Opinion: Five scenarios for the Giro d'Italia's final Dolomites showdown - Carapaz, Hindley, Landa and... surely not?

All pants and no trousers. That just about sums up Bora-Hansgrohe’s tactics on Friday’s Stage 19 where Jai Hindley’s team took up the pacing in the peloton for over 100km only to give up the ghost ahead of the final climb to the Sanctuario di Castelmonte.

Despite attacks from both Richard Carapaz and Mikel Landa, Hindley was able to cope once he was jettisoned by his team – but the race’s big three crossed the line together to cap another GC stalemate in the Julian Alps of north-east Italy. Eurosport pundit Adam Blythe described Bora’s tactics as “the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen in a long time” – and this is a man who has to regularly look at his own shirts in the mirror.

Blythe and his fellow pundits on The Breakaway were perplexed by Bora’s decision to set up all their targets and then fail to pull the trigger. Ad/> “Throughout the whole stage I was expecting them to do something – they had to try something,” said Blythe.

“But with 10km to go they just sat up off the front. What’s the point?” /> Giro d'Italia'Classic mountain stage' — Porte will be missed in Dolomites, says WigginsAN HOUR AGO He then added in a comedy accent: “We’re just going to tire ourselves out ahead of tomorrow’s biggest stage of the Giro, where we could win the pink jersey but we’ll be even more knackered for that than we need to be…” For, yes, Saturday’s queen stage in the Dolomites includes three mahoosive climbs — including the race's highest peak, the Passo Pordio — and was described by Robbie McEwen as “a stage with fangs”.

“If it’s not going to happen tomorrow it’s never going to happen to separate them and it will just have to be fought out on the time trial bikes,” McEwen stressed. Carapaz holds a three-second gap over Hindley, with