3 minutes The first stage served up some incredible excitement, with outright favourite Tadej Pogacer being pipped on the line!
The first week of rest day is upon us after a furious start to the Giro d’italia.
There is very little time for the riders to ease themselves into the 107th edition of the Giro and the first of three Grand Tours of the 2024 season.
The first stage served up some incredible excitement, with the GC with outright favourite Tadej Pogacer being pipped on the line in a 3-way sprint by Ineos’s Jhonatan Narvaez and Bora Hansgrohe Maximilian Schachmann, coming in 3rd place respectively.
With Narvaez taking the first pink jersey of the tour, there was an air of “borrowed time” with the form and shape Tadej Pogacer looks to be coming into this tour. This was to be the case on stage two where Pogacer stamped his authority and rode away solo leaving everyone in his wake apart from Dani ,Martinez and the Welshman Geraint Thomas who both managed to minimise their losses to 45 seconds.
Tadej Pogacer Recap
Of the nine stages in the first week, Tadej Pogacer has won three, taking the individual Time Trial on stage seven. He has taken out World Champion and Italian nation's favourite Phillipe Ganna who was tipped favourite to take the first of the two ITT in this year's Giro.
Having said that, the course was very much weighted in the favour of the Slovenia. With a nasty 6km climb to finish the stage, it was always going to be a big ask for the 80kg Italian Ganna to produce such a performance on a parkour which favoured Tadej Pogacer.
However, all was not lost, with the leading team already having one stage win under their belt, the Inieos Grenadiers occupied the fastest times until the last man out of the traps, Tadej Pogacer.
Of the nine stages, the 3 sprint stages have been typically frantic, particularly within the last 40 km or so with all the leading teams jostling for position to get their sprint hitters into place. Jonathan Milan of Lidl Trek, Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep and Olaf Kooi of Visma Lease Bikes all took a stage each, which provided the perfect backdrop for the sprint jersey competition going into the second week.
The Re-emergence of Julian Alaphallipe
It has been widely reported and applauded across the world of cycling the re-emergence of Julian Alaphallipe the French and ex-world champion has been by far the most combative and aggressive rider in this first week, initiating early breaks and driving the breaks along. Coming 2nd on stage 6, he will hold some value heading into week 2 for a stage win, providing he hasn't over-committed in the early stages of his past weeks' exploits.
Looking into week two its incredibly difficult to see beyond the leader Tadej Pogacer giving up his overall lead of 2 minutes 40 over Dani Martinez and a further +10s back to Geraint Thiomas in 3rd. The fight appears to be for 2nd and 3rd with little separating the columbian and welshman.
Giro d’Italia: Updated Betting Odds
Here are the latest outright winner odds from one of the most popular UK betting sites, Bet365:
| Top 10 Outright Winner Odds | Odds |
|---|---|
| Tadej Pogacar | 1/12 |
| Daniel Martinez | 18 |
| Geraint Thomas | 18 |
| Cian Uijtdebroeks | 33 |
| Ben O'Connor | 40 |
| Thymen Arensman | 80 |
| Antonio Tiberi | 80 |
| Romain Bardet | 200 |
| Einer Rubio | 200 |
| Michael Storer | 200 |
| Jan Hirt | 300 |
| Lorenzo Fortunato | 300 |
