Pogacar wins the individual time trial and soars overall

By Le Figaro with AFP

Published 40 minutes ago, Updated now

Tadej Pogacar. Jennifer Lorenzini / REUTERS

The Slovenian won this Friday during the 7th stage of the Giro, increasing his lead in the general classification.

Slovenian Tadej Pogacar won the 7th stage of the Tour of Italy, a 40-kilometer time trial, which allowed him to take the lead in the general classification on Friday in Perugia.

Pogacar, already winner of the 2nd stage of the Giro, was 17 seconds ahead of the Italian Filippo Ganna, a time trial specialist, and relegated his great rival, the Welshman Geraint Thomas, to two minutes.

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It is especially in the general classification that the double winner of the Tour de France has done damage: the Welshman Geraint Thomas, 2nd 46 seconds behind Pogacar at the start of the day, lost two minutes and is now 2 min 46 sec behind the pink jersey.

Thomas is now 3rd overall, overtaken by the Colombian Daniel Martinez, Pogacar’s new runner-up with an already significant delay of 2 min 36 sec.

“I prepared well for this time trial and worked a lot on the time trials, my position on the time trial bike, I remained cautious until the last climb where I gave everything”explained Pogacar.

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Only 11th at the halfway point, 44 seconds behind Ganna, Pogacar actually finished very strong, taking advantage of the last six sloping kilometers to knock out the competition.

“I stuck, I gave the best of myself, but I was having a bad day”noted Thomas for his part.

The 8th stage on Saturday can allow Pogacar to further increase his lead, with a formidable final climb of 14 km to the finish at an altitude of 1452 m classified in 1st category.

The Slovenian, who is participating in the Giro for the first time in his career, wants to become the first since the Italian Marco Pantani in 1998 to win the Tour of Italy and the Tour de France in the same year.

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