If there were any lingering doubts about Tadej Pogačar’s condition after his narrow defeat on Saturday’s opening stage of the Giro d’Italia, they evaporated completely in just over four kilometres on Sunday at Oropa as the Slovenian soloed to victory and his first leader’s jersey in the race.
The UAE Team Emirates rider’s gap of 27 seconds at the finish on his closest rivals was perhaps not his most crushing mountain performance of recent years, but it was more than enough to put him in the lead by 45 seconds on Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), once again back in the runner’s up spot he occupied in last year’s Giro.
With 71 pro victories to date in his palmares, and the latest at Oropa his 15th stage in a Grand Tour, Pogačar’s win rate is so prolific that new angles to discuss them are becoming increasingly scant. One journalist noted his impression was that Pogačar had not seemed so content about this latest triumph in Italy as he had been at Strade Bianche earlier this season, and asked the Slovenian if that was correct.
However, Pogačar batted that idea away by joking, “maybe it’s because I’m getting too many questions, that’s why I’m not so happy,” before explaining that with so much of the race left to go, he could not afford to take his eye off the ball even for a second just yet.
“Strade Bianche is a one-day race, my first win of season, and here it’s stage 2 of a three-week race,” he said, “but I can confirm to you I’m super happy.
“I’m still thinking, though, about the next 19 stages so it’s not over yet, and the big goal is to win the Giro. So I cannot go out and celebrate now. There’s still a bike race, tomorrow, it’s still time to be serious.”
Pogačar briefly seemed to be in serious trouble at the foot of the Oropa when he punctured in the city of Biella, sparking umpteen parallels on Italian TV between the Slovenian’s problems and Marco Pantani’s memorable mechanical - and subsequent blistering comeback and ride to victory - at the foot of the same climb.
But despite Italian TV’s repeated replays of footage of Pantani’s mechanical, the parallels between the two were evidently limited, given that rather than Pantani’s desperate counter-charge to glory as per 1999, in the 2024 race Pogačar could get back in the bunch without too many difficulties and then attack as and when he wanted.
“I was not panicking, I hit a hole in the city cobbles and punctured my front wheel, it was not a good paved road,” Pogačar explained.
“A corner was coming and I was thinking about stopping before but in the car they told me to stop afterwards, which normally would be better. But I was riding on the front wheel with zero pressure, just on carbon, so I came into the corner and I made the mistake of not stopping before, so I had a little crash, but nothing crazy.
“A bit more adrenalin kicked in but I was confident. I came back with the team, they did a super job, and set the pace we liked and it was perfect.”
If Pogačar dodged that particular bullet, there was no escaping, though, the fact that Oropa is rich in cycling history and one of its strongest links to that past is with a rider, Marco Pantani, whose Giro-Tour double of1998 is exactly what Pogačar is trying to emulate in 2024.
“It means a lot to win here, just like any other stage win where you take the leader’s jersey,” Pogačar said.
“The atmosphere was incredible on the climb, a real pleasure to ride solo last couple of kilometres, support from fans was incredible, so it was my pleasure to ride today.”
Asked if he had not been riding at full power, Pogačar denied that was the case.
"I can confirm I was at my maximum. I was riding at my pace, then when Rafal [Majka, teammate] start to set things up for attack, I was quite on the limit already. But I knew had to make the gap to crack my opponents and then continue with normal pace to the top. It was quite a big effort today.”
The plan
Given Pogačar had been so widely predicted to attack at Oropa, anything but doing that would likely have constituted a major surprise, and he confirmed that there had been a plan in place to go on the rampage on the final climb of the day.
“There was a plan already yesterday to win the stage, but I came up short in the final a little bit,” he said, referring to his defeat on stage 1 by Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe).
“But today [it was] more suitable for us, we did a super good job and it was incredible work from everybody. I’m very happy to win the stage and take the pink jersey.”
Back in his first Grand Tour lead since losing the Tour de France maillot jaune in the 2022 race on stage 11 to Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike), Pogačar pointed to the stage 7 time trial, rather than the race over the gravel roads of Tuscany where he won in Strade Bianche this March, as the next opportunity for him to broaden his advantage. However, he also warned that he was far from alone in eying the time trial as a chance to distance his rivals.
“I think the sterrato should be more a stage where I will not lose time, rather than gain it, but in the TT I will do my best of course, then see how the rest of the field goes," he said.
“One of the GC guys, Geraint Thomas is a TT specialist, so it’s going to be interesting to see. I haven’t done so many, normally just in Grand Tours and a couple of small ones. Here it’s a new competition with new guys to go against and I’m not sure where anybody should fit in, exactly.
“But I will focus on my own performance and in the TT, I’ll try to go all out. It’s a really nice TT, I already did a recon and, yeah, I cannot wait.”
The 40.6km race against the clock between Foligno and Perugia on May 10 remains a full five days away, and rather than focus too strongly for now on what's to come, the big takeaway from Oropa is surely that Pogačar is already in command of the 2024 Giro d’Italia.
The race may be far from over then, just as Pogacar said. But after just 48 hours, the Giro already almost feels like Pogačar’s to lose.
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