Vuelta Stage 6 – Roglic loses jersey

Primoz Roglic loses red leader’s jersey on sixth stage of the Vuelta a España, Hugh Carthy 8th and now second overall, Dan Martin 3rd overall; Ion Izagirre wins the stage and Richard Carapaz leads

Vuelta Stage 6 – Roglic loses jersey

Photo: @PhotoGomezSport

Primoz Roglic has lost the red leader’s jersey on the sixth stage of the Vuelta a España. The leader of Team Jumbo-Visma was struggling at the top of the penultimate climb after having had problems putting on his rain jacket. He then had to pay for his efforts to come back to the peloton on the final climb when his rivals attacked him. Roglic eventually lost forty seconds to Richard Carapaz, who took over the race lead. The Slovenian is now fourth in the overall standings at half a minute.

Up to twenty-five kilometres before the finish all went according to plan for Team Jumbo-Visma. The yellow and black formation controlled the early breakaway. On the descent of the penultimate climb Ineos accelerated at an unfortunate moment for Roglic as the peloton split into pieces. Team Jumbo-Visma got surprised by that action, but managed to resolve the situation before the final climb. On this climb Roglic had to pay for his efforts to return to the peloton, though he limited his time loss.

“Today it didn’t go as we had hoped”, Roglic explained. “On the descent of the penultimate climb I had problems with my clothes, so we were a bit too far back when the peloton broke. We had to pull out all the stops to get back. Eventually we managed to do that, but on the final climb I had not much left in my legs to counter the attacks. We have given everything. Sometimes you win some and sometimes you lose some. Today we lost some. The Vuelta is not over yet and we will continue to fight until Madrid”, a combative Roglic concluded.

Sports director Grischa Niermann regretted the incident. “This was a big mistake from us and should not have happened. As a team we were able to solve the situation, but we couldn’t do more than that. That’s a pity. Today was a bad day. The race is far from over. There are plenty of opportunities to come still and we will of course keep fighting to the end.”

Ion Izagirre (stage winner): It was a very tough stage. We knew that bad weather will hit the stage and that at the whole second part will be really wet and cold. We are in the Pyrenees and here the rain always brings the cold. But we were ready for that. From the start I was able to go in a breakaway together with Gorka and it was a good moment for us. Thanks to attack of Gorka I just stayed on the wheel in our chasing group, saving some energy for the final, – said Ion Izagirre.

“I attacked on the steepest part and shortly opened a gap. I looked back and saw that nobody really followed me, so I continued pushing hard until the finish. It was a tough way to the top with raining all the time, but I managed to stay in front and to win this stage! I want to thank my team for the work done today and of course I want to thank my brother Gorka, who was phenomenal! Gorka was really strong and on the descent he did a powerful attack. I think, he could win today.”

“But, when our group caught him back I knew that it was my turn to attack. Gorka provided me with good help on the climb and with 3 km to go I found a moment and just went away. This victory means a lot for me and I am happy to bring it to Astana Pro Team. After my crash at the Tour de France I was able to recover well, the team was always next to me during this time and I am happy that I came here at the Vuelta a España. I want to thank also all our sponsors, especially Samruk-Kazyna for a great support during this super difficult season, – added Ion Izagirre.

STAGE
1 Ion Izagirre Astana Pro Team 03:41:00
2 Michael Woods EF Pro Cycling @ 25
3 Rui Costa UAE Team Emirates @ 25
4 Robert Power Team Sunweb @ 27
5 Michael Valgren NTT Pro Cycling Team @ 27
6 Guillaume Martin Cofidis @ 27
7 Mattia Cattaneo Deceuninck-Quick Step @ 38
8 Hugh Carthy EF Pro Cycling @ 48
9 Gorka Izagirre Astana Pro Team @ 53
10 Sergio Henao UAE Team Emirates @ 55

12 Richard Carapaz INEOS Grenadiers @ 55
18 Daniel Martin Israel Start-Up Nation @ 01:23
20 Primoz Roglic Point jersey Team Jumbo – Visma @ 01:38
69 Mark Donovan Team Sunweb @ 10:18
79 Fred Wright Bahrain-McLaren @ 11:28
112 Scott Davies Bahrain-McLaren @ 17:11
132 Chris Froome INEOS Grenadiers @ 17:11
154 Harry Tanfield AG2R La Mondiale @ 21:52

Overall
1 Richard Carapaz INEOS Grenadiers 24:34:39
2 Hugh Carthy EF Pro Cycling @ 18
3 Daniel Martin Israel Start-Up Nation @ 20
4 Primoz Roglic Team Jumbo – Visma @ 30
5 Enric Mas Movistar Team @ 01:07
6 Felix Großschartner Bora – Hansgrohe @ 01:30
7 Marc Soler Movistar Team @ 01:42
8 Esteban Chaves Mitchelton-Scott @ 02:02
9 David De La Cruz UAE Team Emirates @ 02:46
10 Alejandro Valverde Movistar Team @ 03:00

83 Mark Donovan Team Sunweb @ 57:54
98 Chris Froome INEOS Grenadiers @ 01:04:24
114 Fred Wright Bahrain-McLaren @ 01:08:38
118 Scott Davies Bahrain-McLaren @ 01:09:24
155 Harry Tanfield AG2R La Mondiale @ 01:26:46

Full Result Here