‘You’re on a knife-edge, mistakes can and do happen’ – Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe regroup to fourth after nasty Sobrero crash in Vuelta a España TTT

But the German squad quickly regrouped, and at the line in Figueres, only UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Visma-Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek had gone quicker.

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“I think we can take pride in what we did. I’m pretty happy that fourth is improvements on where we’ve been as a team in years gone by,” Dan Bigham, Head of Engineering at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, told Cyclingnews.

“We wanted to win, and I don’t think we’re a million miles away, 12 seconds off. OK, down in fourth, but with Matteo and what he’s capable of – he’s our engine room and to put it simply, a bloody awesome team time trialler – to lose him at that point in the race obviously lost us performance.

“But these things happen when you do a team time trial at the limit. You’re on a knife-edge, and mistakes can and do happen. Sometimes they have severe consequences, and that’s what happened there.”

Sobrero was checked for a concussion after he hit his head hard on the tarmac, crashing at high speed as he touched the wheel of his teammate, who was starting to pull off the front after an effort.

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He finished 3:46 after six remaining Red Bull riders finished together, and arrived from the medical van with bandages aplenty on his legs, arms and face, but Bigham was confident that he would be a starter on stage 6 from Olot.

“Thankfully, he got back on the bike and managed to finish. We haven’t lost him for the rest of the race, but obviously, to lose him in that moment from a performance perspective, you lose a lot of gas, speed, and therefore a lot of time,” added Bigham.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe confirmed on Thursday morning that Sobrero would continue on stage 6 with “no fractures or concussion” found after several SCAT tests and neurological exams.

“If we take everything as a collective, the guys performed incredibly well. They kept their heads on without even communicating really, got back into a great order and executed an awesome team time trial in the last sector.

“It’s kind of disappointing on one side, but we’re moving forward in the discipline. We’re not at the top yet, but we’re coming.”

Red Bull finished with six instead of the minimum requirement of four at the finish, but Bigham confirmed this was due to the need to adapt their strategy, with Sobrero originally part of the finish plan.

Bigham credited Red Bull’s Technical Performance manager, Jonny Wale, and the team’s Head of Mental Performance, York-Peter Klöppel, for how the riders responded following Sobrero’s unfortunate crash, having shown no signs of panic in the tense moment.

“You obviously hope for the best, but you plan for the worst. We go in with the strategy that we know what everyone’s role is, and also when things don’t go to plan, who has to pick up the slack?” Bigham told Cyclingnews.

“Sobrero was planned to finish in a four. So that has to change the strategy around. Johnny knows the order inside out on what we’re trying to achieve, and basically, replanned what we were doing for the second half on the fly.

“The second half of it comes down to mental preparation – having the capacity to respond to adversity in those scenarios. Mostly, athletes deal with that very well, and it’s something that we really strive on.

“We have York within the team who really focuses on this to make sure that the guys refocus on the task, don’t dwell on what’s happened, but take stock and think ‘How do I do the best I can for what’s remaining of this race?'”

Bigham, obviously a big fan of the discipline, summed up Red Bull’s day in the TTT perfectly when asked if, for someone in his role, a TTT day was like Christmas coming early.

“Team time trials in general, I thoroughly love them, but I think Christmas Day – it would have been nice if we got the present we were after,” he said with a smile. “It’s like a slightly disappointed kid where you ask for one thing, you get a slightly different one from your grandparents – maybe that’s the best analogy I can come up with.”