Primož Roglič has been docked 20 seconds by the commissaires on the Vuelta a España for drafting behind the Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe group automotive following his bike change forward of the ultimate climb to Cuitu Negru on stage 15.
After putting fifth on the stage, Roglič had initially closed to inside 43 seconds of crimson jersey Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R) atop the Vuelta a España GC standings. He stays second total after the time penalty, however his deficit is now 1:03 because the race breaks for its second and closing relaxation day.
Roglič stopped to change bikes with a bit of over 20km to go within the valley earlier than the beginning of the ultimate haul to the end. The Slovenian made the choice to change to a single chainring set-up to deal with the viciously steep higher reaches of Cuitu Negru, the place the gradient touched 24%.
The race jury deemed that Roglič and his teammates Daniel Martinez and Roger Adria had claimed an unlawful profit from the group automotive. The riders have been every docked 20 seconds on GC and 15 UCI factors for “sheltering behind or benefiting from the slipstream of a car.” They have been additionally fined 200CHF apiece.
Directeur sportif Shane Archbold was fined 500CHF for his half within the incident. Archbold was additionally fined an additional 1000CHF for “breach of rules or pointers regarding car actions through the race.”
His fellow directeur sportif Patxi Vila was fined 500CHF for a separate sticky bottle incident involving Martinez, who was fined an additional 200CHF.
Roglič had been tipped by some to divest O’Connor of the general lead at Cuitu Negru, however though the Slovenian gained floor on the crimson jersey, he was briefly dropped by Enric Mas (Movistar) within the finale.
Though Roglič completed the stage with Mas, his 20-second time penalty implies that the Spaniard has closed to inside 1:20 of his second place total.
