It worked once before, but Tadej Pogačar was never likely to make the same mistake again. Four years is a long time in the Pogačar era, and the version currently dominating the Giro d’Italia looks utterly impervious to the kind of carelessness that almost cost him his first Grand Tour victory.
In the opening week of that pandemic-delayed 2020 Tour de France, Ineos availed of crosswinds on the road to Lavaur to splinter the peloton, and a young Pogačar was among those caught on the wrong side of the split, losing over a minute in the process.
For the next fortnight, right up until Pogačar launched an epoch with his supersonic display on La Planche des Belles Filles, his deficit on GC read like an admonishment. Maddeningly, it looked as though he would lose the Tour to an error of inexperience.
The lesson never left him. On stage 13 of the Giro, which brought the gruppo through the flat, exposed roads of Emilia-Romagna, Ineos decided to probe for some kind of a weakness in Pogačar’s armoury. Filippo Ganna was dispatched to the front to split the peloton in the crosswind, but while he succeeded in that task, Pogačar was wise to the danger and always in the first positions.
“Four years ago, I stressed a lot for this and lost a lot of energy. But now I really trust the team, they put in a good effort every day and we really race really smart for the crosswinds,” Pogačar said when he took a seat in the press conference afterwards.
“I think now, with the pink jersey and a strong team – especially with a strong team – it’s much easier to have the control of this situation. I must say thanks to the team, I didn’t have a lot of stress because they take care of me.”
The danger passed after 20km or so and the bunch reformed, with Pogačar eventually rolling safely home in the same time as stage winner Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek). On Pogačar’s 11th day in the race lead, Ineos’ show of forcing here essentially amounted to the first thing approaching an attack on his maglia rosa, but he confessed that their effort didn’t come entirely as a surprise to him and his UAE Team Emirates guard.
“I asked them before like a joke if they wanted to go full gas today, and they said it was top secret,” Pogačar said. “I said, ‘Ok, maybe, but they probably won’t go.’ In the end, they went, but everybody was prepared. The team did a super job, so for us it was ok. They tried but it was not a strong enough wind to do any proper damage.
“These days, everybody can prepare for this with Google Maps and all those things. It’s always easy to miss something, but more or less everybody is ready for those things.”
Time trial
There is little doubt, meanwhile, that Pogačar is ready for the weekend, which pairs the flat, fast time trial to the shores of Lake Garda with the tappone over the Mortirolo to Livigno. The abrupt change in register from time trial to high mountains usually catches some contenders out – witness the damage sparked by a similar brace of stages on the corresponding weekend of the 2020 Giro – but it’s hard to imagine that Pogačar will be among them.
Pogačar currently holds a lead of 2:40 over Daniel Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe), with Geraint Thomas (Ineos) third at 2:56. After winning the time trial to Perugia on stage 7, Pogačar will roll down the ramp on Saturday with the expectation of distancing his pursuers still further on the 31km run to Desenzano del Garda.
“I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s stage. I’m more confident in my time trial since the last TT,” Pogačar said. “Let’s hope for good legs again, let’s hope I feel good on the bike. I will do my measured effort until the final. For me, it’s not the best parcours like the last time, but I will still do a great time trial.”
By now, Pogačar has been in a race entirely of his own for almost a fortnight. He won’t be daunted by the loneliness of the time trial effort, nor by the thought of the 5,300 metres of altitude gain to come the following day. After a week of, to borrow his expression, sharing the pie with the peloton, Pogačar will feel free to indulge his own appetite over the next 48 hours.
“Tomorrow you need to go around 100%, and there’s not too much calculation for the Livigno stage,” Pogačar said. “The effort of a 31km time trial can always backfire on you in the mountains, but I think I’m ready for both. Let’s have a great weekend.”
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