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It was a day destined for the sprinters; when top GC contenders cease fire in favour of rest and allow the bunch sprint to take centre stage.
That ended up being the case on the long road to Novara, where Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) proved too powerful for Jonathan Milan (Lidl–Trek), but not before Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) tested the waters with under three kilometres to go.
As the peloton approached Fossano, Mikkel Honore (EF Education-EasyPost) was the first to leave the nest, followed closely by Pogacar and, naturally, Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), his main GC rival.
It wasn’t a planned move, according to Pogacar, but the two-time Tour de France winner still enjoyed the chance to ‘stretch’ the legs.
“I wasn’t expecting it, it wasn’t my attack,” Pogacar said of Honore’s move. “I didn’t attack, I just followed and I found myself in the leading group.
“Then we continued, it was a strong effort from Geraint and Honore. We tried to go to the finish, but it was just a bit of stretching the legs.”
By the final few hundred metres, Honore had withdrawn from proceedings, allowing Pogacar and Thomas to negotiate the race’s conclusion amid the backdrop of the scrambling teams.
With a tiring Thomas unable to assist, Pogacar kicked on albeit with the knowledge that the fast men would soon overtake him for the final throws.
“It wasn’t the plan,” Thomas admitted after the stage. “We just wanted to stay well out of trouble, stay on the left.”
“I told him (Pogacar) I was quite tired, in a few less words,” he added. “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 were going to come.”
Merlier obliged in the end for his second ever stage victory at the Italian Grand Tour, though not without the latest twist in a GC battle likely to revolve around Thomas and his 46-second pursuit of the near perfect Pogacar.
