Tadej Pogačar returned home from his victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège to spend his countdown to the start of the Giro d’Italia in Monte Carlo rather than at altitude, convinced that he has done the training and reconnaissance needed to successfully target the maglia rosa in May.
“I hope that I’m in good shape but I think I can still be a little better but not a lot,” Pogačar said before returning home, again car sharing the drive home with his partner Urška Žigart and Montecarlo neighbours Michael Matthews and Davide Formolo, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Pogačar is making his Giro d’Italia debut and racing hard in May for the first time in his career. It is also the first time he will ride two Grand Tours in the same season as he targets the Giro-Tour double.
The 25-year-old Slovenian has only raced for ten days so far in 2024, but won seven times including Strade Bianche, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, four stages at the Volta a Catalunya and the overall classification. Pogačar has ridden five Grand Tours, finishing third on his debut at the 2019 Vuelta a España. He then won the Tour de France in 2020 and 2021 and finished second to Jonas Vingegaard in 2022 and 2023.
By winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Pogačar has 70 victories on his palmares and has already won six monument Classics, with only a certain Eddy Merckx doing the same at a younger age.
“When you are the number one ranked rider in the world, it’s not easy to improve on that but I think we’re seeing the best-ever Tadej Pogačar in every possible way,” UAE Team Emirates sport manager Joxean Fernandez Matxin told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates teammates are expected to arrive in Turin for the Giro d’Italia Grande Partenza next Wednesday, giving the riders two days for any final training and renaissance. The official team presentation will be held on Thursday evening at the Castello del Valentino on the banks of the river Po.
UAE Team Emirates have still to name their final eight-rider Giro d’Italia team but Rafal Majka, Felix Grossschartner, Mikkel Bjerg, Juan Sebastian Molano, Rui Oliveira and Domen Novak are likely to be selected. Vegard Stake Laengen is expected to replace Jan Vine in the team after the Australian’s crash at Itzulia Basque Country.
Pogačar, like many of his overall rivals, has already studied a number of key stages, including stage 6 to Rapolano Terme which includes several gravel sectors on the Tuscany roads, the key time trials, the mountain stage to Livigno high in the Alps. He saw the Prati di Tivo mountain finish while winning a stage of Tirreno-Adriatico in 2021.
The 107th Giro d’Italia begins on Saturday May 4 with a 140 km road race stage that starts at the Venaria Reale palace outside the city and ends in central Turin after climbing the Superga and the Colle Maddalena before a fast descent to the finish on the banks of the Po.
Stage 2 finishes at the Oropa Sanctuary and will be the earliest major mountain finish at the Giro d'Italia since the race began in Sicily in 1989 and climbed Mount Etna.
The Oropa finish marks the 25th anniversary of Marco Pantani's famous victory on the climb to the sanctuary in 1999, when he dropped his chain at the foot of the climb but blasted past all his rivals. The Oropa climb is not long or steep at 11.8km and 6.2% but Tom Dumoulin distanced his rivals back in 2017 and Pogačar could try to win the stage and take the race leader’s maglia rosa.
“You can’t hold back that day, a stage like that designs the GC standings and so the overall contenders can’t hide,” UAE Team Emirates team manager Mauro Gianetti told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
If Pogačar takes the maglia rosa on stage 2, it could create the narrative for the rest of the Giro d’Italia, with the Slovenian dominating the race all the way to Rome.
“The maglia rosa is the maglia rosa, if you let it go, you then have to get it back,” Gianetti said, hinting at UAE Team Emirates’ race strategy.
