Giro d’Italia Stage 7: Tadej Takes Total Control

UAE’s Tadej Pogačar took complete command of the Giro d’Italia today by winning the 7th stage time trial to Perugia. The Slovene, starting the day in pink (and purple, with the Giro’s blessing), overcame a 41 second deficit to time trial specialist Filippo Ganna of INEOS over the final 6km which included climbs of up to 11% gradient. Pogačar gained back the 41 seconds plus 17 more to take the stage away from the Italian champ, and to put painful deficits into his rivals.

INEOS’ Thymen Arensman was the closest GC competitor a full minute behind Pogačar (and Arensman had lost four minutes earlier in the Giro). INEOS’ Geraint Thomas, starting the day in second place, lost two minutes on the stage and slipped behind Daniel Martinez of BORA, who himself shipped 1.49 to Pogs. Other “contenders” like Juan Pedro Lopez of Trek lost in excess of four minutes on the 40km stage. Pogačar will begin the weekend with a 2.36 cushion on Martinez and 2.46 on Thomas.

The youth competition was upended when Jayco AlUla’s Luke Plapp turned in a solid performance of seventh place on the stage, 1.45 back, bumping overnight leader Cian Uijtdebroeks of Visma out of the lead after the Belgian finished 20th, 2.55 out. He starts tomorrow eight seconds behind Plapp overall.

Results:

1. POGAČAR Tadej, UAE Team Emirates, 51.44
2. GANNA Filippo, INEOS Grenadiers, at 0.17
3. SHEFFIELD Magnus, INEOS Grenadiers, at 0.49
4. ARENSMAN Thymen, INEOS Grenadiers, at 1.00
5. SCHACHMANN Maximilian, BORA – hansgrohe, at 1.05
6. TIBERI Antonio, Bahrain – Victorious, at 1.21
7. PLAPP Luke, Team Jayco AlUla, at 1.45
8. MARTÍNEZ Daniel Felipe, BORA – hansgrohe, at 1.49
9. BJERG Mikkel, UAE Team Emirates, at 1.56
10. THOMAS Geraint, INEOS Grenadiers, at 2.00
11. O’CONNOR Ben, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team, at 2.07
12. MILESI Lorenzo, Movistar Team, at 2.12
13. LUTSENKO Alexey, Astana Qazaqstan Team, at 2.23
14. HOOLE Daan, Lidl – Trek, at 2.32
15. ZANA Filippo, Team Jayco AlUla, at 2.34
16. SÜTTERLIN Jasha, Bahrain – Victorious, at 2.37
17. AFFINI Edoardo, Team Visma | Lease a Bike, at 2.42
18. BARDET Romain, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL, at 2.50
19. TRATNIK Jan, Team Visma | Lease a Bike, at 2.52
20. UIJTDEBROEKS Cian, Team Visma | Lease a Bike, at 2.55

GC:

1. POGAČAR Tadej, UAE Team Emirates, 24:12:36
2. MARTÍNEZ Daniel Felipe, BORA – hansgrohe, at 2:36
3. THOMAS Geraint, INEOS Grenadiers, at 2:46
4. O’CONNOR Ben, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team, at 3:33
5. PLAPP Luke, Team Jayco AlUla, at 3:42
6. LUTSENKO Alexey, Astana Qazaqstan Team, at 3:49