Pogacar Makes Roadracing Boring

This year’s Giro d'Italia is one of the best Grand Tour’s I’ve followed. And the reason? The absence of Tadej Pogacar.

- Jose Vicente ‘JV’ Araneta

Pogacar wasn’t around to defend the Giro title this year, probably to focus on the Tour de France. Pogacar beat his rival by almost 10 minutes and as far as I was concerned, it was a humdrum of a race.

This year was different. Team UAE, Pogacar’s team, sent the next two best riders, Spaniard Juan Ayuso and Mexican Isaac del Toro with Ayuso as the team leader. But Ayuso faltered, got stung by a bee and had to drop out of the race. On the other hand, Slovenian Primoz Roglic was the favorite but he also faltered and after crashing a few times, he went home.

This left us with three riders consisting for the pink jersey-del Toro, who was wearing the leader’s pink jersey going into the penultimate stage. Forty sec behind was Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz and Brit Simon Yates sat 1.41mi.