Ineos left trailing in Pogačar’s wake

Before the Tour de France reached its first rest day in Tignes, Ineos’s hopes of playing anything more than a supporting role in the race they focus their entire year on, had all but disappeared. Sunk by a mixture of dreadful luck and the unmatchable talent of Tadej Pogačar, who was proving unbeatable on every kind of terrain, the British team’s stranglehold on the race is now well and truly broken.

For the second year in a row, Ineos were left hunting for consolation prizes in the shape of stage wins and, perhaps, a podium finish for their dogged Ecuadorian battler