Tadej Pogacar (UAE-Emirates) made another huge leap to win his first Tour of Italy this Sunday. Starting 14 km from Livigno, with an altitude finish for this 15th stage, the Slovenian won with almost three minutes ahead of the rest of the favorites. His Pink Jersey now seems unattainable for Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers), 2nd in the general classification at 6’41”.
Nairo Quintana (Movistar), present in the breakaway, took second place in the stage. Romain Bardet, 4th in the stage, has gained time and moved up to 7th place overall.
Quintana must blame the pink rocket which tumbled without a glance 2 km from the summit, because despite the lack of collaboration within the strong breakaway (Julian Alaphilippe, Michael Storer, Jhonatan Narvaez, Attila Valter, Simon Geschke in particular ), the Colombian was well on his way to stage victory by breaking away at the foot of the last climb.
Except that Pogacar was keen to win in Livigno, “one of [ses] favorite places in Italy”, and no one could object to it. After the good work of Felix Grossschartner, Rafal Majka put in a serious effort and then their leader easily finished the job by flying into the Foscagno pass.
“There are two races in the race”
Romain Bardet, at the microphone of Eurosport
Daniel Felipe Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) first tried to follow him before placing himself in the beaten group, where Thomas did not even flinch when he saw the Pink Jersey leave, aware that it was impossible to resist him . “There are two races in the race,” summarized Bardet at Eurosport.
In two kilometers, the Slovenian had already gained a minute on the general favorites. Picking up the survivors of the breakaway one by one, he finally crossed the line of this queen stage with 29 seconds ahead of Quintana (2nd) and 2’50” over Martinez (5th). “I’m not going to say that it was the best day of my life but it was really a good stage,” smiled Pogacar upon arrival, already winner of four stages in this Giro. I gave everything in the last 15 kilometers. »
Bardet climbs to 7th place, O’Connor moves away from the podium
In the second race of this race, therefore, Bardet is the one who succeeded the best this Sunday. By attacking 10 km from the line, the Auvergne regained 21 seconds on Thymen Arensman (Ineos-Grenadiers), the rider who now precedes him overall since he took 7th place from Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla).
“I wasn’t worried, I knew it would be fine on the mountain stages,” explained Bardet. I knew I was going to be at my advantage, I ran the best race possible. A new chapter of the Giro is arriving. It was the first big mountain stage, there are three or four others which will be important. »
Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) is rather the loser of the day. Arriving 8th eight seconds behind Thomas and Martinez, he moved slightly away from the podium but logically retained his 4th place overall.
