On the Aprica for a few seconds

Hindley snatches Carapaz for third place: he is now 3 ”from the pink jersey. Stop at the Czech Hirt

APRICA. Stage of Mortirolo and Aprica, attacks, minutes of detachment, overturned Giro. Descents, plains, climbs, falls, even rain, which has peeped out and could return between now and Sunday in the Dolomites.
Not at all: on Aprica, where Pantani made the numbers in 1994, the real news is a sprint. For the 4 second bonus of the third stage they sprinted the pink jersey, complete with a final kick. Richard Carapaz (Ineos) e Jai Hindley (Bora). The Australian won it after five thousand meters in altitude and now the gap from Carapaz is reduced to just three seconds.
Crazy. And that’s not all. He was with them Mikel Landa, whose Bahrain fired and flames on the final climb to skim the group of best and prepare the ground for his attack. The beret remains 59 ”from the pink jersey, but perhaps loses a good opportunity to gain seconds. In short, the trio has not broken down.

And no, it’s not over yet. Because at 44 ”seconds there is now the resilient Joao Almeida (Uae). The 23-year-old Portuguese, in poker for the pink jersey, is the one who struggles more uphill, but he goes faster than the others in the time trial, and on Sunday in Verona the Giro will finish with a time of 17 km. Not many, but not even a few.
He lost ground from the uphill trio, but if it hadn’t been rain and risking too much on the descent to Aprica it would have been crazy, maybe he could have even been less than 14 seconds late. Attention, if the trio does not detach it for them the ending could be indigestible. For this reason they were constantly turning yesterday on the hard ramps of Santa Cristina to see how detached it was.

“My rivals are very strong, I’m one minute behind the best and I’m confident,” he said across the finish line. No Joao, you are at 44 ”, which is much better if the race will be decided at the Arena with hands.
Over? For the fight for the pink jersey yes: Vincenzo Nibali, on the hardest ramps of Santa Cristina, after a stage with the Mortirolo and two other roughnesses, he yielded only 30 ”. Attention, it has not collapsed. The 37-year-old from Astana is now fifth at 3’40 “from the squad, he is first of the Italians because Domenico Pozzovivo (Intermarchè) fell on the Mortirolo descent, recovered, but then paid off. Here it is the stage of Aprica. Important, but not decisive and this exponentially increases the spectacularity of the next five stages of the Giro, four of which from the red circle.

The pink jersey? «Hard day, too bad for those 4” lost in the sprint ». Carapaz is fine, but the feeling is that he wasn’t expecting such strong opponents at this point in the race. And Hindley, in particular, seems to have excellent legs on the climb and, among other things, knows what it means to play a Giro at the last stage on the edge of seconds. It happened in 2020 against Tao Geoghegan Hartwith a stronger eye on the time trial than his team mate at the Ineos Carapaz.
But let’s go slowly, already on Wednesday 25 May on the road to Lavarone something will happen. Because the last climb, the Menador as the ascent above Lake Caldonazzo is called in Trentino, has double-digit slopes.

Closing with an obligatory tribute to the 31-year-old Czech Intermarché, Jan Hirt. Fresh from the crowded morning escape, stubborn for how he crushed the resistance of fellow adventurers such as the timeless Alexander Valverde (Movistar) Lennard Kamna (Bora) and Dutch Thymen Arensman (Dsm) and happy. No, in seventh heaven. And congratulations to him for the excellent Italian.

[email protected]