In Acqui Terme on Tuesday morning, Magnus Sheffield was talking to reporters in the mixed zone when he was interrupted by his radio earpiece crackling into life. "Yeah, I can hear you, Yogi," Sheffield dutifully responded down the line to directeur sportif Ian Stannard, who was performing his routine sound checks ahead of stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia.
In a race where every day is laced with Tadej Pogačar-induced peril, it's essential to maintain the channels of communication. Ineos, who grappled with the particular intricacies of the Giro in their early years as Team Sky, have had a much firmer grip on bringing order to its chaos in the 2020s, finishing in the top two for the past four years.
Sheffield is riding his first Grand Tour, but he is already well versed in his team's approach to dampening the hazards constantly thrown up by the Giro. He pointed to their management of Pogačar's late attack on stage 3, where Ineos leader Geraint Thomas was perfectly placed to follow the maglia rosa's surprise move.
"If you saw the way we rode the final on Monday, we invest early," Sheffield explained. "We had five, six guys in front in the final five kilometres. We were prepared to be there, and it was really good that G was there to follow him in the final. And you see also that Pogačar only has a few teammates in these finals, so he can be isolated quite quickly."
Sheffield underscored his aptitude for the cobbles with a fine 6th-place finish at a fraught edition of the Tour of Flanders last month, before ending his Classics campaign to begin his Giro preparations. The change in register from one-day racing to a three-week event, he insisted, wasn't as abrupt as it might seem from the outside.
"Both of them are quite hectic, and they're quite high stakes as well, so I don't think there's that much of a difference," Sheffield said. All the same, the masses on the roadside at Oropa on Sunday afternoon offered a rousing introduction to the unique atmosphere of the Giro.
"That was the first time I've experienced such a crowd on the side of the road, which was quite spectacular," he said. "The first couple of days have by quite fast when I look back at the start in Turin."
'Making sure G is where he needs to be'
Although Thomas has very rapidly confirmed himself as the man most likely to challenge Pogačar's pre-eminence at this Giro, Sheffield's own task for the three weeks ahead hasn't changed since Turin. His work on Thomas' behalf doesn't preclude the possibility of pursuing stage victory between here and Milan. And although Sheffield has been warming down on his time trial bike each day, his ambition is not restricted to his efforts in the discipline on stages 7 and 14.
"My role hasn't changed since the start," Sheffield said. "We knew G was going to be good. It's great that he's been able to show that in the past couple of stages and I'd say he's on a par with Tadej Pogačar, challenging him for the maglia rosa. For me, it's still about focusing on stages in the second and third week, and also on time trials."
Still only 22, Sheffield is a rider with immense potential across a variety of terrains, and it is not yet clear where his focus will eventually settle. His leader on this Giro had a similar array of options early in his career. It's hardly a surprise, then, that Sheffield looks to Thomas as something of a model.
"I'm struck by how calm and level-headed he is, especially when things start to get a bit hectic, like on the first stage, because I don't know if people were quite expecting things to kick off like that," Sheffield said.
"He's super calm and cool when the pressure's on. I think his demeanour is something to really learn from. I just want to take every opportunity to support him as well as possible, because a big part of his career before he became a leader was also supporting his teammates 100%."
The next obvious rendezvous for the general classification contenders will come on stage 6 to Rapolano Terme, which takes in 12km of gravel roads across three sectors in the finale. It's the kind of day that lends itself to Sheffield's own talents, though he knows his primary duty will be to ensure Thomas is in situ at the head of the bunch on the entry to the dirt roads with 50km to go.
"It is a Strade Bianche stage, but it's actually only about 12km of these white roads, so I think it depends on what the early breakaway looks like," Sheffield said. "It's an important stage to get right because also the time trial is right afterwards. But the first priority is making sure G is where he needs to be."
