After pacing all day on stage 2 of the Tour of the Alps without reward, Ineos Grenadiers hatched a “creative” plan on the third day of racing to put Filippo Ganna in the break and force their GC rivals to chase.
The day ultimately ended with race leader Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers) losing the race lead, but the Norwegian showed great resolve to limit his losses to stage winner and new green jersey wearer Juan Pedro López (Lidl-Trek), with a 31-second deficit to make up on the final two stages.
It was nearly a perfectly executed day as close rival teams DSM-Firmenich PostNL and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale were forced to pace, but Sports Director Zak Dempster admitted the British team were just one rider short from completing the game plan.
“Teams should be prepared that we’re willing to race creatively and that’s what we did today,” Dempster told Cyclingnews and WielerFlits after the finish.
“In the end, two guys skipped away and we probably missed a guy to fully execute the plan but you know… we’re not here to make everyone lunch,” joked the Australian.
With Ganna opting to head off on a solo venture with over 110km to go, the Italian powerhouse found himself tapping away on the front until he was caught 27.8km from the finish in Schwaz with the group of favourites chasing him down as the roads went uphill.
Frustration from missing out on stage 2 was evident in Dempster’s words on why they chose to leave one of their top riders out in solitude during the most cold, wet and brutal stage of the five-day race so far.
“We pulled all day in the headwind yesterday and apparently, no one else was interested in winning the bike race except the guys in the break,” Dempster said.
“So we thought we’d send him up the road in the breakaway and better to use him than everyone else and it kind of worked out in the end.”
Although they are no longer leading the race, losing the jersey does take away the responsibility from the British side and Foss who now sits in second on GC, with Lidl-Trek now in charge of controlling the race with their young roster. Foss admitted to L’Equipe post-race that, “now we don’t need to control that much anymore and hopefully we can attack”.
The former time trial World Champion looked back to his best climbing form as he “rode his own pace” and slowly pulled back attacks from the likes of Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) and rode hard in the finish to limit López’s advantage and take third on the stage.
“As I said before the race, we really believe in him and that’s why he’s on the team,” Dempster said before admitting they weren’t sure when Foss would get to this level.
“You can never tell because he was coming from a complicated start, so to dump all the pressure on him for the Tour of the Alps, I don't think that was going to be the right approach. But at the same time, we want to push the boat out and I think he’s doing a really good job so far.”
Foss is now left to lead Ineos at the Tour of Alps on his own after Geraint Thomas dropped out of GC, and even folded into a domestique role on the flat roads to help the Norwegian try to chase down López and fellow escapee Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè).
“I think G gave him [Foss] a good hand on the flat there, we missed one guy to control the group but at the end of the day, López and Pellazzari were super strong, chapeau to them,” said the Ineos DS.
“I think he [Thomas] was suffering a bit in the cold like everyone but then realistically with only him in that group of 20, we had a decision to make and they kind of took it themselves. Tobias said ‘I’m good’ and G was more than happy to sacrifice himself.”
But Dempster was hoping the experienced Welshman maintained his effort after his work for Foss was done, with the bigger goal still to come when he heads to the Giro d’Italia next month.
“I hope he [Thomas] kept on the pedals now, he’s not close [on GC] but it's important he gets the efforts in every day and today was definitely a nice practice for a cold Giro stage,” he said.
The cold and rain played a huge part in the day with Dempster even saying it was “maybe as big a factor as the climbs”. Riders arrived shivering in ones and twos, forced to shake their hands to get the circulation back and immediately headed back for some warmth at the team buses.
López’s advantage is far from safe with close to 4,000 metres of elevation on the stage 4 menu as the race heads back to Italy from Laives to Borgo Valsugana, with Foss, O’Connor and Bardet among those eager to strike with form for the Giro d’Italia also in their minds.
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