Giro d’Italia – Crazy Pogacar! He wins the time trial, recovering a minute from Ganna on the climb, Tiberi doing well

Shocked faces, incredulous expressions and a deafening silence surround Tadej Pogacar when the Slovenian crosses the finish line of Perugiathe arrival site of the seventh stage of the Giro d’Italia 2024. Spontaneous reactions to yet another feat by the native of Komenda, who in the final six kilometers of climb that mark this time trial trims 1’04” to a great Filippo Ganna and beats him by 17”. It seemed done for the Italian champion, in the leader’s corner for over an hour and close to his seventh personal success in the pink race. Not today. Pogacar crushes the competition and upsets the general classification, where he now has 2’36” on Dani Martinez (BORA – hansgrohe) and 2’46” up Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers), slow down in the second part of the stage. Very positive day for Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain – Victorious), who makes his skills count and finishes sixth, climbing up to eighth place in the overall ranking.

The Giro d’Italia faces one of the most important (and feared by some) days of this edition: the time trial from Foligno to Perugia. A 40.6 kilometer time trial, a distance not seen in the pink race since 2016. Clear day, but the wind blows decisively and could be a factor. The first reference of the race is Josef Cerny (Soudal – Quick Step), who finished his efforts in 54’50”. Tobias Foss, the 2022 world champion, is not at his best after complicated days and is not pushing hard, setting a very high time from the first time taken. An alarm bell, however, leads to the first corner, where Hoole risks big and Tobias Andresen ends up on the ground.

Cerny’s time lasted about a quarter of an hour, before being significantly lowered by Dan Hoole (Lidl Trek), who finished his efforts in 54’16”. Edoardo Affini (Visma | Lease a Bike) competes with the Dutchman and starts the climb with the same time, but loses the distance challenge at the end and is second by 10”. The test begins at 2.37pm Filippo Ganna, who dressed in the tricolor goes hunting for the big target. An unexpected event immediately occurred for the Italian champion, who was touched by a fan as he entered the first corner. On the street too Mikkel Bjerg, which sets off at full speed. Meanwhile, the time trial has a new leader: è Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar), who makes the difference in the uphill stretch compared to Hoole and takes the lead with a time of 53’56”.

Ganna speeds through the Umbrian hills and lowers the best time at the first time, doing 24 seconds better than Cerny. The progression of the INEOS runner is exhilarating, without hesitation. At the second reading he is in the green light of 1’09” on Affini and his pedaling does not lose intensity uphill. The fans push him, he doesn’t take any time and shatters Bjerg’s time of 1’39”, who arrived just before him! Ganna prints a remarkable one 52’01”, collecting as many as eight runners started before him during his showdown. More or less coinciding with the arrival of the Verbanese, the test begins Antonio Tiberifollowed shortly after by Romain Bardet, Domenico Pozzovivo And Luke Plapp.

The ranking begins to shorten with Magnus Sheffield (INEOS Grenadiers) e Maximilian Schachmannwho take second to Ganna on the climb and finish respectively at 32” and 48”. Antonio Tiberi he pays for over a minute in the first intermediate, but then he begins to grind and runs a very solid progression test. The young man from Bahrain never loses his edge and takes provisional fifth place at the finish line (+1’04”). Shortly before, Thymen Arensman had entered in third position, for a sumptuous team performance by the highly anticipated INEOS.

We are at the decisive stages, all the big names in the ranking start three minutes apart from each other. The last one is obviously the pink jersey Tadej Pogacar, at 16:24.

Giro 2024 | 7th stage – Multi audio version

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