Opinion: And then there were four… Why Bora-Hansgrohe must now back Jai Hindley for Giro d'Italia glory

The three slender seconds that now split Richard Carapaz and Jai Hindley at the top of the general classification represent the smallest gap in this stage in the race since 1963, when maglia rosa Diego Ronchini had only two seconds on fellow Italian Vittorio Adorni. That year Ronchini did not hold on to win the Giro – but then neither did Adorni, who ended up in second place after conceding the race lead to Franco Balmamion after Stage 19 after a single day in pink.

Ad/> Fast forward 59 years and the race is shaping up to be far tighter come Sunday’s time trial in Verona than the 2’24” gap by which Balmamion ultimately won the 46th edition. Just 59 seconds separate Carapaz and fourth-place Mikel Landa, with Joao Almeida, the white jersey, falling to 44 seconds back but retaining his spot on the virtual podium.

Giro d'Italia‘You would be fuming’ – Are Bora blowing Hindley hopes by not attacking 'vulnerable' Ineos?35 MINUTES AGO Vincenzo Nibali remains on course for his highest Grand Tour finish since the 2019 Giro, the 37-year-old Astana leader replacing his fellow Italian veteran Domenico Pozzovivo in the top five after the latter skidded off the road on the descent of the Mortirolo while the former was putting in one of his infamous downhill attacks. But Nibali is now 3'40" down and clearly a shadow of the rider who overturned the same kind of deficit to win his second Giro in 2016.

It was less of a Shark attack than a Nibali nibble and Pozzovivo was able to get back into the main pack before Bahrain Victorious whittled things down on the final climb ahead of what was ultimately a rather subdued effort from Landa to pull the trigger. It didn’t help Bahrain’s cause that Landa had clipped teammate Pello Bilbao’s back