Geraint Thomas believes Tadej Pogačar’s "Achilles heel" at the Giro d’Italia lies in his UAE Team Emirates squad, whose ability the Slovenian "might overestimate".
Going into Tuesday's tenth stage, Pogačar leads the general classification at the race with a commanding advantage of two minutes and 40 seconds. He has also already won three stages: two mountaintop finishes and an individual time trial.
Speaking on his podcast, Watts Occuring, during Monday's rest day, Thomas said Pogačar should look to "save" his team-mates for more challenging stages to come.
"His Achilles heel is the fact he's so strong and he wants to win, and his team also wants to win," the Ineos Grenadiers rider told his co-host, teammate Luke Rowe. "It seems like they get a bit emotional with it. All the rest of his team are normal bike riders. They'll have a good day, then the next day, they'll be not so good, whereas Pog's good all the time.
"I think he might overestimate their ability sometimes. I don't mean any disrespect there by saying that. They need to sort of look after those pennies, don't they?"
On stage eight, which Pogačar won atop the Prati di Tivo, UAE Team Emirates rode most of the day on the front of the peloton, keeping the breakaway on a tight leash. The race leader revealed afterwards that his teammate, Mikkel Bjerg, told him he was "all in for chasing the group in front" to set up the stage win.
Referring to this day in particular, Thomas said UAE Team Emirates "could have backed off if they wanted to. But because the break was just there – it was only at a minute and a half or something – they just rode and kept it within distance, and went for it.
"Why do you even need to do that?" The Welshman added. "Save the boys, because there's definitely big, big days to come, and there's going to be a point where they might need all hands on deck. Or at least someone other than [Rafał] Majka as well to be there."
In a press conference held during the first rest day, Pogačar suggested his team hadn't received the respect they deserved at the race.
"I am just used to it now that the media and competitors try to undermine them," the pink-jersey-wearer said. "Everyone can say this but we will show otherwise. We've proven over and over again that we're one of the best teams, even if we're not full of the biggest names."
The Giro d’Italia continues on Tuesday with its tenth stage and third mountaintop finish, this time at Cusano Mutri.
