Jhonatan Narváez matches and beats Tadej Pogacar to take Giro d'Italia glory: "Trying to follow the best rider in the world uphill was very tough"

Much to the delight of INEOS Grenadiers, Jhonatan Narváez took full advantage of the freedom he got on the opening day of the Giro d'Italia. The Ecuadorian rider was the only rider to match Tadej Pogacar on the final climb and then even managed to beat the Slovenian in the final sprint.

“This is my second stage victory in the Giro d'Italia, but this one is certainly better than the first. I have worked hard to be here. Trying to follow the best rider in the world uphill was very tough. That is why it is an extra nice victory. It still hurts at the moment, but I won," Narváez said in a post-race interview. Amidst a chaotic finale with plenty attacks, Pogacar was forced to make a move off the front in the bottom of the final ascent. Steep, this wouldn't benefit rivals much and none but one rider managed to be in the slipstream all the way. That was Ecuadorian champion Narváez, who held on despite all the accelerations.

After the summit of the ascent and with all GC rivals distanced, the Slovenian had the pressure to stay in the front of the group. The flat run-in to the finale was only 500 meters long, but that was enough Max Schachmann launched his sprint early which caused a reaction from Pogacar. Narváez took full advantage of the early sprint to then come off the wheel with power. “I think Pogacar came from too far away. A sprint of two hundred meters after a tough stage is long. I wanted to make it a short sprint," he explains.

The reward: A pink jersey, and the biggest win of his career. “Being able to wear the pink jersey is amazing. Our sports director told me yesterday: there are not many opportunities in a Grand Tour to take the pink jersey on the first day for riders like me," he shares. "Often on days like this you have a bunch sprint or a prologue, so this was the ideal opportunity.” Tomorrow with a summit finish on the Santuario di Oropa it will be very difficult to maintain it, but he will spend the whole day in the pink jersey.