Jai Hindley puts Giro d’Italia ghosts to rest with emphatic victory in Verona

Jai Hindley secured overall victory in the Giro d’Italia as Matteo Sobrero won the concluding time trial in Verona. Hindley soaked up the adulation in the city’s historic arena a day after taking the pink jersey off Richard Carapaz in the final mountain stage to the top of the Marmolada, finishing with a comfortable winning margin of 78 seconds.

The 26-year-old becomes the first Australian winner of the Giro 18 months after losing pink during a closing time trial.

That day he had begun on the same time as the eventual winner, Tao Geoghegan Hart, but this time the Bora-Hansgrohe rider began the day with 85 seconds in hand and could afford to take it easy over a 17km course safe in the knowledge that, barring a disaster, he had this one in hand.

“It’s a beautiful feeling,” Hindley said. “I had a lot of emotions earlier today. I had in the back of my mind what happened in 2020 and I wasn’t going to let it happen again. To take this win is really incredible. I’m really proud to be Australian and to take this one home.”

The course, built around the climb of the Torricella Massimiliana midway through, should have brought happy memories for Carapaz given these same roads were used for the concluding time trial when he took his Giro victory in 2019. Instead, on his 29th birthday, they would have reminded the Ecuadorian of what might have been after Saturday’s collapse.

There were celebrations for Sobrero in the Italian national time trial champion’s jersey as he won his first career Giro stage. That made it two time trial wins out of two for BikeExchange-Jayco in this race after Simon Yates won on stage two prior to the knee injury that ended his race.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Sobrero said. “I still have to recognise