"What were they actually doing?" - Dutch pundit confused with both UAE and Roglic's tactics

Stage 11 of the GIro d'Italia had a surprising outcome, with the GC riders fighting for the stage victory and Richard Carapaz taking a stellar win which puts him back in contention for one of the top spots at this Giro. At the end of the day, Thijs Zonneveld was left scratching his head over the tactics of both Primoz Roglic and UAE Team Emirates - XRG - but for different reasons.

For the Slovenian, he has commented on the ascent to San Pellegrino, where Egan Bernal launched an attack and was only matched by the UAE duo at first. "Then Bernal accelerated, and Ayuso reacted immediately, and Del Toro reacted immediately to Ayuso. There were quite a few riders in trouble. You see that Roglic reacts late every time, that he actually tries to ride as economically as possible," Zonneveld said in the In de Waaier podcast.

"When he is really good, bam, he is on it. Or he is not good, and it has to come from his toes. Or he's actually quite good, and he doesn't want to waste too much energy. I think he's better than he looks. But if he's good, he'd be on the wheel right away". The lack of clarity of Roglic' form is perhaps a bluffing tactic, further aided by the lack of his presence in the sprint for bonus seconds at the end of the stage.

However the Slovenian wasn't the only one whose behaviour during the difficult day in the Appennines puzzled the Dutch pundit. UAE had a large numerical presence but did not try to take advantage of it in any way, and let Roglic remain in their wheel all day long whilst they worked to control attacks.

"What were they actually doing? They were doing everything and nothing. I think there were about 25 men in the peloton, and the entire UAE team was still there, including Baroncini, Majka, Arrieta: all those guys were still there. There were two more Red Bulls: Pellizzari and Roglic himself".

Under such circumstance, despite having first and second in the overall classification, it would come as a natural idea to try and take advantage of their numbers. Specially with Adam Yates and Brandon McNulty inside the Top10, who later instead worked for their leaders and lost time at the finish line. "You had the idea: you can get something out of this. But they didn't".