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What Mauro Gianetti he said up Pogacar in an interview given to RIDE magazine it may seem like a contradiction. According to UAE Team Emirates XRG team principal, the day of the crisis on the Col de la Loze at the 2023 Tour de France was by far the best in the Slovenian’s career.
If he had to choose just one day, therefore, Gianetti would not take one of the incredible victories at the Tour, the Oropa stage of the Giro, the Strade Bianche after the fall, the World Championships in Zurich or the one in Kigali, a Lombardy. No, none of these successes. Gianetti would choose the “only” day in which Pogacar really showed himself to be fragile and in difficulty.
«A champion like him, completely exhausted, who reaches the finish line seven minutes behind the winner, after having lost everything… 90% of the other runners would have withdrawn that day and given up due to illness. They would have abandoned the Tour. He could have retired. He could have cried. It could have shown that he couldn’t take it anymore. But he didn’t. He accepted his defeat and wanted to fight for redemption in that Tour. He had the courage to persevere and not take the easy way out. Three days later, he won a stage in the Vosges and secured second position in the general classification. Chapeau!».
He added in conclusion: «In a certain sense, that day was the best of his career. Not only for Tadej, but also for the team: that moment opened our eyes. We realized we needed to invest more in our time trial bike, because at the time it wasn’t light enough for climbs. We also improved Tadej’s position on the time trial bike, his helmet, his clothing. We probed everything to see where he could get a few seconds and close the gap to Visma | Lease a Bike».
