The unwritten laws of cycling say that the yellow jersey is respected. It is ugly to attack him if he has had a mechanical problem. And even more so if he has been the victim of an accident. If the race is not launched, the commandments advise waiting. This is what happened in the third stage of Itzulia, where Primoz Roglic (Bora) suffered a spectacular fall that left him dazed.
The leader, who won the Irun time trial and took no risks on Tuesday, crashed in a left curve at the entrance to a town while the peloton, led by the Ineos, faced the port of Olaberria. There were 39 kilometers left until the Altsasu finish line. And seeing the Slovenian a little scared there were doubts about whether he could continue. Roglic had a scratch on his left arm, blood on his right knee and two holes in his shorts but he also complained about his jaw and cheekbone.
He didn’t immediately get on the bike but finally, after a couple of minutes, he started walking again with pained expressions. Bora left Sobrero and Buchmann to accompany him and at first it didn’t seem like they were seriously pursuing the chase.
Ahead, the favorites realized that the leader was missing and decided not to accelerate any further. Without stopping completely, they decided to wait for him. The slogan was clear. Nobody moves. And Vingegaard (Visma) was in the first places in the peloton so that the wearer of yellow was respected, who finally rejoined the peloton with 26 minutes to go.
With his body bruised, Roglic didn’t even think about entering the Etxarri-Aranatz bonus sprint, where Evenepoel took three seconds. It was already in preparation for the arrival, already inside the safety zone, almost in the last km, when there was another pileup in the center of the main group. That’s where Juan Ayuso (UAE) fell, remaining motionless on the asphalt for a long time. The man from Alicante knew that he would be given the same time as his rivals at the finish line and preferred to take his time getting up. In the end he also finished the stage, although there it was impossible to stop a sprint that the Belgian Quinten Hermans (Alpecin) took.
