OPINION: With Evenepoel out of Giro, INEOS have an opportunity they can't afford to miss
Gone are the days when Geraint Thomas' (36) team, formerly known as Team Sky, would enter a year fancying their chances of winning all three Grand Tours.
They've got weaker since then with former leader Chris Froome (37) and successor Egan Bernal (26) both suffering serious injuries, and the competition is now stronger due to the emergence of Tadej Pogacar (24) and a Jumbo-Visma super-team.
These factors led to INEOS failing to win a single Grand Tour last year for the first time since 2014, and they went into 2023 knowing that they could well suffer the same fate again.
Now though, with Giro leader and favourite Evenepoel pulling out after testing positive for COVID-19, the team have the chance to ensure that this isn't the case in 2023, and it's a chance they may not get again this year.
With Evenepoel out, INEOS' biggest competition is Primoz Roglic (33), but he hasn't been at his best this season and, more importantly, doesn't have the best that Jumbo-Visma have to offer helping him, with Wout van Aert, Jonas Vingegaard and Wilco Kelderman all absent.
Also not competing is Pogacar, with Joao Almeida (24) leading UAE Team Emirates instead. The Portuguese rider is good, but nowhere near as formidable as his teammate.
What's more, Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart (28) are in good shape and riding well, currently occupying first and third in the general classification with Roglic splitting them.
It's highly unlikely that all of the above factors will be in place at the Tour de France or the Vuelta a Espana later this year, so the British team need to do everything they can to ensure they triumph in Italy.
That means getting fully behind one rider and ensuring his team-mates work for him rather than having their two best ride for themselves against one another.
Whether that rider is Thomas or Geohegan Hart will be decided in the coming stages, but if they agree to work together, they'll have a huge chance of being on the winning team come the end of the race either way.
The former in particular could stand an excellent chance of winning his second Grand Tour if he has the full support of Geohegan Hart and co - he's been more than a match for every other GC contender thus far.
The team would also be wise not to focus too much on pushing for stage wins or even to keep the Maglia Rosa initially and instead ensure that all of their riders are as fresh as possible for what will be a gruelling final week of climbs.
Even if they do everything they can, there is of course no guarantee that they'll prevail given what Roglic is capable of on his day, and it's possible that they could lose more riders to a COVID-19 diagnosis given Filippo Ganna has already tested positive.
However, if they play their cards right and get a little bit of luck, INEOS could well end what has been a long Grand Tour drought by their standards.
