At the start of the Volta ao Algarve, Tom Pidcock vowed to "take every day as an opportunity to race" and his Ineos Grenadiers boss Rod Ellingworth insisted that his star-studded squad would "put themselves out there, for sure."
All that was proven well founded on Friday's stage 3, as Pidcock and Filippo Ganna helped rip up the script with a late ambush.
With the intermediate sprint at 25km to go carrying bonus seconds, race leader Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) was drawn out along with several other general classification contenders. Ineos chose to leave their two more-proven GC riders - Dani Martinez and Thymen Arensman - behind, as Pidcock was led out by Filippo Ganna, himself a dark horse for the overall title given the final-day time trial.
Latest Videos From
Cort won the sprint with ease, with Pidcock third behind Rui Costa ( Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), but then something remarkable happened. At first they didn't quite seem to realise it, but the cobbles and the slight incline had created a gap back to the peloton, and Ganna swiftly returned to the front to prize it open.
"It was [Michał] Kwiatkowski who saw it and said on the radio, 'keep riding boys'," Pidcock explained to Cyclingnews at the finish in Tavira. "So we kept riding, and then I had 20k of getting my head kicked in."
Everyone else was on the same page. As Ganna was taking to the front, Cort exchanged a knowing glance with Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma) and the deal was sealed, with Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) the final member of a group that packed strength and commitment in equal measure.
"It was only really strong guys in front, and we went 'full-full'," Foss told Cyclingnews. "When you have six of those guys in the front then it will be hard to catch. Everyone was just committed to go full gas to the line."
Cort added: "Ineos was really keen to keep it going. I was thinking 'OK, Ganna is there, he's a big big machine', so I was also happy to push on."
Despite remarkably holding a gap of 15 to 20 seconds for much of the run-in, the group was eventually rounded upon by the peloton through the final corner, but not completely cancelled out. Cort produced another vicious acceleration on the 200-metre uphill drag to win his second straight stage, while Ganna stormed in his wake to hang on for second place ahead of Bora-Hansgrohe sprinter Jordi Meeus.
"It was a bit of a shame the bunch caught us there at the finish, but there we go," Piddock said. "It was good, fun racing. After a relatively dull stage it turned into a fun final."
The sense of disappointment was even greater for Ganna, who, despite a show of strength on his return from the European Track Championships, saw a first victory of the season flash before his eyes.
"I hope to win soon, because it's the third second place I've done this year," the Italian told Cyclingnews, having finished second in a stage and the overall at the Vuelta a San Juan. "I would like to win now."
GC developments
Still, it was by no means a wasted effort, with the ambush not turning the general classification on its head but producing some small significant developments nonetheless.
The big winner was Cort, who gained 10 bonus seconds for the stage win and six more from the intermediate sprint. Ganna, meanwhile, gained six seconds for second place, while Costa and Pidcock gained four and two seconds, respectively, from the intermediate sprint. Foss and Madouas were the only two with nothing concrete to show for their effort.
The stage helped reveal a little more of the overall complexion of a race that retains an air of mystery, with a steep uphill finish on Saturday followed by a potentially table-turning 24km time trial on the final day.
For Ineos in particular, with four credible options, it was interesting that Pidcock was the rider they backed for a second day in a row, while Ganna's small gains will add to the theory he can limit his losses at Malhao before storming the time trial.
"We'll see tomorrow. It's a hard stage and I suffered a lot yesterday also," Ganna said. "We will have to see tomorrow. Now we just think about recovering."
As for Pidcock, he'd described the GC as an "afterthought" on Thursday, but reaching out for bonus seconds at an intermediate sprint would appear to contradict that notion.
"The idea at the intermediate was for me to get the bonus seconds, then at the finish I was going to try, but I wasn't expecting Magnus to go from the bottom there... bloody hell, yeah, bit of a shock, that was," said the Briton.
"After the sprint, when we started going, I went into the red and couldn't recover," he added, having been the only one to skip a turn or two. "I recovered a bit at the end but that was hard. Tomorrow is a good stage for me but we'll see how much that takes out of me."
Pidcock and Ganna both rose 12 places on GC, now sitting sixth and seventh respectively, just under half a minute down on Cort, who himself can perhaps now start dreaming of a strong overall finish.
Foss and Madouas made no time gains on the rest of the overall hopefuls - who presumably breathed a huge sigh of relief at the finish - but they weren't exactly left empty-handed.
"We had a lot of fun there," Foss said with a Cheshire Cat grin. "It was maybe natural that the bunch catches us but we could also have got 20 seconds. It was worth a try for sure."
