In the second stage of the Giro d’Italia Pogačar was not stopped by a puncture. On the final climb, he got on and passed everyone

Sunday’s 161 km long stage was already conceived as a mountain stage with the final climb to the top of Oropa and it was clear that this is where the biggest favourite of the race Tadej Pogačar would try to attack again. This is exactly what happened, about 5 km before the finish. In addition, Jan Hirt also presented himself well, finishing the stage in a great 10th place.

Pogačar once again increased his lead over his arch rivals

Today’s stage had already been classified as a mountain stage and it was expected that there would be a change of jersey for the race leader. Yesterday’s winner Jhonatan Nárvaez was expected to hand over the pink jersey to Tadej Pogačar.

The experienced cyclist Robert Gesink from the Jumbo Visma team did not start today’s stage, so 175 cyclists started the race. After about 10km, five Italian cyclists went into the break, with Andrea Piccolo having the lowest gap to the leader Nárvaez – 67 seconds.

This five managed to build up a lead of up to 5 minutes over the course of the race, but with about 42km to go only Piccolo, today’s stage hero, continued to escape. But he didn’t stand much of a chance against the likes of Ineos and UAE Emirates. They increased their pace as the race progressed, preparing their leaders Gerraint Thomas and Tadej Pogačar for the final climb.

Piccolo still held on valiantly and picked up points on all the climbing premiums. He was also the first to ride the dreaded Orop finish climb, where the last time the race finished was in 2017. Back then, Dutch cyclist Tom Dumoulin managed to win here and eventually triumphed in the overall classification.

Piccolo was caught with about 6.5km to go, but he held on to the breakaway for almost 150km. He was the clear hero of the stage.

Even a puncture didn’t stop Pogačar’s attack

Tadej Pogačar also had to deal with one unpleasant moment, which came 10 km before the finish when he had to change his bike. However, he didn’t have the slightest problem getting back into the group of favourites.

The pace became more and more intense and the field naturally started to thin out. For example, the second man in the standings, Schachmann, could not withstand the hellish pace and Alaphillip fell away. With about 5.5km to go, even Nairo Quintana couldn’t keep up with the pace.

Pogachar’s superdomestique Rafael Majka kept the pace and the front was made up of several dozen riders, including the pink Nárvaez and Thomas. With less than 4.5km to go, it happened. An exhausted Majka drops off the front and Pogačar’s hellish charge comes in.

He was only able to catch Ben O’Connor for the first few dozen metres. But it was only for a moment. Pogačar was already riding his own race, as we know him, and began to pile up precious seconds on Gerraint Thomas. It was clear that Nárvaez would lose the pink jersey at this point. However, Jan Hirt also put in a great performance and still remained in the chasing pack.

In the end, Pogačar finished 27 seconds ahead of the four chasers, which included Thomas. Hirt finished this challenging stage in an excellent 10th place and moved up to 8th in the overall standings.

The Slovenian thus became the 108th rider to win a stage at all three Grand Tours. In total, he has 11 stage wins from the Tour de France and 3 from the Vuelta. After two stages, he already has 45 seconds to spare on Thomas, his arch rival for the race win.

Giro d’Italia – Stage 2 (San Francesco al Campo – Santuario di Oropa, 161 km)

• 1. Tadej Pogačar (Slovi. /UAE Emirates) 3:54:20, 2nd Daniel Felipe Martínez (Col./Bora), 3rd Gerraint Thomas (Brit./Ineos), 4th Lorenzo Fortunato (It./Atana), 5th Florian Lipowitz (Nm./Bora) – all -27… 10th Jan Hirt (Quick – Step) -37, 165. Josef Cerny (Quick – Step) -25:09
• Overall standings
• 1. Tadej Pogačar 7:08:29, 2nd Gerraint Thomas -45, 3rd Daniel Felipe Martínez -45, 4th Cian Uijtdebroeks -54, 5th Einer Rubio -54… 8th Jan Hirt -1:11,167. Josef Černý -40:15
• Source: CyclingNews, Giro d’Italia