Tadej Pogačar may not have seized the pink jersey on the first day of the 2024 Giro d’Italia, but the number-one GC favourite nonetheless still managed to make a significant statement of intent with a searing late attack and third place behind stage winner Jhonathan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) and runner-up Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe).
As widely predicted, the organisers' decision this spring to insert the steep, unclassified ascent of the Bivio di San Vito into stage 1 proved critical in Pogačar’s master plan, as the Slovenian star blasted off from the foot of the climb and was all but clear by the summit.
However, on a climb just a kilometre long, no matter how steep some segments, there was only so much even a rider as strong as Pogačar could do.
Furthermore, Narváez's ability to glue himself to his back wheel all the way up complicated matters considerably for the UAE Team Emirates leader when it came to taking the stage. Plus, the additional presence of Schachmann, bridging across on the descent that followed, all but ensured that it would be a three-up sprint at the finale.
Pogačar could only run third in the dash for the line and by his own admission he led it out from too far to vie for the first Giro stage win in the race.
It had been a long, frustrating and emotional day. Pogačar was woken early for a 7:00am anti-doping test. He raced with a black armband in mourning for a 15-year-old rider from his Pogi Team development squad who had died in a kayak accident. He wanted to wanted to win the stage a sign of remembrance.
After briefly warming down on the rollers post-stage, Pogačar opted not to speak about the stage.
“It was our first day at the Giro, a short and fast stage which we tried to control,” Pogačar said in a statement later.
“Unfortunately it was not our day but we still did a good job I think.
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However, the 10-second gap the UAE leader and his two closest pursuers carved out on a group shredded to just 18 pursuers, and with some key rivals like Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) already in trouble, constitutes an ominous warning that in this year’s Giro, the Slovenian certainly means business from the get-go.
Not only that, Oropa’s 11 kilometres on Sunday are an altogether much more difficult kind of ascent and summit finish, and will surely provide much greater room for manoeuvre for a more significant statement of intent - and quite possibly the pink jersey for Pogačar as well.
“It’s always a bit 50-50 on the first day, we see some riders suffering and some feeling good, so I think also in our team, we’re going step by step, day by day," he said.
“Tomorrow is more suited as a stage for us, I would say, so we’ll see how the legs are going after today’s effort. But I think it’s going to be a good Giro.”
Pogačar’s ability to drop all of his GC rivals even on such a short climb strongly cements his status as top overall favourite. And the speculation over his team’s collective firepower in the Giro d’Italia will not have been diminished by the relatively-limited support he enjoyed from them in the closing kilometres.
Only Rafal Majka remained with him by the foot of the final climb, perhaps partly due to the excellent job UAE Team Emirates had done of reducing the lead group to a bare 30 units over the Superga and the Colle Maddalena. But when a late wave of attackers went shortly before the San Vito, it briefly looked as if, at almost the last possible moment, the stage was slipping out of UAE’s control.
Pogačar’s solo move on the San Vito all but quelled that potential rebellion, but even if Pogačar was ahead of all of his GC rivals by the summit, Narváez still remained hovering on his back wheel. And at least in the short term, the questions about his team support will continue to hover, too.
“In the last climb, unfortunately I had to go from bottom to top but Narváez was super strong today,” Pogačar recounted. “He followed my wheel really well and the group on the front had too big a gap in the bottom.
“I tried, I gave it everything and I still dropped GC riders, and this is the sign that I have good legs. But when we come to the top of the climb and Narváez was still with me, I knew he would hard to beat in the sprint.
“I was also a bit nervous because it’s been a long time since I was in a sprint with three guys. So I started too early, but Narváez was obviously faster. I didn’t have too much chance, but anyway, it was a really good effort today.”
UAE team manager Mauro Gianetti played down the significance of Pogačar being isolated from his teammates in the finale, saying, “Once they had done their job, it was better to get dropped rather than use up energy just to stay there".
"This is the first stage, it’s a long way to go to Rome, but the guys who did their job today know that the Giro is not finishing today, it’s only just starting.”
Looking at the stage globally, Gianetti was as upbeat as his star rider about how it had played out for UAE Team Emirates. And with his rivals already distanced, even if the gaps can only be measured in seconds not minutes, in terms of psychological blows stage 1 has certainly left Pogačar's rivals in no doubt they are facing a real uphill struggle to beat him, right from the word go.
“It was a good, demanding stage," Gianetti told Cyclingnews. "Tadej tried to win it, and Narváez was too strong. But Tadej has already shown he’s going very well and it was important to show this sign.”
