"He had to try something" - Koen Bouwman expects attacking style of Primoz Roglic to continue over the coming days

Having lost time to his main general classification rivals on stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia, Primoz Roglic was in an attacking mood on stage 18 and according to Koen Bouwman, that is something we can expect to continue over the coming days.

"We already tried on Tuesday, but he didn't have the legs. He only lost 25 seconds. We kept faith in him and today he showed that he is still one of the favourites going for the overall win. Tomorrow is a new day and we will try again," Bouwman revealed in a post-stage interview. “He was half a minute behind, so he had to try something.”

Although the Jumbo-Visma leader successfully put time into the likes of Joao Almeida and Eddie Dunbar, the Maglia Rosa, Geraint Thomas looked supreme on his 37th birthday as he followed every one of Roglic's moves with relative ease.

“He never left,” said Bouwman, referring to Thomas's position on Roglic's back wheel. “The whole day INEOS Grenadiers did a great job, they are riding around super strong with five men. But we had the plan to take command with Sepp Kuss at a fast pace. We succeeded.”