Can Thomas thwart mighty Pogacar at Giro d’Italia?

Hot sun, torrential rain, hail, snow, ice… the Giro d’Italia is often the most entertaining race of the road cycling season.

Beginning in Turin on Saturday, three weeks of competition for the pink jersey over 3,400km – 44,650m of which will be ascending – creates a unique event which often offers more drama than its more famous, and more temperate, sister race the Tour de France.

But this year could represent a historic moment: step one of Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar achieving one of cycling’s greatest feats – winning both the Giro and the Tour de France in the same year.

To do it you need to be one of cycling’s greatest riders – tick. And in the form of your life – tick.

But hot favourite Pogacar’s rivals, such as Britain’s Geraint Thomas of Ineos Grenadiers, will not simply lie down. Especially given Thomas missed out so narrowly last year.

“No you don’t think first [place] is gone,” says the 37-year-old.

“If anything it takes the pressure off because everyone expects him to win. No-one expects any of us to do anything, so there’s no pressure from that side of things,” adds the 2018 Tour de France winner.

“But [Pogacar’s presence] makes the race different to last year, 100%. I think he’s one of the greatest riders ever.”

Last achieved by Italy’s Marco Pantani in 1998, doing the ultimate Grand Tour double has eluded a few generations of greats since.

It seemed an unlikely dream this year thanks to the presence of Pogacar’s only rival for supremacy, Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark – last year’s Tour winner by more than seven minutes following Pogacar’s capitulation following an early season of success and subsequent injury during the spring classics.

However, in April, Vingegaard was injured in a freak crash at a race in northern Spain which left him with a broken collarbone, punctured lung and a great deal of uncertainty whether he would be fit for the Tour at the end of June.

“I watched [the crash] live. It was horrific, really terrible to see,” says Pogacar, 25.

With Vingegaard’s awful luck, UAE-Team Emirates’ Pogacar becomes favourite for the Tour. As for the Giro? He should win it at a canter.

Of the 10 races or stages he has started this year, Pogacar has won a staggering six – and the way he has done so has stunned the sport.

In March, before the tough one-day classic Strade Bianche – a 215km race encompassing the loose, chalky roads of Tuscany – he was asked about his plan to win.

At a time when riders are understandably cagey about their intentions, he simply stated: “With 80km to go, I will attack.”

He did exactly that, and not one of the 200-odd riders could get near him.

He has done pretty much the same in every race in 2024, most recently at the brutal one-day ‘monument’ classic Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

An assumption he will dominate this race is made by all, purely on form, but this irked Pogacar before this race.

“I think it is disrespectful to the other riders. We’re not so much different on the climbs,” he said.

But he eventually conceded that his dominance of so many races draws certain expectations, adding: “I don’t know, maybe it’s a bit my fault.”

On paper, no. But Thomas is considered one of Pogacar’s biggest rivals in a race often denied the best riding talent, who are being preserved for the Tour in July.

Pogacar even names Thomas alongside France’s Romain Bardet as his main threat.

Thomas’ form in recent seasons since his dominant Tour victory six years ago has been strong in patches.

He finished on the Tour podium in 2022 behind the aforementioned modern-era greats of Pogacar and winner Vingegaard, and only missed out on winning the Giro last year when he finally lost the pink jersey on the penultimate stage to Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic on a “stupid mountain” time trial, as Thomas puts it.

Other contenders for pink this year include Colombia’s Daniel Martinez, Australia’s Ben O’Connor and Spain’s Juan Pedro Lopez.

Not household names, but the injury and misfortune associated with this race means there is always a chance.

Described by many as the most entertaining three-week Grand Tour, the Giro is almost always unpredictable. In 2020, Thomas crashed out when a discarded drinks bottle from another rider rolled under his front wheel, causing him to break his pelvis.

Last year Belgian prodigy Remco Evenepoel came to grief in bad weather after a dog ran into the peloton, causing several riders to leave the road.

“The main thing is getting here in good shape, and then do what you can,” says Thomas.

“Obviously it’s a massive task because [Pogacar’s] a phenomenal bike rider.

“But we rise to the challenge – they’ve got a strong team and so do we, and there’s plenty of other bike riders here as well.

“It’s the Giro – a lot can go good, and bad, as we all know.”

The race begins in Turin on 4 May and rolls into Italy’s capital city Rome on 26 May.

But there will be anything but rolling across the brutal mountain stages, where Grand Tours tend to be won and lost.

Standout mountain sections include Stage 8’s 152km assault to Prato di Tivo, before three more mid-race tests and a final lung-busting assault up to Bassano del Grappa in the Dolomites on the penultimate stage, which includes two very steep category-one ascents.

Pogacar’s strength comes from his all-round ability, and if he has not already accelerated away on the climbs, he will test opponents’ pain thresholds during the two time trials, including Stage 7’s 40.6km test to Perugia, which ends with a stinging climb.

The sprinters have a little less to choose from this time around as this course was designed to attract Pogacar to participate, but there is still a picturesque dart into Rome on the final day, won so brilliantly last year by Mark Cavendish – and one which could be set this time around for fellow Briton Ethan Vernon.