JAI Hindley earns applause for blistering ride that has put his team leader in contention for tour triumph on a big weekend for cycling, writes JOHN TREVORROW:
IT was mountains a-plenty and Australians to the fore in stage 15 of the Giro d’Italia.
Former world time trial champion Rohan Dennis (Ineos-Grenadiers) was the strongest in the 11 man breakaway and rode away near the summit of the penultimate climb. Unfortunately the gap to the main contenders was just not enough and he was caught near the start of the very challenging final climb.
Then it was the job for two other Aussies to step up. The further this race has progressed Team Sunweb’s Wilco Kelderman has looked more and more like the favourite and his two Australian teammates were very strong. Chris Hamilton set a solid pace at the front that was fast enough to dislodge most of the main challengers. Then compatriot Jai Hindley took over and with 6 kms of the final climb still to go set a blistering pace that dropped race leader Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep). Only his team leader Kelderman and Englishman Teo Geoghan Hart (Ineos-Grenadiers) could hold his wheel.
Embed from Getty ImagesHindley was superb and it was only in the final few hundred metres that Geoghagen Hart was able to sprint clear to take the stage from Kelderman and Hindley. The young Portugeuse Almeida fought valiantly to just hold onto the pink leaders jersey from Kelderman with Hindley moving to an amazing third overall one second in front of Geoghagen Hart.
“The team were incredible,” Kelderman said. “On the final climb everyone did their job. Jai did perfect work, super super strong. Too bad we couldn’t win the stage and fell just short for pink. But how we rode, it was super.”
“Ah it was good,” Hindley said as he warmed down after his brilliant ride. “It was a perfect day by the boys. Stuck to the plan and everyone executed it perfectly. You can’t ask for more than that.”
Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), Domenico Pozzovivo (NTT Pro Cycling), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren) all lost considerable time and it will be hard for any of them to come back to challenge for the overall win.
On current form Hindley looks like he could finish on the podium and maybe even move to second overall, but it is a brutal final week. The Sunweb team have been the strongest but there are four huge mountain days still to come before the time trial finish in Milan next Sunday and I reckon Hindley will have to bury himself for Kelderman to win which may affect his own chances.
It was an amazing day of racing on Sunday with the Tour of Flanders, or Ronde van Vlaanderen to give it it’s Flemish title, being held in Belgium. This is a huge event where cycling is the number one sport. Normally there would be more than a million people crammed in around the roads of Flanders, partying and screaming at the riders. But not this year with Covid-19 which meant the race would be held with virtually no crowds at all.
Australian Scott Sunderland who is the race Director of the Cadel Evans Road Race is also the Race Director of the Tour of Flanders.
“It has been a long and hard few months with all the Covid safe protocols,” a relieved Sunderland said.
The three red-hot favourites for this year’s title were new world champion Frenchman Julien Alaphilippe, Dutch star Matheu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and Belgian Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma). And that’s how it panned out. The three best bike riders in the race were on another level and just powered away.
But we were robbed of the three-way finale that was looking inevitable when Alaphilippe crashed into an official motorbike 35 kms to go. This was a terrible situation that could have been easily avoided. There were actually two official motorbikes, one a commissaire and the other neutral spares, that were called to drop behind the three leaders and as usual they slowed and went to the right hand edge of the road. But the road turned slightly to the right at that time and the riders will always take the shortest route. Van Aert swung around the bike quite late and van der Poel actually went very close but Alaphilippe, who was talking on his radio to the team car just didn’t see it until too late. But, seriously, why didn’t the motorbikes just pull completely to the side of the road until they passed or even go over to the left side of the road?
The Frenchman was left writhing on the ground with a broken wrist.
That left the two cyclo-cross stars alone at the front. This was always going to be interesting as the intense rivalry between the pair saw them throw away a big chance to win last week’s Gent Wevelgem. But this time they combined just enough to hold off the chasing peloton.
In the final sprint van der Poel led out at a snails’ pace sticking close to the right hand barrier and then van Aert jumped very late, inside the final 200 metres, and van der Poel reacted instantly and the two superstars flashed across the line with the Dutchman winning by only centimetres. Norwegian Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) led in the 15-rider group behind to take third place.
I don’t think I’ve seen a more excited winner as van der Poel emulated the feat of his father Adri in winning the Ronde.
In 2004 The Tour of Flanders became the first of the monuments to hold a women’s race. It is now the most prestigious event in the women’s cycling calendar.
An early break of seven was soon reduced to five but never looked threatening. After many attacks the race sprang to life inside the final 40 kms when Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) burst clear she was joined by Anna Van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) but there was no cooperation between the former and new World Champions and they were soon caught.
Dutch star Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (Boels Dolmans) broke clear attacking on the Oude Kwaremont 19 kilometres from the finish and was never headed.
Amy Pieters concluded a great day for Boels Dolmans by winning the sprint for second place ahead of Lotte Kopecky (Lotto Soudal).
Australian Sarah Roy (Mitchelton-Scott) finished fifth with teammates Grace Brown 14th and van Vleuten 15th.
JOHN TREVORROW is a multiple Australian champion road racer and Olympian who has been doing media commentary at the Tour de France for more than 20 years.
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