Sunday’s stage 15 brought the Giro d’Italia to the Alps for the first in a series of late-race mountain battles, and with it came a momentous day of racing over passes such as the brutal Mortirolo and the 15km Passo di Foscagno.
Once again, it was Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), racing in the maglia rosa of race leader, who proved himself to be far superior to his opponents. The Slovenian took off from the favourites’ group 14km from the finish of the 222km queen stage, flying away from his erstwhile rivals as he did on the previous summit finishes of Oropa and Prati di Tivo.
This time around, the damage done in the GC battle was much greater, as Pogačar crossed the line a full three minutes ahead of the other climbers in the top-10 battle – a feat almost unthinkable over a relatively short stretch of road, even if it is in the high Alps.
Along the way, he dispatched battling breakaway riders, including young hopeful Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) and former Giro winner Nairo Quintana (Movistar), the latter seeing his dreams of a first Grand Tour stage win in five years evaporate inside the final 2km after over 180km in the break.
Behind them, riders were scattered all the way down the mountain, from podium contenders Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) at 2:50 down to the last men home, Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost) and Julius van den Berg (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), who finished a full hour back.
Thanks to our photographers on the ground in Italy, we’ve captured all the best images on a day which may well have decided the 2024 Giro.
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