Chris Harper (Jayco AlUla) may have had to discard the GC bid that he came to this Giro d'Italia to target, but the Australian will leave the race successful after winning the headline Colle delle Finestre stage on Saturday.
The Adelaide native started in Albania targeting a high overall finish, and was climbing up the top 20 until the mid-point of the race, but he had to let go of his GC hopes after illness left him on antibiotics in the second week.
However, Harper was not cowed by the setback, and readjusted his aims in trying to win a stage in the climb-packed final week, which he pulled off on stage 20, surviving from the early break to take victory in Sestrière.
"I felt quite good at the start [of the Giro d’Italia], but unfortunately on that second rest day in the afternoon I started to feel pretty bad and ended up on antibiotics," he explained.
"I decided to try and recover as much as possible once I was off GC, and then the focus was these last mountain stages to try and get into a break and see if I could get a result.
"To be able to turn it around and finish on such a positive note, I'm really happy."
As with most of the climbing stages in this Giro d'Italia, it was unclear on Saturday morning whether stage 20 would be one for the break or battled out amongst the GC riders, and Harper himself was doubtful about whether going in the break would be fruitful.
"Macca [Jayco DS David McPartland] and I were talking about it this morning and I said to him, 'Ah, I mean I can go in the break, but I don't know if it's going to work.' With the way we've been racing, the GC guys always seem to either win the stage or pretty close, so I said, 'I'm not sure, but I'll look around and see'," he said.
"Then I got away with a big group, and we sort of joked around, maybe even seven minutes wasn't enough on Finestre. I think going in there we had a bit over eight minutes, so I knew we had a chance. I rode my pace up the Finestre, and then once I was solo on the top, I thought I had to manage my effort for the last kick up to the line and hope I don't explode."
Harper never did explode, and despite the charging Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) behind, he managed to hold onto to take his first-ever Grand Tour stage win, but it was a nervous finale.
"I didn't believe it until about one and half kilometres to go," he said. "I was suffering quite a lot on that last climb and I knew Simon was coming from behind, I've been teammates with Simon for a couple of years and worked with him quite a bit and I know how strong he is, so I was a bit nervous he was going to come and grab me."
And more than just a stage win, Harper took a win on one of the most-talked about stages of this Giro d'Italia, conquering the mighty Colle delle Finestre on his way.
"It means a lot [to win on the Finestre stage]," he said. "It’s such a famous climb and I’m pretty proud to win the stage here. It’s a super challenging stage and I’m really happy I could pull it off."
Harper's win marks Jayco's second stage win of the Giro after Luke Plapp's triumph on stage 8, and a meaningful end to the race even if their GC ambitions did not pan out.
"It’s quite emotional actually because he's been through a lot of hard times lately with injuries and he's absolutely worked his butt off to get back to top form," McPartland said about Harper. "He deserves this just as much as anyone."
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