Roglic suffers crash as Pedersen wins Vuelta 16th stage

:Mads Pedersen won a thrilling sprint at the end of stage 16 at the Vuelta a Espana as overall contender Primoz Roglic's hopes of dislodging leader Remco Evenepoel were hit by a heavy crash metres from the line on Tuesday.

Roglic, bidding for a fourth successive overall victory, began the day 1:34 behind Evenepoel in second place and launched a stunning attack near the end of the 189km ride.

The Slovenian poured on the power on a short climb leading towards the finish in Tomares to split the race and only four other riders managed to stay with him.

As the finish line loomed, Roglic was overtaken and seconds later went down heavily after seemingly touching handlebars with those of Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious) 100m from the line.

Denmark's 2019 world champion Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) took the win from Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) and Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) with a bloodied Roglic getting gingerly back to his bike and rolling slowly over the line in the pursuing bunch.

As Roglic attacked Evenepoel appeared to have suffered a puncture inside the final 3km and required a bike change.

Initial timings suggested Roglic, despite his misfortune, had taken the red jersey with Evenepoel slipping down to third but that was soon revised with Evenepoel given the same time as the main peloton thanks to the "3km rule" which mitigates against crashes or mechanicals at the end of stages.

When the dust settled Roglic, who was given the same time as Pedersen, had taken back a mere eight seconds on Belgian Evenepoel who now leads by 1:26 from Roglic.

Spain's Enric Mas is 2:01 down in third place with some mountainous terrain on the horizon later this week.

It was tough on Roglic who looked in real discomfort as he reached the