#jhonathan narvaez | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

the-line-up · 4 years

Text

Nothing in It

Tensions were higher than ever going into the concluding stage of this year’s Giro D’Italia in Milan on Sunday. Usually in a Grand Tour, the overall winner of the General Classification has already been decided by the time the final day rolls around. However, this year with the UCI calendar already thrown out of kilter by Covid-19 and the Giro bumped from its usual May timeslot to a much colder and rainy October start, it should have been expected that the second Grand Tour of the year would be as surprising and unpredictable as the rest of 2020.

During this twenty-first stage, a 15.7km ITT from Cernusco Sul Naviglio to Milan, all eyes were firmly focused on the two young riders battling it out for the iconic Maglia Rosa: twenty-five-year-old Ineos Grenadiers domestique Tao Geoghegan-Hart and twenty-four-year-old fellow domestique Jai Hindley from Team Sunweb who wore the pink jersey on the day. With only a fraction of a second separating them, it would all come down to this final race to decide who would ultimately secure the win, a first in nearly one-hundred-and-twenty years of Grand Tour cycling.

Apart from this unique aspect of the race, this final stage was also remarkable as neither Geoghegan-Hart nor Hindley had been earmarked as potential contenders for the Maglia Rosa by cycling fans, the media, or likely even their teams. Both riders had come into the Giro in domestique roles for their respective leaders, Ineos Grenadier’s Geraint Thomas and Team Sunweb’s Wilco Kelderman, and would not have initially been vying for any high placings in the GC with their focus instead on assisting their team’s primary cyclist towards the lead. Of course, we now know that none of this went to plan and that the tour, often described as ‘the most beautiful cycling race in the world’, unfolded in ways which no one could have anticipated.

Prior to the commencement of the 103rd Giro D’Italia in Sicily on October 3rd, some of the early favourites to take the lead in GC included Thomas, Kelderman, Team Jumbo-Visma's Stephen Kruijkswijk, Simon Yates from Mitchelton-Scott and Jakob Fuglsang of Astana. Deceunik-QuickStep's Remco Evenepoel had also been an early favourite to lead the Giro but was ruled out of the tour after he sustained a fractured pelvis and right lung contusion at August 15th's Il Lombardia.

After the first two stages, Geraint Thomas looked to be a main contender for the general classification, sitting in third place and just twenty-three seconds off the lead held by fellow Ineos Grenadiers teammate Fillipo Ganna. However, disaster struck the following day on a stage from Enna to Mt. Etna when Thomas crashed in the neutral zone after cycling over a discarded water bottle; a scan later showed he had fractured his pelvis and he was forced to drop out of the race. There was no luck either for GC hopefuls Stephen Kruijswijk and Simon Yates with both riders abandoning the Giro in week two after testing positive for Covid-19 and with their respective teams, Team Jumbo-Visma and Mitchelton-Scott, eventually abandoning the race entirely due to Covid-19 diagnoses.

With the early exit of these general classification contenders, along with the absence of many other top riders at the Giro due to the shortened time frame between start of this race and the conclusion of the Tour De France, some previously under-the-radar riders were brought to the fore and given the opportunity to showcase their talents on the world stage.

These include, most obviously, Geoghegan-Hart and Hindley, but also include the rider sitting in fifth place heading into Stage 21 and who had held the Maglia Rosa until only a few days previous. Deceunik-Quickstep's João Almeida had become the leader of the Giro D’Italia on Stage 3 in his Grand Tour debut and held onto the pink jersey for the next fourteen stages, fending off other strong GC contenders like Pello Bilbao, Domenico Pozzovivo and Wilco Kelderman. However, Almeida eventually conceded the Maglia Rosa to Team Sunweb’s Kelderman on Stage 18 after a tough 207km ride from Pinzolo to Laghi De Cancano, including a steep climb up the Stelvio, where he ultimately lost over two minutes and fell back to fifth place.

Some of the other young riders who enjoyed stage wins during the 2020 Giro D’Italia included Ineos Grenadiers riders Fillipo Ganna who won four stages, including all three ITT’s, and Jhonathan Narvaez who took Stage 12. Twenty-four-year-old NTT Pro Cycling rider Ben O’Connor took first place in Stage 17 after narrowly missing out the previous day, securing a new team contract for next year with AG2R La Mondiale into the process. Rounding out the group of successful young riders were, of course, the final day Maglia Rosa contenders Geoghegan-Hart, who had taken both Stage 15 and Stage 20, and Hindley, who had triumphed on the incredibly difficult Stelvio-punctuated Stage 18.

Coming into the final 2020 Giro stage in the Lombardy capital Milan, there was more room for movement across the general classification than is typical this late into a Grand Tour. Apart from Geoghegan-Hart and Hindley being neck-to-neck in the fight for the pink jersey, there was also room for other riders to potentially move up or down in the GC standings. Team Sunweb’s Wilco Kelderman, who the previous day had conceded the leader’s jersey to teammate Hindley, was riding to hold onto his podium position; an accomplished time-trialist, Kelderman would have to ride a quick pace over the 15.7km route to prevent Bahrain-McClaren's Pello Bilbao leapfrogging from fourth to third place. Equally Bilbao, who had ridden a fantastic Giro D’Italia following his work in the Tour De France as a domestique for Mikel Landa, would have to keep an eye out for fifth-place Almeida who would be looking to move up a spot to fourth in the GC after making up nearly thirty seconds on him on Stage 20.

While Geoghegan-Hart and Hindley remained friendly and affable to the end, sharing a Covid-compliant fist bump before they took to the starting ramp, it was clear from watching the television coverage that the atmosphere was incredibly tense for the riders and their respective teams. It would be a first Grand Tour win for both Geoghegan-Hart and Hindley, a possibility which neither likely expected when they began the Giro three weeks earlier in Sicily. For their teams, it was likely an equally unexpected scenario to face: for Ineos Grenadiers, they probably thought their hopes of contesting the GC were gone when Thomas exited on Stage 3 , while Team Sunweb would have been working for Dutch rider Kelderman to secure the pink jersey.

The 2020 Giro D’Italia, taking places months later than usual, had already thrown up a whole host of scenarios, GC leaders and stage winners which no one could have anticipated coming into this Grand Tour, so, in a sense, it only felt right that this most unusual of Giro’s should end with an all-out sprint to decide who would wear the Maglia Rosa on the final winner’s podium.

Geoghegan-Hart took off first at 4:09pm Italian time, with Hindley following in quick pursuit three minutes later. Keeping a close eye on the time difference between both riders, it appeared from the start that Geoghegan-Hart was riding a much better time trial; the Ineos Grenadier appeared to be working off a high gear and powering up the straight road towards Milan, while Team Sunweb’s rider was peddling furiously from the outset but could not seem to make up the lost ground despite his efforts.

Geoghegan-Hart's Stage 21 dominance was confirmed at the 5km time-check, passing at 12’06’’, while Hindley reached the same point over thirty seconds later, recording a time-check of 12’38’’. Geoghegan-Hart eventually crossed the finish line in 18’14’’, coming in thirteenth place and effectively securing the Maglia Rosa save for an increasingly unlikely last-minute resurgence by Hindley. The resurgence unfortunately never materialised and Ineos Grenadiers were confirmed as winners of the overall general classification before Hindley even reached the finish line.

After a brilliant final stage performance, Tao Geoghegan-Hart became only the second Briton to win the Giro D’Italia after Chris Froome’s success in 2018, and also became the only winner of the Giro D’Italia to never wear the Maglia Rosa across any of the previous twenty stages. It was heartbreak and disappointment in the end for Western Australian Jai Hindley who finished in second place after losing thirty-nine seconds in the final TT, while his teammate and former Giro D’Italia leader Wilco Kelderman held on to finish in third. The top five of the 2020 Giro was rounded out by Almeida and Bilbao, with the riders trading GC spots after Almeida secured a fourth-place TT finish and overtook the Spaniard by twelve seconds.

The 2020 Giro D’Italia was nothing if not unpredictable: GC favourite Geraint Thomas ruled out after only three stages, two major teams abandoning the tour entirely, a Grand Tour debutant leading Giro for fourteen stages, and the securement of the Maglia Rosa coming down to 15.7km of all-out cycling between two domestiques who had come into the race initially to support others, and Ineos Grenadiers, after losing their leader so early, to finish the second Grand Tour of the year with seven stage wins and the overall general classification with the most unexpected of riders, Tao Geoghegan-Hart.

#giro d'italia #tao geoghegan hart #jai hindley #joao almeida #wilco kelderman #pello bilbao #cycling

0 notes