GIRO’20 Final Stage 21: Geoghegan Hart Wins Giro!

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Giro Stage Report: Unsurprisingly Filippo Ganna won the final Giro’20 individual time trial. But it was his young English INEOS Grenadiers teammate, Tao Geoghegan Hart who took the final pink jersey in Milan.

*** Full ‘PEZ Stage Report’ very soon. ***

The 2020 Giro d’Italia winner – Tao Geoghegan Hart

Tao Geoghegan Hart is the overall winner of the Giro d’Italia 2020. The 25-year-old Brit of INEOS Grenadiers managed to ride Jai Hindley out of the pink leader’s jersey in the final time trial to Milan. Hindley has to settle for second place after three weeks of racing, Wilco Kelderman finishes third. The final stage victory went to top TT favourite Filippo Ganna.

Ganna – King of the TT

Stage 21. Cernusco sul Naviglio-Milano – Tissot ITT – 15.7km
The start of the ITT is set in the centre of Cernusco sul Naviglio. The route takes the former Strada Statale Padana Superiore, then proceeds along wide, straight and well-paved avenues heading for Milan. At the beginning of Via Palmanova, the route encounters the underpass of the Tangenziale Est, followed by an overpass. After leaving Via Palmanova, the route merges onto Via Padova, where split time is taken. From here on, the course runs almost straight up to 2km from the finish in Piazza Duomo.

Final stage 21 profile

Final Kms
In the stage finale, the route first runs on wide avenues, and then on narrowed roads over the last few hundred metres, with several consecutive 90-degree turns over the last 100 to 150 meters, before entering Piazza Duomo. The home straight (250m) is on 6m wide stone-paved road.

Early man off, points competition winner Démare

The Giro d’Italia 2020 was decided on Sunday by the final time trial in Milan. No champagne glasses from the team car or smiling photo moments during the stage, but a time trial of more than 15 kilometres. Jai Hindley or Tao Geoghegan Hart: who would be crowned the overall winner of the Tour of Italy?

Maybe not a great first Giro d’Italia for Peter Sagan

At 1.40pm the first rider rolled down the starting ramp, Jonathan Dibben, the British Lotto Soudal rider carried the red lantern in this Giro. Dibben finished in a time of 19:29. The first target time was set by Matthias Brändle of Israel Start-Up Nation, but Alex Dowsett was four seconds faster than his teammate soon after. Arnaud Démare (18:54) also rode a good time trial in his purple points jersey. Dowsett won the stage to Vieste, but was not going to repeat today. Miles Scotson set the fastest intermediate time after 10 kilometres and managed to finish in 17:57. Victor Campenaerts and Mikkel Bjerg, two TT specialists, were also working hard. The NTT Pro Cycling Belgian certainly didn’t disappoint.

Multi Giro stage winner – Filippo Ganna

Campenaerts turned out to be six seconds faster than Scotson at the timing point and the World Hour Record holder was moving well in the second part of the course. Bjerg was down at the intermediate point. At the finish line, the difference between Scotson and Campenaerts was 9 seconds in favour of the Belgian. Campenaerts took the hot seat, but still had to wait for Ganna to appear.

Rohan Dennis had used a lot of energy in the mountains

Josef Černý, stage winner in Asti, was looking good in his time trial, but the Czech CCC rider was 12 seconds slower than Campenaerts in the Piazza del Duomo. World champion and top favourite Filippo Ganna was about to start his time trial. The extremely strong Italian managed the top time in Milan. The INEOS Grenadiers rider turned out to be twenty seconds faster than Campenaerts at the intermediate point and at the line the difference had increased to half a minute. With a time of 17:16, Ganna was able to set the bar very high for his teammate Dennis.

Multi-day maglia rosa – Joāo Almeida

The man who made such an impression in the last mountain stages, Dennis, turned out to be unable to threaten Ganna. At the line, Dennis, the two-time World champion, had to concede 32 seconds to his Italian team mate. The Australian was slightly slower than Campenaerts. No rider came close to Ganna’s time.

Times of the GC riders at the intermediate point (10.3km):
João Almeida (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) – 11:54
Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) – 12:02
Tao Geoghegan Hart (INEOS Grenadiers) – 12:06
Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) – 12:22
Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-McLaren) – 12:24
Jai Hindley (Sunweb) – 12:28
Patrick Konrad (BORA-hansgrohe) – 12:28
Fausto Masnada (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) – 12:31
Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) – 12:36.

Wilco Kelderman came close

After Dennis’s finish, the focus shifted to the battle between the classification riders. Hermann Pernsteiner was the first rider from the top-10 to start, but everyone was looking forward to the start of Wilco Kelderman and the two riders who would compete for the overall victory: Tao Geoghegan Hart and Jai Hindley. We had to wait for the intermediate times for a first indication.

A stunning performance in the final week form Tao Geoghegan Hart

Hart looked faster than Hindley, this was confirmed after 10 kilometres. The Briton turned out to be 22 seconds faster than the Australian and managed to go further ahead in the remainder of the time trial. Hart is the second Briton, after Chris Froome in 2018, to win the Tour of Italy.

Jai Hindley – A star of the future

Final overall winner Tao Geoghegan Hart (INEOS Grenadiers): “It’s incredible! It was impossible for me to even think about winning the Giro when we started in Sicily. All of my career I have dreamt of being top 10 or top 5 in a race like this. During the ITT my DS [Directeur Sportif] told me I was faster than Jai Hindley. When my DS told me not to take risks in the final part I understood I was close to the victory.”

The BIG win for Tao Geoghegan Hart

Tao in the pink

Stage winner Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers): “I have won this ITT, but I am even happier for my teammate Tao, it’s fantastic. I knew he could do it. Now I look forward to celebrating today’s results with Tao.”

# Stay PEZ for Ed Hood’s ‘Final Giro Rant’ on Monday. #

Giro d’Italia Stage 21 Result:
1. Filippo Ganna (Ita) INEOS Grenadiers in 17:16
2. Victor Campenaerts (Bel) NTT Pro Cycling at 0:32
3. Rohan Dennis (Aus) INEOS Grenadiers
4. João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck – Quick-Step at 0:41
5. Miles Scotson (Aus) Groupama-FDJ
6. Josef Černý (CZ) CCC at 0:44
7. Chad Haga (USA) Sunweb
8. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates at 0:46
9. Kamil Gradek (Pol) CCC at 0:47
10. Jan Tratnik (Slov) Bahrain-McLaren.

Giro d’Italia Final Overall Result:
1. Tao Geoghegan Hart (GB) INEOS Grenadiers in 85:40:21
2. Jai Hindley (Aus) Sunweb at 0:39
3. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Sunweb at 1:29
4. João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck – Quick-Step at 2:57
5. Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain-McLaren at 3:09
6. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana at 7:02
7. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 8:15
8. Patrick Konrad (Aut) BORA-hansgrohe at 8:42
9. Fausto Masnada (Ita) Deceuninck – Quick-Step at 9:57
10. Hermann Pernsteiner (Aut) Bahrain-McLaren at 11:05.

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