The pink Cannibal also devours the time trial in Perugia with devastating confidence. In this Giro we are racing for stage victories and the other two places on the podium. We knew it, it was an easy prediction, but Tadej Pogacar manages to surpass even our imagination. Taddeo, as the Italian fans call him (many also yesterday in Umbria) who have adopted him, has been a protagonist since the first stage in Turin, he won immediately and wore pink in Oropa, he also tried to get ahead of the sprinters at Fossano and yesterday in the first time trial he did better than Filippo Ganna, the team pursuit Olympian, already twice world time trial champion and Lord of the hour record. Ganna is the world number one in time trials and yesterday he had a great race. He was clearly in the lead and at the foot of the uphill road that leads to Perugia he had a margin that seemed reassuring even over Pogacar. But it was right there, when the time trial seemed lost that Taddeo changed gear and scenery. His pink shirt over grenade trousers became Superman’s suit. Pogacar made up about 10 seconds per thousand meters in Ganna in the last 6 kilometers. A huge thing.
Filippo was disappointed, but he shouldn’t parameterize his performance on Pogacar. If anything, he must consider that for three quarters of the race, in the most technical and fastest part, he was the strongest. With just over two months to go until the Paris Games, he can continue to think positively. He knows how to get there and can count on his great engine and his masterful technique. Ganna doesn’t have to think about Pogacar because the Slovenian is playing another championship. When he decided to open the throttle uphill he went up with that fabulous mix of power and lightness that make him the most complete champion in cycling today. He is the only one potentially capable of winning all the prestigious events on the calendar, from the Grand Tours to the Grand Classics. A giant who enjoys the absolute esteem of his rivals. Geraint Thomas, the first of his opponents in this Giro said yesterday at Journal who feels proud to duel with him: “Because Tadej will become the best of all time”.
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The Slovenian has set the bar so high that he is often (and rightly) compared to Merckx. Last night Ernesto Colnago, who was a great mechanic for Eddy, and five years ago brought Pogacar to professionalism, called Merckx to tell him that no one else like Tadej has reawakened those ancient memories in him. And the Cannibal par excellence, renewing his esteem for the Slovenian, he confirmed that he sees the Giro-Tour double as possible. That legendary one-two that Merckx hit three times (no one like him) and that cycling has been missing for 26 years: since Marco Pantani’s feat in 1998. And so, after 7 days, Pogacar has already won two stages and dug a ditch between himself and the rest of Giro’s companion. Dani Martinez and Geraint Thomas are already over two and a half minutes behind and today the race offers another finish line that pleases the little man in pink. It is the arrival at high altitude in Prati di Tivo, on the Gran Sasso d’Italia, where Pogacar has already won, alone, on the occasion of the Tirreno-Adriatico in 2021. Tomorrow will he be able to contain his killer instinct or will the Cannibal within him prevail of him? We hope he simply makes Pogacar, the most spectacular and complete champion of this generation of phenomena. We like it that way.
