VERONA: BoraHansgrohe rider Jai Hindley became the first Australian winner of the Giro d’Italia on Sunday after safely coming through the final stage, a 17.1-kilometre time trial around Verona, to stay ahead of Ecuadorian challenger Richard Carapaz.

A powerful finish to Saturday’s final mountainous Giro stage gave Hindley a commanding lead over Carapaz in the general classification, meaning he just had to avoid disaster in Verona to claim his first Grand Tour title, which he did with ease.

Hindley had reason to be cautious going into Sunday’s finale. In 2020, the Australian lost a Giro title that was in his hands to Tao Geoghegan Hart in the Milan time trial — the Briton pulling back 39 seconds in the final 15.7-km stage.

However, this time Hindley’s efforts in the final kilometres on Saturday left Carapaz for dead, after he had gone into the 20th stage behind the Ecuadorian in the general classification, and he held a significant one minute and 25 second overall advantage ahead of the time trial.

Carapaz, who had looked primed to add to his 2019 title with another Giro crown before Hindley’s Saturday turnaround, went all out to spring a surprise, and was faster in Verona, coming 10th on the day, but it was not enough, as Hindley cruised to the finish line, taking the acclaim from the crowd.

“It’s a beautiful feeling,” Hindley said. “A lot of emotions out there today. I had in the back of my mind what happened in 2020 and I wasn’t going to let that happen again, to be honest. To take the win is really incredible.

“I was getting updates and I felt pretty good on the bike — I didn’t feel like I was fighting it and I knew it was a decent ride.

“I wanted to take the descent pretty cautiously but then I just gave it everything to the end. I’m really proud to be Australian and happy to take this one home.” Spaniard Mikel Landa took the final spot on the overall podium behind Hindley and Carapaz, ahead of 37-year-old, two-time Giro champion Vincenzo Nibali in fourth, riding his final Giro.

Italian rider Matteo Sobrero of BikeExchange-Jayco earned a first Giro stage win of his career after posting an impressive early time of 22 minutes and 24.54 seconds, which could not be bettered.

“It’s an amazing feeling, I still need to recognise everything,” Sobrero said. “I’m really happy with the team, we win on the first day and we win on the last day. All the work is paying off.”

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2022