Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe had ambitions for overall victory at this year’s Giro d’Italia, but as the decisive mountainous stage 14 to Pila looms large on the horizon, team co-leaders Giulio Pellizzari and Jai Hindley are still struggling with illness, unsure if they have the health to stay in the fight for a GC result.

Saturday’s stage to Pila in the Val d’Aosta is ‘only’ 133km long but is considered a five-star stage, with five major climbs and over 4,000 metres of elevation filling the route, and a 16.5km, 7.1% climb to finish.

Pellizzari, Hindley and Red Bull sports director Christian Pömer know it will be a big day.

“I think Saturday is the big day of truth. I think we’ll see where we really are,” Pömer told Cyclingnews.

“It’s the first big mountain stage. The others were more of a flat stage with a mountain finish. The stage to Pila is very different, with a climb right from the start.”

“It looks like a nice block of Toblerone, but it won’t be as fun as Toblerone,” Hindley told Cyclingnews and The Cycling Podcast with his colourful and unique sense of humour.

“We think it’ll be a really hard day. A lot of guys are saving themselves for the final week, but Saturday will be a proper savage day out.”

Hindley and Pellizzari fell sick a week ago, and Grand Tour racing makes recovery very difficult. The Australian is sixth overall, 2:39 down on Jonas Vingegaard, while Pellizzari is ninth, 3:09 down on the Dane.

Both are less than two minutes from the podium battle but are also battling illness.

“It’s a bit shit, but there’s not much you can do,” Hindley told Cyclingnews and The Cycling Podcast on Friday.

“I’m not 100%, unfortunately. That’s the way it goes. It’s hard to recover in a three-week race, but there are guys in the same boat.”

Former Giro champion Hindley will fight on in the Giro, hoping to gradually recover. If he falls out of the fight for the top 10, he will try to target a stage win in the third week.

“That’s the main idea for myself. to hopefully become healthy for the final week,” he said.

‘I expect Visma will ride a conservative race’

True to character, Pellizzari is still smiling but is also suffering. He had high hopes and high ambitions for the Giro, but has hinted that he may even struggle to make it to the finish in Rome.

“I’m feeling better, but I’m still suffering a lot. People said we’d have three easy days this week, but until now we have not had an easy day, and so it’s been hard to recover,” the Italian told Cyclingnews.

“Saturday will be the first real mountain stage, and it will be hard from the start to the finish. I just hope that I can recover a little more.

“I’m still suffering, and I was feeling a bit unwell on the bus after the stage to Novi Ligure. Hopefully it’s not too serious.”

Like everyone, Pömer expects Jonas Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike team to finally take control of the maglia rosa with a show of force.

“You don’t need to be Nostradamus to understand that Jonas Vingegaard is the favourite. Behind him, there is also a battle for the GC, and so we will have some clarity in that battle too,” he told Cyclingnews.

Pömer never reveals the Red Bull race tactics but expects Visma to ride conservatively until the final climb up to the Pila finish line.

“Our task is to be ready for several scenarios. I’m not going too deep into our strategy, then the whole world would read Cyclingnews and know what we’ve planned,” Pömer said.

“Giulio had a small setback on the Blockhaus stage, but he and Jai will try to fight on.

“I noticed that Jonas did not look good after the finish in Fermo, and he raced conservatively on Corno alle Scale; that’s a sign he’s not super. But with Jonas, you never know.

“I expect Visma will ride a conservative race. I think that’s their general Giro strategy, and then it depends on how his closest rivals feel. It’s up to us to ride our best race possible.”

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