Giro d’Italia | “This is a real race” – Jip and Bobbie enjoyed the Tadej Pogacar final and Tim Merlier’s win

How was Bobbie’s heart rate going so soon after the ride? “Finally peace,” sighed the ex-rider. “A fantastic finale, you can enjoy this, right?” Jip agreed. “Unbelievable, such a beautiful attack from Pogacar and (Geraint) Thomas who is also riding along. You give them so much hope that they will make it and they just don’t.”

“The last four and a half kilometers were crazy, thanks to (Mikkel Frølich) Honoré who started it,” Traksel analyzed. “The best part is: you are so focused on Thomas with Pogacar that you forget about the sprint. You have to think completely differently, that is also clever of the commentators.”

Bobbie then took his time to analyze the final kilometer. “You see Pogacar in the lead with Thomas. The Slovenian is pushing hard and behind him the game is going on. (Julian) Alaphilippe for (Tim) Merlier, but also (Jonathan) Milan who is well placed there. The mistake from the front is that Pogacar wants Thomas to take over.”

“There they come to a standstill, there are too many people watching, Pogacar then starts at 400 meters, but we have to focus on the right side of the road,” says Traksel. “Milan is on the left, (Matteo) Trentin on the right with (Tobias) Lund Andresen in the wheel. Further on is the fight with Merlier who is still far away, even behind (Olav) Kooij, who is still very good there on his own.”

However, Kooij was not involved. “It is hindered by a croak or a maneuver from left to right. It is then Merlier on the left (in frontal image) and Milan on the right, who falls just short and comes second again. Last year he also often came second.”

Van den Bos had an explanation for this after the ride towards Fossano. “Milan needs to take the lead very early to close the gap with Pogacar a bit on the left side of the road, while Merlier is much better on the right side. Milan has actually already done his acceleration before he starts his sprint. That’s a shame.”

“If you look back at it calmly, what happens…” Traksel thought out loud. “All those waves, because you had two lines: a line of Milan and a line of Merlier. If you look at what happens there, it all looked neat and you saw all the riders alone,” according to Bobbie, it was eye-catching. Jip had a powerful sentence for it: “This is real racing!”