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Ineos Grenadiers were “way off” expectations as a team at La Vuelta and it cost Richard Carapaz a much better chance at winning the race overall, Sean Kelly has said.
The 1988 Vuelta winner and 16-time stage winner on the race, Kelly, said when Ineos Grenadiers was in its pomp, as Team Sky, it would have turned yesterday’s opportunity alone into overall victory for Carapaz.
Going into Sunday’s final stage 18 of the race Carapaz was 2nd overall, still 24 seconds down on race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma).
Carapaz attacked Roglic on the summit finish on Alto de la Covatilla yesterday and managed to ride away from him. However, he only gained 21 seconds on Roglic and that wasn’t enough to take the race lead, despite a brilliant effort by Carapaz.
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Carapaz attacked Roglic on La Covatilla yesterday but didn't gain enough time to take the race lead. Kelly says Roglic had "lifesaver" help from his team whereas Carapaz had no support even when he was in a race-winning position
But for time bonuses throughout the race, Carapaz would have been eight seconds ahead of Roglic going into today's final stage.
While both riders took bonuses, Roglic claimed far more
as he won four stages and was 2nd on three stages. Carapaz failed to
win any stages and was in the time bonuses three times, for two 2nd
placings and one 3rd placing.
However, Kelly said collecting more time bonuses was
often a sign of a better all-round rider, pointing out that Roglic had been
able to win mountain stages and even place in sprints on the flat to claim time
bonuses.
Kelly believed a bigger issue in the battle between the
two men was the strength of Roglic’s team compared to Carapaz’s weaker team.
“You could see when Carapaz and Roglic were
congratulating each other (after yesterday’s stage 17) Carapaz looked
disappointed; and he will definitely be disappointed,” Kelly said of Carapaz
digesting what was a huge missed opportunity to win a Grand Tour.
“Certainly Ineos Grenadiers were way off what we were expecting of them; I think what Carapaz would be expecting as well," Kelly added on 'The Breakaway' show on Eurosport.
Kelly said the far superior team support Roglic had on yesterday’s
final climb compared to the lack of team support for Carapaz was instrumental
in deciding the outcome of the final general classification.
“Just imagine today, and only today,” Kelly said of the
yesterday’s penultimate stage.”On that (last) climb when we had that steep
section and (the attacks) kicked off, if you had a big team there to just drive
it on, Primoz Roglic would have been in trouble much earlier on those steeper
sections.
“Then they (Ineos Grenadiers) would have had a huge
opportunity to take a lot of time. They could have won the race there today if
they had that big team of Sky back in the day.”
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After Carapaz attacked on Alto de la
Covatilla Roglic went after him and held him at a matter of seconds for a short
distance.
However, on the exposed roads and into the wind, the gap grew and Roglic dropped back to what remained of the select group, before Hugh Carthy attacked it and also got clear of Roglic.
Luckily for the race leader yesterday, his Jumbo Visma team mate Lennard Hofstede had been in the breakaway and when he dropped back to Roglic he was able to tow him along for a period near the finish.
Kelly said that assistance was “lifesaving” for Roglic,
yet Ineos Grenadiers were nowhere close to being able to help Carapaz so late
in the race in the same way.
Roglic also had help just before the finish from Marc Soler, after the Movistar rider had been dropped from the breakaway.
Roglic was with Enric Mas (Movistar) when Soler dropped back to them. At the time, well inside 2km to go, Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) had been dropped and Mas was trying to gain more time on the Irishman to leapfrog him into 4th overall.
It meant when Soler dropped back to Mas and Roglic, he went on the front for a time and towed them along to help Mas gain more time on Martin - something that also helped minimise the time Carapaz was gaining.
There has also been speculation that Movistar was willing to ride on the front after Carapaz, and thus tow Roglic along, because Carapaz left Movistar last year in acrimonious circumstances.
As well as having help from team mate Hofstede near the finish yesterday, Roglic also had far more team support than Carapaz on the lower slopes of the climb as George Bennett and Sepp Kuss were with him for a long time after Carapaz’s team mates had all been dropped.
Indeed, at the finish the closest
Ineos Grenadiers rider to Carapaz was Dylan Van Baarle, who finished almost 23
minutes down.
In comparison, five Jumbo Visma riders had finished the stage before Van Baarle, showing the superiority of Jumbo Visma over Ineos Grenadiers.
That pattern of Roglic often having several team mates still with him when Carapaz had only one, or sometimes none, was seen several times during the Vuelta. Kelly believed that big difference in team strength was crucial, adding Ineos Grenadiers were below what was expected of them and that Carapaz had paid a heavy price for that.
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