As the big favorite for this Giro, Tadej Pogacar took his responsibilities this Saturday from the first stage but he was unable to get rid of Jhonatan Narvaez in the last climb, nor of the German Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), who returned in the descent before the final sprint which was played out between these three men. The Ecuadorian national champion let the Slovenian throw from afar, preferring to wait for the right moment to pass his two rivals on the line.
Already a stage winner at the Giro in 2020, the rider from the Ineos-Grenadiers team, who is not one of the favorites for the final classification, will wear the first pink jersey during the 2nd stage this Sunday. “Pogacar hurt me on the last climb,” he declared after the finish, “but we had worked with the team on the finish of this stage and I knew how to go about it. It’s incredible to take the pink jersey from the first day, there are very few opportunities on a Grand Tour to wear the leader’s jersey, it’s a rider or a sprinter who generally benefits from it on the first stage . »
The organizers of the Giro actually wanted to toughen up their event from the first day, by breaking with the tradition of an opening time trial or a finish offered to sprinters. The peloton thus had to endure the Col de la Madeleine from the start and in the end, the climb of San Vito. Also undoubtedly to favor the designs of Tadej Pogacar, who would have liked to seize the pink jersey straight away.
Calmejane first leader of the mountain
The Slovenian had his UAE team work behind the day’s breakaway, where we notably found three Frenchmen, Louis Barré (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Nicolas Debeaumarché (Cofidis) and Lilian Calmejane (Intermarché-Wanty). The Tarnais was the only one to stay at the front 50 kilometers from the finish with the Eritrean Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek).
At the foot of the Madeleine, 25 kilometers from the goal, their lead was only a minute under the leadership of Tadej Pogacar’s men. This coup of force caused several victims, starting with the Dutchman Thyman Arensman (6th in the Giro in 2023) but also Romain Bardet who dropped out of the peloton to finish at the finish with a delay of 57 seconds.
Lilian Calmejane, who had let go of Ghebreigzabhier in this ascent, had managed to cross the summit in the lead to secure first place in the mountain classification, but he was caught a little further, after the descent, by a small group that had come out of the main peloton which only had 30 units left and where Julian Alaphilippe was in the lead.
Pogacar’s only teammate still present, Rafal Majka, gave up in turn, leaving his leader to take on the final climb towards San Vito alone and make up the 40 seconds of delay he then had on the small leading group. In two accelerations, the Slovenian had already cleaned up but could not get rid of Narvaez or prevent Schachmann from coming back before the final sprint.
