Just a week before the start of the 2019 Giro d`Italia, with Colombian climber Egan Bernal set to attempt to lead Team Ineos - the new name for Team Sky - to victory at the Italian Grand Tour, everything changed for the British WorldTour team when Bernal crashed and broke his collarbone in a training accident. Suddenly, the squad was left rudderless, and although 22-year-old Eddie Dunbar was drafted in as a replacement rider, it was the Irishman`s first three-week race, and instead the task - or, rather, the opportunity - of trying to do whatever they could in terms of stage wins and a placing in the general classification was handed to young climbers Pavel Sivakov and Tao Geoghegan Hart. Geoghegan Hart then got things off to a flying start with seventh place in the opening time trial, and although two crashes on stage 3 set him back, dropping him down to 57th place, more than two minutes behind then race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), he battled back in the second week, and looked set to keep improving in what was only his second Grand Tour after riding last season`s Vuelta a Espana.ADVERTISEMENT However, the 24-year-old British climber then crashed out of the race entirely on stage 13, breaking his collarbone, and it was on the same day that 21-year-old Sivakov stepped up, infiltrating the top 10 overall for the first time. From that point on, the race became about trying to keep the young Russian in as high a place on the GC as possible. And while the white jersey as best young rider - which Sivakov had also taken after stage 13 - had to eventually be given up to Astana`s Miguel Angel Lopez, Ineos were able to ensure that Sivakov still had ninth place in Verona this past weekend. `I feel proud of everyone, and of all the work done by the riders and staff,` said sports director Nicolas Portal on the team`s website. `Even if we didn`t have any expectations going into the race [after Bernal`s crash], we still wanted to push these guys and get some resu ...
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