The way things are looking now, that would be a shock. Hopefully, he is getting in good training and riding within himself. If this is all he’s capable of right now, then he is very, very hurt.
Some theories:
- he's as bad as he looks, he's trying as hard as he can but this is all he's got left. At which point he's sacrificing his own season for nothing, i.e. being a lower grade domestique doing a few pulls (or as Maassen said, he's no longer capable of following the top 10) isn't going to make or break Jumbo's TdF. It's like they're keeping him here for the final photos in Paris or for sponsorship reasons & give zero sh*ts about his injury & form.
- he's riding to a 'delta', i.e. preserving himself for the Vuelta, never going over a certain limit & doing as little as possible, under instructions from the team.
- he's doing the above but without the team's approval, "Ah my legs huh, not good eh!".
In any case I want what's best for Roglic. This is no ordinary rider & considering his season so far (like riding injured in Itzulia & the way he was treated here in the TdF), I no longer look at Jumbo from the same perspective as before, i.e. the question "is Jumbo doing what's best for Primoz Roglic?" now has reason to exist. It didn't before.
For some perspective, these are the same people who told him not to do the Olympics ITT last year after his performance in the road race. He overruled that to earn one of the top wins of his career. And those Olympics where he went from getting dropped like a stone in the road race to absolutely annihilating the ITT 4 days later should give his fans some 'hope' (small hope maybe, but still hope) he can pull this around & perform at the Vuelta.
Probably against Tadej Pogacar who really needs a GT win this season after losing 'his' TdF. That would be a spectacle to look forward to. Unless of course Jumbo says "we're taking Vingegaard as co-leader to the Vuelta!". No cervezas for Jumbo if they do that.