"The conditions made it almost impossible to do anything" - Roglic rues headwind for lack of spectacle at Gran Sasso d'Italia

The headwind was palpable during yesterday's finale of the Giro d'Italia. Despite the extremely long summit finish at altitude no rider dared to make a move in the peloton and all the GC contenders arrived together. Primoz Roglic agrees that the weather conditions made it unfavourable for attacks.

"The conditions made it almost impossible to do anything. But the legs felt good. That's a good sign," the Slovenian said in a post-race interview. "The wind picked up quite a bit, so it was not wise to attack from a big group. My teammates surrounded me well today and did a good job.”

The breakaway was given the chance to fight for a win comfortably, with Davide Bais taking a life-changing victory. Back in the peloton expectations of a first climbing battle were not fulfilled, as no-one tried to attack. The conservative riding was expected but Remco Evenepoel was not tested after his double-crash two days prior, and the pink jersey remained in the shoulders of Andreas Leknessund who finished in the large group over the line.

"We were expecting a bigger group at the start. That was fine for us. There was a lot of headwind. As a result, nobody wanted to show what they were capable of, "team DS Arthur van Dongen said. "The favourites knew what to expect over the next two weeks, so they didn't want to waste too much energy. We look forward to the coming weeks with confidence, not least because Primoz made another solid impression today. The other riders also did well. Tomorrow we have another difficult stage on the programme, a stage we know from Tirreno-Adriatico."