Wout Poels still eyeing Giro stage win to complete Grand Tour 'grand slam'

In stage fourteen of the Giro d'Italia, the breakaway was not allowed not have its day. The large group of willing escapees was swallowed up on the final climb to Pila by the charging GC men. But that does not make it any less of an outstandingly brave effort, especially from the evergreen Wout Poels.

He is 38 years old now. But that has done nothing to dull the racing hunger of Unibet Rose Rockets leader. Poels was right there in the day's breakaway. In the end the experienced Limburger rode to an eighth-place finish, to the understandable delight of everyone at the Rockets.

With a demanding final week still ahead, Poels has every reason to feel encouraged. The veteran climber is still hunting the coveted "trilogy" — meaning a stage win in all three Grand Tours. He has already ticked off the Tour de France (2023, stage 15) and the Vuelta a España (2023, stage 20), and a Giro stage win remains the final piece of the puzzle.

On the Pila climb, Poels appeared to drop from the lead group on several occasions, only to come back each time — before attacking himself, then slipping back again, yet still crossing the line as the first breakaway rider. A curious pattern of racing, to say the least. "That was a matter of pacing, ha," Poels laughed in his Eurosport interview. "They were attacking the whole time."

The climber explained that this approach brought him back to his time at Team Sky. "That's where I learned to ride my own tempo on climbs like that, so I can always come back. Unfortunately, we had just under two minutes at the foot of the final climb. That was not enough. If the gap had been 3:30, we might have had a chance."

"It is what it is," Poels concluded. "I still get a nice top-ten finish out of it. That's not bad. As a rider you always want more, but I think I rode a good race." Team director Bas Tietema was certainly thrilled by Poels's performance, as his post on X made clear. "The team's first-ever top-ten finish in a mountain stage at a Grand Tour! What a ride, Wout Poels," Tietema wrote in full admiration.