Although there's still two weeks until Rome,
Tadej Pogacar may have just secured himself overall victory at the 2024
Giro d'Italia after an incredible time-trial performance on stage 7.
A truly stunning effort from the
UAE Team Emirates leader, Pogacar put two minutes into the who started the day as his nearest rival,
Geraint Thomas and 17 seconds into
Filippo Ganna to take the stage. To make his performance even more ridiculously impressive, "After the World Championships last year, today was my first race on the TT bike again," he explained in his post-stage interview.
"It was a lot of preparation for this, a lot of ups and downs since last year in the time trial, so I’m super happy that today I felt good," the Slovenian continued honestly. "I started with a bit of an easier pace, I had to get used to the TT bike, then I paced myself to the climb and did the climb full gas, so I’m super happy with today on the bike."
Starting the final climb with a 47-second deficit to the Italian INEOS Grenadiers powerhouse, Pogacar blitzed his way up to the summit to take the stage win. "I heard only two times the time gap, and I was not so sure what they said in the radio, so I was just focusing on myself," Pogacar concludes. "I knew that the climb suits me better than Pippo [Ganna] for sure, so that was my advantage there, especially because it was quite steep. But I think the next time trial will be a little bit different probably."