TakeVuelta4 weeks ago
Red Bull called second place before the race even reached its hardest stage. Sven Vanthourenhout said before the second rest day that he'd "sign right now" for staying in that position — even if the gap to Enric Mas grew by another minute and a half, leaving the team to "strike in the final week." That's not a post-defeat excuse — it's the target they set with ten days of Roglič's training already gone.
A July crash left Roglič mostly off the bike for roughly ten days, and Red Bull built their entire Vuelta model around that deficit rather than around beating Mas outright. Vanthourenhout's rest-day comment — made before the queen stage, not after it — shows the team had already priced in a muted final attack. A ninth Grand Tour podium isn't the consolation prize in that framing. It's the number they were aiming for.
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