Giro d’Italia contender Primož Roglič crossed the end line of stage 5 of the Giro d’Italia thanking his fortunate stars after narrowly avoiding a severe collision within the first of a number of crashes that ripped by way of the peloton in a fraught finale.
“Glad to be right here” was Roglič’s succinct evaluation of how he felt concerning the closing kilometres of the stage, which noticed key rival Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) crash twice in in the future.
Roglič’s success additionally prolonged to not dropping time regardless of being pressured to a cease within the first of the crashes with seven kilometres to go, with Jumbo-Visma working furiously in a chase group to deliver him again into contact with Evenepoel and the remainder of the entrance group.
Rain-soaked and dirty on a day of very tough climate circumstances, Roglič was visibly relieved when he stopped briefly to speak to reporters on the line, and he additionally made some extent of thanking his teammates for his or her laborious work in protecting him in competition.
“It is all good, it could possibly be rather a lot worse,” Roglič mentioned afterwards. “The blokes did an unbelievable job bringing me again.”
“I simply had tremendous good luck, they hit me within the leg [from behind] and a man crashed simply in entrance of me,” Roglič, mendacity fifth total after stage 4 at 1:12, mentioned as he defined simply how shut issues had been for him.
Roglič averted the later crash that introduced down Evenepoel for a second time and he outlined his day with an ironic chuckle at how tense the stage had been and a easy however telling phrase: “I am pleased to be right here.”
He mentioned had requested Evenepoel how he was after the Belgian’s first crash early on stage 5 and the Belgian had advised him he was OK. However that was earlier than the ultimate three crashes within the closing kilometres had as soon as once more seen Evenepoel hit the deck and Roglič have his a number of close to misses.
Roglič’s feedback had been maybe all of the extra heartfelt given in his earlier Grand Tour, the 2022 Vuelta a España, he had been pressured to desert after a foul crash late on a transition stage like Wednesday’s within the Giro left him too injured to proceed. However this time, at the least, he was rather more lucky.
