Hart holds off Hindley in Giro duel
TAO Geoghegan Hart won the Giro d’Italia yesterday, lifting his first Grand Tour trophy in front of Milan’s Duomo Cathedral after finishing just 39 seconds ahead of Australian rival Jai Hindley.
The 25- year- old Team Ineos rider had been neck and neck with Hindley going into the 21st and final stage, setting up an unprecedented finale.
But it was the Londoner who lifted the 103rd edition of the “never ending trophy”, thanks to his 13th position in the 15.7km time- trial with Sunweb’s Hindley slipping to 38th.
Geoghegan Hart’s Italian teammate Filippo Ganna was first in the race against the clock, a seventh stage win for Ineos, who lost team leader Geraint Thomas to a broken pelvis after just three stages.
“It’s been a great fight,” said Geoghegan Hart, the first rider to pull on his first pink jersey at the finish line.
“Right up until I reached Milan, I didn’t think I was going to win the Giro d’Italia. It’s crazy! It’s going to take a long time to sink in.”
It was the first podium on a Grand Tour for the Englishman but also for secondplaced Hindley and Dutchman Wilco Kelderman, also of Sunweb.
Geoghegan Hart had won the 20th stage, edging West Australian Hindley, who wore the pink jersey on the final day thanks to 86- hundredths of a second difference over his rival in the two previous time- trials.
But the suspense was short- lived as Hindley dropped 22 seconds on his rival at the intermediary point 10.3km into the stage from Cernusco sul Naviglio.
“I did everything I could,” said the 24- year- old, the first Australian on the Giro podium.
“I laid the road.
“There was nothing I could do. I was going as hard as I could.” it all out there on