Why did Geraint Thomas and Ineos Grenadiers give away the pink jersey on purpose at the Giro d’Italia?

Thomas has led Roglic by two seconds in the general classification all week, but on Sunday it will be Bruno Armirail (Groupama–FDJ) who flashes the iconic pink in the peloton. Armirail started the day 23rd in GC, 18’37” down on Thomas, but took over 20 minutes back on Saturday as he sailed into the overall lead as the highest-placed rider involved in the day’s breakaway.

Of course, Ineos had plenty of time to increase the pace and keep the overall lead, but rode slowly on the front of the main bunch to gift Armirail the first Grand Tour leader’s jersey of his career. For those new to cycling, it begged the question: why?

Fortunately, Robbie McEwen and Adam Blythe were on hand to explain everything on The Breakaway…

“It does seem counterintuitive for those who are new to cycling,” said McEwen.

“But it’s all about energy preservation and they’ve let a guy [Armirail] who has already lost 18’30” in the race so far back into pink because they don’t see him as a threat for the overall with a week of very hard mountainous racing to come. So they are quite comfortable to see it go to him.

“His team [Groupama-FDJ] will try to take control of the race throughout tomorrow. It will save Ineos Grenadiers the energy of taking control of the race, and being on the front, and it’ll save Geraint Thomas a lot of time post-stage in having to go to podium, anti-doping control, the press conferences.

“It’s easily an hour saved [for Thomas]. He’ll be in the hotel, showered, massaged, eating, recovering, horizontal and just getting ready for the next day.”

Armirail leads Thomas by 1’41” in the overall battle, although it is likely the Frenchman’s time in pink will be brief given Sunday’s profile, which has been dubbed a mini Lombardia due to the amount of punchy climbs on the menu in Italy.

Although Thomas and Roglic are the two big favourites, Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) has been tipped to get involved in the GC battle when the drama steps up next week. Almeida is 22 seconds behind Thomas, albeit with the added complication of leading the young rider classification.

“He’s got an extra hour of chilling out today,” Blythe added on Thomas. “The plan was the same as normal for Jumbo-Visma and all the other GC riders – apart from Almeida, who had to go and get the white jersey.

“Thomas will take morale from this – ‘this is great, I’ve got a big day tomorrow and I get to go back, get in the bus, have a nice shower’. Whereas before he would have gone to the podium, doping control, got in a car, gone all the way back to the hotel and then have had his shower.

“So just to be able to have a shower straight after the stage, he’ll be buzzing!”

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