Tour de France: Jumbo-Visma’s Frans Maassen reveals extent of Primoz Roglic injury which saw saw him abandon Tour

Jumbo-Visma Sport Director Frans Maassen has explained that Primoz Roglic abandoning the Tour de France was because he was “suffering a lot”.

Roglic took the decision to pull out of the race ahead of Stage 15 “to allow my injuries to heal” following a crash on Stage 5.

Speaking ahead of the Stage, Maassen described the difficulties Roglic was having and intimated that the decision came from above rather than from the rider himself.

He said: “I think Primoz is not feeling happy about the decision, and also the team.

“It’s difficult, but we had a good talk on the bus and the morale was high.

“Last year, we were only for riders and we were still one of the best teams so we have confidence we can still go on high level and yeah, we are motivated for today.”

Roglic’s team-mate Jonas Vingegaard currently holds the yellow jersey thanks in part to support from the Slovenian in recent days.

However, the injuries he suffered earlier in the race appear to be taking their toll with Maassen even suggesting that Roglic had actually played down the seriousness of his condition.

“Yeah, I think so,” he said. “Because every time when he came into the bus, you saw him suffering a lot and that was not nice to see a big champion like that entering the bus after the stage.

“And also yesterday in the start, you saw Primoz was dropped in a group, and I thought he was maybe taking a bit easy. But he told me afterwards that he was really dropped and not feeling great and all day suffering and suffering a lot.

Asked if Roglic would be ready to take part at the Vuelta a Espana in August, Maassen was non-committal.

“Normally, yes, but it’s too early to make this decision now. First, he has to recover and then we make a new plan with him.”

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