The chase has commenced. Just a day on from committing a potentially fatal error in gifting Ben O’Connor a near-five-minute lead in the Vuelta a España, an embarrassed Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have already begun rectifying their mistake, starting the task of eating into what could be an unassailable advantage.
On stage seven of the race, another stifling hot day in the elevated and parched plains of Andalucía, Red Bull led a reduced peloton up the final climb, Alto de 14% (which, you guessed it, has gradients of 14%, albeit not for too long), and then hoped to lead Primož Roglič out to a win in the Moorish city of Córdoba, drilling hard and relentlessly.
Roglič did claw some time back on the Decathlon AG2R LA Mondiale leader, gaining six bonus seconds at the top of the fourteen-percenter, but he was unable to distance O'Connor on the run-in to the finish nor sprint to a top-three result, Visma-Lease a Bike’s defending champion Sepp Kuss impressively bringing Marc Soler back to tee up Wout van Aert for his second stage win of the race.
Despite the following two days taking place in the high mountains, including two ascents of the dizzying and inhumane Alto de Hazallanas on Sunday, terrain where Roglič will have a much better chance of cracking O’Connor, Red Bull clearly wanted to start making amends immediately. Whereas on stage six, they were as lax and as chilled as the tens of thousands of holiday-makers on Spain’s beaches right now, on stage seven, they ignored their piña coladas and were instead as pumped and as fiery as the two raging red bulls that are depicted on their team kit. Yesterday, they didn’t turn up to work, but today, they did yesterday’s graft.
Image by Zac Williams/SWPix.com
So for the net result to only be Roglič cutting his deficit to O’Connor to 4:45, still a mammoth-sized assignment, there may well be a tinge of disappointment. They might also be questioning one of their own, with Aleksandr Vlasov chasing down his former Russian teammate, Sivakov, in the dying kilometres, only for Roglič to finish in the small bunch sprint in 18th, side-by-side with the Australian whose shadow he had vengefully stalked all day.
But criticism should not linger because Red Bull, 24 hours on from a racing decision that even they admit “got out of hand”, have come out fighting, and the race will be all the better for it. Roglič isn’t going to steamroll towards a fourth maillot rojo anymore, and to win the jersey he believes is rightfully his, he and his teammates have got to intimidate and rough up the Aussie bandit.
It is said that O’Connor is at his best free from pressure and at his worst when expectation accompanies him. Red Bull’s strategy, then, is rather simple: attack him wherever and whenever. Go long, go unexpectedly, go as an ambush unit, but don’t rely solely on Roglič’s speciality: mountain-top sprints. That won’t be enough. Red Bull have to repeatedly take the game to O’Connor and force him into sleepless nightmares where the night sweats aren't only caused by failing hotel air-conditioning units. It appears that they understand their job and have already begun. This is going to be fun.
*Cover image by Getty Images
