"We tried something for the final climb, but we lost more time than we gained" - Primoz Roglic accepts the UCI penalisation

With one week to go, Primoz Roglic still hasn't regained the red jersey. It was clear from the first moment, but gifting Ben O'Connor 5 minutes in the GC wasn't the best of plans. The Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe has been gradually removing bits of the Australian's lead since then, but at the second rest day, there's still a bit over a minute between the two. There's still enough opportunity to take a minute back, but the situation is far from ideal.

And to add to that, Roglic was faced with the 20-second penalty imposed by the UCI for his suspricious bike change before the final climb. Primoz Roglic preferred to laugh about it in a press conference: "I can't do anything about it, I'll have to get those 20 seconds back. Whether I agree or not, it won't change anything. Of course I'm not happy to lose 20 seconds like that, it's never good but I'll survive with 20 seconds less." 

This penalty was issued for a bike change after which Roglic and teammates quite shamelessly drafted back to the peloton behind a team car: "We tried something for the final climb, but we lost more time than we gained," Roglic sums up laconically.

The Slovenian had previously complained about a back pain which is a consequence of his Tour de France crash. Fortunately that hasn't really reflected in Roglic's performances so far. "Everything is difficult to predict because the third week of this Vuelta is really hard but so far everything is going well, it's going pretty well. I'm not worrying too much about it, I'm staying positive."