It is growing far from unusual to see Giro d’Italia leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) close to the front positions in the peloton in the finale of this year’s flat stages, in a clear bid to stay out of trouble. But to shift from that strategy to actually acting as a leadout, as the Slovenian star did on Sunday’s reduced mass sprint into Naples, initially had quite a few puzzled race commentators scratching their heads at Pogačar’s mixing it with the fast men.
Minutes after the finish, though, Pogačar provided the answer himself - that he was acting as a leadout man for Vuelta a España stage winner and teammate Juan Sebastian Molano, who placed third in the sprint behind Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease A Bike) and second-placed Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek).
Top GC contenders doing leadouts is certainly unusual, but it’s far from unprecedented - in the final stage of last year’s Giro, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), running second overall, guided his friend Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) towards the line, and the two are not even in the same team.
As Pogačar told a reporter in a press conference afterwards when asked why he had done so in Naples, adding that he imagined it was because Molano was his friend, Pogačar confirmed that was the case. He also pointed out the special circumstances of a much-reduced peloton following the hilly run-in to Naples, which shredded the main bunch, made it more sense for him to do it.
“I don’t think a question should be ‘why?' [about something] when it’s obvious and you answer yourself afterwards,” Pogačar told the reporter.
“He’s a friend, he’s a teammate, he’s a sprinter, he was there in the final and today was super hard final in the last 40 kilometres but he was super strong,” Pogačar - who also earned praise from stage winner Kooij for his committed leadout work - told reporters.
“He’d worked for me all the week, and today I knew I could do a leadout because the parcours was really hard and technical. So that’s when I can ride in the front much better than in the really flat finishes when it’s super straight and superfast,” Pogačar pointed out.
“So today I had the chance to help him out, he did a great third place, and I think he’ll get some confidence for the next stages.”
While Pogačar himself will likely be taking a great deal of confidence into the next stages of the Giro d’Italia after his stunning first week, one minor concern continues to nag the Slovenian. Pogačar confirmed that his ongoing issue with what he suspects to be allergies, which left him with a blocked nose on Saturday, has continued through stage 9.
“I honestly don’t know what it is, I think it could be allergies. It’s spring and everything is blooming now. But I feel good and tomorrow [Monday] is a rest day, so I’m going to be fine," he said.
As for how he’ll spend his first rest day on the Giro d’Italia, Pogačar said that he would likely not be going to check out Tuesday’s summit finish climb in the nearby 21-kilometre-long Cusano Mutri, the idea of some downtime and an easy ride out definitely sounded appealing.
“The weather will be good, so yeah, it should be nice and I’ll go for an easy ride with the boys,” he said. “I’ll maybe stop at a cafe, get some nice views. This is my first time in Naples, so I’m going to take the opportunity to see it.”
Tuesday’s short but punchy summit finish stage at the cat. 1 Cusano Mutri climb will usher in a demanding second week that takes the Giro all the way from Naples to the Alps of northern Italy, culminating in an ultra-hard stage over the notorious Mortirolo to Livigno. But for now, at least, Pogačar and the rest of the peloton can ease back a little and take a welcome break from the action.
