'The best of the humans' – Ineos Grenadiers powerless against Pogačar's Giro d'Italia domination

In any normal circumstances, the results of stage 15 of the Giro d’Italia would be considered something short of a disaster for Ineos Grenadiers. Their leader, Geraint Thomas, lost three minutes in the mountains, ballooning his deficit to the race lead out to 6:41, a gap that must feel insurmountable even with six stages still to go.

However, these are not normal circumstances, and the metric of time lost does not tell the full story.

The rider in the pink jersey is the indomitable Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), a seemingly unbeatable force in this race, and his ride was on such a completely different level that Thomas didn’t even lose a place on GC – not something you usually expect with a three-minute time loss.

In fact, Ineos and Thomas had perhaps one of the best rides of the day, riding solidly into the key part of the stage, keeping two riders in the top 10, and taking time on all GC rivals bar Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) at the finish. 'Best of the rest' is rarely a true compliment, but in this race, it does perhaps mean something.

"Tadej once again showed that he’s on another level but Geraint and Thymen [Arensman] showed that they are up there with the best of the humans," Ineos sports director Dario Cioni told GCN.

Read more: Giro d'Italia stage 15: Tadej Pogačar soars to queen stage victory

Arensman, ninth on the stage and still sixth overall, was particularly impressive, riding on the front in support of Thomas deep into the race and still limiting his losses after his work was done. As before, in any normal circumstances this would be a big ride from the 24-year-old.

As for Thomas, he admitted after the stage that he hadn’t felt 100% all day, which makes his gains on his other rivals more important, even if he lost to Pogačar.

"When Pog went, to be honest I didn’t feel super, so I thought just instead of trying to follow and blow up I’d use the other guys, and I actually came round a bit by the end,” he explained at the finish.

It had been a tough day out in the Italian Alps, with UAE Team Emirates targeting the stage win and keeping the large breakaway in check, before launching Pogačar to overtake leader at the time Nairo Quintana.

"UAE rode hard all day, they wanted to go for the stage, and fair play to them, chapeau to them, they all just buried themselves,” Thomas told Eurosport.

"I felt better, the legs sort of came round, and I felt alright by the end. It was nice to gain a bit of time on everyone and finish with Dani.”

Read more: Giro d'Italia turns from race to procession as Tadej Pogačar annihilates his rivals

However, there was still a sense from the Welshman that in the face of Pogačar, there was not much else anyone else could do, except regroup and ride against each other for the minor GC placings, as the pink jersey continues to sail out of view.

"Obviously we just slowed right up and it became a cat and mouse, a race amongst us really. Everyone just sort of let Pog go and do his thing," he added.

Even with the strong ride that Ineos produced, counting on the likes of Filippo Ganna deep into a difficult stage, it still seems that even a top team or rider’s very best does not offer up much in the way of a challenge to Pogačar.

“With Geraint we know that he’s a man with a lot of experience and he knows how to manage these repeated efforts on different days. He had a good time trial and gained some time and today he only lost time to Pogačar but there’s only so much we can do against him,” was Cioni’s assessment.

Though many will be looking at Pogačar’s 6:41 lead as a done deal, he and every rival team will tell you it’s not, whether that’s out of superstition, optimism or real belief. That may or may not be true, but what’s clear after stage 15 is that the battle between the other riders is very much on, and still very close, and the battle will continue – even if it is all just in Pogačar’s wake.

“Today was the start of a new Giro, the real climbing Giro,” Cioni said. “We’ve had two climbing stages before today but this was one of the longest and hardest climbing stages but there are a few others and for the podium the battle is still open.”

For everything you need to know about the 2024 Giro d'Italia, from the history of the race to this year's route and start list, be sure to check out our dedicated race hub.