Giro d'Italia: Is Tadej Pogačar's only weakness his own team?

Four days into the Giro d’Italia, Tadej Pogačar has backed up his overwhelming favourite status with a stage win, attacks on three of the four days, and a lead of 46 seconds. He is very much in a league of his own, and his rivals are happy to admit it.

However, this has not been a story of total invincibility, and if the Slovenian has a weakness, then it might just be the squad he has around him. It may, of course, turn out to be an entirely moot point, but riders and spectators alike have thrown question marks over UAE Team Emirates’ ability to defend the maglia rosa.

On the opening day of the race, Pogačar only had one teammate left by the final climb that would form the launchpad for his big attack, and his comment that he “had to go from the bottom” suggested he wasn’t positioned as well as he’d have liked.

His rivals picked up on it, too.

After the stage 2 summit finish, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale’s Ben O’Connor noted that UAE were “much stronger today”, although Ineos Grenadiers’ Geraint Thomas had his reservations: “I could hear Pog telling his boys to speed up, he said it about three times, you could see him getting quite frustrated actually, because I don’t think they could.”

There has also been the predictable dose of armchair criticism from social media and, on a day that Thomas told his own haters to “get a life”, UAE Team Emirates boss Joxean Fernández Matxín launched an impassioned defence of his own team.

“At this moment in time, we have 31 victories [this season], we have almost double the points of the second team in the rankings. There is no doubt about the level of the team,” Matxín told GCN.

“Here we have a strong enough squad, I’m convinced of that. These are only opinions, and you have to respect them all, but with the squad we have here I do not agree. I defend all of them as the best in the world.”

© Getty Images

Majka sets up Pogačar's stage-winning attack on Oropa

If there is one particular shred of doubt surrounding the strength of the team, it would be in the climbing department, where Rafał Majka is the only specialised mountain domestique in the eight-man squad. Mikkel Bjerg has been tasked with stepping up on the climbs, as have Felix Großschartner and Domen Novak, but the rest of the squad is more tailored to the flat, and includes a dedicated sprinter in Sebastián Molano.

That wasn’t always the plan, with two-time Vuelta a España mountain stage winner Jay Vine originally in the squad until his life-threatening crash at Itzulia Basque Country. He was replaced by Vegard Stake Laengen, a burly rouleur.

“Unfortunately Jay Vine couldn’t start, and then it was a decision between a few riders – who to take,” said Pogačar, addressing the matter on Tuesday.

“There were some riders already racing a lot this year, some fatigue. It was a difficult decision, but even me, I saw in Laengen the most potential because I knew we had to take a lot of responsibility and Mikkel and Domen are climbing both super well.

“In the end, we can use Vegard more for the flat part of the stages and pull long, because that’s what he’s perfect for. I think it’s a good decision, it’s going well so far.”

Pogačar has, predictably, not strayed from the well-worn script of nothing but praise for his teammates. The proof, ultimately, will be in the pudding, with the next big GC climbing test to come with a summit finish at Prati di Tivo on stage 8.

Will his rivals smell blood? “Pogačar only has a few teammates in these finals, so he can be isolated quite quickly,” stated Thomas’ teammate Magnus Sheffield.

Then again, Pogačar seems so superior to his rivals on an individual level that you almost sense he could win this Giro d’Italia without a team at all.

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