Three Old Questions About the Giro and Two New Ones
Musings on the first rest day
Posting this newsletter a little earlier, since Tuesday morning is the biggest mountain stage of the second week of the Giro. Here’s a quick rundown of storylines from the first week and change of the race, as well as a couple things to look for between now and Friday.
Old Question No. 1: Can Geraint Thomas put pressure on Tadej Pogačar?
No! Not even close, it turns out. I was hopeful—and I don’t think was by any means an unpopular hope—that the 2018 Tour de France winner, who turns 38 in two weeks, had one last ride in him, one extremely game, tenacious performance fit to challenge the best rider in the world. Probably not to beat Pogačar; I’m not sure anyone really ever had a shot to do that. But to put a scare in him, to make him sweat through every descent and crosswind section.
How silly I was. After keeping up (ish) with Pogačar through the first week of racing, Thomas shipped a minute and 59 seconds on the Stage 7 time trial, which he absolutely could not afford to do if he had any hope of beating Pogačar on GC. Thomas lost another two seconds, plus bonuses, on the final sprint to Prati di Tivo a day later. Now, even a podium place is far from assured.
Meanwhile, Thomas’ top support rider, Thymen Arensman, put more than a minute into his leader in the time trial and now sits within the top 10 on GC. Ineos Grenadiers—being a British team, and having a 15-year relationship with Thomas—isn’t going to throw its leader under the bus. But Arensman is now close enough that if Thomas well and truly cracks in the mountains, the smart call will be to send the young Dutchman on ahead in order to preserve a top-10 or top-five finish, rather than have him pace Thomas through a day from hell.
A propos of nothing, I was looking for pictures of Thomas on the ASO wire and found this image of a man who has definitely swung a baseball bat before. Enjoy.
