The look of sheer pain on Tim Rex's face as he rode in support of his teammate and Visma-Lease a Bike leader Jonas Vingegaard on the penultimate climb of stage 14 has become one of the most talked-about moments of the second week of the Giro d'Italia.
It has resonated with cycling fans and even his peers among the peloton because it captured the ambition, motivation and level of commitment – he turned himself inside out – that domestiques give to their teams and general classification leaders at the biggest races in the world.
"It was really hard. I was quite on my limit there," Rex told Cyclingnews in an interview the following day at the start of stage 15 in Voghera.
"We tried to keep the gap at the same distance, and I could hold it. I was actually already finished, but somehow I managed to go over the climb, and I was in some pain."
Stage 14 from Aosta to the summit of Pila was the only mountain stage offered during the second week of this Giro d'Italia.
While Vingegaard had already won the two summit finishes atop Blockhaus and Corno alle Scale, he wasn't able to take the maglia rosa from Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious) before the second week of racing.
Vingegaard also struggled through the 42km time trial into Massa and later revealed that he had been sick earlier in the week, but he had recovered well enough ahead of the decisive mountain stage to Pila.
Rex told Cyclingnews that the team had planned for Vingegaard to take the stage and the maglia rosa on Pila, and that through teamwork, they executed it to perfection. His role was to reduce the gap to the day's breakaway and, on the back-to-back climbs of Lin Noir and Verrogne, he was asked to increase the pace because the gap was still too big.
"We were saying on the climb that at the bottom there was 6% to 7%, and I was pulling, and then we came to a steeper part and said if the gap increased on the steeper parts then we would need to accelerate a bit. So I accelerated, and I went quite over my limit already," Rex said.
"But I could hold the gap, and somehow I managed to get over the climb. Then it was perfect because we had Bart [Lemmen] and Victor [Campenaerts] for the last climb."
Rex revealed that he had held a steady pace at 5.9 to 6 watts per kilogram for the duration of the stage, but that his turn on the climb, which has been replayed across social media, captured his ability to push beyond his own pain threshold.
"When I came back on the bus, of course, the first thing I opened was to see my power data. I was riding all day between 5.9 and 6 watts per kilogram. Not just on the climb, but it was all day, the same pace," he said.
He explained that he had always pushed himself to his limit, since he was a youth rider just starting out, even at 10 years old.
"Since I'm young, I'm the type of guy who could really go over my limit and don't see anything anymore," he said.
"There is a funny story that when I was 10 years old and riding with my dad, we were riding up the climb, and I didn't want to get dropped. But in the end I got dropped because I crashed, because I went so hard that I saw black before my eyes, so I think it's just a bit in my system."
Vingegaard indeed won atop the Pila, and thanks in large part to the work of his entire team, including Rex. The maglia rosa praised his team for their hard work and support.
"Jonas is giving everything for us, but we are also giving everything for him. We have a nice atmosphere on the team and really have fun together, and we try to help each other."
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In love with Tim Rex’s IG feed 💞#GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/GucJ3xkFu4May 24, 2026
