Zonneveld questions Pedersen and Lidl-Trek's relentless pacing: 'That’s how you make enemies in the bunch'

The race looked set to explode with 90 kilometers still to go on the steep slopes of Alpe San Pellegrino. UAE Team Emirates - XRG took control there, but Thijs Zonneveld couldn’t quite make sense of their tactics. “What were they actually doing? It was a bit of everything and nothing. There were still about 25 riders left in the bunch, and the entire UAE squad was still there — Baroncini, Majka, Arrieta, all of them. Across from them, only two Red Bull riders were left: Pellizzari and Roglic. You’d expect them to try something there, but they didn’t.”

It wasn’t team leader Juan Ayuso or pink jersey Isaac Del Toro who launched the attack, but rather Egan Bernal. That move ratcheted up the pressure, including on Primoz Roglic. “When Bernal accelerated, Ayuso followed straight away, and Del Toro responded to Ayuso. A few riders were clearly in trouble. You can see that Roglic always reacts a bit late, trying to ride as economically as possible. When he’s feeling great, he’s right there, immediately.”

Just like in the first mountain stage, the Slovenian was once again briefly out of position. Thijs Zonneveld suspects the 2023 Giro winner is playing a calculated game, though it’s clearly not all going smoothly. “Either he’s not feeling great and has to dig deep, or he’s actually in decent shape and just trying to save as much energy as possible. I think he’s better than he looks. But if he’s really on form, he’d be on the wheel right away.”

In the end, the peloton came back together, and the breakaway looked set to fight for the win. But Lidl-Trek had other plans and unleashed Mads Pedersen to drive the pace. Within 20 kilometers, the gap dropped from 2.45 to just 50 seconds. “I love how Trek seems to think they can control everything, but at some point, this is how you make enemies,” said the BEAT Cycling sports director.

He couldn’t wrap his head around why the American team burned so many matches, only to ease off once the road tilted upwards. “Pedersen might say they closed the gap for Ciccone,” he noted, “but then Ciccone has to respond when Carapaz makes a move. And you could see that coming from 48 kilometers out. It was crystal clear for two kilometers that Carapaz had told his team to ramp up the pace. If you’re not on that move, then I really have to ask, what was all that effort for?”

It wasn’t the Italian climber, but Richard Carapaz who launched the attack at the foot of the climb. “It was a telegraphed move. He basically sent a carrier pigeon all the way from Ecuador saying, I’m going to attack right there. And still, Ciccone wasn’t on it. Come on.” According to Zonneveld, chasing at that point was unnecessary. “You might think, let’s bring the break back so Ciccone has a shot at the win. But you have to ask yourself: one, how much energy does it cost you? And two, you still have two weeks to race. There might be better opportunities ahead, ones that cost you less and don’t create so much bad blood with other teams.”

What didn’t help either was the lack of cooperation in the break, which included Wout Poels. “Those guys were really just messing around,” Zonneveld said. “You had five riders up front, and not all of them were willing to do the work. Plapp was the most obvious. He just refused to take pulls. And when he did, he gave it three token pedal strokes, like, I already have a stage win, you do the rest. That kind of attitude annoyed the others. Even if you accept that he’s not going to help, it’s hard to keep riding full gas when that’s happening.”