Rod Ellingworth on INEOS Grenadiers Giro d'Italia performance: "Possibly the best team I've seen so far"

The 2023 Giro d'Italia has been a race of ups and downs for the INEOS Grenadiers. Geraint Thomas is in the Maglia Rosa with Thymen Arensman and Laurens de Plus also in top 10. That doesn't mean it's been all plain sailing however.

Both Tao Geoghegan Hart and Filippo Ganna have been forced to abandon the race and Pavel Sivakov also hit the deck hard on yesterday's stage 11. Nevertheless, Rod Ellingworth, general manager at the INEOS Grenadiers is more than happy with the team's performance to date. “The whole team has been brilliant so far. Possibly the best team I've seen so far," he tells Eurosport.

The loss of Geoghegan Hart in particular though was a bitter pill to swallow for the British-based team. “Tao has been sending messages to us and the boys. He's okay, this is obviously a huge personal setback for him. He was in top form and looking forward to the challenge," Ellingworth recaps. "So disappointing for Tao, but ultimately things like this happen in racing. It was just very bad luck. The other guys are okay and we're still at the top of the standings, so our target doesn't change."

Also injured in that crash was Pavel Sivakov. Although he was able to remount, finish the stage and carry on in the race, he is no longer in the top 10 of the general classification meaning INEOS now have one less card to play as the race reaches the high mountains. “He's okay. He fell on the same side he fell on the day before," Ellingworth says of Sivakov. “He was also shocked by the fall of Tao, I think, but in the end he moved on. He was between five and ten minutes behind and said he felt okay.”