On the eve of the Perugia time trial last week, Tadej Pogačar quietly gave up on the pretence that he had banished all thoughts of the Tour de France from his mind until after he had taken care of business at the Giro d’Italia. “It’s also good training for the summer,” Pogačar said absent-mindedly when asked about the time trial route.
Then again, it was hardly a secret why a sizeable portion of UAE Team Emirates’ planning for Pogačar’s Giro-Tour double attempt had been centred on time trialling.
The focus was partly due to a certain drift in the discipline – Pogačar had won just once in 16 time trials over the previous three seasons – but largely because of the sheer volume of kilometres against the watch at both the Giro and Tour this year.
After taking on 71.8km of time trialling on this Giro, Pogačar will face 59km in July, split across the test to Gevrey-Chambertin on stage 7 and the demanding course over La Turbie and the Col d’Èze on the final day. Little wonder, then, that such attention was paid to Pogačar’s time trial position last winter.
“When you have four time trials in your two main objectives of the year, then it’s obvious that it’s a discipline you need to work on, both by training a lot on the time trial bike and by working a lot on the position and so on,” UAE Team Emirates sports manager Matxin Joxean Fernandez told Cyclingnews in Martinsicuro.
An additional motivation was surely provided by the chastening experience of the hilly time trial to Combloux on last year’s Tour. Although Pogačar produced an astonishing power output to finish over a minute clear of Wout van Aert that afternoon, he was still soundly beaten into second place by Jonas Vingegaard, shipping 1:38 across the 22km. A tired 21st place at the time trial World Championships a few weeks later only confirmed the need for a reboot in the discipline.
As for every time triallist, the idea was to improve efficiency by lowering Pogačar’s coefficient of aerodynamic drag (CdA). And, as for every time triallist, the task is easier said than done. Every minor tweak for aerodynamics risks creating a disproportionate sacrifice in comfort or power output.
“A time trial in a Grand Tour is influenced a lot by how much energy you’ve got left, which is very different to a one-off event like the Worlds,” Matxin said. “Tadej worked a lot on his position, with the mechanics and in the wind tunnel, with the aim of being more aerodynamic, obviously, but also with the idea of being more efficient. The idea was to lower his CdA so that he could use fewer watts to go at the same speed.
“As well as working on the bike, Tadej needed a custom skinsuit and a custom helmet so he could be as comfortable as possible in the position with the lowest CdA. That all contributed to what we wanted: a position that allows him to expend as few watts as possible for the speed he’s travelling at.”
Improvement
The time trial to Perugia last week was Pogačar’s first of the year. In public, there was quiet confidence emanating from the UAE Team Emirates camp beforehand that he would gain time on all of his rivals, including Geraint Thomas (Ineos). In private, they believed the hybrid course, with its stiff uphill finish, could even see Pogačar fend off Filippo Ganna for stage victory.
So it proved. Pogačar thrashed his way up the 8km ascent into the walled city to overturn his early deficit on Ganna, winning the stage by 16 seconds and effectively putting the Giro beyond the reach of his rivals with more than two weeks still to race.
“We felt he had a chance of winning the stage if he lost less than 40 seconds to Ganna by the second time check,” Matxin said. “We started to have some doubts when he lost 47 seconds but, well, Tadej is Tadej.”
The profile of the 31.2km test to Desenzano del Garda on stage 14 is less obviously tailored to Pogačar’s talents, with a flat and fast parcours that sees Ganna line up as the notional favourite. Even so, Pogačar’s other-worldly displays thus far mean that it would be premature to rule him out entirely.
“Ganna is the big favourite and then there’s a battle between Tadej and the best TT riders in the GC race,” Matxin said. “There are really time trials in one, because the specialists can have calm days beforehand, whereas Tadej has to be competitive every day.”
And even though Pogačar has a 2:40 lead in the overall classification and a tappone to Livigno on Sunday, Matxin was adamant that his rider would go “full gas” along the shores of Lake Garda on Saturday afternoon. By now, Pogačar isn’t racing only to win this Giro, after all, he is also engaged in a dress rehearsal for his meeting with Remco Evenepoel, Primoz Roglič, et al, in those pivotal time trials at the Tour.
“It’s obvious that the first time trial of the Tour de France is important, but the last one is key,” Matxin said.
“We’ve been planning everything with the clothing, the bike and so, because it’s completely different from a normal mountain time trial where you can change the bike. You can’t do that there, so it’s very important to have the bike just right, because it’s a very tough climb and then a very technical descent.”
On occasion, the methodical rigour of time trialling has seemed at odds with Pogačar’s often playful interpretation of the sport. At the past two Tours, for instance, the time trials felt like days to be endured by Pogačar rather than enjoyed. Since last July, it seems, that mindset has changed.
“Tadej likes to improve, and the time trial is an area in which he needs to improve and in which he has been improving,” Matxin said. “Anything that he can improve upon is a motivation for him. He’s very serious about that.”
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