Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe’s Vuelta a España had been relatively quiet until stage 17, but in a good way. Yes, they hadn’t amassed a dozen days in the red jersey like Jonas Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike; they hadn’t notched up seven stage wins like UAE Team Emirates-XRG; they'd not even been as prominent in breaks and stage finishes like Lidl-Trek. Instead they had efficiently navigated the first two weeks of racing and had placed both Jai Hindley and Giulio Pellizzari in the top five on the overall classification.
The 21-year-old Italian had been taking daily trips to the podium to pick up the white jersey as the leader of the young riders classification. A competition he might have been expected to cede to Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) on the savage gradients of the Asturian and Galician climbs of the latter half of this Grand Tour. Instead Pellizzari and Hindley plugged away, while others dropped away. Never far from the top two riders in the race, Vingegaard and Almeida, but not quite in the position or having the form to be able to attack and distance them.
That all changed on the scorched climb up to Alto de El Morredero, devastated by the wildfires that ravaged northern Spain in August. It was the perfect — emblematic even — desolate environment to use team tactics to isolate the other general classification men. And this is exactly what Red Bull did.
The Alto de El Morredero was the penultimate summit finish of the Vuelta (Image: Unipublic/Naike Ereñozaga)
After Visma paced all day through their remaining rouleurs Dylan van Baarle and Wilco Kelderman, it was the Red Bull team who took over the pacing duties for the last 10km in the lead up to the final ascent, clearly showing their intent to win the stage and put third-place on the overall classification, Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) under pressure.
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Hindley was the first to attack and after his performances over the last five stages, the Australian is clearly showing the form for an all-out assault for the Vuelta podium. However, despite whittling the favourites group down to five other riders — Vingegaard, Almeida, Pidcock, Riccitello and Pellizzari — Hindley couldn’t make more inroads, partly due to the terrain. The Alto de El Morredero, steep in its first half, but shallow and exposed — and importantly today gusty — in its final four kilometres, is a climb where riders who want to attack need to distance their rivals at the hardest point and hope the second group looks at each other. The parcours made it ideal for someone to steal a march, as the others in the group wouldn’t want to pace at the front in the wind. And that is how it played out with the 21-year-old Pellizzari getting away after a powerful and canny second attack, not to be caught and finishing alone for his first professional victory.
They have got their stage win, but could things have been better? On the whole it was a successful day for the German squad. However, with Hindley unable to gain time on Pidcock — and even losing two seconds on the line and two more in bonuses — he is now further from the podium. The 2022 Giro d’Italia winner is their best bet for the podium, so naturally it is he who is being most closely watched by Pidcock, whose position is most under threat. Whereas Pellizzari’s time gain is the concern of Riccitello for the white jersey. A competition the Italian is now the favourite for, especially with the time trial on Thursday likely to play into his favour. So the team’s focus should remain on catapulting Hindley onto the podium.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe were aggressive on Alto de El Morredero (Image: Unipublic/Naike Ereñozaga) Unipublic / Cxcling / Antonio Baixauli)
Red Bull couldn’t have done anything differently today. They had the numerical advantage so they had to use it. Both Pellizarri and Hindley put further time into the riders behind them on the overall. If the Australian had the legs to drop Pidcock he would have done. But after the penultimate summit finish of the race, it is clear their team is one of the strongest in the race. The Vuelta is no longer a race where they can sneak under the radar. At the same time, Pidcock isn’t showing any signs of cracking, so they will have to do more than they could manage on El Morredero. On the final mountain stage, the Brit will be isolated like he has been all race. But time is running out for Red Bull — their attacks will have to be out in the open, their intentions plain to see. Unless Hindley can gain significant time on Pidcock on stage 18’s pivotal time trial, it will all come down to the penultimate day.
With Almeida needing to throw everything at Vingegaard and now Hindley having to do the same, we can expect the final climb of the entire race to the Bola del Mundo to be as dramatic as the gradients promise. The parcours is offering the kindling, now it's down to Red Bull to light the match.
