Juan Pedro López apologized to Sam Oomen on Sunday after the ninth stage of the Giro d’Italia. The Spaniard, who narrowly retained the pink leader’s jersey, threw a water bottle at the Dutchman on the final climb out of frustration.

López hit Oomen’s rear wheel with 8 kilometers to go, forcing him to put a foot on the ground and almost fall. The 24-year-old Trek-Segafredo climber then grabbed a water bottle and threw it at Oomen.

In his interview immediately after the very tough stage, López first wanted to make a statement before answering a question. “I want to say sorry to Sam Oomen,” said the rosette wearer. “He tried to push me out and I went crazy for a while. Then I threw a water bottle at him, I want to apologize for that.”

On the site of his team, López gave a little more explanation about the incident moments later. “Unfortunately, when we touched, I had a very difficult moment mentally. I had to stay focused and told myself to get the pace back up to keep the pink.”

López narrowly succeeded in that mission by crossing the line in 15th place on the Blockhaus, 1 minute and 46 seconds behind stage winner Jai Hindley. In the standings he had twelve seconds left over the new number two João Almeida. The rosette wearer does not appear to be punished by the jury.

Oomen was eighteenth at 4.34 minutes from Hindley. The Jumbo-Visma climber is in twentieth place in the overall ranking, 7.21 minutes behind López.

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