As soon as the finale of stage 1 of the Giro d’Italia took a detour away from the Po and onto the climb to San Vito, Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) was taken to a place beyond numbers. Once Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) began running through his repertoire, there was no time to make calculations. All he could do was back himself and try to follow the Slovenian.
An already shrunken peloton was splintered still further by Pogačar’s attack 4km from the line, but Narváez adapted better to the cadence of suffering than anyone else. Three times Pogačar unleashed fearsome accelerations, and each time Narváez managed to hang tough, absorbing the punishment like Rocky Marciano while others behind him were beginning to wobble precariously.
In the press conference truck after winning the stage, Narváez was asked if he had managed to check his power data as he resisted Pogačar’s onslaught in Turin. He smiled and shook his head at the very idea. Besides, the burning in his legs and lungs told him more than any screen ever could.
“No, there was [no] chance to see the Garmin,” Narváez said. “I just saw the people around and I saw his wheel. I think you can imagine… I had no chance to see my Garmin, but I know I was on the limit.”
Pogačar lined up for this Giro not only as the unassailable favourite for final victory in Rome, but also accompanied by expectations that he might emulate Gianni Bugno and lead the race from start to finish.
In the opening months of this season, the few riders who have dared to track his accelerations have been burned by the experience, but that didn’t deter Narváez from reaching out to the touch the flame, with the encouragement of his Ineos team.
“We had analysed this with the team a while ago and we knew this was a stage for me,” Narváez said. “I worked hard for this. It was crazy to follow the strongest man in the peloton.”
Yet follow Narváez did. He had the strength to follow Pogačar when the road climbed and then the nous to keep following all the way on the 3km drop to the line back into Turin. They were joined on the descent by Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), the escapee they had caught and passed on the climb, and the German’s decision to open the three-up sprint from distance was a key moment.
Pogačar’s instinct was to respond immediately to Schachmann, but Narváez had the patience to wait a little longer before delivering a crisp effort that carried him to the first maglia rosa of the race and the second Giro stage victory of his career. Schachmann took second, while Pogačar came home in third.
“We know he’s the strongest guy in the world,” Narváez said of Pogačar. “He did a lot on the climb. I was on this wheel there and all the way to the line. When you have a guy like this, you have to play your cards the right way.
“In the end, it was really hard just to stay on his wheel on the climb. From the bottom of the climb, it was very hard. He attacked three times, and I followed each time. The descent was flat-out too, so I had to manage it.
“In the sprint, I think Pogačar went too long. He went with 200m to go at the end of a really hard stage. I did a shorter sprint, and I was able to take the victory.”
Classics crash
When Narváez claimed his first Giro stage win on a sodden October afternoon in Cesenatico four years ago, his achievement was effectively relegated to a footnote by the circumstances of the day. That same afternoon, EF Education manager Jonathan Vaughters had called for an early halt to the race due to a cluster of COVID-19 cases, and the softly-spoken Narváez’s solo triumph was inevitably drowned out by the cacophony of polemica that ensued. On Saturday, with the maglia rosa on his back, Narváez at the very least shared top billing with Pogačar.
“There’s no comparison between the two wins,” Narváez said on Saturday. “It’s a different time and they were different stages. This was the first stage of the Giro on a perfect parcours for me and it was nice to beat a strong guy like Pogačar.”
In the years since his win in Cesenatico, Narváez had quietly gone about affirming himself as one of the strongmen of the peloton, and his performances early in 2024 suggested he was on the cusp of a breakthrough. Already winner of the Down Under Classic and the Ecuadorian title, the 27-year-old had even looked an outsider for the Tour of Flanders after catching the eye at E3 Saxo Classic.
A Classics campaign of considerable promise, however, was ended two days later by a heavy crash at Gent-Wevelgem. Rather than dwell on his disappointment, Narváez was dispatched home to El Playon De San Francisco, to train at 3,000 metres above sea level on the Ecuador-Colombia border.
“I had great support from the team,” he said. “They sent me straight away to Ecuador to stay with my family to do an altitude camp, and I came here to the Giro in great condition. In Belgium, it was not a great time for me but we’re enjoying this now.”
It remains to be seen, of course, if Narváez will enjoy the maglia rosa for more than a single day. On Sunday, the Giro tackles its first mountaintop finish at Oropa, and it seems improbable that the man from Playón de San Francisco will hold off Pogačar, just six seconds down in third overall. It’s more likely that he will be deployed in the service of his leader Geraint Thomas, who came home safely in the chasing group on Saturday, 10 seconds behind.
“I know I have good legs, but I have to hear what the team want from me tomorrow,” Narváez said. “It’s a hard climb, but let’s see what we can do.”
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