The exposed rock face of the Gran Sasso dominates the vista from Prati di Tivo just as Tadej Pogačar looms over everything in this Giro d'Italia. On stage 8, like every other day, the maglia rosa set the thermostat, and his rivals had little choice but to put up with his preferred temperature.
In the time trial to Perugia the previous afternoon, Pogačar's pace had proved unbearably hot for Geraint Thomas, and for just about everybody else. The Welshman found the ambient temperature rather more tolerable on the summit finish at Prati di Tivo, where Pogačar contented himself with sprinting to stage victory rather than looking to run up the scoreboard on the opposition further still by attacking from distance.
Thomas, as ever, managed his effort sagely on the final climb, which grew steeper and more sinuous after passing through the village of Pietracamela, renowned for the endangered Pretarolo dialect. The controlled style of racing that prevailed when Thomas rode to Tour de France victory six years ago may already be extinct, but the 37-year-old still manages to express himself in his preferred style.
When the pink jersey group began to splinter inside the final 1500m or so, Thomas had the nous to allow the beat of his own metronome to guide him to the finish. He came home fifth on the stage, two seconds behind Pogačar, and he remains third overall, albeit now 2:58 off the Slovenian.
"For me, it was a lot better than yesterday – night and day," Thomas told reporters after he had wheeled to a halt past the finish line.
"Confidence-wise, I said I was just going to sit in here, do today and then move on. In the end, I felt really comfy actually. I was quite surprised people were getting dropped, which is always a good sign. Then in the sprint, I got a bit bogged down, but I didn't have the legs to sprint with those guys."
Thomas' solid displays in the opening phase of the Giro had led some to wonder if he might match or even surpass Pogačar in the Perugia time trial. Instead, the overwhelming favourite placed a hefty downpayment on final victory by putting two minutes into Thomas, who confessed to a degree of anxiety about whether that setback might spiral into something worse in the mountains of Abruzzo on Saturday.
"I wouldn't say scared, but just a bit sort of apprehensive," Thomas said. "I was a bit like, 'I'm not sure how this could go.' At the start, I was a bit meh, but by the end, I felt pretty good, so that's good at least."
In a Giro d'Italia under the yoke of Pogačar, all but breaking even with the leader and the other podium contenders counts as a successful outing for Thomas. He conceded two seconds and a handful of bonuses to Daniel Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R), but the object of the exercise on Saturday was simply to steady the ship.
Although Ineos put two riders in the break of the day, Jhonatan Narváez and Magnus Sheffield were dispatched up the road to chase stage victory rather than to be the outriders for some manner of grand offensive. His time trial effort still weighing on his legs, Thomas was content to follow in the pink jersey group.
"The boys have been riding really well since day one, so we just want to keep on that roll. We've got good morale in the team. Obviously, I'd like to have done better yesterday but at least we bounced back today," Thomas said.
"We thought a breakaway had a good chance and we wanted to get Jhonny and Magnus in there. Obviously, UAE set a good tempo on the climb, so it didn't get out of control for them. I don't know if they wanted to ride for the stage from the beginning, but they certainly decided to go for the stage at the end. From my point of view, I was trying not to jump too hard and let everyone else chase each other."
Pogačar shut down three separate moves in the finale as he set his sights on stage victory, but he perhaps didn't need to be as generous in his efforts. The men trailing him on general classification already seem to be more focused on vying with one another for the podium spots than on trying to discommode the maglia rosa.
It's an understandable approach when faced with an obstacle as immovable as the Gran Sasso itself, but it could make for a curious kind of a Giro given that the finish in Rome is still two whole weeks ago.
"It's certainly going to be hard to beat him," Thomas said when asked if Pogačar had already won the Giro. "It's going to be quite strange. I think from now on, it's going to be like the last few days of a Grand Tour, with the other guys on GC watching each other. He can just sort of sit there now, he's got no pressure to do anything.
"He's just insane, isn't he, really? But we've got to keep doing what we're doing, try to keep improving and you never know."
