Nordhagen wins final stage, and 'new Pogi' Omrzel steals pink jersey from Tuckwell

Saturday's queen stage to Prato Nevoso had caused quite a stir in the GC: top favorite Jarno Widar crashed hard, finished 27 minutes behind, and later abandoned the race. Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) retained the pink jersey, but several rivals had crept closer. Therefore, the tricky final stage to Pinerolo could be a spectacular affair, as the top three were within half a minute of the leader.

Six riders managed to break away after the start in Pinerolo, the famous winter sports town. They only succeeded after a grueling first hour, covering an impressive 54 kilometers. Among them were Jesse Kramer (Hagen Bermans Jayco) and Matteo Milan (Lidl-Trek), Jonathan Milan's younger brother. However, their adventure was relatively short-lived, as the peloton was eager to catch up. The grueling Prarostino climb was looming ahead.

With about 34 kilometers to go, the first passage of that mountain loomed ahead. At 2.5 kilometers, it wasn't long, but with a 12.4% gradient, it was extremely steep. Not much later, a 500-meter cobbled climb at 10% could also play a role, especially since these two climbs were included in a lap: the last passage of the hill was 3 kilometers from the finish line. The breakaway riders were caught at the foot of the Prarostino, after which the peloton quickly thinned out to a group of 20 favorites.

Led by Visma | Lease a Bike, they rode to the final passage of the Prarostino, where domestique Tim Rex did the work. Adria Pericas, the man who had been so strong on Saturday, had to drop out under the Belgian's attack. Then it was Filippo Turconi, the best Italian in the general classification, who pushed on, but not much later, Jørgen Nordhagen and Jakob Omrzel started to attack. They had proved to be the best climbers and wore down their competitors, but Tuckwell was unwilling to give up.

The Australian struggled but managed to hang on. Turconi and Pavel Novák (Saturday's winner) were also still in contention. A new acceleration by Nordhagen put the pink jersey wearer in trouble: the Norwegian from Visma | Lease a Bike came over the top with Omrzel, while Tuckwell and Novák had to chase.

The Slovenian Omrzel, wearing the white jersey, was only 11 seconds behind the leader in the GC. The two at the front of the race worked well together, but on the final cobbled climb, Nordhagen pushed hard again. He couldn't shake off the 19-year-old white jersey wearer, but the gap to Tuckwell grew to 30 seconds. Nordhagen won the stage, but Omrzel claimed the pink jersey and thus won the Giro Next Gen: Tuckwell finished fourth, 19 seconds behind.