Bahrain Victorious defend Fred Wright after Primoz Roglic accuses him of causing La Vuelta crash

Bahrain Victorious have defended their rider Fred Wright, rubbishing accusations he was at fault for the Stage 16 crash which ruled Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) out of La Vuelta.

Roglic looked set to battle it out with Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) in the latter stages of the race, before the former collided with Wright towards the end of the stage.

“Team Bahrain Victorious stand by Fred,” the statement read.

“It is our belief that this was a racing incident. Unfortunately crashes are a part of our sport and this isn’t the first, nor will it be the last, even though riders do their best to avoid them.

“The race footage supports this: our rider does not deviate from his racing line before the incident.

“We also believe that if a team has certain feelings about an incident on the road, the place to take those up is with the commissaires after the stage rather than a statement online some days later.”

Wright also commented on the claims from Roglic, and said the statement was unfair.

“I don’t think the statement is fair to be honest, as the footage shows it was a simple racing incident, but I also appreciate that Primoz was challenging for the red jersey here at La Vuelta.

“And of course I did send him a private message after the stage to see if he was ok.”

Wright, 23, also took to social media to defend himself and thank his team for their support.

Roglic’s comments came days after the incident occurred, and he took aim at Wright for his “behaviour”, which he believed caused the crash.

“I can walk a little bit. I am happy with that for the moment,” Roglic told Jumbo-Visma’s official website on Friday, three days after the incident.

“After the crash, it took me time to straighten things out. I asked myself: how can this be?

“My conclusion is that the way this crash happened is unacceptable. Not everyone saw it correctly.

“The crash was not caused by a bad road or a lack of safety but by a rider’s behaviour.

“I don’t have eyes on my back. Otherwise, I would have run wide. Wright came from behind and rode the handlebars out of my hands before I knew it.”

The final stage takes place on Sunday in the Spanish capital of Madrid, but not before riders tackle a 181km mountain test between Moralzarzal and Puerto de Navacerrada.

– – –