Primoz Roglic blaming Fred Wright for crash at La Vuelta was 'bizarre' - Dan Lloyd

ByEurosport

Published 10/09/2022 at 14:58 GMT

Primoz Roglic abandoned La Vuelta after a nasty crash on Stage 16 of the Spanish Grand Tour. The three-time Vuelta champion released a statement via Jumbo-Visma on Friday attributing blame to Fred Wright. And the incident itself and the fallout was discussed in depth by Orla Chennaoui, Adam Blythe and Dan Lloyd on the latest episode of The Breakaway.

‘Feels so out of character’ – Lloyd on Roglic blaming Wright for Vuelta exit

Eurosport expert Dan Lloyd says Primoz Roglic’s decision to publicly blame Fred Wright for his exit from La Vuelta was "bizarre" and "out of character".

Jumbo-Visma released a statement on Friday that quoted Roglic attributing blame to the Brit for the crash that ended his Vuelta. in the Stage 17 sprint.

The Slovenian led a select group of five riders into the home straight as he sought to gain time on Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) in the red jersey, but hit the deck after coming together with Wright as the fast men swept past.

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"My conclusion is that the way this crash happened is unacceptable," said Roglic.

"Not everyone saw it correctly. The crash was not caused by a bad road or a lack of safety but by a rider's behaviour.

"I don't have eyes on my back. Otherwise, I would have run wide. Wright came from behind and rode the handlebars out of my hands before I knew it."

Shortly after Jumbo-Visma went public, Bahrain Victorious announced that they stood by their rider and that it had been a racing incident. Wright echoed that sentiment in a pre-race interview ahead of Stage 20, calling the situation unfair.

‘Down goes Roglic!’ – Watch extraordinary finish to Stage 16

Orla Chennaoui, Adam Blythe and Lloyd discussed the incident and fallout on the latest episode of The Breakaway, with the latter surprised by the timing of the statement.

“[It is] one of the most bizarre statements I think I've ever read from a cycling team,” said Lloyd.

“I think it's even more shocking because Primoz is a very sensible character and is very switched on.

“The team are fairly sensible, Richard Plugge [managing director of Jumbo Visma] has a background in journalism - he's an incredibly intelligent bloke that's done wonders for that team and they've had days to think about this.

“It's very different if a journalist was in the face of Roglic afterwards and in the heat of the moment, he said, 'that was wrong, it shouldn't happen, I should still be in this race, but now I've crashed, look at me', but they've had lots of time to think about this.”

‘Unfair’ – Wright says Roglic crash was ‘racing incident’

It was a sentiment that Blythe agreed with.

“I think it's unfair of Primoz to look at that situation and blame Fred. It's not fair to Fred, he didn't do anything wrong," he said.

“As Dan said, [if he hasn’t] got eyes in the back of his head, ride in a straight line - you're not going to do this in a bunch sprint and hope someone doesn't hit you.

“He doesn't know how many riders are behind him - he's just guessing and moving.

“What happened is Wright was coming past him... he wasn't behind him, he was right next to him, and was carrying on with his sprint and hit Roglic's handlebars.

“But it's so unfair to say to Fred, this is all your fault. And you know, what would have happened if Fred fell off? I'm sure Fred Wright wouldn't have gone back to Primoz and said 'that was all your fault’.

“It's just not fair to say that."

Lloyd added that he did not expect such a reaction from Roglic.

“It just feels so out of character,” added Lloyd.

“If we look at how dignified he was when he lost that Tour de France [in 2020] on the penultimate stage. He had every right to say, ‘I don't want to speak to anyone. I'm so incredibly disappointed’, but the way that he handled that, you know, he isn't that sort of character.

“He clearly thinks he is in the right but I just don't think he should have said that publicly, and his team [shouldn't have] put out a statement in the middle of yesterday's stage.”

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