Jai Hindley became the first Australian to win the Giro

The 21st and final stage, a 17.4-kilometer time trial, went to Matteo Sobrero (BikeExchange), the Italian champion in the discipline.

In the final standings, Hindley, who is running for German team Bora, is ahead of Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, the reigning Olympic champion and winner of the 2019 event.

Spaniard Mikel Landa took third place ahead of Italian veteran Vincenzo Nibali (37), the double Giro winner who announced his retirement at the end of the season.

Hindley, 26, finished second in the 2020 edition after losing the pink jersey on the final day of the Milan time trial.

This time, the native Australian from Perth showed up with a 1:25 advantage against Carapaz, enough to park in the Verona arenas where the Ecuadorian won in 2019.

In the final lap, Hindley (15th) competed with Carapaz (10th) where he fell just 7 seconds.

Australia had already won the Tour de France in 2011 through Cadel Evans, who was present on Sunday in Verona. On the other hand, no representative of this country has yet registered his name on the Vuelta, the third grand tour of the cycling year.

In the Giro, Hindley is the second rider from his country to be on the last podium, still behind him by Cadel Evans (3rd in 2013).

Long way

Thirteen thousand kilometers separate Perth, Hindley’s hometown, from Verona, where the Australian won the Giro on Sunday: a long journey like a checkered race that changed on Sunday after his first victory in a grand tour.

In Italy, Hindley maintains a close relationship. On the peninsula he lived when he left the island-continent to try to embrace the career of the professional cyclist, the sport revealed to him by his father Gordon.

The Giro winner told his story in 2020, when he fought to the last day for the final victory in the Giro: I am 6 years old and I want to be a footballer. Then I saw the Tour de France on television and my life changed. From that moment on, I wanted to do nothing but be a professional cyclist. I support school but I prefer the bicycle.

My idols are the great Aussie runners, Robbie McEwen and Stuart O’Grady, Cadel Evansthe Australian remembers. But it is not easy to leave your country to go to the other side of the world. I am thankful to my parents who sacrificed so much for me.

When he left at the age of 18, he lived near Pescara on the Adriatic coast, with Umberto Di Giuseppe, who welcomed him into his home and ran him with his team.

Just at the start of his third season he won his first professional success, on the Herald Sun Tour in Australia, if we ignore the unique Chinese race on the Tour of Fuzhou 2017, opposite Taipei.

The year 2020 marked its departure despite the pandemic and the season concentrated on three months. In October, he won a Giro mountain stage, then wore the pink jersey on the eve of the graduation and lost it on the final day of the time trial.

I was destroyed, Hindley acknowledged on Saturday night. Verona’s final pink jersey is only better for the Australian who now needs to be convinced outside of Italy. At the age of 26, he has yet to take part in the Tour de France, the latest revealed.