Opinion: Bora Hansgrohe and Jai Hindley won the Giro d'Italia more than Ineos Grenadiers and Richard Carapaz lost it

Jai Hindley was right: he hadn't come to the Giro «to put socks on centipedes» after all. Hindley uttered that deliciously Australian expression after slashing Richard Carapaz's lead to three seconds in Aprica at the start of the third week — the same three seconds by which he trailed his rival for pink going into Saturday's final day in the mountains.

What is more, Bora-Hansgrohe knew what they were going all along. That 150km shift on the front of the peloton on Friday’s Stage 19 did serve a purpose after all – as the first part of a masterplan that ultimately broke Richard Carapaz’s dreams of pink and propelled Jai Hindley to certain glory.

Ad/> With a little bit of help from his friend Lenny Kamna, Australia’s Hindley went into the red to take pink – and this time even a shoddy time trial in the race’s official pink skinsuit won’t take it from him on the final day. All talk of the 26-year-old’s breakthrough performance in 2020 being a fluke had been put to bed in the final kilometres of the climb they call the Queen of the Dolomites.

Giro d'Italia'It would take a disaster for him to lose' — McEwen on imminent Hindley Giro triumph3 HOURS AGO Hindley in pink after Carapaz cracks on Marmolada, Covi wins Stage 20 To be fair to Hindley, his victory on the equally brutal Blockhaus at the end of the opening week did enough to silence the critics and draw the curtain over the difficult 20 months since he agonisingly lost the Giro on the last day to Tao Geoghegan Hart. Hindley has hardly put a foot wrong throughout the 105th edition of the race, shadowing Carapaz’s every move and inching ever closer to the 2019 champion’s pink jersey lead – most notably with that sprint for third place and four vital bonus seconds at Aprica.