One of the best postcards of the Giro d’Italia 2024 It was starred by the three leaders of the general classification (Daniel Felipe Martínez, Tadej Pogacar and Geraint Thomas), at the closing of stage 19, minutes after the authoritative consecration of the Italian Andrea Vendramewho dominated the test during the last 30 kilometers of the route.
You may be interested in:
And it was an extremely quiet day for the group of the pink jerseythat He had the luxury of arriving more than 15 minutes after the leaders. Precisely once the leader of the race finished his participation, attention was focused on the main batch, taking into account that attacks from some member of the top-10 were expected.
Ultimately, none of this happened. What did happen was a fall of Geraint Thomasjust under 6 kilometers to conclude stage 19. The Briton skidded on the wet asphalt and ended up falling to the ground. Fortunately, the fall was not serious and his team acted quickly to give him a new bike almost immediately.
The postcard arrived on behalf of Daniel Felipe Martínez, Tadej Pogacar and the rest of the platoon members, who decided to slow down and wait for the Ineos rider to return to the group. Exemplary example of fair play, for a runner who has been characterized by his recent controversial statements.
Pogacar explained what happened
The Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE) he pointed out after becoming interested in the fall he suffered Geraint Thomas In the final stretch, the “respect” that the runners have for each other could be evident. ”It has been shown that everyone respects everyone and it is not necessary to attack when an opponent falls. Nobody wanted to overtake Thomas like thatSo I hope he’s okay after the accident.“said the leader at the end of the race.
Pogacar, with a large lead in the general classification, will have the opportunity this Saturday to achieve a sixth stage victory on its home turf, also near the border with Slovenia, which will mean extra support from its followers.
”If I have an opportunity I will take advantage of it. Today we were very conservative with the team, no one spent too much energy and tomorrow (Saturday) is the last day of this Giro for us climbers. There will be many Slovenian flags, it was already nice to see them today,” he noted.
