'Who TF flagged me?': Tadej Pogačar's achievement marked as questionable on Strava after Giro d’Italia stage victory

Tadej Pogačar’s incredible stage winning ride to Livigno on stage 15 of the Giro d’Italia was flagged on Strava, before being reinstated.

The Slovenian is currently leading the Italian Grand Tour after building an almost unassailable advantage in the general classification by winning the race’s Queen stage. 

Stage 15 included more than 5,400 metres of elevation gain and an ascent of the infamous Mortirolo pass. 

Pogačar now has almost seven minutes on Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) who is in second place. 

Posting his winning ride on Strava, Pogačar said that someone had flagged him on the exercise tracking app. 

"Who TF flagged me," the race leader wrote, alongside a caption containing a series of emojis celebrating his sensational victory in the high mountains.

Being flagged on Strava usually means that an activity has been highlighted as being potentially questionable by another user of the app, although this occassion was probably an attempt at a joke. Flagged activities do not appear on segment leaderboards unless an athlete decides to follow Strava’s process for resolving the flagged entry. 

Last week, Strava announced that AI would be used to automatically flag dubious rides in the future.

It is not the first time the Slovenian has been flagged on Strava; it also happened to his race-winning ride at the Tour of Flanders last year, when he bagged a handful of KOMs, including the paired segment of the Oude Kwaremont and the Paterberg. That too was reinstated.

On Sunday, Pogačar made his winning attack 14 kilometres from the finish when he went solo from the select GC group on the road and set off in pursuit of a handful of breakaway riders. The Slovenian eventually caught and passed the likes of Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling), Juanpe López (Lidl-Trek) and Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost). 

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was up ahead leading the race and had approximately three minutes on the next group on the road. However, the Colombian’s advantage was soon decimated by Pogačar who caught and passed the former Giro winner with ease before going on to win the stage. 

Speaking afterwards, the race leader said his team had been targeting victory on this stage since last winter. 

"The team did a super-good job," Pogačar said. "We had this stage in mind since, I don't know, December or whatever. 

"I'm super happy that we kept it under control. It was a really strong breakaway, but I gave it all in the last 10km or so, 15km. I'm super happy that I could win a queen stage in Livigno, one of my favourite places in Italy."

During Monday's rest day press conference, Pogačar joked that being flagged on Strava is a regular occurrence for him. 

"It happens a lot," he said. "It's a funny moment but it's good that people can see how fast we actually go on some of these iconic climbs. I got a lot of kudos too and a lot of comments so it was a great post yesterday." 

The race resumes in the Italian Alps on Tuesday.