📅 10/05/2023 🚴♂️ Stage 5⃣ | Tappa 5⃣ ⭐️⭐️ Atripalda - Salerno 📏 171 km 🎢 GPM: 3a cat. x2 ⏰ Start | Partenza: 12.40 PM 🏁 Arrival | Arrivo: ~ 5.00 PM 📺giroditalia.it/giro-in-tv/ 🇬🇧🇮🇹🇪🇸🇫🇷 Live: giroditalia.it/live/ #Giro #GirodItalia - @ENIT_italia
"I think a lot of mistakes were made by that team" - Analysts left scratching their head over Quick-Step tactics at Giro d'Italia
CyclingThursday, 11 May 2023 at 15:09
The plan seemed clear before the start and then later on in the day. Soudal - Quick-Step did not put in a chase on stage 4 and allowed for the first breakaway win of the year in a World Tour race, however the team's extensive chasing at the start of the day contradicted their tactics and left the race leader alone at the end of the day.
"I think a lot of mistakes were made by that team, right from the get-go. You had a lot of riders committing full gas to bring a group of 14 riders back at one point. We were questioning why they were chasing it down because they were no real threat to the GC," Adam Blythe argued in Eurosport's The Cycling Show. "Yet they were adamant about bringing it back and rode hard for at least 10, 15 minutes, then after that, more attacks came and that was in the first 20km of the stage and it went on for another 60km after that. So it was a knock-on effect and it got worse."
Andreas Leknessund took over the pink jersey on the day, a scenario that was expected after the Belgian team argued they did not want the race lead this early on. Davide Ballerini and Josef Cerny were seen in the opening hour of the race burning themselves out and then dropping from the peloton after chasing down moves that were not dangerous, and the brutal day saw Evenepoel isolated at the end of the day. It was a difficult one but also a day with interesting tactics being played out early on.
"I think the other teams are going to be like this looking at that because if they make it hard at the start as they did today, if they try to isolate Remco from his team, I'm pretty sure they will know they can do it now," he continues. Although Evenepoel isolated, it is worth mentioning that the day saw a sub-par performance from Ilan van Wilder who was dropped on the final climb, whilst Jan Hirt also looks distant from his best form.
However, the vulnerability seems clear. Although Jumbo-Visma are unlikely to be able to capitalize on it, teams such as INEOS Grenadiers and Bahrain - Victorious have the numbers to use to try and raid the overall classification. "They will look for a day with a hard start and they will play the numbers game and really put him under pressure. That is when we could see Remco really under pressure on his own for the first time."
"Today was not a huge mountain test, so unless there is something wrong, that is a bit of a worry for them going into the final week of the race if they are defending the pink jersey and they can't stay with Remco deep into the mountain stages, and it is going to make it very tough to win this race," Dan Lloyd added, agreeing on.
Robbie McEwen defends however the team will learn from yesterday's mistakes and will be unlikely to show as much vulnerability. "They are still trying to build that out around Remco, but that is going to take a bit of time to set that up and get the right riders in place," he argued. "They made some mistakes and going on through the race, they have got to learn a lot from what happened today, be a bit more conservative and a bit more intelligent in how they go about riding."
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