“Igaveit everything Icouldto hangon”

having found his limits after a tough fight to keep yellow on Saturday.

The Mitchelton-Scott rider said: “I knew coming into the race I wasn’t 100%. I gave everything I could to hang on. I think we can be pretty proud of what we did. We’ll freshen up with the rest day and go after some stages.

“There are a lot of stages in the last week that suit me quite well so we’ll see what we can do.”

Roglic will now enjoy today’s rest day with the yellow jersey on his back after a week in which the collective strength of the Jumbo-Visma team – winners of three stages between Roglic and Wout van Aert – only underlined his status as favourite.

“It’s beautiful,” the 2019 Vuelta winner said.

“This is the first time that I have had (yellow) and I think everyone is dreaming about it when you start being a rider.”