Before the Giro comes to a close with the individual time trial on Sunday, there was a brutal 178km stage with around 4,500m of climbing through the Dolomites to contend with today. Two long and difficult climbs, as well as the final Marmolada ascent was a last big challenge for everyone after three weeks in the saddle. In the fight for pink, Carapaz, Hindley and Landa were quite on par until today’s stage and so the fight for the overall victory was still relatively open. BORA – hansgrohe was represented by Lennard Kämna in the day’s 15-man breakaway, but the group fell apart at the Passo Fedaia. Ineos Grenadiers upped the pace on the final climb, quickly thinning the group of favourites to six riders, including Carapaz and Jai Hindley. When the Australian then launched his first attack, only Carapaz was able to follow. The duo closed in on Lennard Kämna, who had been waiting for his teammate at the front. Jai attacked again and the pink jersey wearer could not keep up despite all his efforts. Jai crossed the finish line 1:25 minutes ahead of Carapaz, while earlier Covi had taken the stage win from the breakaway group.
From the Finish Line
“We had a plan today and we executed it perfectly. Lennard gave me an incredible boost and when I heard that Carapaz had dropped back, I pulled everything out of the bag. I knew that today would be the decisive stage of the Giro. It was a brutal finale, but I knew that it was possible to make up time here if you have good legs. As for the time trial, we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. You never know how a time trial will go on the last day of a three-week tour, but I will give everything to win the pink jersey. The Giro is not over yet, but the team and I are very confident.” – Jai Hindley
“It was a super tough finish and we were pretty convinced that the real finale of today would be around the last 5 kilometres. Lenni got into the breakaway group, and I think that was a really great move by him. And then once we had him up front, we were able to play with it a little bit. Our plan was to keep Lenni up front until the really steep ramps. We wanted to let the others do the work and wait for the right moment in the last four kilometers, where the climbs were super steep. And indeed it went as we had planned. Of course Jai did an incredible job once again, and having Lenni at the front was also something very important and helpful for Jai in his last attack. We rode this Giro really well, the guys performed super here, and I think they all showed their commitment to our goal. For now, of course, we’re happy, but the Giro doesn’t finish until Verona tomorrow.” – Enrico Gasparotto, Sports Director
Stage 20:
1.Alessandro Covi
2.Domen Novak +0:32
3.Giulio Ciccone +0:37
6.Jai Hindley +2:30
General classification:
1.Jai Hindley
2.Richard Carapaz +1:25
3.Mikel Landa +1:51
