Primoz Roglic placed fifth in the Slovenian championship. Team LottoNL-Jumbo’s climber was in the lead, together with champion Jan Tratnik (Amplatz - BMC) during the final lap when he punctured and got caught by the chasers. Battaglin finished 10th in Italy, Maarten Wynants took 16th in the Belgian race.

“I was in front together with the eventual winner when I punctured and had to change wheels,” Roglic said. “That’s why the chasers were able to catch me. I was unlucky today. I really wanted to become national champion and if I didn’t have that puncture, I would have had a nice chance to make it. I know, since my time trial title, how beautiful it is to become the champion of your country. That feeling carried me on today, as well. It’s disappointing that I lose it because of something like this, but that’s part of the sport, as well.”

Battaglin

Enrico Battaglin finished 10th in Italy behind winner Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek - Segafredo). “I wanted more than this 10th place,” the Italian said. “I got sick after the Giro d’Italia on the other hand and I started training again only one week ago. When you look at that, I didn’t do a bad job today.”

Wynants

Maarten Wynants rode a very tough Belgian championship on Sunday. In the rain and the Walloon hills, the peloton didn’t stay big at all. “The circumstances in the national championships are always strange with those big teams and small clusters of riders,” Wynants explained. “Already early in the race, 20 riders escaped. That wasn’t a good situation for us. We help the chase for a while, but when Sep Vanmarcke said that he wasn’t feeling good, we weren’t able to much more. The peloton broke into three pieces, so I returned a little bit back in the race. Behind the three leaders, it broke up, but I wasn’t able to go along with them because I was boxed in for a moment. That was a pity.” Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team) won the title.

Wagner

Robert Wagner didn’t a play a big role in the German championship and finished 63rd. “This race was about the Tour de France for me,” Wagner explained. “I wanted to ride some kilometres and didn’t take part in the fight of the bunch sprint.” André Greipel (Lotto - Soudal) sprinted to become the German champion.