Sivakov: Movistar accelerated after Roglic's Giro d'Italia mechanical

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Pavel Sivakov (Team Ineos) – the leader in the Giro d'Italia's best young rider competition – says that current race leader Richard Carapaz's Movistar team started racing à bloc after Jumbo-Visma's leader Primoz Roglic had a mechanical problem during Sunday's stage 15 from Ivrea to Como.

Speaking in a video interview with L'Equipe, the Russian told the French sports newspaper that he'd only heard about Roglic's crash, but that he'd seen that the Slovenian was having trouble with his gears.

"I heard on my radio that he'd crashed," Sivakov told L'Equipe. "But before that he'd had a mechanical problem. I saw that he'd broken his derailleur, so when Movistar started racing à bloc after that, I didn't think that was very fair, and a bit strange."

Asked to confirm that Movistar had accelerated after Roglic had got into trouble, Sivakov replied: "Yes – absolutely. Yes."

The Team Ineos youngster lost time to Astana's Miguel Angel Lopez in the young rider competition during the stage, but still leads the Colombian by seven seconds.

"It really was like a Classic," Sivakov said of the stage that had followed part of Il Lombardia's famous Classics route.

"Everyone knew that a rest day was coming up the next day [Monday], so everyone gave it everything. It was very difficult in the finale. I've never done Il Lombardia, but it was difficult," he said. "Although if this was my hardest day, it's not too bad keeping hold of the white jersey."