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It’s not often we get a decent uphill finish in the first two days of the Giro d’Italia. But that’s what we got on Sunday’s stage 2 with the 11 km+ climb to the Santuario di Oropa where the GC favourites came out to play.
It’s also not often we get a Giro d’Italia where one rider is such a heavy favourite that many people declare the GC fight over before it’s literally even begun. Such is Tadej Pogačar’s dominance at the moment that many prophesied Pogačar would take the maglia rosa on stage 1 and hold it all the way to Rome.
That didn’t happen – Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) was restricted to third place on that opening stage by Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) – but Pogačar did go on to win that stage 2 uphill finish with ease, taking pink there instead.
It sure looks like Pogačar is well placed to win the Giro as predicted. But there are still 19 stages to go and anything can happen in a race as chaotic as the Giro. For now though, let’s look back at the first two stages of the race through the lens of Chris Auld, who’s at the Giro shooting for the Grubers.
Blue skies awaited riders (and fans) at the start of stage 1 in Venaria Reale.Tadej Pogačar and his tufts are making their Giro debut, and the established wisdom is that it’ll take something extraordinary to stop him from winning the race overall.Ben Swift enjoyed a moment of quiet contemplation before the festivities begin.And the 2024 Giro d’Italia begins.Bora-Hansgrohe has a strong line-up at this Giro, with Dani Martínez the team’s GC hopeful.As predicted, Pogačar attacked on the final climb of the day, after his UAE Team Emirates teammates kept the race under control all day.The only rider able to follow the Slovenian was Jhonatan Narvaez, who you can just see behind Pogačar here.Max Schachmann capitalised on an earlier move, managing to bridge to Pogačar and Narvaez before the finish.Geraint Thomas, while not able to follow Pogačar, looked in good touch.So too did Cian Uijtdebroeks, who finished in the main chase group with Thomas.Lidl-Trek’s Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier was impressive in the early break before rolling in around eight minutes down.It wasn’t the stage 1 win from Pogačar that we maybe expected, with Narvaez taking the win ahead of Schachmann and the pre-race favourite.That’s Giro stage win number two for the Ecuadorian champ.Narvaez’s stage-winner’s prize appears to have come from the local Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) which is celebrating its bicentenary this year.The real prize, though, was a day in the pink jersey of overall race leader.
The action continued on Sunday’s stage 2, starting in …
… San Francesco al Campo.The big prize: the Trofeo Senza Fine.Narvaez started the day in pink, but with a decent day of climbing ahead, holding on to the maglia rosa was always going to be a challenge.On the final climb of the day, to the Santuario di Oropa, Pogačar again went on the attack. Ben O’Connor was initially there in pursuit, but it was only a few hundred metres before Pogačar was on his own.Florian Lipowitz was impressive at the recent Tour de Romandie and he again rode well on the first uphill finish of the Giro, trying to close the gap to Pogačar for team leader Martínez.Thomas would go on to take third on the stage, moving up to second overall.Jan Hirt gets some encouragement(?) on his way to a top 10 on the day.Pogačar, meanwhile, was on his way to his first stage win at the Giro …… giving The Tufted One at least one stage win in all three Grand Tours. Just over 100 riders have managed that feat.Martínez outsprinted Thomas to second on the stage.Fifth for 23-year-old Lipowitz.A few of the GC contenders were found a little lacking on stage 2, including O’Connor (not pictured) who lost a minute and is 10th overall now. Also a little off his best was Romain Bardet (third from right above) who was another 20 seconds behind O’Connor.And so Pogačar is now into pink, and already sitting 45 seconds ahead of Thomas in second. He said post-race that he’s happy to hold pink all the way to Rome, but also that he’s happy to let the jersey go and take it again later. It will be curious to see how he and his team approach the race in the coming weeks.
