2022 season, Giro d'Italia, Grand Tours, Race Analysis

Giro d’Italia 2022 : Stage 20 – Jai let fly all the way to the maglia rosa while Covi takes stage honours

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Australia’s Jai Hindley of Bora-hansgrohe ripped the leader’s pink jersey from the shoulders of Richard Carapaz (Ineos) with a savage attack on the final mountain climb of this year’s Giro d’Italia. He heads into tomorrow’s time trial finale with a 1.25 advantage over the Ecuadorian. Barring disaster, he will be holding that magnificent Giro trophy aloft tomorrow evening.

Alessandro Covi won the stage for UAE Team Emirates, the Italian’s biggest win to date, but the headlines will be all Hindley’s.

The waiting game

We’ve been waiting a long time for the Giro GC battle to come to life. In fact, we’ve been waiting 19 long stages and most of this 20th stage to see the kind of all-or-nothing attack that would settle the race.

For most of the stage today, the stalemate continued. With a breakaway far up the road, Mikel Landa’s Bahrain Victorious team drove the pace at the front of the maglia rosa group because… actually I have no idea.

Whatever the reason, it meant that Hindley’s Bora team and Carapaz’s Ineos men got an armchair ride to the foot of the Giro’s final climb – the mighty Passo Fedaia.

Go Go Go!

Once the group hit the 12% ramps, Ineos drew first blood. Pavel Sivakov turned himself (and his face) inside out, and his efforts paid off. Hindley and Landa saw their remaining teammates go backwards. This was it! We had the three men on the GC podium ready to go mano-a-mano! Oh, and Hugh Carthy (EF) was there too.

Virtually nothing has separated Hindley and Carapaz at this race, but that was about to change.

Hindley upped his pace.

Carapaz went with him.

Landa didn’t.

Then Bora played its ace card. Lennard Kamna had dropped back from the breakaway to give Jai some support. Bora have been superb at this Giro and Kamna has delivered more action in these three weeks than some riders produce in an entire career.

The Bora duo pressed on with Carapaz in their wheels. For a bit.

Carapaz let Hindley’s wheel go with 3km to go.

Hindley let rip. It was now or never

Within metres, he’d opened up a gap that the Ineos rider didn’t ever look like closing.

Hindley pressed on

Carapaz had no answer.

Spurred on by hundreds of roadside fans [who were standing far too close with flags and selfie sticks! – ed] and dreams of being Australia’s first Giro winner, Jai let fly. He showed no sign of fatigue as he ploughed past the remnants of the break towards the finish line, where his new pink jersey was awaiting.

The Aussie finished one minute and 28 seconds ahead of Carapaz. Giving him a lead that, barring a time trialing disaster, will see him crowned the winner of the 2022 Giro tomorrow.

Here’s how Hindley described his ride:

I knew this was going to be the crucial stage of the race. It was a brutal finale. If you had the legs, you could make the difference. We stayed patient and saved our matches until today. It was perfect.

Lenny (Kamna) couldn’t have timed it better to give me a boost and when I heard Carapaz was dropping the wheel, I went all out. It was an epic stage.

And does he think the gap is big enough to guarantee the win tomorrow? Of course not!

I dunno we’ll see how it goes. I’ll die for the jersey tomorrow.

 

Although it was a bitterly disappointing day for Richard Carapaz and his Ineos Grenadiers team, he kept riding as hard as he could to the finish line, giving everything, hunched over his bike, with a guiding hand from UAE’s Davide Formolo.

He might not have won, but he took on the defence of the maglia rosa today with a champion’s heart. And this tweet from the team was a very classy touch.

This is less classy, but given Luke is an EF fan, it’s quite funny. [The effects of the Hammer of Sass  – ed]

Oi! What about the actual stage winner?

That would be Alessandro Covi of UAE. What a day for him too. He slotted himself in the day’s breakaway, slipped off the front on the ascent of the Passo Pordoi, bagged himself the Cima Coppi then held on with pure guts and grit to win the whole shebang.

It’s been a brilliant week for winners from the break and a great Giro for Italian stage winners.

Make no mistake, today’s stage was brutal, both for climbing and twisting descents. Most eyes were on the GC battle further back, but Covi deserves a suitcase full of plaudits for his exploits today.

What’s next?

It’s in Verona. It’s a city time trial. It’s 17.4 kilometres long. It’s got a hill. On the first time trial of this Giro, Carapaz was 6 seconds faster than Hindley. On the evidence of today, the Ecuadorian’s tank is empty. Jai Hindley not winning this Giro now would be one of the biggest shocks ever to hit cycling.

The last word (well picture)

All the results

Stage results 

1 Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emptiness) 4:46:34

2 Domen Novak (Bahrain RidesOnUs) +32

3 Giulio Ciccone (Trek-SegaMegaDrive) +37

4 Antonia Pedrero (Movistar NeverHeardOfThem) +1:36

5 Thymen Arensman (Team BDSM) +1:50

GC Top 10 

1 Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe) 86:07:19

2 Richard Carapaz (Ineos Granadiers) +1:25

3 Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) +1:51

4 Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) +7:57

5 Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) +8:55

6 Jan Hirt (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) +9:07

7 Emanual Buchmann (BORA-hansgrohe) +11:18

8 Domenico Pozzovivo (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) +16:04

9 Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) +17:29

10 Hugh Carthy (EF Education EasyPost)  +17:56

All the jerseys

Leader’s jersey : Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe)

Points jersey : Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ)

King of the Mountains: Koen Bouwman (Jumbo-Visma)

Best young rider: Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo)

Team : Bahrain Victorious

For full race results, go to CyclingNews

Official Giro d’Italia website is here

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