As the Giro d’Italia moves through the second week transition stages, the overall contenders are beginning to think more about the next GC challenges, with Saturday’s second time trial and the summit finish at Livigno both looming fast on the horizon. And in Geraint Thomas’ case, setting the record straight after his disappointing first week TT is definitely amongst his upcoming targets.
Tenth in the opening 40.6km time trial in Perugia, Saturday’s race against the clock between Castiglione delle Stiviere and Desenzano del Garda is much flatter, lacks the summit finish of the first TT, and at 31.2 kilometres, notably shorter.
“I’m not thinking too far ahead,” Thomas said at the stage 12 start, “Because we have the stage today and it will be tough. But the weekend is going to be a big one.”
Currently running third overall, the 2023 Giro d’Italia runner-up then came through stage 12 unscathed and with his GC options intact, as UAE and Bahrain took control of the main peloton for the bulk of the finale. But as he pointed out, the constant succession of small climbs and the ultra-technical descent and run-in meant stage 12 could have been a far more unpredictable affair than it turned out to be.
“It was always going to be a tough start and anything could have happened there at the end. It was a good one to tick off,” Thomas said.
"Felix Großschartner [UAE] just rode a solid pace and I made sure there that I was out of trouble at the front. We rode over the top [of the final climb] with a good pace and then UAE took control and rode us in. It was pretty good.”
Given his long years at Sky and then Ineos as both a team leader and worker in Grand Tours, in the past Thomas has found himself in squads in the same dominating position that Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates currently enjoy.
The risk is always there that a team with such control on a Grand Tour will end up sleeping on their laurels, particularly on transition stages, but Thomas praised the Slovenian and his squad for staying focussed no matter the terrain.
“I think it’s just about always being on the ball and not taking anything for granted and just going about the process,” Thomas said.
“It all depends on the characters as well. Some people can maybe become complacent, but they [UAE] are keen to win and they’re all motivated as you can see, so I don’t think they’ll be complacent.”
While Thomas agreed that UAE were one of the strongest teams in the Giro, he said that collectively they were not showing a breathtaking degree of superiority - with one notable exception.
“They’re all normal apart from Pogačar,” he said. “So they can all have a strong day and then not back it up quite as good. But they’re one of the strongest teams here.”
As for the time trial on Saturday, Thomas said that he was keen to see if he could turn things around from the first week TT, but emphasised that he was still keen just to get through the transition stages before overly focussing on it.
"I’m just looking forward to putting it right after the first one to be honest, but I’m not thinking too far ahead because we have the stage today,” Thomas said before stage 12.
“I’ll just forget about what happened really. I’ll learn from some of it obviously but I’ll have a plan, try and stick to it and do the best I can.”
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