Even in a stage that on paper is something for the sprinters, there is something to experience with Pogacar. In the final kilometers, the pink jersey, together with Mikkel Honoré and Geraint Thomas, made another attempt to avoid a bunch sprint. It didn’t work, but Pogacar enjoyed it.
Source: discovery+
A short stretch uphill was enough for Pogacar to pull away from the peloton and take a shot at the stage victory. Although the Slovenian himself did not want to call it an attack. “I just followed. I didn’t attack, I followed the wheel (Honoré, ed.). But together with Geraint Thomas it was a good situation. We tried to hold on, but I never believed we would finish. G (as Thomas is called by everyone, ed.) also did his share of the work at the end, which surprised me. Respect for that.” In the last kilometer Pogacar accelerated again and also left Thomas behind – Honoré was already off after a strong lead from the Slovenian. “But it was still four hundred meters and that was still far too long.”
Still, Pogacar had enjoyed the late exit. “I had good legs and a course like this suits me. When it’s a bit like a game like the old days with friends when we attacked each other on the flat and on short climbs. That suits me.”
Pogacar responded to Honoré’s attack — © Getty Images
Thomas: “I just thought: I want to be at the finish”
Thomas was attentive enough to follow Honoré and Pogacar, although he had to go very deep to do so. “Did I believe in victory? I just tried to keep his wheel and take over every now and then (blows). I was shocked at how big of a gap we had, but I knew they were (the platoon, ed.) would eventually come. Especially with how I felt: I didn’t feel like I could contribute much to the escape. I just thought: I want to be at the finish, this hurts. Trying something like that is always tough.”
It was a nice attempt, but certainly not a pre-arranged plan, as Thomas makes clear. “We wanted to stay out of trouble and the boys did great. Honoré attacked and Pogacar followed and then I thought: I might as well go along. Am I surprised that Pogacar is trying something like this? Yes and no. These are the kinds of things he does. But I didn’t really expect anything to happen there. But because of the course of the competition (with the attack of the sprinters after the intermediate sprint, ed.) some of them naturally had tired legs.
On X, Thomas responded playfully to Pogacar’s action. And the latter couldn’t just let that happen, of course:
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