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
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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
Filippo Ganna was on home roads today
Filippo Fiorelli (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane’) was in the break again today, along with Davide Bais (Polti-Kometa) and Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan)
How hard would INEOS Grenadiers and Narváes fight for the pink jersey?
The fans were out roadside on a sunny Sunday
Stage and pink for Tadej Pogačar – All the way to Rome?
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.”
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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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