Red Bull-Bora-Hansgröhe have confirmed to Cyclingnews that team leader Primož Roglič will continue in the Giro d'Italia, despite losing time and suffering unspecified injuries due to various crashes in the race's opening two weeks.
Speculation was rife that the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe leader might quit after a difficult stage 15, where he was dropped on a late Cat.2 ascent by the other favourites, losing 90 seconds.
The overall leader on two separate occasions in the race so far, by Sunday Roglič had slumped to tenth on GC, 3:53 down on maglia rosa Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). He has crashed three times in the race, once on the gravel stage to Siena, once in training for the Pisa TT and once on stage 14 when he and other GC riders became entangled in a late mass pile-up.
After stage 15 on Sunday, the team told various media that the team doctor will 'assess whether Primož can continue' and Roglič did not talk to media on the rest day. However, at the start of stage 16, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sports director Patxi Vila was much more optimistic about his chances.
"Of course, two days ago [Sunday] was a hard day," Vila told Cyclingnews, "It was a hard day for the team and for him, especially.
"He suffered a lot and then he made it to the finish, but at the end and after the rest day, physically but also mentally, he recovered, he's fresher. He's much better."
Vila admitted that Roglič's race from here on was a voyage into the unknown, saying
"It's a question mark, they are champions, but also they're champions in recovery, in making comebacks that seem impossible, like we saw with [Chris] Froome in 2018 [in the Giro d'Italia]. So now we will see how it goes today.
"We'll have to analyse and see what's going on. We will understand it pretty soon in the stage, if he is good, bad, if it was just a bad day, or if there was something more going on."
If the current situation with Roglič had arisen in the Vuelta a España, Vila said, they would have done things differently. But with more goals for the team leader coming up fast in July, they had to be more cautious before deciding the Slovenian would try to see out the final week of the Giro.
"The Tour de France is a couple of months ahead, so if things are not going in the right direction, we probably have to think about that. If that was the case [and Roglič abandoned], we'd have to change strategies completely and focus on stages, but for the moment, we just think about today, see how Primož is going.
"He's our only option so far. We'll protect him and see how he feels, then if things have to change then we'll take decisions later."
Unconfirmed media reports late in the rest day afternoon had already claimed the 35-year-old would continue in the Giro and Sporza said that Roglič had done a brief training ride on the rollers on the race's final day off.
But the definitive confirmation did not come until Tuesday morning, and the 2023 overall winner and 2019 GC podium finisher will be at the stage 16 start for the toughest mountains ride to date, a 203km leg from Piazzola sul Brenta to San Valentino with nearly 5,000 metres of vertical climbing.
Speaking directly to Eurosport before the stage start, Roglič struck an optimistic tone.
"For sure, I'm definitely better than yesterday, what that means, we will see because we will need a couple of 100% to be better and be good," said Roglič.
"I don't really care what it is, or how it is, but I will just give it a try and if I can see I can do it, I will ride, otherwise every kilometre that I can ride will be something."
"I don't really think it's realistic anymore to do the GC, I'm obviously fighting for survival like I said. I still came to the start today and I couldn't even ride the bike yesterday, so I'll just see if I can ride."
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