Tadej Pogacar plays down importance of stage 6 at Giro: "This is not Strade Bianche"

Tadej Pogacar was the winner of Strade Bianche this year, and of all people he will know best what it feels like to ride in the gravel roads of Tuscany at speed. With this said, he doesn't believe that stage 6 of the Giro d'Italia comes anywhere near the same difficulty.

“This is not Strade Bianche, to be honest. It's not a fun stage, but I mean well. It is a stage in which we have to be very concentrated, just like in the stage to Lucca. We have to stay together as a team and attack the gravel sectors together," Pogacar previewed after the finale of stge 5. “The gravel stage will also be a completely different story. You think in advance 'gravel, gravel, gravel', but you can also ride on bad roads in the lead-out to the gravel sector.”

The Slovenian's mindset into the day seems to be that of saving the day; although if any of the GC riders is capable of making the difference it will be the pink jersey himself, and in previous days he has attacked already in locations that were not expected. Hence, it is comprehensible to believe that Pogacar will want to try and make the difference on this stage; if not on the gravel sectors themselves then in the steep climb positioned only 4 kilometers away from the finish line.

“A crash can always happen, as happened to Christophe Laporte. Then you can lie on the ground before you even get to the gravel," he warns however, focusing on positioning. "We have to pay very close attention to this. I'm not going to change anything. In Strade Bianche we only ride with slightly wider tires and slightly less tire pressure, but in Strade there are many more gravel kilometers. I'm not going to change much on my bike for this stage.”