One of the most modest riders in the pro peloton and a very popular winner of the Giro d'Italia, Tao Geoghegan Hart has revealed he dismissed his younger brother's suggestion with a week to go in the race that he could win overall.
So convinced was Geoghegan Hart that winning such a major race was beyond him, he took his brother Bede up on a bet, saying he'd buy him a car if he won the maglia rosa.
In the end, Bede was proven right and his older brother was wrong as the elder sibling won the race, despite effectively betting against himself with a week to go in the race.
"Have you heard about the bet I made with my other brother? It’s cost me a car, winning the Giro," Geoghegan Hart said when revealing the unusual bet on a visit to the Pinarello store in London in recent days.
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"Stage 15 I bet him that 'there’s no chance I’m going to win this, don’t be ridiculous, I’ll buy you a new car if I win'. And yeah."
He has since shared a photo of himself and his brother sitting on the bonnet of the new car at Perkins Garages Essex MG & Subaru.
"Don’t gamble kids... and don’t bet against yourself either," said 25-year-old Geoghegan Hart of his costly little bet.
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The wager was made on the day Geoghegan Hart took stage 15 on the summit finish of Piancavallo. That moved him up from 11th to 4th overall, though he was still 2:57 behind the then race leader João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep).
He was also still 2:42 down on Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb), who was shaping up at the time as a likely overall winner if Almeida relinquished the lead, as he was expected to.
However, while Kelderman went on to take the race lead, the race changed complexion on stage 18, which featured the Stelvio, and on stage 20 to Sestriere, where Geoghegan Hart won his second stage.
On both of those big days in the mountains, Rohan Dennis of Ineos Grenadiers hit the front and dragged his team mate Geoghegan Hart and Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb) away from everyone else in the race, including Almeida and Kelderman.
It meant Hindley went into the final TT into Milan on the last day of racing in the leader's jersey but equal on time with Geoghegan Hart, who beat the Australian in the test and won the race outright.
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