Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe) has become just the second Australian cyclist to win a Grand Tour - alongside Cadel Evans - after wrapping up victory in Giro d'Italia 2022 in Verona today.
Surpassing greats like Phil Anderson and Richie Porte, Hindley was crowned king of the Italian Grand Tour today two years after losing the maglia rosa on the final stage TT to Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers).
They went into that TT equal on time, but with Hindley in pink, before his British rival beat him by 39 seconds, thus relegating him to 2nd place in the final standings. And while Geoghegan Hart has not won a race since that incredible day in Milan in October, 2020, Hindley has now gone on to bigger things.
Interestingly, Hindley also had a long winless run since that 2020 Giro - when he claimed his first Grand Tour stage victory on stage 18. His first win since that 2020 race was atop Blockhaus less than two weeks ago.
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Following on front that win, the margins between Hindley, Carapaz and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) on this Giro were so tight that the outcome of the final GC was impossible to call. But on Passo Fedaia yesterday, the last climb of the race, Hindley rode away from his rivals, putting significant time into them.
It meant he went into today's 17.4km TT with 1:25 in hand on 2nd placed Carapaz and 1:51 up on Landa, in 3rd position; the kind of gaps that would have taken major incident - or a complete implosion by Hindley - to reverse.
In the end, the stage win today went to Matteo Sobrero (BikeExchange-Jayco); the Italian TT champion beating Thymen Arensman (Team DSM) by 23 seconds, with Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) in 3rd at 40 seconds.
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Of the top three GC men, Carapaz pulled the best ride out of the bag and went down swinging. The Ecuadorian TT champion placed 10th on the day, some 1:24 down.
Hindley was 15th, losing just seven seconds to Carapaz. All of those seconds, and some, were conceded by Hindley's much more cautious approach into the corners and across the cobblestone sections as he knew he had the race won and, unlike Carapaz, had no need to take risks.
Landa had a poor TT, the Spanish rider finishing way back in 76th with the type of rider that suggests he is never going to win a Grand Tour. He lost 3:04 to the winner and well over a minute to both Hindley and Carapaz. It meant in the final overall Hindley ran out the winner by 1:18 from Carapaz, with Landa 3rd at 3:24.
Vincenzo Nibali, the generational star from Italy riding his last Giro as he retires at the end of this year, placed 4th overall. In truth, the top three were head and shoulders above the others riding for GC, with Nibali (Astana Qazaqstan) 9:02 down on Hindley after three weeks of racing.
The points classification was won by Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) - on 254 points compared to nearest challenger Fernando Gaviria's 136; the UAE Team Emirates rider failing to win a stage while Démare claimed three.
Double stage winner Koen Bouwman (Jumbo-Visma) won the mountains classification while former maglia rosa Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo) won the best young rider classification and Bahrain Victorious were best team.
