My body shut down

“I was already hurting at the foot of that climb and with some 8km remaining I had another crisis. I didn’t have a hunger-knock but my body simply shut down and my legs stopped turning. I don’t know if I couldn’t cope with the scorching heat or suffered from dehydration. I don’t intend to make any excuses but I don’t have as good legs as I had after the Tour and today they gave me a clear sign of that. I noticed that there were still some thirty riders ahead of me and as I was already in trouble I eased off  and rode at my own all the way up. I didn’t work out today but there is nothing I can do. There is a still long way to the end of the Vuetla and anything can happen,” said Roman. At least, he had two reasons to be happy. First, his teammate Nicolas Roche came third today and has become the leader of the race, and second, his fellow compatriot Leo König celebrated a stage victory. “Nico showed a great performance together with Rafa Majka who also finished in the first group. First and foremost, I will do my best to support them from now on. It is the first time in his career he´s been the leader at a Grand Tour so will try to hold on to that jersey for as long as possible. As for myself, I might try my luck in one of the stages but if I were to suffer as I did today I would pull out of the Vuelta and wrap up the season,” Roman admitted. He also had a word of praise for König. “He pulled it off nicely, chapeau! When I saw the attack that he made in the first stage I wasn’t a bit surprised today. He looks really strong in the mountains and it was to his advantage that Nibali, Valverde and Rodriguez marked each other. Maybe they underestimated him a bit.”