Change is brewing at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. When Giulio Pellizzari, the team’s 21-year-old climber, crossed the finish line after stage 16 of the Giro d’Italia, he was giving energetic interviews with a motivated smile. “You barely even look like you tried!” came the comment of a staff member. “He’s a f*cking legend,” agreed someone else. Pellizzari was understated and modest in his response, giving just a wry shake of the head, but his performance in the bike race was his answer: this is a man who is ready to step up.
The Italian’s attack on the final Brentonico climb was a sign that as soon as he is given the opportunity, Pellizzari is going to take it with both hands. Up to that point in the race, he had been duly at the service of his leader, Primož Roglič, dropping back to wait for the Slovenian on numerous occasions when he was in difficulty. We can’t blame Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe for giving Pellizzari these instructions; there is no world in which the German squad could have predicted that their young climber was going to fare better in this race than their GC superstar who they have signed on the promise of Grand Tour victories. But then came the crashes. Roglič, like many, has fallen again and again on the rain-soaked roads of Italy and coming into the final week of racing, his body was battered and bruised.
It’s a testament to the former Giro winner’s character, perhaps that he took to the start of stage 16 despite, as he told television cameras ahead of the race, the fact he “wasn’t able to ride a bike the day before.” No one truly knows what happened to Roglič during each crash that has led to his eventual withdrawal from the Giro, so conclusions can’t be drawn as to whether they were his own fault or it was just bad luck. If we want hard evidence, though, we can look at the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider’s history in big races. While he has won four of the five Grand Tours he’s finished, Roglič has not finished five of the last nine Grand Tours he started. The statistics tell us that Roglič crashes more than most. Is it misfortune? Or is it a rider error? Either way, the 2025 Giro is going to be classed as another disaster chapter in the rollercoaster novel that Primož Roglič has written ever since his cycling career began.
So, enter Pellizzari who, if he hadn’t lost so much time working and waiting for Roglič earlier in this race, would likely have sat in the top-5 of the general classification going into the final week of racing. When the Italian made his move on stage 16, he put a minute into the rest of the GC favourites in a matter of a few kilometres. He was only 55 seconds off catching the breakaway who eventually took the stage win, and his performance was a menacing sign for the rest of the race. Close to a stage victory and taking time back on GC as soon as your team grants you freedom? Welcome to the Giro, Giulio Pellizzari.
“We already knew that Primož wasn’t in the best shape this morning – we were ready to change the plan during the race,” Pellizzari said to Rouleur after the race. “When he stopped, we knew that we should just do our race and it was good. I knew that the breakaway had a lot of time so my only chance for the stage win was to attack far to the finish but I think there was still 55 seconds by the finish which was not enough. We’ll keep trying. For now it was good, but let’s see. There are another three hard stages so we’ll just keep trying.”
Pellizzari isn’t the only young talent that Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have got in their ranks this season. Florian Lipowitz, who finished second at Paris-Nice earlier this year, is also knocking on the door of leadership opportunities in Grand Tours with his stellar performances. As the Tour de France looms, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have some choices to make regarding which horse they should back. There must be a slight question mark over granting full leadership to Roglič, who despite his career so far, is 35 and has a history of not finishing the biggest bike races. If the German team makes the choice to go to future Grand Tours with a number of options for victory, then the likes of Lipowitz and Pellizzari will be ready to for the responsibility – they’ve shown that time and time again. Is it time for the next generation to take over?
