Primoz Roglic shows intent but does not fly in ski station finale - "You should not run with your head against the wall"

In the Cuitu Negru ski station there was lots of pain this afternoon. The Vuelta a España just had it's toughest summit finish and Primoz Roglic even asked if he had lost time to Ben O'Connor... The Vuelta a España is wide open as the Slovenian came closer to the race lead but did not make an impact against his main rivals.

“I don’t know how much we lost on the red jersey, was he at the front?" Roglic asked, perhaps ironically, to a group of journalists at the finish. Of course, it is not likely that he forgot that only a few minutes before he dropped the red jersey in his wake on the first steep ramps of the final 3 kilometers up to the Ski station. BORA's tactic was to stay in the wheels today until the moment of attack; whilst Aleksandr Vlasov searched for a stage win up front. Roglic made his move with 3 kilometers to go but was unable to dispatch his rivals completely.

"It was a good performance after a difficult stage and a difficult week," he describes it. He was caught and dropped by Enric Mas towards the finale but managed to finish on the same time. There weren't huge gaps at the finish line, but he did take another 38 seconds on Ben O'Connor. However, that was not a massive gain, and does not see him move into the race lead against the Australian who continues to put a little bit of fear into the other GC contenders.

“But it’s good to gain time instead of losing it, right?" Roglic sees on the bright side. Cuitu Negru was not his best performance of the race, but by no means was it a bad sign. Into the final week he will start in second place, 1:03 minutes back on the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider.

But he will also have to keep a very close eye on Enric Mas who was on a good day again today, who even dropped him as Roglic feared cracking in the final meters of the climb. "It was difficult, he (Enric Mas, ed.) was good today and is in good shape. You should not run with your head against the wall, so I am satisfied with the performance," he concluded.