Tadej Pogacar: How the UAE Team Emirates rider blasted his way to Giro d'Italia glory

Thinking back to the start line in Venaria Reale on Saturday, May 4, the rumblings and whispers amongst the peloton, echoed by the voices of the cycling world, were focused solely on one topic and one man: if not Tadej Pogacar, then who? If Pogacar, by how much?

The expectation on the shoulders of the greatest cyclist of our generation, and arguably ever, heading into the first Grand Tour of the season couldn’t have been greater. The Slovenian sensation arrived on the start line in imperious form, blowing his competitors away in the Volta Catalunya, Liege-Baston-Liege, and Strade Bianche. Would we see a further extension of his greatness in the mountains of Italy? You bet.

Stage 1 set the tone for the entire Giro D’Italia. Pogacar attacking in a way only he can, lighting up the peloton and leaving the chasing group scrambling. He was bravely followed by Jhonatan Narvaez and Maximilian Schachmann and ultimately beaten to the stage on the line by the more powerful Ecuadorean, but it was an early warning to the rest of the peloton and a sign of things to come.

The UAE Team Emirates talisman is adored by the world of cycling for his insatiable appetite for winning, so losing on the line in Stage 1 merely poked the bear and further increased his desire to remind everyone why he is the very best. The podium isn’t enough for him. He belongs on the top step, and this was his focus heading into Stage 2. Never pull a tiger’s tail. Finishing on the podium well and truly tugged his tail.

Stage 2 went how everyone expected – a hungry Pogacar asserting himself over the rest of the field and putting 0.27 seconds into his closest competitor, Dani Martinez. Pogacar’s dominance put a marker down that he wasn’t just here to win the Giro