Primoz Roglic blames Fred Wright for Vuelta a Espana crash: "The way this crash happened is unacceptable"

Primoz Roglic's abandon from the Vuelta a Espana was perhaps the most important chance this final week the race has seen in this final week, and the Jumbo-Visma rider has not remained silenced regarding the incident.

"This was not okay. his shouldn't happen. People move on swiftly as if nothing happened. For me, that doesn't apply. This is not the way I want the sport to continue and I want to make that clear," Roglic said in a press release. After he attacked in the final kilometers of stage 16, Roglic collided with Fred Wright in the final sprint and crashed hard. Bloodied, he rolled through the finish line before looking at his injuries. Several crashes and contusions have forced him to abandon, a very tough blow after he abandoned the Tour de France under similar circumstances.

"I can walk a little bit. I am happy with that for the moment. After the crash, it took me time to straighten things out. I asked myself: how can this be? My conclusion is that the way this crash happened is unacceptable," Roglic stated. "Not everyone saw it correctly. The crash was not caused by a bad road or a lack of safety but by a rider's behaviour. I don't have eyes on my back. Otherwise, I would have run wide. Wright came from behind and rode the handlebars out of my hands before I knew it."

This comes as a big accusation to the British rider who sprinted to fourth place on the day. Although there was a majority consensus that it was an accident, Jumbo-Visma do not see the situation as lightly, and have brought harsh words about the accident.

Richard Plugge has backed up the Slovenian's criticism, as he added: "Ten years ago, the older riders were sounding the alarm because the younger ones showed less respect, took irresponsible risks, and pushed their way through everything".

The younger ones of yesteryear are the older riders of today. But you still hear the same discussion, even though we are a generation ahead. So that has to change. I'm glad that Primoz is speaking out, looking in the mirror and naming the behaviour of riders as well."