Greg LeMond: Pogačar will be faster and better at the Tour de France

We’re only 15 days into the 2024 Giro d’Italia, and already Tadej Pogačar has the race in his pocket. He leads second-placed Geraint Thomas by almost seven minutes. Before the Giro began, he had already won Strade Bianche, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Volta a Catalunya. Soon he will be turning his sights to the Tour de France. Is he going to win every race he turns up to this season?

In order to get perspective and context on his achievements, shortly after the Slovenian’s Grand Tour masterclass on stage 15 to Livigno we caught up with Greg LeMond, a three-time winner of the Tour de France, who finished third on his Giro debut in 1985. The American tells us why he already puts Pogačar in the same class as Eddy Merckx, why he expects him to better and faster at the Tour de France, and why he loves to watch him race.

Going into the Giro, Antonio Tiberi was renowned primarily for his disgraceful shooting of a cat. Over the race's opening fortnight, he's shown a very different side of himself, holding the pace of the GC favourites as he's taken a firm grip on the white jersey of best young rider. To get an insight into Italian cycling's new GC hope we hear from Tuttobici journalist Carlo Malvestio, who tells us that the rider dubbed "The Sniper" by some of his peers still has some way to go to redeem himself, but is winning the tifosi over with his performances on the road.

The Giro sprints have dominated by one man, Lidl-Trek's Jonathan Milan, a towering presence who can produce equally towering power outputs when he gets a finish line in his sights. Milan's team director Gregory Rast tells us why the Italian phenomenon is already one of the leading sprinters in the sport and that he's only going to get better.

Sticking with the sprinters, we focus too on Fabio Jakobsen. Last winter, the Dutchman moved from Soudal QuickStep to dsm-firmenich-PostNL on a three-year deal tasked with scoring enough wins to keep his team in the WorldTour. However, in 39 race days Jakobsen has only won once and has been forced to quit the Giro after crashing. Team director Matt Winston tells us why Jakobsen has struggled and why he will come good.

Finally, we hear from Cofidis climber Harrison Wood. In his Giro diary, the young Briton talks about his time in the break on the epic stage over the Mortirolo and into Livigno, about helping Simon Geschke pick up points for the mountains jersey, and reveals the awfulness of the last 1.5km of that stage on a super-steep dirt road.

This podcast is brought to you with the support of our sponsor, Saddle Skedaddle. For details on how to save £100 on all of Skedaddle's Italian holidays during the Giro d'Italia, go to www.skedaddle.com/radiocycling

Music provided by HearWeGo 
Marion - High Hopes
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