{"id":198631,"date":"2025-05-26T10:23:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T10:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=198631"},"modified":"2025-05-26T10:58:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T10:58:26","slug":"hurt-roglic-falters-del-toro-in-pink-verona-wins-sixth-giro-stage-for-lidl-trek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/05\/26\/hurt-roglic-falters-del-toro-in-pink-verona-wins-sixth-giro-stage-for-lidl-trek\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurt Rogli\u010d Falters, del Toro in Pink, Verona Wins Sixth Giro Stage for Lidl-Trek"},"content":{"rendered":"

If favorite Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d ever has occasion to think back on the 2025 Giro d\u2019Italia, his thoughts will invariably land on Sunday\u2019s stage 15, a massive 220km from Fiume Veneto to Asiago. That was the stage in which his legs failed him when his GC rivals went on the attack with 29km left to race, near the top of the last of three categorized climbs in the stage (16.6km @ 5.3%) and, though the gradient was not steep, he was unable to follow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Carapaz attacks<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The move was instigated by the always aggressive Richard Carapaz (EF Education\u2013EasyPost), who was soon joined by all the GC contenders \u2013 race leader Isaac del Toro and Juan Ayuso (both UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG), Simon Yates (Visma\u2013Lease a Bike), Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman (both INEOS Grenadiers), Damiano Caruso and Antonio Tiberi (both Bahrain Victorious) and Derek Gee (Israel\u2013Premier Tech). In other words all the GC contenders of this Giro were together, everyone except the Red Bull\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe leader.<\/p>\n

His domestiques, Dani Mart\u00ednez and Giulio Pollizzari, worked hard to pull Rogli\u010d over the climb and cut down the deficit, and they eventually managed to stabilize it \u2013 but the damage had been done. The Slovenian crossed the finish line a whopping 1:30 behind his GC rivals and 1:59 behind the brave stage winner, Carlos Verona, who gave his Lidl-Trek team its sixth stage victory of the race. Rogli\u010d now sits 10th in the GC standings, 3:53 behind del Toro.<\/p>\n

Is Rogli\u010d done?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

That\u2019s the question. Rogli\u010d has looked uncharacteristically passive over the past two weeks, raising concern over his fitness. In any case, his first words to TNT after Sunday\u2019s stage were not reassuring: \u201cI\u2019m just happy that I finished,\u201d\u00a0he said. But worse news was soon to come.<\/p>\n

Red Bull sports director Christian P\u00f6mer then put his future in the race in question. Asked if Rogli\u010d \u00a0will still be in the race after Monday\u2019s rest day, he said<\/a>, “I think this decision is up to the medical team. Health comes first. The team doctor has the final say and will assess whether Primo\u017e can continue.”<\/p>\n

The 2023 Giro winner was one of several riders to crash or be impeded on Saturday\u2019s stage 14, on a stretch of cobblestone in the Slovenian city of Nova Gorica made slippery by rain. That crash also affected several of the main contenders such as Ayuso and Bernal, and forced Lidl-Trek\u2019s GC candidate Giulio Ciccone to drop out of the race after the stage.<\/p>\n

“There’s no point hiding that he’s not feeling well or in pain,\u201d P\u00f6mer went on to say. \u201cWe tried to hide it a little, and that worked until today, but today we got a reality check.\u201d Apparently, a decision on Rogli\u010d staying in the race will be made on Monday. However, if he does continue, a gap of nearly 4 minutes is a lot of time to make up in a week, even a week in which there is so much climbing. Yes, Rogli\u010d made up nearly 5 minutes on Ben O\u2019Connor in last year\u2019s Vuelta, but \u2013 no offense to O\u2019Connor \u2013 he is no del Toro.<\/p>\n

It was the second time Rogli\u010d crashed in the race. He first fell off his bike on one of the white gravel sectors on stage 9, where he first lost substantial time to del Toro after also suffering a flat. However, his performance in the stage-10 ITT, which followed a rest day, suggested that he had come out of the incident unscathed.<\/p>\n

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Zobrazit p\u0159\u00edsp\u011bvek na Instagramu<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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P\u0159\u00edsp\u011bvek sd\u00edlen\u00fd Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n