Geoghegan Hart rides into Giro contention
TAO GEOGHEGAN HART vaulted himself to within 15 seconds of the pink jersey as the Giro d’Italia exploded on the slopes of the famed Stelvio.
Jai Hindley nicked the stage 18 victory from the Londoner at the line while the Australian’s Team Sunweb team- mate Wilco Kelderman took pink off the shoulders of Joao Almeida, but a dramatic day left the race delicately poised going into the final weekend.
Kelderman may have inherited the lead but he too struggled, finishing two minutes 18 seconds behind his team- mate, and the fight for pink could yet be a battle between two riders who came to the race as domestiques.
Hindley sits 12 seconds off pink, with the Ineos Grenadiers’ Geoghegan Hart sitting menacingly in third after a day in which he came of age as a Grand Tour rider.
Inevitably it was the snowcovered Stelvio, the highest paved mountain pass in the eastern Alps at 2,757m, that provided the stage for a dramatic change of the script.
Almeida, resplendent in pink since stage three on Mount Etna more than two weeks ago, faded early on this 25km slog to the summit and others – Vincenzo Nibali and Jakob Fuglsang amongst them – soon followed.
As Rohan Dennis put the power down for Geoghegan Hart, the bigger surprise came when Kelderman was dropped with nearly 10km of the climb still to come.
Hindley did not wait for his team- mate, determinedly sticking to the Ineos pair to the top.
Ireland’s Dan Martin battled to victory on stage three of the Vuelta a Espana on the summit finish at Laguna Negra to close on race leader Primoz Roglic.
The Israel Start- Up Nation rider timed his attack to perfection as he hit the front of the breakaway with just 300
metres to go following the end of a gruelling 166.1 kilometres on the category one mountain.
Roglic ( Jumbo- Visma) edged out Richard Carapaz ( Ineos Grenadiers) to cross in second place, but Martin’s time bonus saw him cut the deficit on the Slovenian to just five seconds.