Opinion: Primoz Roglic’s latest crash punctures his fleeting chances of catching Remco Evenepoel

It’s hard to see how Primoz Roglic could have played his cards better at the end of an otherwise dull and dreary Stage 16 of La Vuelta – save for not undoing all his hard work by inexplicably crashing inside the final 100 metres. “We had planned to attack in the final phase of this stage,” Jumbo-Visma DS Addy Engels later said.

“We knew this was Primoz's stage. We first set out to win the stage, but the time advantage that came with it was equally valuable to us.

Everything went as planned until Primoz experienced terrible luck in the last few metres." Ad Oblivious to the timely puncture that waylaid his big rival Remco Evenepoel just moments after his devastating attack, Roglic powered up the closing ramp in Tomares to open up a gap which only a handful of fast finishers could close – but none of his GC rivals. Vuelta a EspañaRoglic to decide if he stays on at Vuelta on Wednesday morning after Stage 16 crashAN HOUR AGO Unfortunately, one of those who could follow was Britain’s Fred Wright, whose handlebars Roglic clipped – through no fault of the Bahrain Victorious man – in the hectic finale as Roglic looked to stay in contention with Mads Pedersen, Pascal Ackermann and Danny van Poppel, and perhaps pick up some extra bonus seconds to inflict more damage on the Belgian race leader.

The crash was violent and chilling to watch – sending the triple champion sprawling and sliding at least 10 metres, resulting in his glazed demeanour and the bloody gashes as he lay slumped against the barriers after soft-wheeling over the line alongside Robert Gesink. Roglic wounded in ridiculous crash in final 150m as Pedersen wins Stage 16 Despite his heavy fall, Roglic still completed the stage – temporally speaking – well clear of