No late twist as Jai Hindley wins Giro d’Italia ahead of Richard Carapaz, Matteo Sobrero takes Stage 21

Updated 29/05/2022 at 16:52 GMT

Jai Hindley became the first Australian to win the Giro d’Italia – proving his near-miss against 2020’s depleted field was no fluke. Bora-Hansgrohe carved apart the GC battle on the penultimate stage on Saturday, cracking pre-race favourite Richard Carapaz in the Dolomites as Hindley opened up a 1’25” lead heading into Sunday. This time there would be no final-day heartbreak for Hindley.

Stage 21 highlights: Hindley survives time trial in pink to banish 2020 memories

Two years on from heartbreak on the final day, and 20 years to the day after Cadel Evans became the first Australian to don the maglia rosa, Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) became the first Australian to win the Giro d’Italia after a beautiful tale of redemption in Verona.

Hindley limited his losses to closest rival Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) to just seven seconds in the decisive 17.4km time trial to secure the overall victory by 1:18 over the Ecuadorian 2019 champion and ensure that there was no repeat of his 2020 nightmare when Britain’s Tao Geoghegan Hart wrested the pink jersey from his shoulders at the eleventh hour.

“It’s a beautiful feeling,” the 26-year-old champion said. “A lot of emotions out there today. I had in the back of my mind what happened in 2020 and I wasn’t going to let that happen again, to be honest. To take the win is really incredible.

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“I was getting updates and I felt pretty good on the bike – I didn’t feel like I was fighting it and I knew it was a decent ride. I wanted to take the descent pretty cautiously but then I just gave it everything to the end. I’m really proud to be Australian and happy to take this one home.”

Hindley admits he had 2020 heartbreak in ‘back of my mind’

First to congratulate Hindley over the line outside the amphitheatre in Verona was team-mate Lennard Kamna, the German climber so instrumental in the Australian snatching the race lead from rival Carapaz in the Dolomites just 24 hours earlier.

For the runner-up Carapaz, there was no surprise present wrapped in pink on his 29th birthday but he finished the 105th edition of La Corsa Rosa with his head held high after riding to a solid 10th place in the final race of truth – 1:24 behind the Stage 21 winner Matteo Sobrero (BikeExchange-Jayco).

Italian national time trial champion Sobrero stormed to victory over the demanding course in a monster time of 22:24, a whopping 23 seconds quicker than his nearest challenger, the Dutchman Thymen Arensman (Team DSM). Sobrero set the fastest time at the top of the 4.5km climb to the halfway point before making light of slightly damp roads on his ride back down into the centre of Verona.

The irrepressible Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) could not bookend his debut Giro with stage wins but took a worthy third place at 40 seconds ahead of yet another Dutchman in Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) while Britain’s Ben Tulett (Ineos Grenadiers) put in a solid ride for fifth.

'I love this bit' - Sobrero gets pink carpet treatment after destroying time trial

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Sobrero said after joining team-mate Simon Yates as a TT winner in this year’s edition of the Giro. “I’m really happy with the team. We won the first time trial and the last one. We worked really hard over the winter and this is the result. The main goal of the day was to put the finish line on the top of the climb and I gave everything until then – and then did it again to the finish. The descent was a bit wet but, woah, unbelievable.”

Double stage winner Koen Bouwman (Jumbo-Visma) became the first Dutchman in the race’s history to win the blue jersey climbers’ classification while a hat-trick of sprint wins was enough for Frenchman Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) to become the runaway winner of the maglia ciclamino competition.

Spain’s Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) enjoyed a 10-day stint in pink but ultimately went home with the white jersey as the best young rider in his debut Giro after finishing 10th in the overall standings, dropping one place on the final day as Britain’s Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) moved up to ninth.

Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) secured the final spot on the podium to level his previous best Grand Tour finish from the 2015 Giro, the Spanish climber eventually finishing 3:24 down on Hindley.

And on his 11th and final appearance in his home race, two-time champion Vincenzo Nibali (Astana-Qazaqstan) took a commendable fourth on GC with Landa’s compatriot and team-mate Pello Bilbao completing the top five.