TakeVueltalast week
Kevin Vermaerke was upping the pace for Tadej Pogačar on the Aramon Valdelinares climb with a cracked rib or two — a detail nobody announced, just overheard at the team car. No statement, no update to the startlist, just a support rider doing the job anyway.
This is the American's first Grand Tour at WorldTour level, moved up from Team Picnic PostNL to UAE Team Emirates-XRG this season. On stage 7, with 16km still to go, he was riding tempo on a summit finish while nursing an injury that only became public because TNT Sports' broadcast happened to catch it. UAE Team Emirates-XRG never disclosed it themselves. That's the actual job description for a domestique in a three-week race — the pain isn't the story, the silence around it is.
Sources