Opinion: Reports of Ineos Grenadiers' weaknesses at 2022 Giro d'Italia have been greatly exaggerated

Even as Richard Carapaz claimed his first maglia rosa of this year’s Giro, much of the discussion on Saturday evening centred around his isolation on that day’s stage. The absence of team-mates from his side, it was argued, hinted at a weakness in the ranks of the supersquad. Ad/> That’s one way of looking at it, sure.

Giro d'ItaliaGiro d'Italia Stage 16 — Route map, how to watch as thunderstorms await18 MINUTES AGO Another is that Ineos Grenadiers took a tactical gamble. Rather than the rest of the team being unable to stay with their leader, it’s perfectly possible that they were, in effect, given the day off. It was confirmed that Richie Porte was relieved of responsibilities, and the rest of the team are hardly slouches.

Pavel Sivakov was the last rider in his company, hanging on for dear life to the locomotive led and fuelled by Bora Hansgrohe. It was a thrilling intervention, of that there can be no doubt. It made covering the race for the likes of yours truly a nightmare but it was probably worth it for the viewers at home.

In the scheme of things, though, what did Bora really gain from it? Hindley is a single second closer to Carapaz in the general classification, thanks to his slightly superior sprint, and two or three rivals lighter. Carapaz, in contrast, was handed an armchair ride to the maglia rosa. That he leads the race by a handful of seconds, rather than a bushel, is down only to the details of his final act attack.

An attack which, it bears pointing out, at that particular point he appeared to be the only rider capable of making. While every other member of that final group was on their limit, Carapaz seemed to be well within himself. The move itself, while impressive, and an authentic effort to take