Roglič and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe suffer double blow at the Vuelta a España: 'Had hoped for more'

Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe headed into Thursday’s time trial in Stage 18 of the Vuelta a España with high hopes, but in the end, disappointment was the prevailing sentiment. The German team narrowly missed out on the stage win with Callum Thornley, and general classification contender Primoz Roglič was unable to truly close the gap to leader Enric Mas (Movistar).

Thornley posted a blistering time early in the day, and for a moment, the 23-year-old Brit seemed to have reason to hope. However, Stefan Küng, riding for Tudor, beat that time by 2 seconds, leaving Red Bull with the most thankless spot in the results.

The same was actually true for Roglic, who went into the time trial with confidence and hoped to chip away at a significant portion of the 2.10-minute gap he faced against Mas. In the end, he managed to shave off only 33 seconds. Roglic is now the new number two in the general classification—even if it is that thankless spot....

Two second-place finishes—team manager Patxi Vila didn’t have much to say about that in his post-race interview with Eurosport. “Primoz did well overall; he rode a very good time trial. We have to be satisfied with that. Ultimately, we only have control over what’s within our power. That means riding a very good or excellent time trial, and that’s what we did.”

However, the gap to Mas in the general classification is still 1.37 minutes heading into the final two mountain stages, and that’s significant. “Enric did well, too. We had hoped to gain more time, but it is what it is. We didn’t make any mistakes, and if you had told us before this Vuelta that we’d be in second place after this time trial, we would have taken it in a heartbeat.”

Nice words, but anyone who listened closely could still detect a hint of disappointment in Vila’s voice; he had undoubtedly hoped to gain more time and thus have a fierce battle in the final two mountain stages. “We have to be satisfied and optimistic,” he repeated. “We’re still going to try to win—that much is clear. We’re not going to risk everything, though I’m not sure how you’d even go about doing that.”

"We'll see if Primoz is still able to win."