Re:
Carl0880 said:
Best I recall, Hesjedal's team in that Giro was pretty invisible. Most of the Giro Puritos team did pace setting.
Jaunty Monty said:
Stetina was a big help to Hesjedal too. He finished 27th and Vande Velde 22nd on GC which are where you might expect decent mountain domestiques to be placed.
^
This.
It were Stetina and Vande Velde who led the peloton on Stelvio stage, otherwise De Gendt would've won, because Katusha for some reason didn't want to work. Garmin didn't do that much pulling on earlier stages, because Hesjedal was not that much of a favourite, until he dropped everyone on Pampeago stage, most of people believed he would crack at some point. But Vande Velde and Stetina were up there most of the time, that's why they finished in the top30 of GC.
+ They've won TTT (good old days when Vaughters' team didn't suck at TT-ing). It had double importance, because it put Hesjedal in position to take Maglia Rosa early in the race, so he raced at the front of the peloton avoiding his usual 1st week losses.
But the team seriously lacked depth in mountain, though. They had only 3 men in the 100-men peloton at the end of stage 5 and Hesjedal did some pulling on his own to defend Maglia Rosa for the team.