João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was still in the race lead at the end of Giro stage 15 today, but the power balance on the race had shifted with Team Sunweb and Ineos Grenadiers now pressing hard.
Tao Geoghegan Hart of Ineos Grenadiers won the stage and while he is a long way off the maglia rosa, he cannot be counted out after a day when some riders had no answers as the big questions were asked.
The 185km stage came down to the much-anticipated battle up the Piancavallo, with Team Sunweb piling the pressure on in a bid to drop Almeida and put Wilco Kelderman into the race leader's jersey.
Those efforts on the front up the climb saw the select group come down to just three riders as even Almeida was dropped today, due mainly to Jai Hindley riding out of his socks as Kelderman's final domestique.
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Only Kelderman and Geoghegan Hart could sit on Hindley all the way to the finish, where the Ineos Grenadiers rider sprinted in ahead of the two Team Subweb men to take the stage win, his first ever on a Grand Tour.
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Kelderman was 2nd at two seconds with Hindley in 3rd at four seconds and then Almedia, losing 37 seconds to Geoghegan Hart. The race leader had been distanced on the final climb but kept his shape to minimise his losses.
Others who were still in the fight for the race lead at the start this morning suffered serious time losses by the finish today.
In a group some 1:36 down on the stage winner were: James Knox (Deceuninck-Quickstep), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), while Domenico Pozzovivo (NTT Pro Cycling) was 1:54 down.
The result means Almeida's lead over Kelderman is cut from 56 seconds to just 15 seconds. Hindley is now up seven places to 3rd overall, some 2:56 down. Geoghegan Hart also moves up seven places to 4th. The British rider is 2:57 down but winning is not impossible.
The re-arrangement of the general classification and the shift in the time gaps sets up a brilliant final week after tomorrow's rest day.
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