squeeze into a gap going into a sprint for example, where you might have done normally when you feel fully confident nothing can happen.”

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