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Giro d'Italia Giro d’Italia 2024, Stage 14: Castigliano delle Stiviere – Desenzano del Garda, 31.2k (ITT)

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Congrats to Ganna on a superb performance. Also congrats to Pog on a very good TT - as I expected he lost under 30 seconds. He and Ganna had the same time around halfway but then Ganna's engine prevailed in the fastest part of the course. It's also possible that Pog actually did a positive split strategy here to maximize his gains in the hillier section (or did it unintentionally) and lacked a bit at the end.

Anyway, Pog put substantial time into GC guys again and his advantage is approaching 4 minutes already. It seems he's almost won the Giro thanks to TTs alone and no big efforts in the mountains are needed. But oh boy, he looks really thin. I don't doubt he could demolish opposition on climbs with todays performance (that rivalled Filippo the Tank Engine for most of this quite fast TT).
Be interesting to see how aggressive he gets in the mountains with the Tour in mind. the TT has won him the race already as long as he avoids the usual pitfalls. He really only has to ride defensively but he won't of course.........
 
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Dani Martinez actually finished ok after a slow start. At the beginning it looked like an off day.
as mentioned earlier on, Bora always tends to save themselves a bit when there's an ITT before a mountain stage. Schachmann also confirmed that in an interview.

Didn't see pictures of Martinez at the finish, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a more controlled effort than from O'Connor, for example, who left everything on the road.

edit: here's an interview with Martinez, but I don't speak Spanish, so no idea if he brought up anything about it

View: https://x.com/DeportesRCN/status/1791852403991470567
 
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Be interesting to see how aggressive he gets in the mountains with the Tour in mind. the TT has won him the race already as long as he avoids the usual pitfalls. He really only has to ride defensively but he won't of course.........

No aggression expected IMO. He's sitting comfortably in the lead. He may do some small solo one day (max. a few km, maybe even tomorrow or in the Dolomites) but other than that only staying in wheels and sprinting if there's a chance for victory.
 
Nice to see Ganna win, he was emotional in the interview. He really suffers the pressure the italian media puts on him.
It's also interesting that Cioni said in the post race show that is numbers today were similar to those he pushed in the WCC*, actually a little less today because the slight downhill in the final made it harder to achieve high power.

* I think he was reffering to last year, but i'm not totally sure about that
 
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Congrats to Filippo Ganna, I am always happy to see a TT specialist put the GC guys in their place on such a course. Magnus Sheffied was a bit disappointing.

Pog rode a very strong TT. 52.7kph for 35 minutes. Pre race predictions of 30 seconds down proved accurate. A 3:41 lead it will be interesting if anyone has the confidence to attack him in the mountains. Pogacar will likely ride within his limits now to conserve for the TdF. But there will be more pressure on his UAE team.

For best of the rest, I think most rode as expected. We thought Arensman would do a good ride, likewise Thomas rode about exactly as expected. A solid ride from Ben O'Conner on such a course. I suppose Martinez was slightly slower than expected but he still has a 39 sec gap to Thomas on GC. But really 3rd to 10th the gaps were small.
 
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I have this to say

GN4OjOpWQAANElW
 
Congratulations to Filippo Ganna for winning the ITT.

At first intermediate Ganna was like no, not this again. Then slowly he started to realize this is the day he was waiting for for so long. Among GC riders Pogi in a league of his own. If Ganna would hesitate for a second, to go all in today, Pogi would have beaten him. Thomas and Arensman great in regards to GC and i feel that although Martínez lost a place he still is in a good position to take the fight to Ineos.
 
Nice to see Ganna win, he was emotional in the interview. He really suffers the pressure the italian media puts on him.
It's also interesting that Cioni said in the post race show that is numbers today were similar to those he pushed in the WCC*, actually a little less today because the slight downhill in the final made it harder to achieve high power.

* I think he was reffering to last year, but i'm not totally sure about that
Agree. I think Ganna was a bit disappointed after the first TT when Pog overhauled him at the end. Today sets the record straight.