Others suffer, he smiles at his ghosts. And he doesn’t just destroy the rhetoric of cycling with sweat and tears: he sprints at 5300 meters from the summit of the second Monte Grappa (what he promises, he keeps), send the fans who touch him to hell, cuts through the pink fog of a smoke bomb that’s too close (“I felt the sparks and the heat on my arm”), he collects the water bottle from the Uae masseur to pass it to a child on the side of the road (“I saw myself in that little fan: if it had happened to me 15 years ago, I would have started crying”).
Welcome to the Tadej-show, while Brenta murmurs calmly and placidly as the best passes by on May 25th.
Pogacar and the help to Pellizzari
With the sixth stage victorythe fifth in the pink jersey like Merckx in ’73, Pogacar signs a Giro that has crouched at his feet and purred from the second day (“No regrets about not having been leader from the start, a perfect race ends: the icing would be the sprint success of my partner Molano in Rome”), the abysmal gaps over his rivals don’t interest him (“You can win even with a second of margin: all your opponents have my respect”): the Colombian Martinez, the first of the normal, he finishes at +9’56”, the highest gap since ’56, when Adorni triumphed with 11’26” over Zilioli. He reaches the excellent Giulio Pellizzari, 20 years old, the most beautiful revelation of these three weeks of collective psychoanalysis, he tells him “follow me”, he keeps him in his wake for a handful of hairpin bends, just enough time to give the Bardiani rider from the Marche region some deserved visibility, already in evidence on Monte Pana (where Taddeo softened his defeat by giving him the pink jersey), and goes away.
From that choice of conscious and overflowing solitude, 33 km of descent begin – with the exception of the small climb to Pianaro – spent re-elaborating the recent past (“I did well to change my method, to modify the work on the body and off the bike : details, for goodness sake, but they make the difference»), to think back to 20 controlled stages with the serenity of adults (“But the Giro wasn’t as easy as it seems: I was sick, I slept badly, I got a lot of rain but I got to the end”), taking the freedom of lightness, which is the antithesis of the concept of sacrifice historically required by the emphasis of cycling. He greeted the public (a lot, on Monte Grappa and in the city, yesterday too), he bowed at the finish line in Bassano, where he found the most welcome gift waiting for him. The kiss broadcast worldwide by his girlfriend Urska: «Tadej was good – said the blonde lady -, now we’ll take 3-4 days just for us to enjoy this victory, then he’ll go to the mountains to start thinking about the Tour de France» .
Pogacar’s secret: run less to run better
Thirty days of racing for Pogacar in 2024, so far, 13 victories. Running less to run better is his mantra. «With the Giro I feel I have taken another step forward in my growth as a runner – she explains with her nose red from yesterday’s sudden sun – I feel improved». The supersonic bike, the watts that no one else develops, the unique riding position. But underneath numbers and technology the heart of a generous Slovenian beats: «I can say I’m proud of myself, the goal was to finish with high morale and good legs for the Tour. Done». The caiman is now tame.
