Ineos set up for Giro hat-trick

Carapaz claims pink but the hardest days in the Italian Grand Tour are still to come, writes James Shrubsall

- James Shrubsall

Could it be three in a row for Ineos? With Richard Carapaz ensconced in the maglia rosa having edged ever closer to it since the start of the race, there is a serious potential for the British team to score its third consecutive Giro d'Italia this weekend.

The 28-year-old Ecuadorian took the jersey on stage 14 to Torino, when he finished in a select group just behind winner Simon Yates (BikeExchange), ending the hard-fought 10-day tenure of Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo).

Carapaz would follow in the wheelmarks of Egan Bernal (2021) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (2020), and it would also be a double for the Ecuadorian, who himself won in 2019 with Movistar.

"The chance to take the jersey was a motivation for us," Carapaz said after stage 14. "It's better to have to defend the jersey than to have to attack to get it."

However, with Carapaz only able to lay claim to a seven-second GC lead, the Ineos prosecco corks will remain resolutely (and safely) in their bottles for the time being. In fact, with the top five riders on GC separated by just 61 seconds, the race was far from finished as it entered its second rest day.