Those guys Dempster mentioned, Giulio Pellizzari and stage winner Juan Pedro Lopez held on for victory, with Lopez even moving into the overall lead of the race ahead of Tobias Foss. In a double blow for INEOS
Geraint Thomas is now out of GC contention, having sacrificed himself in service of Foss.
“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, praising the former Tour de France winner's selflessness. “I think 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. I hope he 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."
Dempster also retains faith that Foss can still take the overall victory. “As I said before the race, we really believe in him and that’s why he’s on the team,” the Australian insists.
“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,” Dempster concludes optimistically.
