“Have you ever seen anything like this?” cycling great-turned-pundit Sean Kelly was asked during a broadcast of the Giro d’Italia this May, as Tadej Pogačar turned in yet another devastating mountain performance en route to the biggest time gap between winner and runner-up in the Giro in nearly 60 years.
Kelly, never a man to use several words where one is enough, answered simply: “No.”
But in the case of Tadej Pogačar, the chronicle of a 2024 Giro d’Italia victory foretold remained up there in lights for three long weeks, defying rivals, rough third week weather, the Mortirolo and the Monte Grappa and even stage 21’s absurdly technical and hazardous finishing circuit in Rome. (Now there was a chance of a last-minute upset waiting to happen if ever you saw one.) There was barely an assault on his overall lead, nothing to warrant a moment of panic or concern. On some mountain stages, it seemed like Pogačar was all but winning without even wanting to do so. With the benefit of hindsight, but also almost everybody’s foresight, he was simply unbeatable.
Yes, there have been some minor errors at times: remember the miscalculation on the opening stage of Catalunya cost Pogacar the chance to…
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