Tao Geoghegan Hart wins the 2020 Giro d’Italia

If Sky/Ineos haters thought that Geraint Thomas’ unfortunate exit from the Giro d’Italia after the third stage meant that the team might miss winning a Grand Tour this season, they were sadly mistaken. In fact, the team dominated the Giro, earning 33.333 percent of the stages and taking its eleventh Grand Tour in a decade via surprise titlist Tao Geoghegan Hart, who pulled on the final pink jersey in Milan on Sunday after his teammate Filippo Ganna won the final time trial, the Italian’s fourth victory of the race. Geoghegan Hart joins Sky/Ineos’ pantheon of Grand Tour champions Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Thomas and Egan Bernal–of the five only Bernal isn’t British.

In a unique situation, Geoghegan Hart was tied on time with another Giro surprise package, Jai Hindley, at the start of Sunday’s 15.7 km time trial and the Grenadier beat Sunweb’s Australian by 39 seconds to win his first Grand Tour.

With his time trial triumph, Ganna tied Arnaud Démare with four wins in the 103rd edition. Démare took home the points jersey, finishing 49 points ahead of Peter Sagan, the stage 10 winner.

Not only did EF Pro Cycling win two stages and the King of the Mountains jersey, but it also gained a lot of publicity with its one-off Duck kit, a collaboration between Rapha and Palace Skateboards.

Canada’s sole entrant, Alex Cataford of Israel Start-up Nation, did not finish Stage 12 after crash injuries suffered on Stage 8.

Unfortunately, @ACataford had to abandon in stage 12 of the #Giro.
"I gave it everything I had out there, but with the injuries I sustained from the crash in stage eight, it just wasn’t enough", the disappointed Canadian climber said.
The full report follows.#Giro2020 pic.twitter.com/ZMdAjZMXcx

— Israel Start-Up Nation / Israel Cycling Academy (@YallaIsraelSUN) October 15, 2020

Wilco Kelderman finished on his first Grand Tour podium; he’ll probably never have a better chance to win a Grand Tour. Except for Vincenzo Nibali and Patrick Konrad, the top 10 all enjoyed their best ever Grand Tour results.

Adam Hansen of Lotto-Soudal completed the last race of his career. He started 29 Grand Tours and completed 28 of them, and he raced every single Grand Tour from the 2011 Vuelta a España to the 2018 Giro d’Italia, winning two stages along the way. He now turns his attention to triathlon.

The race was somewhat marred by COVID-19 positives in Mitchelton-Scott and Jumbo-Visma that saw both teams and their GC contenders Simon Yates and Steven Kruijswijk withdraw before the tenth stage.

2020 Giro d’Italia Final GC
1) Tao Geoghegan Hart (Great Britain/Ineos Grenadiers) 85:40:07
2) Jai Hindley (Australia/Sunweb) +0:39
3) Wilco Kelderman (The Netherlands/Sunweb) +1:29
4) João Almeida (Portugal/Deceuninck-Quick Step) +2:57
5) Pello Bilbao (Spain/Bahrain-McLaren) +3:09
6) Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark/Astana) +7:02
7) Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Trek-Segafredo) +8:15
8) Patrick Konrad (Austria/Bora-Hansgrohe) +8:42
9) Fausto Masnada (Italy/Deceuninck-Quick Step) +9:57
10) Hermann Pernsteiner (Austria/Bahrain-McLaren) +11:05