Tadej Pogacar emulates Marco Pantani and recovers from crash to take victory atop Oropa at Giro d'Italia
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar has arrived at the 2024 Giro d'Italia. Surviving a late scare and a trip to the Italian tarmac, the UAE Team Emirates leader has soloed in style to victory in the mythical slopes of Oropa.
With attacks from the flag drop, led by Filippo Fiorelli in the Maglia Ciclamino, UAE Team Emirates and the INEOS Grenadiers were keeping close order at the front. Despite many riders attempting to counter-attack, in the end a five-man group of Italians managed to break free. Christian Scaroni, Andrea Piccolo, Davide Bais, Martin Marcellusi and the aforementioned Fiorelli.
As the INEOS Grenadiers and UAE Team Emirates attempt some early mind games, the breakaway quickly managed to stretch their advantage up towards four minutes. Eventually, it was INEOS Grenadiers who blinked first and sent their riders to the front of the peloton to start controlling the chase.
Despite sitting third in the points classification, Fiorelli was wearing the Maglia Ciclamino jersey on stage 2. Part of the breakaway for the second day running, the Italian led the lead group of five across the line at the intermediate sprint to take maximum points on offer. In the sprint for the scraps behind from the peloton, it was Kaden Groves who beat Olav Kooij and Caleb Ewan.
Fiorelli again took maximum points at the second sprint, ensuring he would be in the Maglia Ciclamino by right at the end of the day. Following the sprint though, Piccolo decided the time was right to attack his rivals and move clear solo at the head of the race.
Having started the day at just 1:07 down, Piccolo was still in the provisional Maglia Rosa with 25km to go, 2:15 clear of the peloton, still led by INEOS Grenadiers. As the Oropa climb begun, Piccolo was still around a minute clear but there was drama behind as Tadej Pogacar suffered a flat tyre and suffered a small crash. Although this crash meant the Slovenian missed out on the bonus seconds at the final intermediate sprint, Pogacar was able to get back to the front before the final slopes began.
With 6.5km to go, Piccolo was finally caught. UAE Team Emirates were setting a fierce tempo at the front and with around 4km to go, Pogacar launched his attack. Although Ben O'Connor and Geraint Thomas fought hard initially to keep the wheel, no one could follow Pogacar.
As Pogacar powered towards victory, things were regrouping behind and the lack of work was not only giving the UAE Team Emirates leader the stage win but handing the Maglia Rosa on a plate.
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A few posts ago, I suggested Pogacar would win the second stage and carry the pink all the way home, killing the GC. Also, he didn't crash; he fell off his bike after a flat front tire. Also, also, I think Tom Dumoulin's victory on that mountain, back in 2017, was far more epic than Pantani's.
I think that this will be the pattern for the rest of the Giro. Tadej Pogacar will ride away from everyone else as the road tilts upward, leaving the rest to fight it out for the podium.
Less of a blowout than I expected. Fall at the bottom can’t have helped. And Thomas seems strong.
Good for Pogacar and Thomas. If they don't have problems they will probably go 1-2 and the race will be for third podium spot and stage victories. OTOH there won't be any work done to help UAE and Pogacar while he's in the pink. He'll also be in interviews longer, etc which takes time and mental effort. Three weeks is a long time for any one team even if they have the top rider. And then to do it all over again at the TdeF? If Pogacar can do this and that, that would be hard to imagine. All he would need then is to dethrone Sepp Kuss at La Vuelta ;)
Maybe they can all go hide behind a tree while he does an interview and then start one of the stages early ;-)
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- Or sprinting, or against wind. I think by now they’ve optimised the tire tech and pressures to largely smooth out rider weight effects. BUT, I’m going to go through past podiums to see what weight distribution trends are to be spotted coz I’m curious now.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
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- Exactly, a rider (or sprinter in athletics) can’t even tell themselves when it will happen until it does. Obviously if you have an idea that could happen, you should maybe envisage testing your theory with perhaps an small sharp attack well before race-end.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Yes but 20 minutes as a domestique isn’t 20 minutes as a leader, and you know as well as anybody that Pog winning is in no way a guarantee. Granted, neither Pog nor Remco nor Jinas nor Primoz or some more winning starts to seem far-fetched but a podium would certainly be targetable if he doesn’t have to worry about Jonas.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- The final appeal he lost against his old team for « breaking » his contract.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
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- If niermann this he can predict cramps, that would be helpful for a lot of people around the world. It was the standard strategy for Benoot and Jorgensen to attack and they should haveabstractengineer03-04-2025
- Wow! People have to understand that being light is absolutely a good thing on cobbles, as bouncing means you have to lift yourself over and over again. Being a lighter cyclist is always a good thing (ceteris paribus), unless you're going downhill.acem8203-04-2025