Ten thoughts about Tadej Pogačar riding the Giro d’Italia, in approximate descending order of importance…
10. What does the decision do for him in Belgium? Does it make him more or less popular? Some important factors to consider: he stepped on the kerstperiode cyclocross news cycle for a day or three, But! he managed to do so just as the grownups were arriving and getting warmed up. A week from now, Pogi stepping on the Wout-Matti-Pidders All Monsters Attack battle raging in Gavere and Zonhoven would have been unacceptable. But today the big headline is “Crossmullets.” I wish I were kidding.
9. I guess there is some sort of debate to be had about the wisdom of Pogačar riding the Giro, but can we all agree that everyone talking about the Giro d’Italia in mid-December is unreservedly a good thing?
Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images
8. Who is even riding the Giro this year? I’ll tell you who… a bunch of schmucks! OK, not really. It will actually be a bunch of unfathomably magnificent young athletes doing things I can only dream of. Every spring. While riding the trainer and reciting Buzzati to nobody in particular. But anyway his countryman Roglič, the defending winner, won’t be there since he absconded to BORA for the specific reason of not having to defend his maglia rosa. Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates seem like his stiffest competition, two fine veteran cavaliere who, in 2024, will not be in Pogi’s class.
7. Can you blame Pogačar for wanting to ride this year’s Giro? It is a rather delicious route, starting up north in Torino before bumping its way down the old Apennine provinces to Napoli, then east up to a rather heaping helping of Dolomites before jetting back to a Roman Finale. I will have much more to say about this at the appropriate time, and don’t even try to stop me, but for now I will simply point out that Tadej f’n Pogacar attacking over the final two mountain stages a short drive from the Slovenian border will be a pulsating, gratifying bit of overdue fan service. Riders might be advised to carry ear plugs.
Photo by JASPER JACOBS/Belga/AFP via Getty Images
6. Back to Belgium… is he purposely avoiding Remco Evenepoel? Lots of people have been mentioned as Pogačar’s natural rival,…
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