Italian time trial champion Matteo Sobrero delivered a stunning performance against the clock to win the final stage TT at the Giro d’Italia and hand Team BikeExchange-Jayco their third win of the race.
The 25-year-old smashed the early benchmark by over one minute to move into the hot-seat, and the man from Alba proved to be unbeatable in Verona, taking the stage victory and his first WorldTour win by more than 20 seconds.
Australian Michael Hepburn gave the squad a strong start as he set the provisional fastest time over the 17.4km course, and the 30-year-old held on for an impressive top-10 finish on the stage with ninth place on the day.
All eyes were then on Sobrero, and the Italian put down a convincing marker at the intermediate split as he blew away the current fastest time. The former white jersey wearer showed no signs of slowing as he raced down the tricky descent, putting more time into his rivals and crossing the line in a time of 22’24”, to go over one minute quicker than the provisional leader.
As rider after rider rolled in, nobody could get close to Sobrero’s time, with the Italian holding on to take his debut Grand Tour stage victory. The win gives Team BikeExchange-Jayco their third victory of the 2022 edition of the Giro d’Italia, following Simon Yates’ stage two TT triumph and the Briton’s spectacular solo effort on stage 14.
Brent Copeland (General Manager):
“I think we can be pleased with how the sport directors turned the motivation around, turned the goals around and we came away with three fantastic victories. To win both time trials at a Grand Tour like this really says something about the performance of the team and the work that has been done and invested.
If we look at the evaluation of the whole race, we obviously didn’t reach our goal that we came here for, which was for the overall podium position or the pink jersey, which was the ultimate goal. But that’s sport, that’s the way things go and that’s what makes sport exciting.
Obviously, you have your highs and lows, and it would have been nice to be on the podium, but I think we can go away with a smile on our face. We’ve seen some areas where we can look for improvement that we can work on for the future.”
Matt White (Head Sport Director):
“To finish off with Matteo taking his first WorldTour win, at home, as the Italian time trial champion is the icing on what has been a really up and down month. Everyone’s worked really hard and I’m really proud of the boys and how they rode for the entire race.
It’s been a rollercoaster month for us. We came here obviously with very big ambitions to try and win the Giro, which had to change when Simon’s injury got too much. We changed our tack and walked away with two more stage wins after Simon’s brilliant time trial in Budapest.”
Matteo Sobrero (1st):
“It’s an amazing feeling, I still have to recognise everything. But I’m really, really happy with the team, we won the first time trial and we won the last day, two TTs. We did really hard work in the winter with our partners, with Giant, Cadex, Ale Cycling, and this is the result. All the work paid off.
Basically, the main goal of the day was I put the finish line at the top of the GPM and I said ‘I have to give everything until there’, then on the descent, I have to give what is left later. It’s unbelievable!”
2022 Giro d’Italia Stage 21 – Results:
- Matteo Sobrero (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) 22’24”
- Thymen Arensman +0:23
- Mathieu van der Poel +0:40
