Jai Hindley rides onto the Giro podium by riding rival off his wheel: ‘I could see him cracking a bit’

The rider in third place in the Giro d’Italia is no longer Thymen Arensman, but Jai Hindley. The Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider took the podium spot from his Netcompany INEOS rival in the Dolomites. Before he could celebrate, he had to recover from the savage queen stage he had just ridden.

“It was a hard day, with epic climbs along the way. I am very proud of how the guys rode in such a stage, also because it became tactical with the GC riders going along,” the Aussie said, referring to Derek Gee-West and Michael Storer.

Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe countered that with Giulio Pellizzari. “Our plan was to have Giulio up front. So that he could go for the stage, and otherwise still help me. I have to thank him and the other teammates very much,” he said on CyclingProNet.

“Giulio lost his GC chances, so it is nice that after such a race he can still switch gears and sacrifice himself for me,” Hindley said. “We did not have an easy race, with illness, and that made it mentally difficult for everyone too. But everyone did very well.”

It then came down to the leader himself on the final climb, where he still managed to bridge to Felix Gall and Jonas Vingegaard. Something Arensman could not do.

“I could see him cracking a bit, but really it was more about keeping my own effort going on such a hard final climb after such a day,” he panted.