Pogacar was impatient with the lack of pace at some point, and Wellens reveals that he even considered attacking in the penultimate climb itself. "Tadej briefly asked if he should go on the Cipressa, but that would have been suicide," his teammate comments.
What went wrong was the lack of positioning and a few missing men at the bottom of Cipressa. "We expected Hirschi or Ulissi at the Cipressa, but they were no longer there," team DS
Mauro Gianetti added. "That is of course sport. Isaac did great, but Wellens had to work a bit and so he lacked some energy for the Poggio."