20/05/2024

"Pog is just on a different planet" - Geraint Thomas explains rivals' lack of desire to follow Tadej Pogacar's Giro d'Italia attacks

Despite insisting that the INEOS Grenadiers wouldn't give up in the fight for the Maglia Rosa at the 2024 Giro d'Italia, when Tadej Pogacar attacked on the queen stage of stage 15, Geraint Thomas was notably unwilling to mount a response.

In fairness, neither were any of the other GC contenders but it was always the former Tour de France-winning Welshman who was viewed as the most likely of any to give Pogacar a challenge for the Maglia Rosa. Due to the lack of reaction to the Slovenian's attack however, as we reach the second rest day of the first Grand Tour in 2024, Pogacar is now 6:41 clear of second placed Thomas. Speaking on his Watts Occurring podcast alongside fellow INEOS Grenadiers rider, Luke Rowe, Thomas explained why the GC leaders let Pogacar ride off towards another stage win uncontested.

"We let Pog go" - No chance of fighting for Giro victory for Geraint Thomas, who maintains second place intact in Livigno

"Apparently there were loads of people, giving me and the other GC guys abuse for just sort of racing amongst ourselves. Just typical Twitter stuff or X stuff," begins the 37-year-old, before coming up with a helpful analogy to explain the situation. "To put it in perspective, anyone out there who is a cyclist or a runner, if your best 10km run is 40 minutes, if you start off at 30 minute pace for 20 minutes and just do it but keep going until 10km, see what time you'll do."

"You're just going to blow your doors off and you're going to creep and it's going to be horrible," continues the former Giro d'Italia runner-up, who is second overall again with six stages to go at this edition. "You're going to end up doing 49 minutes instead of 40. That's what it's like today. I could have tried to stay with him but I knew that I didn't have the legs to, especially with the altitude and everything. You can completely blow your doors off with the distance and the altitude and all that."

"So yeah, that's the decision I made today. It does sound a bit defeatist I guess. But at the end of the day, Pog is just on a different planet isn't he," Thomas concludes.