Marc Reef,
Jumbo-Visma DS, spoke after the
Giro d'Italia stage about
Primoz Roglic losing seconds to Joao Almeida and Geraint Thomas with disappointment evident.
Reef thinks that the Giro is long, that there is still a long way to go and that Primoz can still win it: "It's not what we expected, but the situation is what it is, the gap in the overall is now 29 seconds, and there is a lot to play for, still 2 very hard stages Thursday and Friday". After a day working at the head of the peloton, the team looked to attack the final climb. This was ultimately not the case, with João Almeida and Geraint Thomas going on the attack and Roglic racing on the defensive.
Without the work of Sepp Kuss he probably would have lost more time, although he also praised the great last kilometer that he ended up doing and that, according to him, made him cut time to his rivals: "He did a great job, without him the time would be even higher, Primoz was also able to do a great last kilometer, with Sepp's work and his last kilometer minimized damage."
A small loss of 25 seconds on the road, but in a race that barely saw any GC action thus far, it turns out to be a meaningful loss. Roglic maintains his third place in the overall classification, but was overtaken by João Almeida. He now sits 29 seconds away from the race lead of Geraint Thomas.