‘The real Giro started today’ – Tadej Pogačar gains time but stays cautious before high mountains

Tadej Pogačar gained more time on his GC rivals in the Giro d’Italia stage 14 time trial and hinted at being aggressive on the Queen stage 15 to Livigno on Sunday. The overall race leader insisted that he can only land a knockout punch, and so be crowned as the undisputed Corsa Rosa winner next Saturday, after the final mountain stage to Bassano del Grappa.

Pogačar was 29 seconds slower than Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) on the 31.2km rolling course between Castiglione delle Stiviere and Desenzano del Garda but gained more time on Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and Dani Martinez  (Bora-Hansgrohe) to extend his lead to 3:41 and 3:56 respectively.