Roglic and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe scratch behind ears: "Things have gotten out of hand"

Before the sixth stage, Primoz Roglic made it no secret that giving away the Vuelta a Espana leader's jersey was an option. However, the way it unfolded will still not be entirely to the Slovenian's liking. At Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, they assessed after a turbulent day in southern Spain.

After a bombastic start to the stage for Yunquera, Florian Lipowitz finally found himself in the day's breakaway on behalf of the team. It was not a bad situation, as the talented German was still relatively short in the GC and could thus put pressure on other teams. "It wasn't directly the plan to have someone in the breakaway, but there were a lot of attacks, and that way, it was hard to control. Uphill, I slid along, and in the end, we changed our plan with that," he confessed.

From that breakaway, Ben O'Connor was riding away, the man Lipowitz should have been watching anyway. "We were all looking at each other, and nobody knew what to do. O'Connor went at the right moment, but I'm happy with my legs. I had a hard time in the heat the last few days, but now I'm already looking forward to the next stages," the German said.

The Australian didn't care about anything or anyone and thundered on to the finish, where he finished with more than a six-minute lead. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, UAE-Team Emirates, Movistar, and the other classification teams saw it too late, but how could they let it get so far that the number four of the most recent Giro d'Italia now has a five-minute lead over Roglic?

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Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe blames themselves

"Things have gotten out of hand," team manager Patxi Vila revealed guiltily in conversation with Cyclingnews. "Things didn't play out as we wanted. The start was fast-moving, and the break of the day was with Lipowitz. We thought he would have no problem staying with Ben, and we'd get another option on GC," he said, referring to his young Poulain from Germany.

"What O'Connor ended up doing was incredible. I haven't seen that too often. On the last climb, he lost no time whatsoever; I never expected that," continued Vila, who wanted to put pressure on UAE and a few more teams with Lipowitz's presence. "But because O'Connor was so much stronger than expected, it got out of hand. This was a bad day, but we hope to turn the tide. The team is strong, but we still have a long way to go."

Roglic consequently was forced out of the leader's jersey, but afterward, the Slovenian did not immediately feel like telling his story at length. "We can't control everything, and, as I said, we planned to let a breakaway go. Florian did well and we got through another tricky day," Roglic said, not directly addressing the O'Connor situation. "We'll see at the end of the Vuelta." To be continued...