TakeVueltalast week
There's no Vermaerke statement to downplay anything — the "viral video" narrative got ahead of what's actually confirmed. What's real is simpler and more telling: he rode tempo on a summit finish with a cracked rib, and nobody said a word about it until it leaked at the team car.
The original detail came from an overheard conversation, not a press release or a rider quote — no team announcement, no startlist update, no Vermaerke soundbite addressing it. That silence is the actual story of stage 7: a first-year WorldTour rider working for Tadej Pogačar on the Aramon Valdelinares climb, injury unacknowledged by anyone with a microphone. If a response from Vermaerke exists, it hasn't surfaced through official channels — which makes the quiet itself worth noting more than any quote would.
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