Tao Geoghegan Hart wins 2020 Giro d'Italia

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Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) claimed overall victory at the 2020 Giro d’Italia, beating overnight race leader Jai Hindley (Sunweb) by 39 seconds in the stage 21 time trial in Milan.

The pair had entered the final day tied on time – a first in Grand Tour history – but Geoghegan Hart made his superior time trialling pedigree count on the flat 15.7km course into the heart of Milan.

The 25-year-old clocked 18:14, punching the air as he watched Hindley exceed his time while still stuck in the final kilometre. Hindley gave his all to the line and stopped the clock on 18:53, slipping to second place on the final podium, ahead of his Sunweb teammate Wilco Kelderman.

It was a double celebration for Ineos Grenadiers, as time trial world champion Filippo Ganna claimed the stage win, making it a clean sweep of the three time trials at this Giro, and four stage wins in total. Ineos themselves have now won seven of the 21 stages and the overall title, all after losing their leader Geraint Thomas on stage 3.

Geoghegan Hart, who came to the Giro as a support rider for Thomas, was a picture of poise as he sidelined the pressure of the big occasion to win his first Grand Tour.

“Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine this would be possible when we started out in Sicily almost a month ago,” he said. “All my career I’ve dreamt of trying to be top 10, top 5 maybe, in a race of this stature, so this is something completely and utterly different to that and I think it’s going to take a long time for this to sink in.”

Ganna clocked 17:16 on the largely untechnical course to underline his status as the best time triallist in the world, with second and third placed Victor Campenaerts (NTT) and Rohan Dennis (Ineos Grenadiers) finishing a full 32 seconds down. However, the Italian graciously recognised this day was all about his teammate.

“For sure I’m happier for Tao than myself,” Ganna said. “When I saw his face this morning, I thought we could arrive with victory number seven and with the pink jersey."

Geoghegan Hart set out as the favourite, given he had beaten Hindley in seven of the nine time trials they’d done together since turning professional in 2017, but their age and the fact it was the final day of a Grand Tour meant anything could happen.

The pair were evenly matched on the opening couple of kilometres out of Cernusco sul Naviglio, with Hindley cutting more aggressive lines through the early roundabouts. However, on the long, straight sections, the Briton gained the upper hand, keeping on top of a higher gear as the pink jersey pedalled with a much higher cadence. At the half-way point, live timings had him 10 seconds up, and the balance of power was more definitively underlined at the intermediate checkpoint after 10.3km, with Geoghegan Hart 22 seconds to the good.

He continued to give his all and barely took any of the final bends any more tentatively as he pushed all the way to the line to finish 13th on the stage.

“My DS said I was 10 seconds up, and he kept giving me a few seconds. I only knew that we must have been in a good situation when he was screaming at me to not take any risks in the last kilometre. It’s not often that your DS tells you to slow down in a 15km TT. I also knew the work was done up until that point, so it’s incredible to arrive here in the Duomo in the center of Milan,” Geoghegan Hart said.

After catching his breath, he turned to the big screen and soon saw Hindley approach the time he’d just set. The Australian, now visibly suffering on the bike, was still in the final kilometre, and that was that. Hindley crossed the line, removed his helmet, and put his head in his hand, his time in pink lasting less than 20 minutes.

“Of course, it’s super disappointing to lose the jersey on the last day,” he said. “At the moment, it’s pretty hard to take but when I look back I think I’ll be super proud of how I and team rode the past three weeks. It’s a massive step forward in my career and something I’ll never forget.”

Geoghegan Hart tops the final general classification, 39 seconds ahead of Hindley, and 1:29 ahead of Kelderman, who recouped just three seconds on the winner. There was one other shift in the top 10, as Joåo Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) produced another storming TT to place fourth on the stage and leapfrog Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren) into fourth overall.

Joining Geoghegan Hart – who won the white jersey for best young rider, as well as the pink – on the podium in Milan were Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), who finished safely to wrap up the maglia ciclamino as points classification winner, and blue jersey Ruben Guerreiro (EF Pro Cycling), who topped the mountains classification to become the first Portuguese rider to win a Giro jersey. 

Geoghegan Hart had another trip to the podium as Ineos won the teams classification. His teammates sprayed him with champagne and he soaked up a moment he never saw coming, but refused to get carried away.

“I’m going to enjoy this. It’s incredible. I’m going to stay the same person and as professional as I believe I always have been,” he said. “I’m dedicated and wake up everyday looking forward to riding my bike, loving my life and being grateful for the honour and amazing position and privilege that I am in to be on this team and to be doing these beautiful race.”

How it unfolded

It was another grey day on the Giro d’Italia but the weather was dry and calm, making for straight-forward conditions on the largely untechnical 15.7km route from Cernusco sul Naviglio into the heart of Milan.

Jon Dibben was the first rider down the ramp at 13:40, with his Lotto Soudal teammate Adam Hansen setting off soon after to finish his 29th Grand Tour and finish his professional cycling career after nearly 20 years. The Israel Start-Up Nation duo of Mathias Brandle and Alex Dowsett set the early benchmarks before Miles Scotson (Groupama-FDJ) came through to break the 18-minute barrier.

Victor Campenaerts (NTT Pro Cycling) then produced something near his best after two disappointing time trials at this Giro, clocking 17:48. However, Ganna was soon to start, and he joked that he wouldn’t be in the hotseat for long.

He was correct, as Ganna soon set off and blew everyone out of the water. The Italian’s intentions were clear as he sliced through the opening roundabouts, and from then on he pumped those big legs up and down to produce the sort of watts that no one else in the world can come close to at the moment. On a short flat course that was the best suited to him of the three, he kept his speed high all the way to the line and when he stopped the clock on 17:16 it was clear we were looking at the stage winner.

His teammate Rohan Dennis, who had been so instrumental in turning the tide of the whole Giro in Geoghegan Hart’s favour, dug another strong ride out to tie Campenaerts for time and make it two Ineos riders on the podium.

Thoughts soon turned to the upper echelons of the GC and, although he’d faded earlier in the race, Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) produced another strong TT to place eights on the stage and seal 15th overall on his Grand Tour debut.

The gaps in the top 10 were such that current placings were largely locked in place, even if Domenico Pozzovivo (NTT) produced a surprising ride – 19th on the stage – to get a little closer to the top 10. Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain McLaren), Fausto Masnada (Deceuninck-QuickStep), and Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) all gave solid accounts of themselves, while Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) and Jakob Fugsang (Astana) clocked more or less the same time.

A big change came in the top five, as Almeida, so good in both time trials so far, and wearer of the pink jersey for two weeks, ended his Giro on something of a high, placing fourth on the stage to move back above Bilbao in fourth.

The podium, however, was gone, and Kelderman rode to 11th place to seal his first Grand Tour podium. By that point, Geoghegan Hart and Hindley were out on the course and, after the early couple of kilometres, it only went one way, all the way to the Duomo in Milan.