Tadej Pogačar’s appetite has been the story since the Giro d’Italia started in Turin. When he attacked on the first three days of the race, one wondered if he even intended to have a bite at every stage from here to Rome. “No comment,” he smiled after stage 3 in Fossano.
On Tuesday, however, Pogačar managed to resist the temptation of the Capo Mele. On stage 5 down the Tyrrhenian coast, meanwhile, his nibbling was limited to sampling a hunk of the city’s emblematic focaccia at the start in Genoa, thus teeing up an excruciating pun for the corporate-mandated hilarity of the Giro’s social media accounts.
By the time Pogačar reached the finish in Lucca safely in the body of the main peloton, thoughts were already turning towards stage 6 to Rapolano Terme, where the maglia rosa’s palate might well be whetted by the three sectors of gravel in the final 50km of the stage.
Pogačar has won Strade Bianche on two occasions, first in 2022 with a 50km lone attack and again this past March, when he out-Pogačared himself by soloing clear with some 81km remaining. Those exhibitions, not to mention his aggression on this Giro to date, make Pogačar the obvious favourite for Thursday’s stage, though he downplayed the notion when he arrived in the mixed zone in Lucca.
“It's not Strade Bianche, to be honest, it’s just a ‘not nice’ stage, I would say,” Pogačar said of a day that includes 12km of sterrato spread across three sectors, the last of which comes 16km from the line.
“It’s a stage like today, where we need to be really concentrated from start to finish. We need to be together as a team going to the gravel sectors with great focus and just arrive to the finish line.”
Those thoughts were echoed by UAE Team Emirates directeur sportif Fabio Baldato at the team bus, parked beneath the striking walls of Lucca. Like Pogačar, he maintained that stage 6 was a day where the focus would be on avoiding losses rather than amassing gains.
“It’s a stage that’s more about staying safe,” Baldato told Cyclingnews. “It’s not very hard. It’s not a Strade Bianche. There are three gravel sectors, one of them uphill, but nothing special. But you still have to take it from the front if you want to avoid problems, and that’s the main thing. Our objective is to be safe. But obviously, to be safe, you have to be in front.”
Positioning
The Giro’s last trek over the white roads of Tuscany in 2021 was altogether more extensive and demanding, but even then, the great turning point of the day came not on the sterrato but on the rapid approach to the first sector. The scramble for positions at that point set the tone for everything else on the road to Montalcino.
Pogačar knows that the entry to the first section at Vidritta will be just as pivotal on Thursday. Indeed, even the ostensibly calm run down the Tyrrhenian coast on stage 5 was fraught with danger. Pogačar had a close-up view of the crash involving Christophe Laporte before the intermediate sprint.
“I was nervous, I was really afraid. We were going 65kph or something, and you just hear this explosion, and I think Mikkel [Bjerg] punctured there because there was a big crater on the road, which shouldn’t be the case 300m from a sprint,” Pogačar said.
“Tomorrow, you think about the gravel, gravel, gravel, but you sprint basically a lead-out to the gravel. You could have a bad road, and it could happen like today with Laporte, where you just smash yourself into the ground before you hit the gravel. We need to be really careful.”
Pogačar maintains a lead of 46 seconds over Geraint Thomas (Ineos) atop the overall standings, with Daniel Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) a further second back in third. The rugged run to Rapolano Terme marks the beginning of a crucial three-day block in this Giro, with the time trial to Perugia and the summit finish at Prati di Tivo to follow.
It remains to be seen if those imminent appointments will temper Pogačar’s approach in Tuscany on Thursday. Even while downplaying the demands of the stage, the Slovenian couldn’t help but point out that the safest place to be on this Giro was off the front.
“So far it was always like this, better to be in the front than in the bunch. The break made it today, and for sure they had less stress than in the bunch,” Pogačar said, before catching himself. “But every day is different, and tomorrow is going to be another story.”
Baldato, for his part, insisted that Pogačar’s penchant for off-the-cuff attacks was not incompatible with the team’s advice to manage his efforts carefully. Pogačar’s aggressive cameo at Fossano on Monday, he said, had come about almost by accident.
“Mikkel Honoré accelerated and Tadej thought it was a lead-out for the bunch, so he followed, and the gap opened behind him,” Baldato said, and then smiled. “At least if you ask him, that’s what he’ll say. But then when he saw Thomas come through and pull, he just said, ‘Okay, let’s play.’”
There’s no guarantee those same instincts won’t kick in all over again when Pogačar feels gravel beneath his wheels on Thursday. “Tomorrow is not going to be like Strade Bianche,” he said. “But you need to prepare very well for it.”
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