Primoz Roglic also crashes in Slovenian stage of Giro d’Italia and suffers time loss: "We knew it was going to be slippery"

Just over 20 kilometers from the finish, disaster struck. On some slick cobblestones, Tiberi went down, taking the entire Lidl–Trek team with him, and Roglic as well. The Slovenian, as shown in the photo below, was seen searching for his bike among the heap of gear before continuing on. Roglic had already crashed on Sunday during the gravel stage, and also hit the ground during Tuesday’s time trial recon.

Roglic ultimately finished in a group with Juan Ayuso (UAE), 48 seconds behind leader Del Toro, and shared his story afterward with Val 202. “In the end, I have to accept it as it is and try to make the most of it,” he responded, as dryly as ever. “We knew it would be slippery, so we tried to stay near the front.” Despite that, he still got caught up in the crash and was forced to chase. “At that moment, we didn’t have everything under control, but our guys were strong. We gave it everything we had. We’ll keep evaluating our plans day by day.”

Jan Tratnik, also Slovenian and a teammate of Roglic, gave his take as well. “For me personally, it was my best day since my injury. I felt really good, but unfortunately Primoz had bad luck again,” he said. “I know that descent, so we were at the front and in a good position. I also knew it would be slippery on those cobblestones, and unfortunately that’s where the crash happened.”

“From that moment on, we were chasing, but the group ahead of us was too strong,” Tratnik explained. “We have to stay positive, and I hope a bit of luck will be on our side next week. When minutes, not seconds, will decide the outcome.”