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.
The calm before the start – the peloton awaits the beginning of the mammoth queen stage in Manerba del Garda
Riders pass through a picturesque village during stage 15 – there’s no shortage of them on the Giro
Riders had no time to admire the views across the Alps, least of all on the high-speed descents
The breakaway is dwarfed by the high mountains of the Alps as they race towards Livigno on stage 15
As is always the case at the Giro, whole towns poured out onto the streets to greet the race as it passed through
…and if they were on the streets, they were on the mountainsides too
The…
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