Vuelta a España: Day 15 It’s the time in a three-week Grand Tour where fatigue is raging and reserves are low, a time when it takes a strong will to fight, to battle on, despite injuries, aches and pains from day after day of pounding the pedals up grueling hills, where illness can grab you suddenly, or simply “bad” legs have you hanging on for dear life.  A time, often, when motivation wanes as your once strong competitive drive is trumped by a different animal: that of mere survival.

Trek Factory Racing has shaken off a few big blows - losing Fabian Cancellara on day three to illness, Jasper Stuyven to a fractured wrist, and Fränk Schleck’s general classification ambitions ruined to both a bad luck mechanical and crash - and claimed two huge stage wins, and now they are into the last week of what has been a tough, hard race.  Surprisingly, even with a boxful of excuses to pick from, their motivation has not disappeared.

Saturday’s stage 14, the longest in this year’s race at 215 kilometers, began in the same fashion as the past few days: a huge battle to be in the breakaway as riders knew it was a ticket for a chance to ride to glory. And again, making that escape group was no easy endeavor.

“It took 50 kilometers again until the break went, and before that there were several attacks with 15 riders, 7 riders, 12 riders, and we were numerous times there but we missed the break of five,” explained director Dirk Demol. “The best on GC from them was over an hour back and so Astana gave them more time and no other teams were interested to pull. 

“Of course we knew that it could go to the end, and the next two days will be the same, and we are really trying to have someone there. Today the boys were really motivated, and they were several times there in bigger groups, but these were not allowed the freedom to go."

Behind the moments of glory and jubilation that comes with winning, there are many more moments of suffering and pain; while the victors garner the media attention, the silent fighters, the ones struggling miles behind, are marginalized. And often forgotten.

Boy van Poppel is last in the classification.  He has battled quietly through a painful hematoma, a result of a crash, and is now pushing through illness. But he has not thrown in the towel. 

“Boy has passed several difficult days, but he has survived every day,” added Demol. “Today he was back at the medical car because he was having stomach problems. He is happy that he has made it so far, but of course we have two very difficult days ahead and I hope that he can make it through to the rest day.

“His leg is really much better. Before it was even painful for him to walk, but on the bike with pedaling it has slowly improved.  This is behind him, now he is suffering from a bad stomach, but he is able to eat again so that’s a good sign.”

Part of a team director’s long list of tasks is to motivate his troops, keep the fire burning, the hunger alive, to push the team to strive for their best when they may feel at their worst.

“What I try to do is keep the motivation up and push them and hope that in the next two days we are part of the breakaway,” Demol continued. “But honestly, the motivation is good, I can feel that there is a really good atmosphere after we have already won two stages, but we have 7 more stages to go, including the time trial, and we will keep trying to go for another couple of good results.

“We want to keep all seven in the race for the last day where we have a big chance with Danny [van Poppel] in Madrid. It’s almost for sure a sprint, and if we have seven we can help control it the last day. But we must take it day by day and before that I am quite sure for one of the other days we will be represented in a breakaway.  So we will keep fighting. The motivation is there.”

Eight more days. Seven more stages. Trek Factory Racing is not finished yet.