Defending champion Primoz Roglic suffered a nasty fall as Denmark's Mads Pedersen won stage 16 of the Vuelta a Espana at Tomares in Andalusia on Tuesday. 

Aiming for a fourth consecutive Vuelta win, Roglic launched an attack on the flat stage, hoping to pick up bonus seconds to close the gap on race leader Remco Evenepoel. Adding to the drama, less than 3km out Evenepoel was hit by a puncture as Roglic looked set to eat into his 1min 34sec overall advantage. 

But one hundred metres from the finish line Roglic swerved and fell hard, with his left knee and hand covered in blood. Evenepoel suffered a stressful few minutes awaiting a decision on timing and expressed relief as Roglic gained only eight seconds. 

"I hope Primoz can carry on," said the Belgian Vuelta rookie. "I knew he would try and I'm sad for him." The 22-year-old enjoyed a lead of almost three minutes at one point earlier in the race, but Roglic took back time on two mountain stages over the weekend. Pedersen's win extends his large advantage in the race for the sprint green jersey on a day when the peloton raced at slower than 40kph on a sweltering day in southern Spain. 

Pedersen also expressed concern for Roglic after seeing him stricken on the road just behind the finish line. 

"I wanted to go to him here and I saw he was with destroyed clothing," he said. "It's a pity that he crashed. He hasn't been lucky this year. I hope it isn't too bad so he can continue competing for the victory of the Vuelta." 

Stage 18 and 20 feature multiple mountains when Roglic and Enric Mas, third in the standings, will look to attack Evenepoel. 

Tuesday's stage ends with a 10km climb at a five percent gradient to an altitude of 2,512m, which creates the possibility of a mini shake-up.