Netcompany INEOS sports director Thomas responds to Bernal's off day and drops surprising Turner response

It was a strange sight in stage four: Movistar driving hard for sprinter Aular, and then suddenly dropping GC outsider Egan Bernal. The Colombian had an off day, forcing Ben Turner to come to his rescue. But the former Giro winner shouldn't be written off just yet, Geraint Thomas explains on the Watts Occurring podcast.

Stage four was won by Jhonatan Narváez after he beat Orluis Aular in a reduced sprint. Movistar, riding aggressively all day for their fast finisher, then surprisingly dropped Bernal on the key climb. Given that the Colombian had enjoyed a strong spring — finishing second at the Tour of the Alps and fifth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège — the moment caused more than a few raised eyebrows.

Thomas, too, had not expected it. "We came to the Giro with two strong cards to play," he says. While Thymen Arensman has navigated the opening week in good shape, his co-leader had already encountered a difficult moment — though Thomas sees no cause for alarm.

"Egan had an off day that we weren't expecting, but these things do happen," Thomas says, measured in his tone. According to the Welshman, it had everything to do with the team not adapting well to the very low-intensity opening days. "The days in Bulgaria were so easy — some riders were barely putting out 200 watts. Everyone responds to that differently, and unfortunately it's pretty clear that we didn't respond well to it."

Thomas had also expected more of the team to be in the mix at the top of the climb. "With all due respect, when you look at who was still in that group, we should have had more riders up there." The INEOS director also admitted he hadn't anticipated the tempo being quite so severe.

"We were expecting a tough climb, but not as hard as it turned out to be. In hindsight, maybe we should have seen it coming. The overall level across the peloton has risen so much in recent years that riders go flat out on almost every climb. When you have a bad day, that gets magnified even more in the modern peloton."

Bernal's struggles also had consequences for Turner, who climbed superbly. "I wouldn't have believed you beforehand if you'd told me Big Ben would be the last man with Thymen on a climb like that. That was unexpected." And according to Thomas, the decision to wait for Bernal actually came from Turner himself.

"Big Ben was already waiting for him before we even asked — but in the end it was the right call." Thomas acknowledged it was a difficult in-race decision for the team. "It's not a pleasant thing to do, but you also can't be afraid of making the wrong call." For INEOS, the hope is that the off day was nothing more than a reaction to the easy Bulgarian opening stages, and nothing more.