The confidence surrounding INEOS Grenadiers’ bid for the Giro d’Italia overall victory was shattered on the slopes of the Marmolada. The Ecuadorian tried to match Hindley but couldn’t, slipping from the race lead to second with a margin of 1’25 to the new race leader.
A despondent Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) hasn’t talked publicly since losing a minute and 28 seconds to Australian Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe). After the stage, he headed straight through the finish area, eventually returning for anti-doping controls but declining requests for interviews.
His teammates were in shock after they completed the stage later, their faith in their likable team leader showing as it was clear that they had considered Carapaz the big favourite to win the Giro.
Pavel Sivakov was the final man for Carapaz in the mountain train, promoted to the role after the abandonment of Australian super-domestique Richie Porte on the previous stage with illness. He was responsible for whittling the group down to just the elite climbers before Carapaz accelerated over the top with four kilometres to go.
"It’s difficult to know what to say,” said Sivakov. “We really tried everything, that’s it. That’s sport. Congratulations to Jai.
"I actually thought we dealt with the day well. We really wanted to get rid of Jai, we knew that the altitude would help Richard. But I suppose we just have to accept the result."
Carapaz dropped off the pace under the pressure of Hindley and Kamna, and while Hindley seemed to go from strength to strength, Carapaz was fading, ultimately caught and overtaken by a number of his GC rivals in Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) on the day.
Ben Tulett, 20, produced one of the rides of his young career to take over the pace-making on the steep slopes of the climb from Bahrain Victorious, the team clearly intent on taking time gains on Hindley ahead of the final time trial in Verona.
"You can only do what you can do. We’ll all proud of him, whatever the result," Tulett told Cyclingnews post-stage. "It was a very hard stage after 20 days of racing.
“We tried our best, that’s all we can do. We can be proud of how we performed. We all gave 100%. Richie is so inspiring and we went down fighting."
Ben Swift has rarely been far away from the front of the race, putting in a lot of work to help Carapaz throughout the three weeks of the Giro. He was also appreciative of Carapaz’s efforts as leader even if it wasn’t the result that the team had been expecting.
"That’s bike racing. Richie is a fighter and I’m sure that he gave it his best shot,” said Swift. “We tried, we gave it a good go. It’s just how it is.
"It’s been a strange Giro. A lot of the finishes have not been hill-top finishes, whereas today was just a straight shoot-out, mano-a-mano. It’s interesting that it came down to the final climb. There’s nothing else to say but ‘Chapeau Jai'."
Carapaz sits second overall on the general classification, 1’25 behind Hindley and now only 26 seconds ahead of Mikel Landa.
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.
