Despite feeling the unbearable heat of southern Spain in September, Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) moved up to second overall at the Vuelta a España on stage 14, gaining 25 seconds on Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) with a late move to overtake the former four-time winner.
While Gall's team had previously been the aggressors for much of this Vuelta, the Austrian admitted post-race that he approached the final, brutal climb to Sierra de La Pandera with more caution due to the extreme heat in recent days, worried about the fatigue build-up towards the end of the second week.
After Movistar controlled all day, he made a few accelerations on the steeper slopes, but was always unable to distance race leader Enric Mas (Movistar), who had Raul Garcia Pierna for help before Gall made a final push to the line, again unable to find separation from the Spaniard. But he was more than happy to have left fellow podium contenders Roglič and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) behind in the last 2km.
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"I guess in a Grand Tour, end of week two, you never really know how good you are; you don't feel so good, and then when it counts, the legs are there. That's the most important," Gall told reporters at the finish on Saturday.
"Movistar made it pretty hard in the final. I think I didn't want to take too much risk with the heat of the last days and also today again, so I wanted to wait and see how I would feel and wait until the end, and I'm super happy I could gain a few seconds in the final and that the shape is there."
For Gall, his second place is virtually still third if you take into account the expected advantage Roglič has over him in time trialling, with the 32km flat race against the clock likely to see his four-second advantage extinguished by the Slovenian.
But it's another sign of his form improving, or at least the fatigue accumulation impacting all of his rivals, bar Mas, more than him for the moment. He knew he had to gain time before the time trial to give himself the best chance of securing the podium, and potentially second – the result which he managed at the Giro d'Italia earlier this season behind Jonas Vingegaard.
Asked if he was in fact getting better as the days go on, Gall said, "I mean it's hard to say; fatigue is for sure building up, also with the heat it's just really exhausting. Yeah, obviously it's going well, and I'm happy.
"[A podium finish] is what we came here for, and that's still the same goal. Today was important to gain a few seconds ahead of the TT, which is the next GC day. After that, we only have two – well, not only – it's still a super hard week to go, but then two hard mountain stages to go, so it was important today to still gain some time."
Gall remains 2:06 from the lead of Mas, which isn't insurmountable, but will require the performance of his life on those final two mountain days he speaks of if he wants to snatch red from the home favourite.
He needs to survive through the next three flatter stages, get through the time trial within striking distance, then use stage 19's summit finish to Peñas Blancas (18.8km at 6.5%) next Friday as his first opportunity to take time back, either on Mas or the likes of Roglič, if he really slipped away in the race against the clock.
Perhaps the best thing working in the Austrian's favour, however, is just how brutal the penultimate stage to Collado del Alguacil is, with the narrow, poorly-surfaced, and viciously-steep hors categorie climb in Sierra Nevada arriving at the end of a brutal day with 4,900 metres of elevation gain.
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