Geraint Thomas admitted that Tadej Pogačar is riding a race apart at the Giro d'Italia, with the Welshman and his rivals locked in their own personal battle for the podium as the Slovenian picks which stages he wants to win, takes another big slice of the pie, leaving just crumbs for everyone.
Tadej Pogačar wanted to win in Livigno for personal reasons. He first came to the area as a junior and later revealed he first started dating his now partner Urška Žigart while they both trained here. Nobody could follow Pogačar when he surged away on the Passo di Foscagno and then he won alone, pointing to the sky and celebrating a big win.
Thomas finished in the same time as Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) as their podium rivalry intensified, with Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) losing eight seconds and Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) more than a minute. Tiberi kept the best young rider's white jersey but Thomas' teammate Thymen Arenman is only 19 seconds down, with Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla) third in those standings at 1:45.
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Martínez and O'Connor quickly descended from the Mottolino ski station finish, the Colombian riding down to Livigno on his bike wrapped up against the cold. O'Connor preferred to take the small cable down the mountain, after ensuring enough fatigue during the 222km stage and in the chaos beyond the finish line.
Pogačar's big win saw him gain another three minutes on his rivals in the current GC standings. Thomas is still second overall, albeit at a huge 6:41 down on the Slovenian, with Martínez lying third at 6:56 and O'Connor at 7:43.
Yet Thomas holds no remorse and is not looking for gifts or a slice of the victory pie from Pogačar. He has let him go so he can focus on his own battle for the podium.
"I think he should go for every stage that he wants," Thomas told Cyclingnews and other media beyond the Mottolino finish, overlooking Livigno, after his bike was X-rayed for mechanical doping and weighed, like a number of other riders on the stage.
"It's a bike race at the end of the day. It's just a shame none of us can get near him at the minute," he added. "The gap is getting crazy. I don't know what it is now, five minutes or something. I think he's just on a different level. He's riding in a different world but I'm still the best of the rest, I guess, for now.
"You just run out of things to say about him, don't you know? He's just that good. Maybe someone will have a chance next week. You never know."
Thomas knew that Pogačar wanted to win when he saw UAE Team Emirates riding so hard and so well as a unit over the Mortirolo and along the valley road to the climb up to Livigno.
Ineos Grenadiers were also there in numbers but when Pogačar attacked, Thomas opted to switch to racing against his podium rivals.
"We knew that attack was coming," he explained. "UAE rode hard all day and wanted the to go for the stage and fair play to them. Chapeau to a man, they all just buried themselves;
"I wasn't feeling 100% or wasn't confident anyway, so when it came, I just thought, I'll just try and use the other guys to follow. I would have liked to have gone with Pog, but I would have just blown up.
"We obviously just slowed right up and it became a cat and mouse, a race amongst us. We let Pog go and do his thing. Once that gap goes, everyone just looks at each other then, and it's kind of irrelevant. He could win by five minutes or a minute, our group didn't seem to be bothered. It was about racing each other.
"I felt better and came around and felt alright by the end, so it was nice to gain a bit of time with everyone and finish with Dani."
Thomas was looking forward to Monday's rest day in Livigno but was not happy to hear about the heavy rain forecast on Tuesday's 202km stage 16 to Santa Cristina Val Gardena and later in the week during other mountain stages.
"You cracked me now, I was looking forward to the rest day," he joked. "It'd be nice just to get this rest day in any way, to get out the peloton and just chill. Then it is what it is. If it rains, it rains.
"We've done well so far in this race but it's two super hard days straight after the rest day, so we've just got to try and be ready for that. It also starts uphill on Tuesday, so that's going to be solid.
"Wednesday is hard as well. It's only 160km but it's either up or down, so I think that's going to be probably even harder than today, especially with the day before. I'm not saying today was easy by any means, but I've done quite a few tough days over the years."
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