A historic day.
Jai Hindley won the Giro on Sunday in front of the Verona arena, the second major tour in order of importance, which he is the first Australian to win.
The 21st and final stage, a 17.4 kilometer time trial, went to Matteo Sobrero (BikeExchange), Italian champion in the discipline.
In the final standings, Hindley, who runs for the German Bora team, precedes Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, reigning Olympic champion and winner of the event in 2019. Spaniard Mikel Landa takes third place ahead of Italian veteran Vincenzo Nibali (37 years), the double winner of the Giro who announced his retirement at the end of the season.
Hindley, who is 26, had finished second in the 2020 edition after losing the pink jersey on the final day in the Milan time trial.
This time, the Australian native of Perth presented himself with an advantage of 1 min 25 sec over Carapaz, enough to parade in the arenas of Verona where the Ecuadorian had triumphed in 2019. In the last lap, Hindley (15th) competed with Carapaz (10th) to whom he dropped only 7 seconds.
Australia has already won the Tour de France in 2011 through Cadel Evans, present Sunday in Verona.
On the other hand, no "Aussie" has yet entered his name on the Vuelta charts, the third grand tour of the cycling year.
In the Giro, Hindley is the second rider from his country to be on the final podium, after Cadel Evans still him (3rd in 2013).
If the uncertainty remained in place for the pink jersey until the last 3 kilometers of the 20th and penultimate stage, Saturday, on the slopes of Passo Fedaia in the Dolomites, Arnaud Démare secured the cyclamen jersey well before in the points classification for the second time in his career.
The Picard of the Groupama-FDJ team, which is not scheduled for the start of the Tour de France on July 1 in Copenhagen, is
The Dutchman Koen Bouwman, winner twice, brought back the blue jersey of best climber and the Spaniard Juan Pedro Lopez, at the top of the classification for ten days, the white jersey of best young person in front of the Colombian revelation Santiago Buitrago (22 years old). .
This 105th edition of the event created in 1909, very open at the start, was marked by its Grand Départ given for the first time in Hungary, where the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel donned the first pink jersey.
Three other runners (Lopez, Carapaz, Hindley) then carried it before the Verona conclusion.
In the final time trial, Sobrero (25), who is good friends with world champion Filippo Ganna, beat Dutchman Thymen Arensman by 23 seconds to claim his first Giro success.