Mads Pedersen won a thrilling sprint at the end of stage 16 at the Vuelta a Espana as Primoz Roglic’s hopes of dislodging leader Remco Evenepoel were hit by a heavy crash metres from the line on Tuesday.
You can rewatch STAGE 16 HERE
Roglic, bidding for a fourth successive overall victory, began the day 1:34 behind Evenepoel in second place and launched a stunning attack near the end of the 189km ride.
The Slovenian poured on the power on a short climb leading towards the finish in Tomares to split the race and only four other riders managed to stay with him.
As the finish line loomed, Roglic was overtaken and seconds later went down heavily after seemingly touching handlebars with those of Fred Wright 100m from the line.
Pedersen took the win from Pascal Ackermann and Danny van Poppel with a bloodied Roglic getting gingerly back to his bike and rolling slowly over the line in the pursuing bunch.
As Roglic attacked Evenepoel appeared to have suffered a puncture inside the final 3km and required a bike change.
Initial timings suggested Roglic, despite his misfortune, had taken the red jersey with Evenepoel slipping down to third but that was soon revised with Evenepoel given the same time as the main peloton thanks to the “3km rule” which mitigates against crashes or mechanicals at the end of flat stages.
When the dust settled Roglic, who was given the same time as Pedersen, had taken back a mere eight seconds on Evenepoel who now leads by 1:26 from Roglic.
Enric Mas is 2:01 down in third place with some mountainous terrain on the horizon later this week.
It was tough on Roglic who looked in real discomfort as he reached the finish. It was also a lucky break for Evenepoel who could have seen his hard-earned overall lead vanish.
“I heard that Primoz crashed, so I really hope he’s okay and that he can continue the race,” Evenepoel said.
“We all know that Primoz is explosive so a final like this is really made for him. That makes it even more of a pity for him that he crashed. You never want somebody to crash — I hope he’s okay.
“I’m happy that the 3km rule exists otherwise I would have lost a lot of time today.”
