After the high drama in the high mountains this last week, it came down to a time trial to settle the maglia rosa. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the winner of the stage – by a smackdown 32sec – was Filippo Ganna (Ineos). And, as much as there were people out there who wanted a Jai Hindley win (although you wouldn’t know if you were listening to Eurosport), it was no surprise that Tao Geoghegan Hart unseated the Sunweb rider to raise the beautiful Trofeo Senza Fine. Wilco Kelderman took the third step of the podium.
Two races in one
First up, the stage win. Filippo Ganna sped through the parcours, a perfect combination of power and technique, even catching the rider who started in front of him near the finish line. His final winning margin was 32sec (on a 15km parcours!) and ended this Giro by winning all three time trial stages and a normal stage, just for good measure.
While Fabs – I mean, Ganna – was in the hot seat, it was down to the last two riders out of the start house to determine the winner after three weeks.
The showdown
By the time Jai rolled in, he had lost the maglia rosa to TGH by 39sec. TGH also took the white jersey for best young rider home as well.
It always hurts …
The final podium
How the legend gets written
All the other jerseys
Arnaud Demare of FDJ took the points jersey.
The KOM jersey went to Ruben Guerreiro from EF Cycling.
Most Combative of the Giro was Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal)
Ineos took the Team Classification, much to the chagrin of Movistar, no doubt
Final thoughts
Stage 21 Results
1 Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:17:16
2 Victor Campenaerts (NTT Pro Cycling) +0:32
3 Rohan Dennis (Ineos Grenadiers) same time
4 Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quickstep) +0:41
5 Miles Scotson (Groupama-FDJ) same time
Final GC Top 10
1 Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) +85:40:21
2 Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb) +0:39
3 Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) +1:29
4 João Almeida (Deceuninck-Quickstep) +2:57
5 Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren) +3:09
6 Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Pro Team) +7:02
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) +8:15
8 Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) +8:42
9 Fausto Masnada (Deceuninck-Quickstep) +9:57
10 Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain McLaren) +11:05
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Official race website: Giro d’Italia