The Giro d'Italia fully lived up to its reputation for unpredictability on Monday as race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) launched a dramatic late attack on a stage theoretically made for the sprinters, with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), second overall, joining race leader in a breakneck move for the line.
EF Education-EasyPost's Mikkel Honoré - as chance would have it, the same rider who was caught up with Pogačar in his Liège-Bastogne-Liège crash last year - opened up the hostilities with 3.5 kilometres to go and was briefly able to stick with the two GC leaders as they came across. But a second surging acceleration in the streets of Fossano by Pogačar meant it was finally only the Briton who managed to stay with him.
In the most electrifying of finales for what had been, up to then, one of the most soporific flat stages of the Giro d'Italia in recent years, the two were only caught a few hundred metres from the line.
Thomas had correctly predicted that Pogačar 'would drop a bomb' on the Oropa stage 24 hours earlier, but when he stopped to talk to reporters after the line on Monday, he admitted that he had only half-expected this last-minute blast for glory by the Giro d'Italia leader.
"It wasn't the plan, we just wanted to stay well out of trouble, stay on the left," Thomas said. "We did that really well from quite early on, the boys set me up great, we were hoping that Pippo [Filippo Ganna] and Johnny [Jhonatan Narvaez] would be with me but they lost the wheel a bit somewhere along the way."
"Thymen [Arensman] set a great pace and then I saw Honoré and Pogačar going for it, and I thought, I might as well just go. But jeepers, man, they were solid - he was kicking my head in."
Asked if they talked on their move - and some brief communication was visible in the TV images - Thomas said "I just told him I was quite tired, in a few less words." As for whether he was thinking about the win, he said "I was just thinking about holding his wheel."
"I tried to give him a turn, but he was solid, we were going. I looked back, I was surprised to see we had such a big gap, but I knew they [the sprinters] were going to come."
"Especially with the way I was feeling I didn't feel too confident about when we got to the line but yeah - a bit different." He had, he said later, "just wanted it to finish, I was thinking - this is hurting."
Second overall at 45 seconds, last year's runner-up said he was more than pleased with how he was doing so far, but as for whether he was surprised by Pogačar's third attack in three days, he said, "Yes and No. It's kind of what he does.
"I didn't expect a move up there" - on the late short climb to the flatter final two kilometres - "I thought it'd be fast and put people off.."
"When they went it was just on instinct. At least I could follow, but it hurt, though."
Thomas had already shown he was alert and ready to react though, earlier on in the stage when he and Pogačar had a brief fight for some bonus seconds, something he said that was also unplanned, but simply a reaction to the Slovenian star making a move. That netted him one second to Pogačar gaining two. Then came the final breakaway, with the two coming within a whisker of success.
Given a little more time for reflection, Thomas said "It was a good move, there were some tired legs in the peloton, so it was worth a try. It was never in the plan, I wasn't even thinking about it."
"I was the wrong side of Thymen's wheel when Tadej went, I had to back out a bit and then go for it, but then when he did, I thought - sod it, I'll try and follow."
Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the Giro d'Italia - including reports, breaking news and analysis on the ground from every stage of the race as it happens and more. Find out more.
