Tadej Pogacar: "The main goal is to bring the pink jersey to Rome and not do anything stupid anymore"

For the second day in a row, Tadej Pogacar's activity on Strava was flagged, to which he joked 'Haters gonna flag'. The Slovenian however couldn't care less, as he stormed up the final ascent of the Passo del Brocon to comfortably extend his lead at the Giro d'Italia even further.

“Today the plan was to let the leading group go, but that battle [for the breakaway] was already very tough. The first group of attackers was very strong and we were happy with that at that moment," Pogacar told Eurosport following the stage. "Then Steinhauser was able to attack again. He rode very strongly and deserved the victory. He is going to be a great rider, let's keep our eyes on him.”

UAE Team Emirates did briefly worked in the penultimate ascent as the work of Team DSM seemed to be bringing the stage into the hands of the GC favourites, but Georg Steinhauser was the exception as he rolled into a brilliant stage win. As for Pogacar he remained conservative until the final ascent. It didn't look like he intended to attack it hard but eventually saw the opportunity to increase his buffer even further over Daniel Martínez.

“I held back until the final, but I tested my legs there. INEOS Grenadiers increased the pace, Martínez tried to attack, and then I decided to make another effort. I was able to pull away and kept my pace until the finish.”

The Slovenian didn't look like he went to the limit. But with another summit finish, he took another 18 (plus 6 in bonifications) seconds on Daniel Martínez and Geraint Thomas. After stage 17, his lead over the Colombian in second place is of 7:42 minutes. “I am satisfied for now, even if I don't win another stage," he assures, again.

"Everything is a bonus from now on. The main goal is to bring the pink jersey to Rome and not do anything stupid anymore. There is another nice stage coming up over Monte Grappa, close to Slovenia, and something can still happen there. And we hope to win the stage tomorrow with {Juan Sebastián] Molano.”