Tadej Pogačar refused to rule out more aggressive racing in the final week of the Giro d’Italia as he looks to wrap up overall victory in Rome next weekend.
The Slovenian already has an almost-unassailable advantage of nearly seven minutes on Geraint Thomas in second place, and has won four individual stages. He won the race’s queen stage to Livigno on Sunday to double his time gap over his rivals.
But speaking during a press conference on Monday’s rest day, Pogačar would not be drawn when asked how his team would approach the final week of action, and suggested he may still look to go on the attack in search of even more time.
"Let's see," he responded when asked if he would ride conservatively in the final week. "Lets see how the team feels also. We have enough of a gap so we can play more on the safe side.
"Yesterday we wanted to go for it for a really long time already. But let’s see this week what's on the cards for us. I think we can play it a little more conservative but you never know, you never know."
"We sit good in the GC now with a good time gap," he added. "So let's hope that this week is going to be good for us with good pacing and not spending too much energy.
"But yes, it’s six days more, let's hope for good weather also so we don’t spend too much energy, but first let's get through the Giro and then we can think about the Tour de France."
Despite his heroics on Sunday, the race leader wasn’t convinced it was his greatest win and didn't reveal where he ranked it on a personal level.
"For sure it was one of the top performances that I did in the high mountains," he said. "Based on the feeling, I'd say it was one of my top three high mountain performances but not top three of all time.
"For sure it's up there, I felt super good on the bike on what was a long day with a lot of climbing so I was really happy with the legs."
Happy days in Livigno
"There’s a lot of wins that have much more weight," he added. "I did say that winning the queen stage of a Grand Tour is one of the biggest things that a cyclist can do so it was among the top of them all.
"It’s so hard to categorise victories, especially when you win the Tour and Monuments, but to win a queen stage is something really special. The queen stages are usually won by the biggest names in the race so I'm super happy and proud of yesterday."
Pogačar spoke regularly before the Giro had started about the significance of the stage to Livigno. He explained that he had often used the likes of the Mortirolo pass for training during his career and that he knew the roads well.
"The first time in Livigno was in my first year of juniors as we were in a training camp at St Moritz actually," he said. "Our national coach found one old house and we were there for ten days… on a rest day we drove with our old van to Livigno to get groceries and gasoline.
"I have a lot of good memories after that, it's where I started to date Urška [Zigart] and since then my life has been amazing so it's a really important place for me."
Pogačar has now held the pink jersey since winning stage two at Santuario di Oropa and is likely to keep it all the way to the end in Rome on Sunday.
"To have the pink jersey in the Giro has been a long term dream," he said. "My calendar never allowed me to come here before so to pull this on on day two was incredible, it was really beautiful.
"I can see how big it is to wear this jersey, especially here in Italy. To defend the pink jersey gives me so much motivation and I've been fighting hard to keep it and make a bigger gap to my opponents. Let's see what happens this week but let’s hope for a good one."
