Peerless Pogacar wins the Giro d’Italia, next stage of the Tour de France

Tadej Pogacar won the Giro d’Italia on Sunday, crossing the finish line in Rome under bright sunshine and with the largest margin of victory in almost six decades.

The 25-year-old UAE rider won six of 21 stages of the 3,400km tour which began in Turin, finishing 9 minutes 56 seconds ahead of Colombian Daniel Martinez of Bora, while Geraint Thomas of Ineos was 10 minutes 24 seconds off the winning pace in third place.

The overall triumph was sealed on Sunday during the 21st stage around Rome, won by Belgian sprinter Tim Merlier, who claimed his third stage victory of the 2024 Giro.

Considered a champion in waiting, Pogacar proved himself second to none as he took the lead on the second stage and rampaged through peaks, plains and picturesque vistas to triumph by the largest margin in any major cycling tour since Vittorio Adorni won the Giro by 11 minutes 26 seconds. 1965.

“I felt strong and relaxed these three weeks,” said Pogacar, who planned to party with his teammates in Rome and then find a nearby beach for a few days.

“It was a wonderful experience. I loved it,” he said.

The courageous Slovenian wore the iconic pink leader’s jersey, rode a pink bike and even arrived in a pink bus as the route headed south.

Hoping to become the first rider to win both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France since Marco Pantani in 1998, Pogacar was more like another rider, Eddy Merckx, also known for wanting to win as many stages as possible.

He won the opening time trial and the first major summit finish the next day and then rode home on the Queen stage in the Dolomites, doubling his lead.

Italians traveled to Pogacar, cheering him on through the spectacular port of Genoa, the chic Tuscan city of Lucca and the southern port of Naples and Pompeii in the shadow of the Vesuvius volcano.

The two-time Tour de France winner had slowly increased his lead on the Adriatic coast before week three’s relentless series of climbs and descents in the Alps.

– To prove Merckx wrong –

If Pogacar achieves the ambitious Giro-Tour double, he will join a list of legends made up of Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Stephen Roche, Miguel Indurain and Pantani.

Pogacar burst onto the scene by winning three stages of the Vuelta a Espana in 2019 and finishing third.

The following year, he pulled off one of the biggest surprises in cycling history when he closed a 90-second gap on Primoz Roglic to take the lead at the very end of the 2020 Tour de France.

In 2021, Pogacar dominated the Tour to claim back-to-back triumphs, before a rival emerged in the form of Danish rider Visma Jonas Vingegaard.

The wispy Dane dominated Pogacar on the toughest mountain stages, allowing Pogacar to take the stage victories while he himself remained firmly focused on the overall.

Merckx said in 2023 that for now the Dane was the best rider in the Grand Tour, but Vingegaard is struggling to reach peak fitness for the Tour de France after a nasty crash at the Tour of the Basque Country.

While Pogacar had no visible rival at the Giro, Vingegaard will only be a danger to watch out for on French roads, with Belgian maverick Remco Evenepoel, Colombian climber Egan Bernal and old enemy Roglic scrambling all the odds. waters on a very open and mature list. for surprises in July.

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