Giro d’Italia 2024 Stage Report: Tadej Pogačar was a man possessed on the final climb of stage 2 to the Santuario di Oropa. His team softened the opposition for the Slovenian champion to deal the killer blow. He finished half a minute ahead of a chase group of ten riders to take the stage and the pink jersey. Yesterday’s stage winner and overall leader, Jhonatan Narváez, came in over 2 minutes down.
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Pogačar seems pleased
Tadej Pogačar won the second stage of the Giro d’Italia. The Slovenian was the strongest on the final climb to Oropa and also took over the pink from Jhonatan Narváez. Daniel Felipe Martínez was second on the stage, Geraint Thomas third. The Welshman is now second overall at 45 seconds, Martinez is third on the same time.
Day two finishes on the Santuario di Oropa, a Cat.1 climb. Another chance for the GC men to take control and go for victory and some overall lead time. From San Francesco al Campo, north of Turin, the peloton heads 161 kilometres northeast to finish on top of the Oropa (11.8km at 6.2%). There are two climbs on the route; the Oasi Zegna and the Nelva, but both are Cat.4, so the action will come on the summit finish.
Tadej Pogačar came close on stage 1 – What will he do on stage 2?
The second stage of the Giro d’Italia started without Robert Gesink, who had crashed in the opening stage and suffered a leg fracture. A break soon emerged. The all Italian escape was: Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan), Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost), Davide Bais (Polti Kometa), Filippo Fiorelli & Martin Marcellusi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè).
The man in pink – Jhonatan Narváez
The five built a lead of almost 5 minutes on the peloton. INEOS Grenadiers for Narváez in the pink jersey and the UAE Team Emirates for top favourite, Pogačar set the pace. In the run-up to the first intermediate sprint of the day, 65 kilometres from the finish, the sprinter’s teams came to the head of the peloton. Behind the leading group, where Filippo Fiorelli took the full points and expanded his points lead, Kaden Groves, Olav Kooij and Caleb Ewan crossed the line first in the peloton.
The start from the San Francesco al Campo velodrome
Kooij was involved in a crash with Eddie Dunbar. The Dutchman was able to continue, but had damaged his knee and elbow. Visma | Lease a Bike’s Attila Valter also crashed, he was also able to continue. The stage climbing had now started. Intergiro points were on offer at the top of a second climb. Here too, Fiorelli came through first. Then, Andrea Piccolo thought it was time to attack. The EF Education-EasyPost rider went solo and soon had a nice lead over his chasers.
Filippo Ganna was on home roads today
Pogačar seemed calm
Piccolo was doing well to hold off the peloton. But when INEOS Grenadiers took over from UAE Team Emirates, the power of Filippo Ganna, the pack quickly closed. At the top of the Nelva (3km at 6.6%), the penultimate climb of the day, Piccolo still had 1:45. There was another crash on this climb. Domenico Pozzovivo crashed for the second day in a row. The Italian had to wait a long time for a new bike before he could chase.
Filippo Fiorelli (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane’) was in the break again today, along with Davide Bais (Polti-Kometa) and Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan)
Just before the final climb, it was the turn of Tadej Pogačar to hit the road. The UAE Team Emirates had a flat front tyre and as his team car was right behind him, his front wheel slid away. INEOS Grenadiers continued to lead, but didn’t increase the pace to take advantage of the Slovenian’s situation. In an intermediate sprint, just before the climb, Geraint Thomas took a 2 second bonus. Pogačar rejoined not much later and moved, with his teammates, to the front of the peloton again.
How hard would INEOS Grenadiers and Narváes fight for the pink jersey?
UAE then took over from INEOS Grenadiers at the head of the peloton and increased the pace, resulting in Piccolo being caught, just 6 kilometres from the finish. It would now be a battle between the favourites on Oropa. Daniel Felipe Martínez looked to be struggling, as the Colombian was at the back when Rafal Majka was setting the pace. The Pole did this to soften the competition for Pogačar’s attack. The Slovenian jumped 4.5 kilometres from the finish. Ben O’Connor was the only one who tried to hang on, but that didn’t last long. Pogačar soon dropped the Australian. The Slovenian champion continued alone, while Thomas pulled in O’Connor. The top favourite slowly rode further away from a group of about 10 favourites forming behind him.
The fans were out roadside on a sunny Sunday
Uijtdebroeks was the first to join Thomas and O’Connor, followed by Michael Storer, Jan Hirt, Einer Rubio, Lorenzo Fortunato, Juan Pedro López and a recovered Daniel Felipe Martínez. Florian Lipowitz also joined them and started to work for Martínez.
The attack was bound to come on the final climb
The peloton’s view of Pogačar
O’Connor was then in trouble and had to let the second group go, as Romain Bardet, Thymen Arensman, Damiano Caruso, Antonio Tiberi and pink jersey wearer Narváez had all already done. The Ecuadorian would give the pink to Pogačar at the end of the day. The Slovenian crossed the line solo with a large lead and so did a good job for the general classification. Behind him; Martínez, after strong work from Lipowitz, had the best legs in the final kilometre. He sprinted to second place, ahead of Geraint Thomas. They finished 26 seconds behind Pogačar.
Stage and pink for Tadej Pogačar – All the way to Rome?
Half a minute later…
Stage winner and Maglia Rosa, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): “It’s a dream coming true, an amazing victory. After I had won at the Vuelta and the Tour, I made it to win a stage in all the Grand Tours. It’s not something that everybody has and it’s something big in cycling. I didn’t really get scared by the incident I had in town. It happened after a flat tyre because I wanted to stop before the corner. It wasn’t serious and the team brought me back quickly. I didn’t know the climb well but I think we had a good plan. I sped up after the last pull by Rafal Majka. I didn’t mind the time gap at the end. The dream was to take the Maglia Rosa and now I can relax for a few days.”
The first of how many pink jerseys for Pogačar?
# Catch up with everything Giro in EUROTRASH Monday. #
Giro d’Italia Stage 2 Result:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates in 3:54:20
2. Daniel Felipe Martínez (Col) BORA-hansgrohe at 0:27
3. Geraint Thomas (GB) INEOS Grenadiers
4. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) Astana Qazaqstan
5. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) BORA-hansgrohe
6. Michael Storer (Aus) Tudor at 0:30
7. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Visma | Lease a Bike
8. Einer Rubio (Col) Movistar
9. Juan Pedro López (Spa) Lidl-Trek at 0:35
10. Jan Hirt (CZ) Soudal Quick-Step at 0:37.
Giro d’Italia Overall After Stage 2:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates in 7:08:29
2. Geraint Thomas (GB) INEOS Grenadiers at 0:45
3. Daniel Felipe Martínez (Col) BORA-hansgrohe
4. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Visma | Lease a Bike at 0:54
5. Einer Rubio (Col) Movistar
6. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) Astana Qazaqstan at 1:05
7. Juan Pedro López (Spa) Lidl-Trek at 1:09
8. Jan Hirt (CZ) Soudal Quick-Step at 1:11
9. Esteban Chaves (Col) EF Education-EasyPost at 1:24
10. Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Qazaqstan.
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