"I felt bad for sitting on Ben O'Connor but I was on the limit" - Geraint Thomas unable to follow Pogacar but rises to 2nd overall at Giro d'Italia

Although Tadej Pogacar was the clear strongest, the fight for the rest of the GC candidates behind was an incredibly tight one on stage 2 of the 2024 Giro d'Italia. Crossing the line 3rd on the day, Geraint Thomas now sits 2nd overall.

"Nothing new that is it! We expected it," reflects the Welsh leader of the INEOS Grenadiers post-stage in reference to Pogacar's brutal attack on the final climb. "I was hoping to follow but I knew if I tried to keep going like that I'd completely blow up. I felt bad for sitting on Ben O'Connor but I was on the limit for a while there, I had to recover."

As mentioned, once Pogacar attacked initially, Thomas and O'Connor attempted to follow. Soon the chasing duo began to struggle however, with O'Connor even dropping completely out the back of the chase group in the end and finishing 1:00 down. Thomas though, was able to regroup and cross the line 3rd on the stage, 27 seconds down on Pogacar. "It was just a case of trying to recover, then thinking about getting some seconds in the sprint at the end," the former Tour de France winner reflects. "I did feel quite bad not pulling but I was on the limit. I just had to judge it and wait for that group to come and get us, then recover."

Before the final climb, Pogacar actually suffered a scare when a flat tyre caused him to crash. "Honestly I didn't even know until it got to the climb and they said 'Tadej is back'. The radios are just terrible," Thomas explains. "The plan was to go on the front, not on the penultimate climb but the one before that. It was so technical that we could ride the front. Not attacking but keeping safe with a fast tempo and we knew it would be chaos behind."