GIRO D'ITALIA
Ineos Grenadiers rider decides not to follow Pogačar, the rider from a “different planet”
It must be a strange Giro d’Italia for Geraint Thomas. The Ineos Grenadiers rider is second on general classification and he is having one of the races of his career.
However, he is over six minutes behind Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), who leads in pink.
Last Sunday, on stage 15, Thomas defended his second place on general classification ably, matching Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) in third.
On his podcast, Watts Occurring, the Welshman explained to fellow Ineos rider Luke Rowe that he had made a decision not to chase Pogačar in order not to blow up and lose his second place.
“I didn’t feel great, to be honest,” he said. “It’s so much of a head game, this sport. I tried to stay strong, I knew I would come good. Sure enough I did feel better in the final. When UAE started ramping it, it was obvious Pog was going to go. If I tried to follow I could follow for a bit, and then blow up and lose 10 minutes.
“Even before he went I decided I was just going to stick with the other GC guys. If they followed, I’d have to try, or at least slowly come up to them. They kind of didn’t. They did to start with, but nobody really had the legs. Dani was in the middle. It just turned into a race amongst us. It sounds a bit defeatist, but it was almost like, ‘Alright Pog, catch you at the finish, you can have two, three, four minutes, whatever you like, this is our race here.’
“We went quite slow, and I knew I could go harder here, but I wasn’t going to ride and pull everyone on my wheel. I’m sure a few other guys felt the same. It was a stalemate between us.”
Thomas claimed back second on stage 14 thanks to a solid TT, but one where he still lost over half a minute to Pogačar. He looks well set for the rest of the Giro, but Pogačar is simply so much more s
