Jumbo-Visma and Primoz Roglic loose Kuss and crucial GC time on Les Praeres: "We had hoped for better"

Primoz Roglic is having a mixed Vuelta a Espana on the first week, first winning a stage after Jumbo-Visma has seen several of it's riders lead the race throughout the opening week, but then losing some time on Remco Evenepoel in the early mountainous stages.

Although on stage eight's Colláu Fancuaya Roglic showed his best legs and kept up with the Belgian and Enric Mas, today he struggled once again, on a climb that was well suited to his skillset. “Of course we hoped Primoz could keep up with Evenepoel, but there are few riders who can keep up with him at the moment”, his DS Grischa Niermann told reporters after the end of the day. 

Although Roglic kept up with the initial acceleration of Juan Ayuso, he soon found himself in trouble. Although the Slovenian managed to limit his losses to less than a minute, he saw both Juan Ayuso and Carlos Rodríguez catch and drop him over the climb. “Primoz is not quite riding at a hundred percent yet. Yet he is still in the top of the classification. We didn’t expect Primoz to gain an advantage over his competitors today. We tried to limit the damage," Niermann added. 

Although the time lost on Remco Evenepoel is already of 1:53 minutes, it is not yet a position of stress for the Dutch team. Evenepoel still has the second - and hardest - half of the race to go, and to withstand three weeks at the same level will be a difficult task. Roglic sits third, within 41 seconds of Enric Mas who currently stands as perhaps the biggest long-term threat in the race.

"I must admit that the gap with Evenepoel was big at the finish, but there are still two weeks to go. Third place in the general classification is solid, although we had hoped for better. We’re not giving up, and we’ll keep fighting," the Jumbo-Visma DS concluded. The opening week will open with a time-trial in Alicante, which should see 'Rogla' taking time on most of his rivals.