“Not expected today”
Pogacar is so dominant at the Giro that he surprises himself
May 11, 2024, 6:55 p.m
He can’t believe it himself, but Tadej Pogacar also wins the second mountain finish at the Giro d’Italia. The Slovenian is apparently heading towards victory safely.
Tadej Pogacar flexed his muscles again at the Giro d’Italia. The Slovenian cycling superstar from the UAE Emirates team almost playfully sprinted through the difficult final climb of the 8th stage and further extended his lead in the overall lead with his third victory of the day. Pogacar is now 2:40 minutes ahead of his closest rival Daniel Felipe Martinez (Bora-hansgrohe), who secured second place.
After 153 km from Spoleto to Prati di Tivo, Pogacar started with around 200 m to go. Martinez looked for the rear wheel of the two-time Tour de France winner, but the Colombian was unable to do more. The Australian Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) came third at the same time.
“I didn’t expect it today,” said Pogacar in the winner’s interview: “We drove well as a team. The team did a good job, especially Rafal.” His helper Rafal Majka had previously put Pogacar in a perfect position.
Thanks to the bonus seconds for the win, Pogacar distanced Martinez by another four seconds in the overall standings. Pogacar had already won the first mountain finish on the second stage of this year’s Tour of Italy as well as the time trial the day before.
German runaways are captured
On Saturday, the 25-year-old initially held back in the peloton, with Majka in particular leading Pogacar up the 14.6 km long final climb. Pogacar nipped several attacks in the last kilometer of the competition in the bud before he picked up the pace himself.
A breakaway group had previously broken away at the start of the race. This also included the Germans Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) and veteran Simon Geschke (Cofidis). However, the breakaways were caught around 10 km before the mountain finish known from the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race; also because Maximilian Schachmann set a lot of pace for Bora-hansgrohe in the peloton.
But Pogacar’s UAE team controlled the last few kilometers. Pogacar, chasing the double of Giro and Tour wins, then stepped out of Majka’s slipstream and cruised to victory. The 9th stage on Sunday leads over 206 km from Avezzano to Naples. This is followed by the first day of rest.