On the day of the feat of Ben O'Connor the attention was once again all "behind": what does the little king want to do with this? Tour de France? pogacar Will he attack? Or will he just stay quiet, just go for a walk with his new Colnago yellow in the Alps? Yes, because at a certain point it seemed that the Slovenian and his UAE Emirates They wanted to lose the yellow jersey they'd won the day before. Of course, he's not the type to calculate, but... we had doubts. So how did Tadej and his team handle this stage?
Yellow yes or yellow no?
But how can you deliberately lose something you fought so hard for the day before? It may seem absurd, but it actually makes sense.
Wearing the leader's jersey in a major Giro means arriving at the hotel at least an hour, even an hour and a half, after your teammates. There's the awards ceremony, the press conference, the anti-doping test... and in the meantime, someone always pops up wanting to talk to you, shake your hand, take a selfie. Often, they're important people you can't turn your back on: small talk. Basically, an hour less of rest every day.
Stage number nine, the Cluses-Tignes, which starts without Roglic The Val d'Isere finish line is almost a regular occurrence, as it's where he retires, and he sets off in the rain. After yesterday's absolute dominance by Pogacar, as well as his UAE team, all the other big names are standing their ground. But rather than leaving the burden of the race to the yellow jersey team, they seem to no longer want to wake sleeping dogs. And the attack of carapaz At the end, he was more focused on the others than on the Slovenian leader. Indeed, as soon as he was caught, he waved goodbye and earned himself another half minute. Easy, easy…
Yellow yes!
The real issue today was the UAE. What did they want to do? What did they discuss in the morning? And above all: is this team strong enough to escort Pogacar, given that they'd been singled out?
UAE is in the lead, controls, reduces the gap and then at a certain point, perhaps also thanks to the acceleration of O'Connor who is the virtual yellow jersey, lets the kilometers pass. If someone like that were to take it away from them (with all due respect to the Australian of the Ag2R-Citroen) it wouldn't be a big problem.
But Tadej's teammates are (almost) all there. There's even Mountain, who is anything but a climber, there is Rui Costa, there is Majka and there is David Formolo. The one who yesterday launched Tadej towards the stars.
But Pogacar himself clarified the situation: "The weather was truly terrible today, even worse than yesterday. Besides the rain, it was also cold. I'm sure many riders suffered (as if to say: not me, ed.). For my part, I didn't want to give up the yellow jersey and that's precisely why I accelerated in the last few kilometers. I didn't want to spend the rest day without having it on my shoulders."
The pebbles of Formolo
One thing is certain: those who said Pogacar didn't have the right teammates were wrong. The controversy arose after stage seven, the 250-kilometer one won by Mohoric.
But that stage couldn't be referred to, where there had been a large scatter and the UAE had worked hard in the "first" 150 kilometers. Mindful of last year's fan-like performances, the UAE riders had immediately rallied around their captain, spending a lot of time at the start. And if you look back, Ineos-Grenadiers Aside from that, no one had many men in front anymore. Then yesterday, from morning onwards, all the Emirates riders were on the rollers before the start. A sign that they intended to attack, or at least that they had clear ideas. And they silenced everyone on the road.
“We’re a good team,” Formolo said at the end of the stage. The media attacks us, but we're here. And we're also a great group of kids who enjoy riding their bikes. Today, the last man was Majka. He was fine and stayed by Pogacar's side. That's a sign we can swap without any problems. And if nothing has happened to Tadej so far—let's touch wood—maybe we deserve some credit for that too."
The Rock Point
And after the massages, the Veronese himself calmly resumes his story, with that extra bit of clarity that comes with a cool head and a heartbeat slower.
«In the end, every day that passes is a small victory for us – continues “Roccia” – Believe me when I tell you we are carefree. And we rode like that today too. Not keeping the jersey wouldn't have been a problem, but in the end, it was better this way.
"Today was one of those stages where you have to save yourself. The weather was terrible all day. And when it's like that, it can take a moment to freeze. We started out a bit with our tails between our legs. The imperative was not to take any risks. Nevertheless Brandon (McNulty, (Editor's note) He fell on the last descent, so it was my turn to work first. I made up for the lack of a man at that moment. The last climb was really tough. Having one less man really changed things. But we're fine and it went well.
We took care of every aspect of protecting ourselves from the cold. We had cars stationed at every GPM. They always gave us dry jackets. Do you reckon GOD MODE (ep.XNUMX) Van Aert at a certain point he came up to me and said: are we at the Tour or the sixth stage of the Tirreno (the terrible one with the walls, ed.)?
Total serenity
Formolo then talks about the serenity felt in the UAE environment. Last night, to show how certain things with Pogacar happen naturally, there wasn't any huge celebration. Yes, a few words of thanks, a few hugs, but all in all, it was a very easygoing evening.
"There's time to celebrate," Formolo continues. "But what kind of day was yesterday? It was beautiful; I think not only us, but the fans too, will remember it for a long time. Last night, we arrived at the hotel very late and went down to dinner a bit separately, but when you're in harmony, there's no need for much talk. Just one look and we understand each other. This group has been going on for a long time. We were already all together in January. Teide and we understood each other immediately. Today, for example, it wasn't easy to control the race. There were a lot of riders who were 7-8 minutes behind, and it was natural that someone could break away. So we did our part: without saying anything to each other, we kept them there, without letting them gain too much of an advantage, and we did it."
Tadej took care of the rest!
