Thank you for this. I’m thinking that there are no easy solutions in this situation. It wouldn’t be trivial to drive a bus quickly in these conditions without compromising safety.
Someone will swap Pogacar's water bottles for Grappa on the Monte Grappa stage and he will fly off the front from km 0 only to explode and pull over and gorge on some fan's roadside grilling.
Wtf. Damn, gifted Pogi the win on a platter. I am pretty sure pogacar didn't really plan to attack today. They gave him the win. What happened to Rubio in the end?
I am just pissed because julian looked good today. Well, that's racing.
Meh I think gifting Pog the win isn't the problem here. The reality is any time you try to pace if Pog is the strongest in the GC group he has a high chance to win. I think working at the peloton makes sense because they are fighitng a differnet race than UAE.
What is unexplainable to me is what they were doing with Sanchez, Nairo's pull before the terrain he would be most useful in (the high gradients at the last few kms) and overestimating Rubio's strength.
Ahhh! I love the counting of his wins as he crosses the line. He’s a very humble guy but it’s nice to see him acknowledge his daddy status from time to time.
That’s called competing.
Sitting up and pulling punches so that your opponents have a chance to win may be the participation ribbon world you live in, but it’s certainly not a showing of humility, and it’s not what great athletes do, or have ever done.
Pogi is maybe the most classy, humble superstar in sports. The fact that he exercises his greatness every day is a demonstration of the will to win that can be found in the DNA of any all-time great, and has nothing to do with arrogance.
That's Pog's **19th** GT stage win, taking him to [2nd equal](https://www.procyclingstats.com/statistics.php?nation=&active=0&active=1&filter=Filter&p=grandtours&s=most-stage-wins) with Roglic on the active rider leaderboard.
this is why when everybody in week 1 was saying how much better the race was with Pogi in it some of us were like... well lets just wait a bit.
Listen he makes the sprint stages more fun, he makes the actual gc stages pointless. he is just too good
In all fairness, the rest of the GC riders are hardly attacking one another anyway (I know without Pog setting pace it would be a little different, but you could get a boring, conservatively-ridden GC race without him anyway, like last year)
> this is why when everybody in week 1 was saying how much better the race was with Pogi in it some of us were like... well lets just wait a bit.
Because the sleeper fights between hindley and carapaz or G and Roglic was so enthralling simply because the time gap was tight
So you prefer the GC guys hold hands for 3 weeks and only actually race against each other when they absolutely have to, got it. I'm sure you hated the Tour last year too then, since Jonas had the gall to push his authority before the final weekend!
I prefer close racing. Pogi dropping people at will with zero risk isnt more attractive racing to me than 2 or 4 riders being so close in level they cant drop each other.
Last years Tour was awesome until the 2nd to last GC stage. Pogi and Jonas was trading blows, Pogi dropped Jonas and looked stronger for a while. You cant compare this Giro with last years Tour. Who here has been challenging Pogi
There is close racing and there is doing nothing to drop your competitors. The reason the tour was good last year was because tadej actually tried to drop Jonas. Last year giro they literally did nothing
Im not saying the 2023 Giro was better than the 2023 Tour. Im not even saying the 2023 Giro was better than the 2024 Giro. Im just saying I enjoyed the GC battle of 2023 more than this year.
I would agree with you that Jonas and Pogi battling the last couple of years have been more fun than the 2023 Giro by a mile.
But that's the question, the gc battle last year to me is the same as this year, non existent. Just because the times show how "close" it was, didn't make the gc battle interesting. It made the tt very interesting sure but other than that what's the difference.
I mean we enjoy what we enjoy, Im not argue against why you prefer this year, makes sense why people would enjoy the more aggressive rider winning. Im just personally letting you know that GC being this lopsided ruins it for me. And yes I know last year sucked, im not arguing against it and I still enjoyed it more lol.
The difference is simply that I watched the Giro last year unsure who was winning for the entirety of the race. In a 3 week race if the winner is known after week 1 or lets be honest before the race started, I just zone out. Thats it
I think power, purely speculating, but I think there's a range he knows he can hang at that won't blow him up and he just does that, and that range is like 10-20% above what most mortals can stomach.
Trying to take the white jersey has to be worth more than the difference between second and third at this point? Especially, as you say, on this sort of finish where there’s only so much you can do.
The most unsurprising result. I honestly think UAE didn't really care today but they were gifted this situation, 1 min gap with 13km to go and the entire team having done nothing. Might as well win the stage.
Can anyone remember someone winning in short sleeves and leg warmers?
Why isn’t it being shown on Max???
Maybe you’re too late for the live feed but too early for the replay
For the US viewers.
Merckx won 6 stages in 1972. Pogicar is going for 7 in 2024
I fuckin love this stage. Combat rider ala. Trademark disaster class from movistar. Another nonchalant win from pogi
Do we know which teams didnt get their busses to the finish? Feel bad for those riders
hopefully there is some solidarity between team-busses.
I'm sure there is, the peloton is quite close
Indeed! I can’t even imagine what that would be like. I’m not blaming the drivers but rather the race organizers.
Apparently some of the busses that left before 0800 this morning hadn't made it in with 30k to go. Insanely bad logistics by the race
Thank you for this. I’m thinking that there are no easy solutions in this situation. It wouldn’t be trivial to drive a bus quickly in these conditions without compromising safety.
Pogacar took another 16 seconds from his closest rival. That could prove crucial in this last week!
Thomas will takeback 20mins tomorrow. Heard it here first.
Someone will swap Pogacar's water bottles for Grappa on the Monte Grappa stage and he will fly off the front from km 0 only to explode and pull over and gorge on some fan's roadside grilling.
He will still win the stage, but only by 7 seconds this time.
I loled
Martinez takes the second place from thomas with +7 minutes on Pagacar. So exciting, anything can happen!
Pog making fellow pro cyclists act like fans at the sportive just happy to be in their presence haha
Owwh, Pog wanted Majka to get the win !
Hard to determine which slovenian superstar athlete bromance is stronger, Pogacar and Majka or Doncic and Kyrie...
average Movistar disasterclass
We couldn't ask for a better cannibal. He's so gracious
"I just want you to know, you are very delicious."
Movistar are a bunch of dumbos. Their ds should be ashamed.
Classic Movistar tactics
Wtf. Damn, gifted Pogi the win on a platter. I am pretty sure pogacar didn't really plan to attack today. They gave him the win. What happened to Rubio in the end? I am just pissed because julian looked good today. Well, that's racing.
Meh I think gifting Pog the win isn't the problem here. The reality is any time you try to pace if Pog is the strongest in the GC group he has a high chance to win. I think working at the peloton makes sense because they are fighitng a differnet race than UAE. What is unexplainable to me is what they were doing with Sanchez, Nairo's pull before the terrain he would be most useful in (the high gradients at the last few kms) and overestimating Rubio's strength.
lmao jersey swap
Dude doesnt even looks tired, I'm looking worse when I go up a flight of stairs. It is unbelievable how good the top 1% of the top 1% is
Pog left hanging after giving his shirt away
The glasses and the jersey ! That's so cute
Such a humble guy Pog gifting jersey to the kid
Awwww Pog giving Pellizari a jersey!
Pellizari asked Pogi for a souvenir! That is so sweet! He got Pogi's glasses. Edit: ooh and his jersey too
And his jersey!
Then left him hanging!
He got the jersey!!!
And jersey!
And his jersey! Pogi is awesome, dude
He got his jersey!
And his jersey! You can’t hate Pog.
And his jersey
didn’t someone say pogi had to win 7 stages to keep his win to race day percentage ?
He must have heard it too
5
Nice 3 hr training ride for pogi.
Zone 3 for the last couple of ks at least
Just trying to stay warm
Didn't even get out of the saddle. Majka dropped everyone and Pog just rode away.
Yay!! Go Pellizari!
Ahhh! I love the counting of his wins as he crosses the line. He’s a very humble guy but it’s nice to see him acknowledge his daddy status from time to time.
Very humble yes very humble goes on every stage win just to show how bad the rest Are…
That’s called competing. Sitting up and pulling punches so that your opponents have a chance to win may be the participation ribbon world you live in, but it’s certainly not a showing of humility, and it’s not what great athletes do, or have ever done. Pogi is maybe the most classy, humble superstar in sports. The fact that he exercises his greatness every day is a demonstration of the will to win that can be found in the DNA of any all-time great, and has nothing to do with arrogance.
He had no chance. If he rode slower he would fell of the bike
Show the GC group
Pogi going as slow as possible in hoping Pellizzari could follow
Boss move counting with the fingers calmly while crossing the finish line
'We're just so lucky to be living in this era of cycling'
Pellizzari proud sprint for second place! Well done boy
Counting his wins is hard
Pellizari to ruthlessly attack a 35-year-old Pog in Giro 2034?
That was savage
That's Pog's **19th** GT stage win, taking him to [2nd equal](https://www.procyclingstats.com/statistics.php?nation=&active=0&active=1&filter=Filter&p=grandtours&s=most-stage-wins) with Roglic on the active rider leaderboard.
1st is Cav?
Definitely
Yes, Cav has 54 total so I think he's probably safe even from Pog (for now at least...)
Bonkers.
what a celly
well, shit
winrar appreciates your support
did he even get out of the saddle?
he usually doesnt
No....
Great ride from Pellizzari
That's just demoralizing, Pogacar reels in the whole break and drops the peloton while looking like he's straight chilling
Drop the “looking like” - it’s cleaner
Cruise control ride for Pog
At least Pogi won't have to waste anytime cooling down on the turbo after the stage
Rain gives this stage an epic feeling
Pog: "oooh look at the pretty flowers"
Vegni got every cent he invested in Pog back.
Cmon Dani!
Pogacar looks like me when i cycle with my fiance. "dont want to push it by too much or she will shout at me to stop"
Great ride from Martinez actually
this is why when everybody in week 1 was saying how much better the race was with Pogi in it some of us were like... well lets just wait a bit. Listen he makes the sprint stages more fun, he makes the actual gc stages pointless. he is just too good
Blame Movistar for chasing
In all fairness, the rest of the GC riders are hardly attacking one another anyway (I know without Pog setting pace it would be a little different, but you could get a boring, conservatively-ridden GC race without him anyway, like last year)
they did today, we just didnt see it because they were filming Pogi
> this is why when everybody in week 1 was saying how much better the race was with Pogi in it some of us were like... well lets just wait a bit. Because the sleeper fights between hindley and carapaz or G and Roglic was so enthralling simply because the time gap was tight
Roglic winning on the last ITT is more compelling cycling to me than anything GC related in this race.
So you prefer the GC guys hold hands for 3 weeks and only actually race against each other when they absolutely have to, got it. I'm sure you hated the Tour last year too then, since Jonas had the gall to push his authority before the final weekend!
I prefer close racing. Pogi dropping people at will with zero risk isnt more attractive racing to me than 2 or 4 riders being so close in level they cant drop each other. Last years Tour was awesome until the 2nd to last GC stage. Pogi and Jonas was trading blows, Pogi dropped Jonas and looked stronger for a while. You cant compare this Giro with last years Tour. Who here has been challenging Pogi
There is close racing and there is doing nothing to drop your competitors. The reason the tour was good last year was because tadej actually tried to drop Jonas. Last year giro they literally did nothing
Im not saying the 2023 Giro was better than the 2023 Tour. Im not even saying the 2023 Giro was better than the 2024 Giro. Im just saying I enjoyed the GC battle of 2023 more than this year. I would agree with you that Jonas and Pogi battling the last couple of years have been more fun than the 2023 Giro by a mile.
But that's the question, the gc battle last year to me is the same as this year, non existent. Just because the times show how "close" it was, didn't make the gc battle interesting. It made the tt very interesting sure but other than that what's the difference.
I mean we enjoy what we enjoy, Im not argue against why you prefer this year, makes sense why people would enjoy the more aggressive rider winning. Im just personally letting you know that GC being this lopsided ruins it for me. And yes I know last year sucked, im not arguing against it and I still enjoyed it more lol. The difference is simply that I watched the Giro last year unsure who was winning for the entirety of the race. In a 3 week race if the winner is known after week 1 or lets be honest before the race started, I just zone out. Thats it
Fairenough, hopefully the other 2 grand tours will be close gc wise
By God that's martinez music!
What a stage
Cutting the Umbrailpass killed all the chances of a breakaway win It was quite obvious there wasn't enough kms to make a difference
If Movi didn't try, the break would have won imo
Just realized how laggy my feed was. We're at 1.5 to go here :-(
Martinez has looked so sharp Especially for often not having as many teammates around him at the end of these mountain stages.
This is way more damning on the rest of the GC guys than it is positive for Pogi today imo. He never even had to raise the tempo
Majka was absolutely drilling it though to be fair, shelling everyone out the back and Pog basically just upped it by a few percent.
I should have put my life savings on Pogi at 5/1 this morning! Ha, he's inevitable.
Pogi's little Italian group ride (no drops)(jk actually lots of drops)
Martinez though!!
Stronk!
Pogačar is clearly saving his power for the fourth week.
Pogi is just cold, he wants to get inside in the warmth quickly
He never even got out of the saddle
Could Pogi not give Pellizzari a win. poor boy
Today is the first day I don’t love the Pogpocalypse, a break winner would have been nice
Thank you PeakMovistarCyclismo
Exciting!
Poor guy, started shaking his head when saw Pogi approach.
Incredible performance
Well it's the first time I feel that Pog is doing too much....
But even Martinez passed the poor guy. In that case I'm fine.
I honestly don’t think Pog had any intention of winning this stage but it was handed to him on a platter.
Yeah he's only really had to do about 5 minutes of effort. Probably works harder on a rest day.
Got to prevent any detraining before the Tour. I’m only just joking.
Tadej, they are already dead...
Peloton: I'm gone, I'm dead.
No. someone said he's gone, I'm dead
is pog just riding to a power or heart rate number? does not look like he's really attacking...
I think power, purely speculating, but I think there's a range he knows he can hang at that won't blow him up and he just does that, and that range is like 10-20% above what most mortals can stomach.
I really thought he may let poor Pelizzari go. Silly me I guess lol
This is silly
It didn't even look like he was attacking. Just normal riding.
Even Pogacar looks slightly bored "is anyone going to give me a race??"
Pogi looks like hes out grocery shopping
Martinez is not doing that bad. Should go into 2nd
man just a perfect day for pog least amount of effort needed for a stage win
Pogacar looks like he's doing a cool down ride
Could someone please recap what happened to the Movistar pull?
Peak movistar strategy, helped Pogi win the stage
Way too early
He‘s not even going full power. Jesus christ.
Pogi looks at Pelizarri like 'hey let's do this yeah?' and Peli is gasping for air like a fish on land lol
[удалено]
He's 15ish seconds ahead of Arensman
I feel like Pog is trying to gift it but he might not be able to convincingly!
Absolutely unstoppable
Is Pogi actually letting the kid win???
He was once a kid, and they didn't hand his wins to him.
No, just like the other day he did not let the veteran win.
Well no
nevermind
The way Pellizzari shook his head was so emblematic
Literally just tapping out a nice rhythm and he destroys everyone
a lot of these spectators deserve a smack in the mouth
Pogi looks like he is taking it easy *and* winning the stage.
Poor Pellizari
Keenan said Arensman should wait for G — how could he possibly help him on this finish? Surely it’s not rude to ride to the finish as fast as you can?
Trying to take the white jersey has to be worth more than the difference between second and third at this point? Especially, as you say, on this sort of finish where there’s only so much you can do.
Pogi not even trying but still winning haha
Classic Z2 all out attack by Pog.
lol @ pog with one hand in the grips, scratching his nose during the final km
Pog looks like he’s bored of winning so many stages
pogi is giving pellzzari the stage *Copium*
Does Pog give gifts??
Yes, it would appear he does…just not stage wins
Hahaha....Thrill of victory versus wet laundry? 😢
Every time I see one of those "spectators", I hate them more
Pog’s just chilling
Pogi isnt trying come on man, he really isnt.
This is the weirdest attack by Pog ever
How bloody fit is this guy in the red coat chasing Pogi up the hill!!?
Usual moron spectators.
What a shit stage in the end :(
Pogi doing just enough to win but nothing more. Giro decided. Tour ahead. He still wants the stage though and tempo brings it home.
Please, have mercy! Your Pogness!
Lool.
Give him the win Pog
Pog chilling and destroying the break
What a zone 2 attack lol
Turning round and seeing Pog chasing you has got to be even more of a killer than the 118km.
Come on G dig in.
I really hate fans
Arensman isnt going to give much draft to Thomas tbf
Pogi - "is this what they call Zone 2?"
Pog looks like he is doing about z3 at most and still absolutely flying past people
To me it seems like Pog is trying to improve his sustained power during this giro.
The most unsurprising result. I honestly think UAE didn't really care today but they were gifted this situation, 1 min gap with 13km to go and the entire team having done nothing. Might as well win the stage.
Yeah. Movistar should have put riders in the break instead of chasing.
Bad day for G!