PERUGIA – The podium has dragged on, and when Tadej Pogacar arrives in front of the journalists, who will have to write his words down and not just record them or broadcast them, he seems rather nervous. He enters the interview van. chewing on words you don't expect after a stage in which he won by handing out minutes to his direct opponents. At one point, even his press officer seems to mime a plea to tone things down, but something is clearly bothering the pink jersey. The post-finish protocol is lengthy, but certainly no longer than the one the Slovenian has endured consistently for years at the Tour de France.
Pogacar sits down. His lead tonight is much stronger than it was this morning. He beat an excellent Ganna, taking a minute off him on the final climb. Among the challengers for the pink jersey, Dani Martinez is second at 2'36”, Thomas third at 2'46”. To see the others you have to go beyond three minutes. The positive note of this time trial is the recovery of Antonio Tiberi, who climbs 13 positions and is 1'21” behind Pogacar, 1'25" off the podium. Without the minutes lost in Oropa due to the double puncture, the Lazio rider would probably be second now.
The work on the time trial
The time trial lost by Vingegaard at the last Tour has persuaded the technicians of the UAE Emirates to intervene on the bike. Says Manolo Bertocchi, marketing manager of Colnago, that it is the same TT1 that the Slovenian raced with in 2023 and some changes have been made to the handlebars, but those are managed directly by the team (the team actually talks about a lighter frame and new handlebars). In fact, it was not the lightest bike in the WorldTour (so much so that in the famous Combloux Day, Tadej changed it at the beginning of the uphill section, while Vingegaard continued on the time trial one), but remains unquestionably fast. So they worked on the handlebars and the position and the Slovenian in fact got close to Ganna in the second flat sector and then overtook him in the final 6 kilometers uphill.
«Since last year – he explains – I changed my position and worked to be more comfortable on the bike, because that's the main thing. Especially on days like today, when the time trial is very long, you need to be comfortable and able to push with good powerI won't go into exactly how we worked, because then everyone would do the same. But it involves a lot of work and many hours, even behind the bike, to prepare for this. Then a I'm super happy: it's proof that hard work pays off».
You've achieved some pretty wide margins. Are you more surprised by your own performance or by the less impressive performance of your opponents?
Maybe for both. I'm definitely pleasantly surprised by myself.I had a great day and that's what I was aiming for. But it's true that I expected that especially Thomas and Martinez they were closer, but I don't know what to sayIt was a tough day, it was a tough time trial. And if you didn't have the best legs, you could have paid the price on the last climb, and maybe that's what happened. But, having said that, the road to Rome is still very long and we haven't even started doing the real mountain stages yet.
If nothing else, will this margin allow you to run more relaxed?
I don't know, I hope so (finally smiling, ed.). But for sure now everyone will try to attack from afar, go on the run and look for opportunities.I think it will be really difficult to control the next few days Line of Business until the end. I can't say more. We're taking it day by day; we have a super-strong team and are in good shape. And we'll see how we can move forward tomorrow.
Was today's goal to manage the pace until the final climb and then give it everything there?
Yes, I wanted to set a good pace, but without overdoing it. After a few kilometers, I realized I could maintain good legs by managing my effort. In the second flat part I tried to push a bit more, especially after the curves, to increase the speedIn the two kilometers preceding the climb I tried to be as aerodynamic as possible and my legs took a breather. And then the climb was a continuous attack from the start to the summit.
Gianetti said you didn't want your opponents' times on the radio: why?
I confirm that I didn't want comparisons, but only my partial ones. For me the most important thing is to have the instructions on the trajectories from the machine, Because today, too, there were some tricky corners. The wind blew quite strongly from time to time, so it was very important to have some references from the team car. I ran focusing only on myself and it was really nice.
How stressful is it to wear the pink jersey?
The stressful part actually comes at the end with the media and all the steps in the interview area. You have to answer the same questions more or less ten times. And that's the only exhausting part of wearing the pink jersey. Otherwise, I enjoy it. Yesterday's stage was 180 kilometers long and the whole time I heard my name being repeated And it was really nice. It gives you extra motivation.
Do you think it will be difficult to manage the recovery this evening, waiting for the mountain stage tomorrow?
If the press and media were a little shorter, it would be much better for recovery.
Good evening to you too, Tadej. There was room for one last question, but no one thought to ask it.Who knows, maybe at the end of the day he might even consider this a victory.
