(Paris) Tadej Pogacar, huge favorite for the Tour of Italy, has the opportunity to seize the pink jersey from the first stage on Saturday in Turin where he launches the biggest challenge of his career.
The opening weekend of this 107e edition offers rugged terrain suitable for adventurers and the big raids that the Slovenian loves, in the running this year for a Giro-Tour double not seen since 1998.
On Saturday, during a compact stage (140 km) starting from Venaria Reale, on the outskirts of Turin, the Colle della Maddalena presents an ideal launching pad for attackers who know how to climb. The summit is planted 22 km from the finish, after an ascent of 6.1 km at an average of 7.4%, followed by a rapid descent towards Turin.
This is a tempting first window for Pogacar who is such a favorite of this Giro that some imagine him wearing the pink jersey from start to finish, like Gianni Bugno in 1990 or Eddy Merckx in 1973.
“It’s certain that he will want to win it,” said Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe.
“It’s not the main objective”, nuance Pogacar who knows that he will have to measure his efforts to achieve the Giro-Tour double. “It’s about being in pink in Rome. At the beginning, you should already see how the legs are. But if the opportunity to win a stage or take the pink jersey presents itself, you have to seize it,” he adds.
On Sunday, the arrival at the Oropa sanctuary is also ideal for the Slovenian glutton. It will mark the 25th anniversary of the brilliant stroke of Marco Pantani, winner at Oropa despite a chain break at the foot of the climb in 1999, before being excluded from the race a few days later following a road test. hematocrit too high.
“Even more motivation”
To this day, Pantani remains the last to have completed the Giro-Tour double in the same year, a titanic challenge. Six other riders, only legends, have achieved it in the history of cycling, Fausto Coppi (1949 and 1952), Jacques Anquetil (1964), Eddy Merckx (1970, 1972 and 1974), Bernard Hinault (1982 and 1985) , Stephen Roche (1987) and Miguel Indurain (1992 and 1993).
Pogacar admits that he “would like” to appear on this VIP list, having been on the podium in the five major Tours he has competed in so far (winner of the Tour de France 2020 and 2021, second in 2022 and 2023, third in the Vuelta in 2019).
“The path is very long, it’s quite a challenge, but the objective is very clear,” underlines “Pogi” who is delighted to discover the Giro in a country that he considers his second home.
As a young man, he often came to Italy to race from his native Slovenia and was on the side of the road, as a spectator, when his compatriot Luka Mezgec won the last stage of the Giro in Trieste in 2014, a memory that marked him for life .
After a brilliant start to the season (victories at the Strade Bianche, the Tour of Catalonia and Liège-Bastogne-Liège), he can’t wait to get started on Saturday.
“When you run less, when you train and you know that you are in good shape, when you watch the races on television and you want to be there, obviously that gives you even more motivation” , he warns, ready to pounce, like a tiger from its cage.