Vuelta a España leader Primoš Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) regretted his mistake early in stage 17.

Roglic admitted that he was not close enough to the front in the early kilometers when a big breakaway of more than 40 riders was decided in strong winds.

"The team saved me with a big effort," Roglic said at the finish in Guadalajara.

"I made a mistake. They were on full throttle from the beginning and that was the rest of the day."

Roglic was part of the second group that had to chase for over 200km. With 40 km to go, all of his teammates dropped out and he was left alone.

"I was very lucky today," said Jumbo Visma team director Grisha Niermann.

However, Roglic said that while his team suffered a loss, "we lost the battle, but not the war."

Furthermore, he claimed that he never thought the Vuelta was over during the stage, but Niermann told Cycling News that from his perspective, it was a very close escape.

As Roglic pointed out, in the second group, riders from other teams with GC riders (mainly Miguel Angel Lopez's Astana and Tadey Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates, who were under threat from Nairo Quintana (Movistar), and Rafal Mayka's Beulah Hansgrohe), and a cooperative relationship with them.

He was more than five minutes ahead of Quintana (2 hours 24 minutes), who was second overall, but it could have been much worse

. He said, "I was calm because I wanted to finish as high up as possible, not only for myself, but for the other riders as well.

"We will see if we could have saved the Vuelta in Madrid. For us it feels really good. This Vuelta is really unpredictable and it will be a big battle from now on for sure."

Niermann, who was waiting for the riders to arrive on the team bus, was interviewed by Cycling News and described the ultra-fighting stage as "something to forget.

"I can say I was lucky. I still have the jersey and a decent gap, but it didn't go as planned."

Asked if there was a point where he thought the race was over, Niermann replied: yes, of course." [There was a full team of Detunink-Quickstep, many of the Sunweb team, and Movistar at the front. Luckily, we were able to get help after this."

Asked why Jumbo Visma was unable to control the early stage situation when it exploded in the first few kilometers of the stage, Niermann pulled no punches. 'It happened after three kilometers. We knew there was a crosswind blowing, but it wasn't sharp enough to put the whole team in the lead 50."

Niermann said, "The peloton attacked and the 50-man pack broke away.

"Of course, I immediately made them (Roglic's teammates) wait. Of course, we immediately made them (Roglic's teammates) wait.

[38] "We were really lucky today. Of course the team did everything they could, but it's hard to control a group of 47 riders with six riders.

"There were a lot of teams that weren't interested in GC but wanted the stage and they really pulled through. That's cycling. But we weren't sharp enough at the start and it was a really hard day for us."