Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) stormed to victory in stage 7 of the Giro d’Italia, demonstrating his climbing prowess during today’s 40.6km time trial from Foligno that culminated with a Cat. 4 climb in Perugia, beating his closest rival Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), who spent the better part of the day in the hot seat, by 17 seconds.
Meanwhile, Magnus Sheffield made it two Ineos riders on the stage podium, taking third at 49 seconds.
Earlier, Ganna caught seven riders, finishing with a time that put him 44 seconds ahead of Pogacar at the first checkpoint. But a staggering assault on the 6.6km climb up to the picturesque Corso Vannucci in the historic hilltop city saw the Slovenian rider turn things round in style to take a second stage win in his debut drama and cement his lead at the top of the standings.
To cap a frustrating day for Ineos Grenadiers, Geraint Thomas struggled to find his rhythm and could only post the tenth-best time of Stage 7. After conceding exactly two minutes to his GC rival, Thomas also dropped one place to third after Dani Martinez (Bora-Hansrohe) ran a negative split to take eighth on the day.
But Ineos Grenadiers still managed to show its strength in depth, as four of its four riders finished in the top 10, with Thymen Arensman and American debutant Magnus Sheffield both impressing by pushing team-mate Ganna all the way.
Starting almost two hours earlier than the big favorites, Ganna looked all but guaranteed a career seventh-time trial win as rivals Thomas and Pogacar did battle in slightly more blustery conditions. The Hour Record holder certainly had one foot on the top step of the podium when Pogacar – like the entire peloton – eschewed a bike change and embarked on the opening double-digit ramp of the final climb.
What happened next astonished fans the world over – not least the home fans cheering on their Italian TT champion, whose dominant performance looked so emphatic that ex-pro Jens Voigt described him as “a fighter jet versus the passenger planes”.
Ganna and Ineos had just not banked on Pogacar going supersonic, with Slovenian putting in a whopping 1:04 on Ganna to become the first rider in pink to win a time trial on the Giro since Nairo Quintana a whole decade ago.
Pogacar completed the 40.6km course with an average speed of 47.088 km/h to stop the clock at 51:44 – some 17 seconds faster than the speechless Ganna watching from the hot seat. Ineos duo Sheffield and Arensman were 49 seconds and 1:00 in arrears, while Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) completed the top five at 1:05.
After his second win of the week, Pogacar now leads his nearest challenger Martinez by 2:36, with Thomas a further 10 seconds back in fourth.
The final two places in the top five are now occupied by Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) – the latter taking over the white jersey from Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike), who dropped three places after shipping a huge chunk of time on the flat opening 36km of the ride along the picturesque Topino valley.
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