This Giro d'Italia will be Porte's 17th and final Grand Tour of his career. Teams and circumstances have changed, but what the mountains demand of Porte remains the same. When the gradient starts to get tougher, the Beckettian mindset tends to take hold: You have to keep going. I have to go on. I will proceed.

Last Sunday at the Brockhaus, Porte put forth an impassioned effort on behalf of Ineos Grenadiers leader Richard Karapas. He quickly pulled away from the lead group and teased the Ecuadorian's acceleration, eventually shaking him off with 4.5 km to go. When he stopped his wheels at the summit, Porte had a smile on his face, but whether it was from satisfaction at a job well done or relief that it would all be over soon was hard to say.

"'It's fun to have the race go on like this,' Porte told Cycling News in Sant'Arcangelo di Romagna on Wednesday. 'I mean, even Mount Etna (on stage 4) was probably the most fun effort I've had in a long time.'

Porte's last season as a professional saw him return to his old role: 12 months ago, he was one of the candidates to lead the Ineos Tour team after his victory at the Criterium du Dauphiné. In the Giro, he was named Calapaz's mountain last man from the outset, replicating the job he did so well almost a decade ago when he replaced Chris Froome.

"I won the Dauphiné last year, but at the same time it's nice to switch off a bit on a day like this and not have to fight in a crosswind," Porte said. I know what I have to do and that is to help Richard in the mountains. I'm enjoying it."

"A rider like Richard is great. He is aggressive and an absolute flyer. He's aggressive and an absolute flyer. In last year's Tour, Pogachar and them were not unbeatable. It's about turning Richard pink in Verona."

The emergence of Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) certainly complicates Ineos' task in July. However, while Pogachar's dominance was undisputed in last year's Tour, the Ineos' muddy tactics drew criticism. More recently, former Ineos rider Rohan Dennis suggested that the team had been overtaken by the new team, Jumbo Visma, in terms of attention to detail.

"Interestingly, in the pre-race press conference they said that last year was not a good season. Egan [Bernal] won the Giro and Richard was on the podium at the Tour.

"I remember being on the podium at the Tour the year before and it was one of the best moments of my career. But this team set the bar high. No matter what Rohan Dennis says, we are still the benchmark team."

In any case, Ineos is the benchmark for Gruppo in this Giro. Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) still wears the pink jersey, but Ineos continues to give instructions at key moments, riding as if Calapaz (who won a time bonus on stage 11, finishing second by 12 seconds) is already leading the race.

But despite Sunday's onslaught in the blockhouse, Calapaz still had company at the summit. The evidence suggests that Ineos will not change his strategy, although many of his competitors, including Romain Bardet (Team DSM), Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), are competing at a similar level to Kalapas. Porte and Pavel Sivakov take the tail end in front of Kalapas.

"I go further up, Pavel goes further up. That's our tactic," Porte said. The blockhouse was a strange climb, very steep and not very regular. The blockhouse was a strange climb, very steep and not very regular.