"He’s just a little kid having fun on the bike" - Mikkel Honoré made to pay for igniting Tadej Pogacar's racing instinct with late attack on stage 3 of Giro d'Italia

When Mikkel Honoré went on the attack with around 3km to go on the sprinter-friendly stage 3 at the 2024 Giro d'Italia, the last thing the 27-year-old expected to see was the Maglia Rosa, Tadej Pogacar and his nearest rival, Geraint Thomas on the back wheel and then countering.

“It obviously went very quick for me,” a still slightly confused Honoré reflected in conversation with GCN and Eurosport post-stage. “For me it was a good opportunity to try something today. I started the climb a little too far back so I had to [make] too much of an effort to do my attack but in the end, it was all about closing guys and going all out.”

Once Honore attacked however, the stage ignited into chaos. With Pogacar and Thomas in his wheels, the superstar duo even started doing turns. Sadly for the EF Education-EasyPost man however, so powerful was the Maglia Rosa, Honore was soon paying for his acceleration and dropped from the attacking group. “I did a long attack and was on the limit obviously, 'G' passed first and then Tadej and you hear ‘klack klack’ - two gears up - then it was just a super hard acceleration and hard to follow," he admits. “If we went three guys and rode around, you never know what could have happened in the end.”

Nevertheless, Honore is full of praise for Pogacar. “It’s incredible, I just spoke with 'G' about it. It’s an honour, it’s incredible to race against a guy like that," the Dane concludes. "I think first of all, he is a super nice guy and he’s just a little kid having fun on the bike and it’s nice to be racing with someone like that.”