‘He was kicking my head in’ – Thomas reacts to Pogacar’s late Stage 3 attack

UAE Team Emirates rider and race favourite Pogacar launched a late dash for the line alongside EF Education-EasyPost’s Mikkel Honore with 3.5 kilometres remaining.

Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) elected to stay with his general classification rival and the leading pair left everyone else in their wake until the chasing pack started to reel them in at the death.

Speaking to reporters before the stage, Thomas suggested that the Slovenian might be plotting to break free. Afterwards, though, he said his team were not thinking of going as aggressively.

“It wasn’t the plan, we just wanted to stay well out of trouble, stay on the left,” Thomas said.

“We did that really well from quite early on, the boys set me up great, we were hoping that Pippo [Ganna] and Johnny [Narvaez] would be with me but they lost the wheel a bit somewhere along the way.”

“Thymen [Arensman] set a great pace and then I saw Honore and Pogacar going for it, and I thought, I might as well just go. But jeepers, man, they were solid – he was kicking my head in.”

The 37-year-old admitted it was a taxing end to the stage, adding: “I was just thinking about holding his wheel.

“I tried to give him a turn, but he was solid, we were going. I looked back, I was surprised to see we had such a big gap, but I knew they [the sprinters] were going to come.”

“Especially with the way I was feeling I didn’t feel too confident about when we got to the line but yeah – a bit different.” He had, he said later, “just wanted it to finish, I was thinking – this is hurting.”

Thomas praised his rival for his tactics in going on the offensive relatively early on, saying: “It was a good move, there were some tired legs in the peloton, so it was worth a try. It was never in the plan, I wasn’t even thinking about it.

“I was the wrong side of Thymen’s wheel when Tadej went, I had to back out a bit and then go for it, but then when he did, I thought – sod it, I’ll try and follow,” he said.

The stage was ultimately won by Belgian’s Tim Merlier, who came out on top in a packed bunch sprint to the line.