Despite still being without a stage win and their best-placed GC rider, Kantantsin Siutsou, sitting 20th overall, Team Sky haven’t merely been also-rans so far at this year’s Giro.

Big efforts on the front of the bunch have been common – as always – while Ben Swift remains in the hunt for an elusive sprint victory, having come agonisingly close to upsetting Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) in Dublin.

Big efforts were the order of the day again on stage ten – Edvald Boasson Hagen and Dario Cataldo burying themselves on the moderate incline, the only ‘climb’ of the stage, in the final 15 kilometres. The two pulled huge shifts with Swift on their wheel in a bid to trim the peloton and rid themselves of their sprinting rivals.

Farrar’s crash, and the effort Swift expended in keeping in touch with his team-mates on the climbs, put paid to his hopes hopes in the final sprint, with the Brit coming across the line in eighth, but it’s another sign that Sky are desperate for a stage win. Keep a close eye on the likes of Boasson Hagen, Cataldo and Philip Deignan in the forthcoming stages.