Geraint Thomas on Pogačar’s late Giro d’Italia attack – ‘He was kicking my head in’

The Giro d’Italia fully lived up to its reputation for unpredictability on Monday as race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) launched a dramatic late attack on a stage theoretically made for the sprinters, with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), second overall, joining race leader in a breakneck move for the line.

EF Education-EasyPost’s Mikkel Honoré – as chance would have it, the same rider who was caught up with Pogačar in his Liège-Bastogne-Liège crash last year – opened up the hostilities with 3.5 kilometres to go and was briefly able to stick with the two GC leaders as they came across. But a second surging acceleration in the streets of Fossano by Pogačar meant it was finally only the Briton who managed to stay with him.