In modern cycling, the thought goes, so riders can no longer use racing for training. In this Giro d'Italia, Tadej Pogañar regularly seemed to ignore that consensus. Sometimes, like Montegrappa on a Saturday afternoon, his race feels very much like an extended training camp for the Tour de France.

The Emirates rider of the UAE team had shown in advance that he was aiming to win the Stage 20 of Bassano del Grappa, so it proved. In this giro, Poganyar could more or less win the way he pleases, and his decision to attack in the shade of no more than 6km in Montegrappa suggested that he had in mind a very specific effort for the last public training of his stay in Italy.

"The plan was to finish the Giro with high morale and good feet – I can be satisfied with this goal because I have achieved this," Poganyal said after going solo to victory over the chaser's clearing two minutes or more. "Today was the last test of the climb, so I can be really happy with how it went."

The penultimate stage of the Giro is one of the revelations of this race, characterized by the double ascent of Montegrappa, the result of the day was no doubt, while Giulio Perizari delivered a defiant long-range attack up the first time, the UAE team Emirates will not let the Italian lead spiral out of control. We have ensured that you will not be disappointed.

For the second time until Montegrappa, the pattern was familiar. After Rafal Magica picked up the pace, Poganyar cleared the rest and immediately caught Perizari to pass. By the summit, he had already cleared almost 2 minutes and, even though he had dodged the risk on the 31km drop line, by the time he finished at the Viale delle Fosse in Bassano del Grappa, he would have extended his advantage even further.

On the climb, Poganyal was less concerned with fellow riders than Tifosi spilling onto the road. He was reprimanded with one fan who stroked him as he rode past, and even by a rowdy group crowded around the pink flares, he was frustrated. "One man had a flare next to me, and I felt some spark in my arm," Poganyal said. "But without them, this is not a show, so I appreciate them.

In fact, the show at this Giro was Poganyar's solo act from start to finish. He rode in Rome on Sunday, with a final advantage of 9:56 over Daniel Martinez (Bora Hansgrohe), breaking the 21st-century record in 2006, just before Ivan Basso was officially involved in the Opera Puerto.

"Even if you win in one second, it's a win. In this giro, it happened to be like this," Poganyar said of his mammoth winning margin, dismissing the idea that he was aiming to extend his lead beyond 10 minutes on Saturday.

Since the race left Turin three weeks ago, Poganyal has not conceded as many seconds to his distant general classification rivals, and from the outside, it was difficult to identify even the slightest wrinkle in his race. The only, short-lived difficulty, perhaps, was his slow crash at the foot of Oropa in Stage 2.

"Not everything was smooth sailing," Poganyal claimed. "We got here with a good margin to 2nd place, but certainly there were sometimes difficult moments. But as I wanted, and as I imagined in my goal, I finished something really good.

Of course, the Giro is only the first installment of a busy period for Poganyal, who is aiming to become the first man to win the tour of the same year as Corsa Rosa since Marco Pantani in 1998. Since winning the 3km solo to win Strade Bianche on May 81, the impression is growing that Pogagnard's 2024 vintage is his best, but May 7 will be the ultimate test.

"We've taken another step this year," Poganyal said. "It's hard to improve every year, but I can be super happy and lucky that I've been able to find some improvements throughout the winter. I'm super happy I made some small profits and the experience now also comes into play.

Last winter, Poganyar switched coaches for the first time in his professional career and decided to replace Inigo San Milan with Javier Sola. On the evidence of Poganyar's remarkable hegemony to date in 2024, the partnership is something that seems to be bearing fruit, even if he is reluctant to provide details about the coordination of his training philosophy.

"I can't tell you all what I've done," Poganyal said. His training has been very good for me, but sometimes I need to change the pace, something different, a different style of training.

"After five years or so with Inigo, it was a little enough of the same training, so this year involved another from the bike, like more work on my physique It's not a big change, but let's say it was a good change. I can say I'm super happy with how my winter has gone.

His summer has also started quite well.

Get unlimited access to all of the coverage of the Giro d'Italia - including the reporting of journalists, to learn more about all stages of the Rome finale as it happens.