TOMARES, SPAIN: Defending champion Primoz Roglic suffered a nasty fall as Denmark’s Mads Pedersen won stage 16 of the Vuelta a Espana at Tomares in Andalusia on Tuesday.
Aiming for a fourth consecutive Vuelta title, Roglic launched a late attack on the flat stage, hoping to pick up bonus seconds in the sprint to close the gap on race leader Remco Evenepoel.
Adding to the drama, Evenepoel was then hit by a puncture as Roglic looked set to eat into his 1min 34sec overall advantage.
But one hundred meters from the finish line Roglic swerved and fell hard, with his left knee and hand covered in blood. Evenepoel suffered a stressful few minutes awaiting a decision on timing and expressed relief as Roglic gained only eight seconds. “I hope Primoz can carry on,” said the Belgian Vuelta rookie, who missed a year after falling into a ravine during the Tour of Lombardy in August 2020. “I’m sad for him.