May 26, 2023
It was the GC battle we’d been waiting for in stage 19, but there is still very little indication of who has the upper hand in this year’s Giro d’Italia
They look so different in their riding styles, Geraint Thomas with his tall, gangly figure pedalling smoothly and methodically up the mountains, Primož Roglič much smaller in stature, his cadence kept high and his shoulders slumping slightly as the pace gets harder. Thomas has ridden steadily during this Giro d’Italia, while Roglič’s form has wavered up and down, from dropping from the back of the group one day, to launching attacks the next. Off the bike, the two riders are worlds apart too: Thomas giving long answers in interviews that give a real insight into how the Welshman is feeling, Roglič more blunt and reserved: “We see how tomorrow goes, huh.”
Yet despite all these opposites between them, Thomas and Roglič could not have been closer in ability during these final mountain stages of the Giro. There has seemed to be barely anything separating the two riders when it comes to physical form; when Thomas rides Roglič can follow, when Roglič attacks, Thomas can latch on to his wheel. As we head into the final time trial of the race tomorrow, just 26 seconds separates the two riders on the general classification.
Most of this time deficit comes from Roglič’s bad day on stage 16 to Monte Bondone, when João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) took an emphatic stage win, dropping the Slovenian rider in the final few kilometres before the line. Thomas, on the other hand, was able to stick to the wheel of Almeida and not lose any time to the Portuguese rider on GC. In fact, after that stage, it looked like the battle for the general classification victory might just be between Ineos and UAE, with Roglič out of the picture completely. It all changed again after Almeida’s bad day on stage 18, though, when Roglič re-found his legs and attacked again catapulting himself back up to second place on the general classification. Once again, Thomas could follow close behind. Today, it was a similar scenario: Roglič was attacking, and it was up to everyone else to respond.
Read more: Giro d’Italia stage 20 preview – the decisive mountain time trial
We’ve been waiting a long time in this Giro d’Italia for general classification action like we saw in…