Nat Bromhead
Two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar has added a third Grand Tour to his phenomenal palmares, the 25yo winning the 2024 Giro d’Italia.
With the final 125km stage being raced in Rome and the sprint finish won by Tim Merlier of Soudal-Quickstep, Pogačar won the general classification by close to 10 minutes!
Standing on the final podium 9’56” up on Daniel Martinez (Bora-hansgrohe) and 10’24” on Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), Pogačar’s winning margin was the largest the Giro has seen in close to 60 years.
Pogačar also enjoyed six individual stage victories along with the blue climbing jersey. ‘Pogi’ has now had 77 career victories … and has his eyes on another very big one, the 2024 Tour de France.
“This is even better than real thing, you never know how it feels until you try and I can say this is a dream come true,” Pogačar said.
“This was the main target of the first part of the season, now I will have a little rest and then I will start to prepare the second part and another big goal: I can’t wait for it,” he added.
“Winning a race is something great, but winning the Giro in this way it’s something special, it’s unbelievable, with such a lot of good memories I shared with my team mates and the rest of the team members that we could write a book about them”.
Giro d’Italia – Stage 21
1. Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) 2h51’50”
2. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) s.t.
3. Kaden Groves (Alpecin Deceuninck) s.t.
Giro d’Italia – Overall GC
1. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) 79h14’03”
2. Daniel Martinez (Bora-hansgrohe) 9’56”
3. Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) 10’24”
