Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have said that no initial decision will be made on the viability of injured leader Primož Roglič's participation in the Vuelta a España until the beginning of next week.
Roglič dropped out of the Tour de France before stage 13 after two bad crashes in two days.
The team have not ruled out his participation in the Vuelta a España for the three-time champion (2019, 2020, 2021), team manager Rolf Aldag told Cyclingnews, but they will not begin to look at the viability of his participation until the beginning of next week.
With both Primož Roglič out of the Tour de France and the team's alternative GC option Alexandr Vlasov also out with a fractured ankle from a crash on stage 9, the squad is currently fighting for stage wins.
On the brutally difficult stage 15, the squad managed to place three riders in the breakaway of the day, including former Giro d'Italia winner Jai Hindley, but things fell apart on the second last climb as Visma-Lease a Bike chased down the remnants of what had been a 21-man move. The team vowed to keep trying as the race heads towards its final showdown in the Alps, Aldag said at the start of stage 16.
"If they just sit back and remember how much they've invested for this year's Tour," Aldag said, "then it's basically self-explanatory. To say we can't just give up on this, we have to continue and keep fighting.
"We thought on Sunday there was a chance, and that's why we did what we did, and it was textbook stuff, all three in the front group, including when it squeezed down to 15. OK, so it wasn't to be, but it was a very positive thing for us, it shows, mentally, that we were there.
"Not every stage suits us perfectly, there will still be GC battles and other scenarios where we will not have too much influence. But we try, we see every stage now as a one-day race, and the guys are really up for it."
"It does need a lot of pep talk from my side - but it's in their nature, the guys are all professional and they know how much they've invested in it."
Hindley, a former Grand Tour winner, stage winner and wearer of the maillot jaune in the Pyrenees last year, Hindley already showed strongly in the break on stage 15. But as Aldag says, given the GC battle and the strength of the top two names, waiting for a late attack is not an option.
"We have to try to get out there… if we leave it to [race leader] Tadej [Pogačar] versus Jonas [Vingegaard] versus Jai, it'll be a difficult one. So early moves, early breaks…there are still a couple of stages where something will happen, it's not all going to be control and GC stages and then we have to be there.
"Equally, it's no secret the same guys targetting the stages, the likes of [Michal] Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Jai... Up until now, it's been hard work getting into the breaks, apart from the first day with Romain [Bardet], sneaking that in - that was amazing. But for now, it feels like the two dominating teams have too much at stake and UAE and Visma are always finding a reason to control or to ride."
Aldag is very cautious regarding the decision for Roglič to reboot his season at the Vuelta a España. "We have a couple of decisions to make. It's not only Primoz, it's also Vlasov" - not now in any pain from his ankle fracture, Aldag says, but yet to be decided. "But we always get medical updates, we'll see how they are and we'll probably have a rough idea by the beginning of next week, at least of what we think we can do.
"By saying that, we might also have to realise that - No, it's not possible. So let's see. There's also the mental aspect, for both of them, you know, you go to the Tour with big ambitions and go home with nothing.
"So there is also the question of saying what are the right goals now - what are we really aiming for, what is going to motivate them…how do they cope with it all. There's also their private lives, another three weeks at altitude, four weeks away in the Grand Tour missing the family. There are a lot of aspects to be considered."
Aldag freely admits that both Pogačar and Vingegaard are operating on another level, even if it's worth remembering Roglič was lying fourth overall just over a minute down, his best position on the first rest day since 2020.
However, the Tour has rarely been generous to Roglič - his last podium finish in 2020 was overshadowed by Pogačar wrenching yellow from his shoulders on the second last day, and since then he has crashed out three times in four years. And as Aldag also recognises with a bleak smile, such is the sport's intensive focus on results that outside the team and after the Tour, Roglič's pre-crash achievements and the huge amount of behind-the-scenes work put in by both the rider and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe towards July, will be greeted with indifference.
"He was going in the right direction although if you see what Jonas and Tadej are doing here, that's absolutely outstanding. But [he was] in the area of Remco [Evenepoel], maybe doing a bit better than him on the climbs. So we were there, we were in the mix - but to be honest, nobody cares and nobody will give us big credit if we analyse the Tour afterwards.
"You see the results and we're not massively there, certainly not on GC. So it's a big hit for the team, but internally we can explain it, internally we can analyse it and internally we have some positives as well."
Roglič has a long history of bouncing back at the Vuelta from his Tour setbacks, too, winning it in 2020 and 2021, but as Aldag says, even if history would be on the Slovenian's side in the Vuelta, first the blows from the Tour have to be absorbed before a second Grand Tour in Spain in 2024 can really begin to appear - or not - on the radar.
"There is still a lot of sadness and emotion still floating around, once we sort that out, we'll make some rational decisions as to what is possible. Also, the times when he did turn things around [at the Vuelta], his coach [Marc Lamberts] was involved and he has to be involved now to give us his assessment [about possible race program]."
"Marc Lamberts has known him for a long, long time, so I think with all the input from the team doctors as well, it'll all be important when it comes to making a final decision."
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