Primoz Roglic has suffered a setback in the battle for overall victory in the Vuelta a Espana, as the Slovenian has been given a 20-second time penalty by the jury.
Roglic was accused of riding in the slipstream of the support car for too long after a bike change with 20 kilometres to go. As a result, Ben O’Connor’s lead has grown to 1min03s.
At 23 kilometres from the finish, Roglic decided to change bikes. It seemed like a planned change, because the Slovenian then continued with a bigger cassette, all this with an eye on the grueling final climb with percentages of up to 24%.
After the bike change, Roglic returned to the favourites group together with teammates Daniel Martinez and Roger Adria, but that happened after the three had been riding behind the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe support car for some time. Too long, the jury decided.
In the general classification, Roglic remains second, but his initial deficit of 43 seconds on red jersey Ben O’Connor has now turned into a deficit of 1min03s.
