Joxean Matxin believes Tadej Pogacar can win first Giro d'Italia stage: "It could be perfect for Tadej"

Tadej Pogacar heads into the Giro d'Italia as the main favourite, but also as the man to beat for the first stage of the race. Joxean Matxin is aware of this possibility, but he does end up playing down the chances of the Slovenian in the day's finale in Torino.

"I don’t know. Stage 1 is a special stage but it’s not for the pure sprinters. Maybe for the sprinters who can climb but it’s also not for the pure climbers. Lots of riders have the opportunity to win stage 1," Matxin said in words to GCN "It could be complicated but it could be perfect for Tadej. It’s still complicated but taking the maglia rosa isn’t our main objective. The biggest objective is to stay in a good position and to stay safe.”

The first day of racing suffered a late change and now, besides the Colle della Maddalena (6.3Km at 7.1%) the riders also tackle a steep hilltop which ends with only 3 kilometers to the finish line. This one is 1.5 kilometers long at 8.6%, similar to the Col de la Redoute where Pogacar decimated the competition at Liège-Bastogne-Liège only a few weeks ago. The UAE Team Emirates is the main favourite as he is a significantly stronger climber than the others who feature in the startlist.

“He’s a normal rider and you have to remember what happened last year, when he had a perfect week in Amstel and Flèche and then he crashed in Liège. That’s cycling and you can have a bad moment. The Giro d’Italia is complicated and you have to remain in the front, where there’s a fight to be in a good position," Maxtin is aware. "It’s not mathematics and you need to remain focused the entire time... We understand that the rivals are not maybe the big names like Vinegaard, Roglic or Evenepoel but the experience of Geraint Thomas in the Giro d’Italia needs to be given attention. He’s one of the best alternatives and he’s always in the right position, every day, and he has that experience. Then you have the condition of riders like Ben O’Connor, Dani Martínez, Roman Bardet and Cian Uijtdebroeks along with others. There are a lot of rivals,”

Hence, the pressure will fully be on his shoulders to put on a strong and consistent set of stages, with the Grand Tour win his ultimate goal. The Tour de France then lies later in the summer which will be an equally as important goal. “For this reason, that’s why we’ve selected this team. All the responsibilities are on us and we take that. Our riders know their roles and it’s not to fight for GC but to take responsibility for the race. Maybe there will be help with the sprinters' teams over three weeks."

"We’ll take it day by day but we don’t want to complicate the Tour de France by obsessing with the maglia rosa for the entire race. That’s not the plan because we want to save energy with the third week in mind. Stages 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20 are really hard. The final week is really important and that’s where we save focus and energy for," he tells.