Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) was one of six climbers left after a big battle on the slopes of the Blockhaus on Stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia. The hardest day of the Giro d’Italia had taken no prisoners with pre-race contenders Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco), Wilco Kelderman (BORA-hansgrohe) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) all dropping out of contention on the steep slopes of the Apennine mountain climbs.
Coming into the final kilometre, Hindley was part of a group of three with Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Intermarche Wanty Gobert Materiaux) who were hunting down the attack of Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers), Romain Bardet (Team DSM) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious).
They made contact and the Australian made sure he was first through the corner as the riders navigated a short descent into the finishing straight. He then hit out early in the uphill drag to the line and was just able to hold off Bardet and Carapaz to claim a resilient win.
"I was just trying to survive as best I could," said Jai Hindley after the finish. "I knew it was flattening out in the last kilometres and there was a right-hander before the finish with around 200m to go.
"I wanted to take the corner first and I gave it everything to the line… and here we are. It's pretty incredible."
The Australian has some of the best memories of his career at the Giro d’Italia, and also some of the worst. He finished second overall in the 2020 edition of the race, but his return in 2021 was dogged by a crash in the lead-up and a saddle sore that would hamper his performance for much of the rest of the year.
“It wasn't the easiest year I had last year,” said Hindley. “I worked my arse off to get back to the level to compete at the Giro and I'm at a loss for words. It's pretty amazing."
Hindley moves into fifth overall, the overall race leader overnight, Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo) retaining the pink leader’s jersey with an impressive ride for 15th on the day.
A hard start to the stage had the potential to see some action early in proceedings of the 191km stage, with over 5,000m of climbing from Isernia to the summit finish on the Blockhaus.
Things started with a fight from the attackers to make the day’s breakaway, with a series of riders jumping off the front of the peloton to try and force their way into the early move.
An early crash in the peloton saw a number of riders, including pre-race contenders Pello Bilbao and Santiago Buitrago (both Bahrain Victorious) hitting the deck and requiring running repairs from the race doctor after rejoining the peloton.
Diego Rosa (Eolo–Kometa) emerged the strongest of the riders to try and break away initially, the Italian was solo by the top of Rionero Sannitico, where Rosa took the KOM honours as he looked to claim the polka dot jersey.
Joe Dombrowski (Astana Qazaqstan) and Natnael Tesfatsion (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli) managed to bridge across to Rosa with 167km to go in the stage, with a chasing group of six following behind.
The chasers caught the front trio at the base of the third climb of the day, the Roccaraso (7.7km at 6%). The now nine-strong group contained Nans Peters, Felix Gall (both AG2R Citroën Team), Dombrowski, Jonathan Caicedo (EF Education-EasyPost), James Knox (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team), Tesfatsion, Rosa, Filippo Zana (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) and Eduardo Sepúlveda (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli).
Gall, was the closest to general classification leader Juan Pedro López at the start of the stage and Trek-Segafredo kept things close enough to ensure that he wouldn’t even move into the virtual lead on the road, with the break’s maximum advantage topping out at just under six minutes.
Rosa took the KOM points atop Roccaraso with an early attack. The race continued on the flatter section of the stage with the peloton gradually drawing the break back on the run into and then on the climb of the Passo Lanciano (10.3km at 7.6%) which started with 60 kilometres left in the race.
Peters attacked the breakaway on the climb, with Tesfatsion covering the move and Sepúlveda joining with Rosa later. Rosa would then attack over the top to again claim the mountains points, with Tesfatsion joining him as the pair built up a sizeable lead.
Tesfatsion left Rosa behind on the descent, but the extra speed would prove to be his undoing as he misjudged a corner at 36km to go and went flying off the road. The Eritrean continued the race, but he was well out of contention by the time he had been checked over and recovered his bike.
Rosa continued on solo as has been his modus opperandi at this year’s Giro, only holding a 1’43 gap over the main peloton with still the ascent of the Blockhaus (13.6km at 8.4%) to come.
Dombrowski attacked from the remnants of the break, catching then dropping Rosa, but his lead over the main group wasn’t to last long as the INEOS Grenadiers-led peloton caught him with the race one for the big general classification contenders.
An early casualty of the pre-race contenders was Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) who fell out of the lead group with 12km remaining, while the less fancied maglia rosa López managed to hang tough to stay in touch.
Simon Yates also found himself off the back of the group of elite climbers soon after, a knee injury incurred on Stage 4 perhaps hampering the BikeExchange-Jayco favourite. Wilco Kelderman (BORA-hansgrohe) was the next to be dropped as the slopes of the Blockhaus reared up to consistently average 9.4 per cent for the final 10 kilometres of racing.
Race leader López also fell off the pace with 8km remaining as a touch of wheels saw him have to leave the road and unclip to avoid crashing.
The first big attack came with 4.5 kilometres to go on the ascent, Carapaz attacked with Bardet and Landa following. Hindley attempted to follow but eventually drifted back to a group of chasers that managed to regain the front of the race with 2 kilometres remaining.
Six riders formed the leading group at that point, with João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe), and Domenico Pozzovivo (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) joining Landa, Carapaz and Bardet.
Landa attacked again with 1.5km remaining, but Carapaz and Bardet were quick to react, with the same trio of chasers setting a more consistent tempo behind that would eventually see them make the juncture with the attacking trio just within the final kilometre of the stage.
Hindley took up the lead as the climb flattened out and even descended a little before the home straight trended uphill to the finish line. The 26-year-old Australian led through the final corner then sprinted with 200 metres to go, a long, gruelling effort on the uphill run after such a hard climb.
He established a gap, but was being rapidly overhauled by Bardet and Carapaz as they approached the line, with Hindley just able to hold on. All he could manage was a tired, one-handed salute before collapsing shortly after the finish line.
López came in 1’46 down, just enough to retain his overall lead ahead of Almeida, with Hindley moving up ten spots to fifth overall, 20 seconds behind López.
The Giro d’Italia is on a rest day, but will return with Stage 10 on Tuesday evening, a 196km stage with a hilly finale from Pescara to Jesi. Watch on Tuesday from 8.10pm AEST on SBS On Demand, with the SBS broadcast starting at 11.00pm AEST. WA viewers can tune in from 9pm AWST on SBS VICELAND.
