Geraint Thomas rode an aggressive Giro d’Italia stage 14 time trial, taking dangers on some corners of the 31.2km Lake Garda course however his adrenaline-fuelled efficiency paid off and cancelled the frustration of final week’s take a look at towards the clock in Perugia.
Thomas completed fourth on the stage, 1:14 down on his Ineos Grenadiers teammate Filippo Ganna, who gained the stage. Maglia rosa Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) was second on the stage 45 seconds up on Thomas, whereas and one other Ineos rider, Thymen Aresnsman, was third at 1:06.
American rider Magnus Sheffield seemed to be racing to a top-three inserting however slid out at velocity on a late nook and ended up twelfth. As a results of a profitable time out, Ineos Grenadiers took management of the workforce classification from Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale.
When Thomas stopped to speak about his journey within the shadows of the bushes overlooking Lake Garda, a cell phone displayed the brand new general classification and confirmed that he additionally jumped previous Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) to second general and now leads the Colombian by 15 seconds.
He now lies at 3:41 down on the dominant Pogačar forward of Sunday’s queen stage by means of the Alps to Livigno, however he is the primary of the mere mortals.
“It’s fairly good… It’s respectable thus far,” Thomas mentioned of his time trial and his efficiency within the Giro d’Italia after seeing he had moved above Martínez.
“So only a massive, massive week to return now.”
Thomas was decided to journey a really completely different race to stage 7 in Perugia, the place he completed tenth, dropping 1:59 to Pogačar. As a end result, he took dangers on the largely flat however twisting loop from Castiglione delle Stiviere to Desenzano del Garda.
“I wished to be extra aggressive and simply attacked it,” he mentioned whereas admitting he nearly overdid it early within the stage.
“I attacked it a bit an excessive amount of, as a result of within the left-hander after a couple of kilometre and a half, I nearly overshot it. That acquired the adrenaline going no less than.
“There was one other nook the place I nearly overshot it as nicely. And one other I got here in a bit too sizzling. It was a bit quick, I wasn’t essentially in management on a regular basis, which is not a superb factor…”
Thomas admitted his efficiency wasn’t good however he went deep, suffered and held on within the ultimate third of the stage.
“Just going off how I felt it is fairly good. I simply felt I lacked a bit coming into 10km to go,” he admitted.
“It was the quickest half however I felt like I sort of misplaced it a bit there and was simply making an attempt to deliver it dwelling. But it was laborious. I did not really feel like I fairly held on but it surely was definitely quite a bit higher than the final one.”
Thomas took delight in transferring previous Martínez. He admitted that Pogačar is on one other stage however appeared upbeat because the excessive mountains start on Sunday.
“It’s simply Tadej, undoubtedly it is Tadej. We all know that, however you’ve got simply gotta preserve making an attempt, that is all we are able to do,” he mentioned. “Now we’ll see how subsequent week goes.”
