When Geraint Thomas became the latest casualty of Team Sky's failed GC attempts at the Giro d'Italia, it forced the British team to reset its goals and ambitions for the Italian Grand Tour. With Thomas out of the race and Mikel Landa's GC bid extinguished, Sky reset set its sights on stage wins. The succeeded with Landa on stage 19 with the result also ensuring he finished inside the top-ten but the has was far less than expected when the race started in Sardinia.
With the third week of the race suited to the characteristics of Landa, the Spaniard became a regular feature in the breakaways as he attempted to salvage something from the race. After narrow losses in Bormio and Ortisei/St. Urlich, it appeared his luck had run out. Despite the near misses, Landa's breakaway attempts saw him take a substantial lead in the mountains classification as the blue jersey became a goal.
Sport director Dario Cioni explained that while Landa's breakthrough win in Piancavallo came when it was least expected, the victory ensured Sky could claim a minor battle victory despite losing the war.
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"A stage win was an immediate goal and also there was a possibility of the mountains jersey. We really went all out for a stage win. We came away with third in Oropa, second in Bormio. It began to look like it wasn't to be, then we took second again! We knew we were close, but at least the mountains jersey was coming our way. Then finally we managed to finish it off, maybe on one of the stages we didn't expect it to happen, given how the racing had gone that day at the midway point. But Mikel was ready to take the opportunity when it arrived. He sealed the mountains jersey and won the stage in a day which was fantastic," Cioni said of the third week aims.
While Landa was the face of Sky's aggressive third week via his presence in breakaways and four top-three results, Cioni explained a strong team was equally important in allowing the Spaniard to chase stages and the KOM jersey.
"The other big thing was that, in every stage where Mikel was on the attack, he was really well supported by the team. He had team-mates driving the breaks he was in, and even though he had GC guys chasing him down, he had to fight hard to keep them away but he still managed it. In the stage he won Sebastian (Henao) was really really important in his success," said Cioni.
Hitting the reset button
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