Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d rode into the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a\u2019s final rest day with a \u201csticky bottle\u201d fine and a much bigger problem.<\/p>\n
Enric Mas is riding away with the red jersey.<\/p>\n
Officials fined Rogli\u010d 200 CHF after he held onto a bottle from the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team car for too long during Sunday\u2019s transition stage. Sport director Sven Vanthourenhout received a 500 CHF fine for the same incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cIrregular feeding (\u2018sticky bottle\u2019 for a short distance, etc.),\u201d the race jury report read, without citing where or when the infraction occurred.<\/p>\n
The jury slapped fines on both for irregular feeding in Sunday\u2019s jury report. There was no time penalty, leaving Rogli\u010d third overall at 2:10 back.<\/p>\n
The fine isn\u2019t what hurts, it\u2019s the widening gap to Mas that could decide the Vuelta.<\/p>\n
Rogli\u010d close but slowly losing ground<\/h2>\n
After Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s stunning exit, many expected Mas to fold and Rogli\u010d to rise. Instead, the opposite has happened.<\/p>\n
Mas won atop Aitana on stage 9 to push his advantage over Rogli\u010d to 1:18. He widened it to 1:45 at Calar Alto, then piled on another 25 seconds at La Pandera on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, which started the week optimistic about Roglic\u2019s chances, admitted that Mas is riding better than anyone expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea was not to lose time, but we did, which was not what we wanted or expected,\u201d Red Bull sport director Patxi Vila told L\u2019Equipe<\/em> after Saturday\u2019s stage. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t been possible to beat Enric, but there is still a long way to go. But he is very strong and very solid so far.\u201d<\/p>\n No one really knew how Rogli\u010d would go in this Vuelta, including himself.<\/p>\n After being overlooked for the Tour de France, he came into the Vuelta undercooked after being hit by a vehicle in July.<\/p>\n After a very solid opening, he\u2019s been getting gapped by Mas on each summit finale in the closing kilometers over the past week.<\/p>\n Now his Vuelta depends on Thursday\u2019s 32.1km time trial.<\/p>\n Tuesday and Wednesday\u2019s transition stages are not ideal for a GC raid.<\/p>\n That leaves the race against the clock as Rogli\u010d\u2019s best \u2014 and perhaps last \u2014 chance to tilt the Vuelta back in his favor.<\/p>\n On paper, the 2020 Olympic time trial champion should crush the rolling, power course against a peloton full of skinny climbers. Felix Gall, now ahead of Rogli\u010d by four seconds, is also expected to lose time to the Slovenian.<\/p>\n But winning the stage might not be enough.<\/p>\n Mas added nearly a minute to his lead to Rogli\u010d over the past week, so that extra buffer could keep him in red or keep him very close.<\/p>\n In the 2024 Vuelta, Mas only lost about one minute to Rogli\u010d in a 24.6km time trial with a similar profile. It was about the same time loss in the 2023 time trial in Valladolid on rolling terrain at 25.8km.<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s course is about 8km longer, so the margins will be bigger, but Mas will have a better chance to defend red thanks to his gains over the past week.<\/p>\n To have any hope of final victory, Rogli\u010d needs to erase his deficit and ideally carry the red jersey into brutal back-to-back summit finales to decide the Vuelta on Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n Rogli\u010d, 37, is also racing with his future uncertain. A big win at this Vuelta to set an all-time record with five victories would have raised his stock if he decides to keep racing.<\/p>\n And even though a final podium is still in the cards, a victory would have sweetened the pot.<\/p>\n Instead, it\u2019s Mas who\u2019s flying.<\/p>\n If Mas can limit losses against the clock, he could be in line to win Spain\u2019s first Vuelta since Alberto Contador in 2014.<\/p>\n \u201cNot everything has gone like we wanted since last [Aitana], but almost everything has been under control, so I\u2019m happy,\u201d Mas said. \u201cI really like when we race in Spain. I feel a lot of support from the people and I hope it continues like this until Granada.\u201d<\/p>\n A victory would also be Movistar\u2019s first Vuelta since 2016 with Nairo Quintana and the Spanish team\u2019s first grand tour since the 2019 Giro d\u2019Italia with Richard Carapaz.<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s time trial will prove decisive.<\/p>\n No matter what, everyone will have to try to hold on during Granada\u2019s surprisingly explosive final circuit with a steep climb around the Alhambra.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/vuelta-a-espana\/primoz-roglic-sticky-bottle-fine-vuelta-time-trial\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Vuelta-Espana-2026-Stage-9-8081.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated September 7, 2026 02:12AM Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d rode into the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a\u2019s final rest day with a \u201csticky bottle\u201d fine and a much bigger problem. Enric Mas is riding away with the red jersey. Officials fined Rogli\u010d 200 CHF after he held onto a bottle from the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2132210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2132210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2132210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2132210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2132210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Time trial could decide red<\/h2>\n
Mas could spoil Rogli\u010d fairytale ending<\/h2>\n