SSince Tad Pogacar’s stage win on day two at Oropa Reserve three weeks ago, the only suspense at this year’s Giro d’Italia has centered on the Slovenian’s eventual winning margin and his journey along the way. Which stage winning records will be tied?
Three and a half kilometers from the top of the Grappa Mountains, with two tackles on Saturday afternoon, it became clear: he was once again behind, his sixth stage victory beckoning, while his overall winning margin increased significantly, approaching 10 minutes .
By the time he finished at Bassano del Grappa, Pogacar had equaled the standard of absolute Giro dominance of the past half-century, Eddy Merckx’s 1973 Year’s victory, six stages along the way. Pogacar equaled Jacques Anquetil’s 1960 feat of wearing the pink captain’s jersey for 18 consecutive days.
In recent years, the Giro d’Italia has often been won or lost in seconds, and sometimes in minutes. Pogacar entered Rome on Sunday 9 minutes, 56 seconds ahead of Colombia’s Dani Martinez, the largest margin of victory at the Giro since 1965. The total was pushed to 14 games, a success rate close to Merckx’s best.
There was a small episode that summed up the Giro d’Italia at the Paso Brocon finish on Wednesday. As the final kilometres approached, the championship contenders closed in on the lone breakaway Georg Steinhauser, with Geraint Thomas’ Ineos team-mate beating him with a strong pace One of Thomas’ second-place competitors is Australian Ben O’Connor. Pogacar reacted almost apologetically as Martinez accelerated, appearing to inadvertently drift away from the front of the pack.
He didn’t need to go deep to open a gap; after riding the first two mountain stages, he had no particular need to win this stage. He effectively controlled the race while his direct rival was hundreds of meters behind and completely unable to close the gap.
This Giro d’Italia reinforced an uncomfortable truth. With Remko Evernepoel, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vengergaard (assuming he recovers from his horrific crash in April) At the same time, “Porgy” is one of a small group of stars who are light years ahead of other main cars. Unless another member of the Fantastic Five is present, they are expected to win as long as they pull the game number. Sometimes it’s mesmerizing, but on other occasions, such as the Giro d’Italia, it’s a matter of statistics and record books.
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In Italy Thomas performed surprisingly well for a 38-year-old competing in his first Tour de France, while Pogacar had just ridden a bike with stabilizers, Martin Ness has ridden his best Tour de France and young Italian Antonio Tiberi has improved significantly, but neither of them has been enough to shake Pogacar for a second.
Two-time world champion Julian Alaphilippe was back to his best with stage wins and some epic escapes, and the Italian team also discovered new sprinter Jonathan Millan, but only to leave the mighty Slovenian trembling. In other words, they provide little distraction.
Until a few over-enthusiastic close encounters fan Pogaca encountered a minor hiccup on Saturday’s climb: a slight fall while trying to turn with a flat front tire on the second stage. There’s an old saying among sportswriters that great athletes make their sport look easy. This is where Bogaca has spent the past three weeks.
It’s sometimes easy to forget that Pogakar hasn’t won a Grand Tour in nearly three years. Since his failure at the 2022 Tour de France, he has put in strong performances in the one-day classics to set an all-around record unrivaled since Bernard Hinault in the early 1980s. However, his struggles in the past two Tours have highlighted that no matter how seamless the Knight’s dominance of the Grand Tour may seem, the adjective “easy” will never be appropriate.
At their best, cycling’s extraordinary figures like Merckx, Hinault and Miguel Induráin seem to function in a dimension of time and space all their own compared to mere mortals. Pogacar has moved into that position and now the question is whether he can support him at the Tour de France, something no one has done since drug-addled super climber Marco Pantani in 1998 things.
The Slovenian will face stiffer competition on the starting line with Roglič, Evan Napur and possibly Vengergaard, and will face the challenge of maintaining form (or something close to it) until late July . But after the past three seamless weeks, few are shorting it.
