Shortly after race leader Primoš Roglic (Jumbo Visma) crashed heavily on stage 19 of the Vuelta a España, the Movistar team, which dared to ride hard, came under a storm of criticism and issued an apology. Fourth-placed Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), who was also involved in the crash, apologized himself for heavily criticizing Movistar and leader Alejandro Valverde.

The crash occurred on a tight downhill about 65 km from the finish in Toledo. Movistar, who avoided the crash, greatly increased the pace of the remaining riders in the peloton, leaving Roglic and Lopez to desperately chase the front.

After about 15km, the pace slowed and the group regrouped.

"It's shameful," ex-pro Joaquim Rodriguez said of Movistar's tactics, echoing the sentiments of many others who said it was "wrong to attack the race leaders at such an unfortunate moment. It's a filthy tactic," said Mitchelton-Scott's Luca Medjeck."

Movistar's first reaction was made by sport director Jose Luis Arrieta. He also claimed that the UCI commissaires helped pace the Roglic and Lopez groups.

Later on Friday evening, Movistar issued an official statement setting a more conciliatory tone.

"The Movistar team would like to apologize for the events that took place during today's stage. The way we proceeded was solely according to the strategy we outlined before the race, and we never took advantage of our rivals' crashes," they said.

." We hope that events like the one that occurred today will help everyone, both the teams and the race commissaires, to reach a single standard of how to act when situations like this arise."

Lopez was the most vocal critic of Movistar's actions at the finish in Toledo, but later publicly apologized to the team and Valverde for his choice of words.

"It is always the same stupid people who do this. Maybe one day I will attack straight away and win the championship.

"These really stupid actions are what a world champion team does. We have a world champion!"

On Friday night, he took to social media to retract his comments.

"No one will follow what happened in the Vuelta. I'm sorry...

"It was the excitement of the race and the pain of the crash that made me say that.

"I sincerely apologize to Alejandro Valverde and the Movistar team."