Ineos Grenadiers chief Geraint Thomas is ready to race aggressively on this weekend’s queen stage on the Giro d’Italia.
Sunday’s stage 15 is the longest and hardest stage of the race, counting 222km and 5,400m of elevation acquire, with a mountaintop end in Livigno.
Talking on his podcast, Watts Occurring, the Welshman says he expects it to be a “huge, huge day.”
“[The plan is] clearly to be able to be aggressive if the second’s there and the legs are good. However simply race the race, ?” he informed co-host and teammate Luke Rowe.
“For positive, we’ll have some form of plan in the beginning, however I feel it is undoubtedly a day the place you need to attempt to have day. We’ll see what occurs.”
Thomas at present sits in third within the normal classification, two minutes and 56 seconds down on the race chief, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Crew Emirates), however solely 16 seconds off Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) in second place.
A few of that point, he hopes, he’ll be capable of claw again in Saturday’s flat particular person time trial. “Clearly the TT’s the TT,” Thomas stated. “You simply go and trip as fast as you possibly can. Hopefully I am going to do rather a lot higher than the final one.”
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In stage seven’s particular person time trial, the 37-year-old had “a type of days“, ending tenth and ceding his second place general to Martínez. “I attempted to trip inside myself,” he informed the Eurosport TV cameras post-stage. “Then when it was time to go, I felt OK, however simply lacked it a bit. I could not get on prime of it over these kickers, and it’s what it’s.”
Talking on his podcast on Thursday night, Thomas seemed forward to the upcoming mountains phases, that are prone to make a distinction to the overall classification.
“Sunday is only a huge day,” he stated, including that he expects the queen stage to contain round 6 hours of racing. “Then it is a relaxation day after that at altitude, as nicely. There is a huge block developing, and we have lots of climbing within the final week as nicely.”
Mimicking a Belgian accent, Thomas then continued: “The Giro begins this weekend, eh? The Giro begins.”
