Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) went into the penultimate stage three seconds behind race leader Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers), with time swiftly running out to overtake the Ecuadorian and claim the pink leader’s jersey.
The decisive moment came with just under four kilometres remaining of the steep Marmolada climb to Passo Fedaia, as Carapaz attacked over the top of teammate Pavel Sivakov. Hindley followed briefly before launching his own stinging assault, taking over as the pair accelerated away from the small group of general classification candidates.
Lennard Kämna (BORA-hansgrohe) dropped back from the breakaway in anticipation of Hindley’s attack and he was perfectly positioned to take up the tempo-making as the Australian bridged over with Carapaz in tow.
Kämna laid down a hard tempo, with Carapaz struggling to maintain the same pace, eventually cracking and dropping away from the BORA-hansgrohe pair. Soon after, Kämna was also spent, and Hindley hit out on his own, scything past dropped riders from the breakaway as he looked to gain as much time as possible on Carapaz ahead of the final stage time trial.
Carapaz’s face was a picture of pain as he was caught and passed by general classification riders previously dropped by the initial surge as the gap to Hindley blew out.
Hindley was all over the bike in the final kilometre, struggling to put down as much power as possible, but he fought his way to the line to claim sixth place on the stage.
Then came the waiting to see how much time Hindley had gained as the West Australian collapsed into the arms of his team’s soigneurs.
The likes of Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) and Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Easypost) were able to limit the damage a bit, but by the time Carapaz crossed the finish line, the virtual pink jersey was firmly on the shoulders of Hindley. He established a lead of one minute 25 seconds ahead of Carapaz, with Landa third at one minute and 51 seconds.
“I knew this was going to be the crucial stage of the race, it was just a brutal finish - if you had the legs, you could make the difference here,” said Hindley.
“We stayed patient, we saved our matches until today and actually it was perfect. Lenny was up the road in the breakaway and couldn’t have timed it better to drop back and give me a boost. When I heard Carapaz was dropping the wheel, I just went all-out was an epic stage.”
Hindley’s 1’25 lead should be a comfortable one for the final time trial stage in Verona, a 17.4 kilometre route the same as the concluding stage of the 2019 Giro d’Italia where Hindley conceded just six seconds to Carapaz.
On a day where fireworks in the battle for pink were predicted it was a relatively sedate start as riders waited for the uphill sections to start before making serious attempts to break away.
Sam Oomen (Jumbo-Visma), Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), Mauri Vansevenant (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl), Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates), and Edoardo Zardini (Drone Hopper-Androni) went clear on the dragging climb up to the Passo San Pellegrino.
More attacks came from the peloton behind and managed to bridge across. Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), Domen Novak (Bahrain Victorious), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), Thymen Arensman (Team DSM), Antonio Pedrero (Movistar), Gijs Leemreize (Jumbo-Visma), Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Soudal), Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates), and Davide Ballerini (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) swelled the group at the front of the race to 14 riders.
Significantly, BORA-hansgrohe and Bahrain Victorious had placed Kämna and Novak in the move, potential helpers for their team leaders high on the general classification later in the stage.
That appeared to be the plan for Bahrain Victorious as they began setting the pace on the early climbs, looking to eliminate riders from a depleted INEOS Grenadiers outfit missing Richie Porte after a forced withdrawal the previous stage due to illness.
The peloton and break crested the Passo San Pellegrino with six minutes separating them, the the Passo Pordoi the next challenge. The Pordio - 11.km at 6.8% - was designated the ‘Cima Coppi’ of the 2022 Giro, as the highest point of the whole race at 2239 metres above sea level.
The breakaway quickly began to splinter on the climb, with Zardini the first to put in an attack. Covi caught and passed his fellow Italian, going solo at the head of the race as an unorganized group of eight including Ciccone, Formolo, Kämna, Arensman, Novak, Pedrero, Oomen and Leemreize.
Covi’s lead would continue to balloon out on the descent from the top of Pordoi, reaching two minutes and 20 seconds lead on the chasers from the break, with the peloton six minutes and 20 seconds in arrears.
The chasers would close the gap gradually on the early slopes of the Marmolada, until Novak launched a big attack and tried to make his way over to Covi. Behind, his Bahrain Victorious teammates were setting a hard tempo at the head of the peloton, but that changed as the race reached the steeper slopes, with Ben Tulett and Pavel Sivakov settling in for long spells of pace-making.
Sivakov ground the group down to just the elite climbers and when he started to fade with just under four kilometres to go, Carapaz attacked. Hindley covered the move and countered, and then with the help of Kämna was able to drop Carapaz and ride into the pink jersey.
In the battle for the stage Covi was able to hold off Novak to claim the victory, lapping up the adulation of the Italian crowd in the final few hundred metres as he claimed the biggest win of his career.
The Giro d’Italia 2022 will finish with Stage 21, a 17.4 kilometre time trial in Verona that will decide the winner of the famous maglia rosa. Watch the full stage from 9.35pm AEST on SBS On Demand, with the SBS television coverage starting from 11.00pm AEST. WA viewers can watch from 9.00pm AWST on SBS VICELAND.
