Tadej Pogačar delivered a major blow on his opponents' hopes of beating him in the Giro d'Italia on Friday's time trial stage, but the maglia rosa remained notably cautious afterwards, warning that "Nothing is over yet."
The UAE Team Emirates rider demolished the opposition in spectacular style in the 40.6 kilometre TT, upending a 47-second advantage in favour of specialist Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) at the second intermediate checkpoint to clinch his first Grand Tour time trial in three years by 17 seconds.
Already the stage winner at Oropa and the race leader since last Sunday, Pogačar's latest triumph saw him claim a 1:49 advantage on closest GC rival Dani Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe), with second-placed Geraint Thomas losing 2:00.
Overall, Martinez is now 2:36 adrift and Thomas is at 2:46, a massive time cushion for the Slovenian after a scant week of racing.
However, while Pogačar's renewed acquaintance with time trialling success both puts him firmly in pole position for outright victory and also sends out a major warning for the time trial-heavy Tour de France, he was adamant that the Giro is far from being a done deal in his favour.
"I'm positively surprised at myself because I had a super good day today and that's what I was aiming for, so I'm super happy," Pogačar told reporters. "But I was expecting especially both Thomas and Martínez to be closer, too."
"It was a hard day, a hard time trial if you didn't have super legs, and for sure you'd pay for that on the last climb.
"But there's still a long way to go, we haven't started the proper climbing stages so nothing is over yet."
While the first major mountain stage will come as soon as Saturday at Prati di Tivo, an 11-kilometre ascent deep in the Apennines of central Italy, Pogačar had plenty to celebrate in his first time trial event since he finished a lacklustre 21st in the World Championships time trial last September.
The time trial itself was far from straightforward to calculate in terms of pacing strategy, with the gently undulating opening 34 kilometres - where Ganna forged a seemingly insurmountable advantage - followed by a punishingly tough climb in the final six, including some severely steep segments.
Pogačar explained that he had wanted to set a good pace early on, without going all out, and then switched strategies, in the second, flatter, middle segment.
"I started to push myself more, on the corners, and then in the last two kilometres before the climb, I tried to be as aero' as possible, save my legs as much as I could. Finally, the climb itself was attacking full-on, from the bottom to the top.
"I had some official time checks and got those gaps. But for me the most important thing about the teamcar today was getting guidance on some of the corners, which were tricky, particularly as the wind was blowing hard.
"When it came to pacing, I was only focused on myself."
Pogačar's team had said before the stage that there had been few significant changes in his time trialling position or equipment, but he did say that he had put in "hours and hours of work preparing for this, so I'm super happy it paid off."
"I tried to work on just being comfortable on the bike because it's so important to be comfortable and still able to push with power. I'm not going to tell you specifically what I'm doing because then everybody will do it but there was a lot of work."
With such a significant advantage at this point in the race, Pogačar could relax a little now, it was suggested. But the Slovenian once again opted to play down the scale of his dominance, staying simply "I don't know. I hope so."
"For sure now everybody will try to attack from a distance, go into breaks, look for opportunities," he warned. "It will be really tough to control the race for the next two weeks, but what can I say? We have a super strong team, everybody is in good shape, so let's see what happens tomorrow."
The Giro is notorious for throwing up unpredictable scenarios, so Pogačar is perhaps right to be so cautious. But after just seven days of racing the first Grand Tour of the 2024 season - and what would be his first Grand Tour win in three years, too - is effectively his to lose.
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