Pink Pogačar in complete control

UAE rider has already won three stages at the Giro d'Italia

- Adam Becket

Only once this century has a rider had a bigger time gap than Tadej Pogačar’s at the end of stage nine of the Giro d’Italia. That was Jens Heppner of Telekom in 2002, who took pink after a breakaway, and so had a lead of 3:33, but was not considered a general classification threat.

Pogačar, then, is very different. The UAE Team Emirates rider ended the opening week of the 2024 Giro with a lead of 2:40 over Dani Martínez (BoraHansgrohe) in second, and 2:58 over Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) in third.

The eye-catching lead after less than half of the race had been completed was mainly due to the Slovenian’s performance in stage seven’s time trial, in which Pogačar put two minutes into Thomas, who had been in second overall before the day.

“I’m positively surprised at myself because I had a super-good day today and that’s what I was aiming for, so I’m super-happy,” Pogačar said post-time trial last Friday. “But I was expecting especially both Thomas and Martínez to be closer, too. It was a hard day, a hard time trial if you didn’t have super legs, and for sure you’d pay for that on the last climb.