Pellizzari in crisis, Red Bull already switching gears: 'Why we took the initiative'

Giulio Pellizzari was the big loser on Tuesday in the Giro d'Italia. The youngster from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe started the mountain stage to Carì in sixth place overall, but ultimately lost 18 minutes and with that his hopes of a strong finish in Rome on Sunday. Afterwards, he gave his account to Eurosport.

It was a rather strange sight: Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe were on the front on the final climb, but Pellizzari had to let go 10 kilometres from the finish and came to a complete stop. In crisi, as they say in Italy. "I just didn’t have the legs," he said honestly to Eurosport.

"I was in the red from the first kilometre, but I still tried to keep going because the finish line was still far away," Pellizzari said, adding that his GC ambitions were now over. "Let’s hope we can get through these two days well and then we’ll see the last two climbs."

He still does not know exactly what is wrong. At the same time, the young Italian — who also no longer has any hope of the white jersey — is now immediately switching his focus to team-mate Jai Hindley. The Australian sits 33 seconds behind third-placed Thymen Arensman and still desperately wants to keep the podium spot.

Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe team manager Christian Pömer spoke at RAI regarding Pellizzari. 'Giulio was already not 100 percent since the Corno Scale stage, but he was optimistic heading into the weekend. We didn't expect this, but we have to live with the consequences,' the German said.

'We had hoped for two leaders in the last week, but now we are focusing on Jai. With him we want to get to the podium, which is why we took the initiative. However, when Giulio broke away, we had to switch gears. He ended up saying he felt bad and we had to keep going," he explained the moment on the Cari climb.