The final Giro d'Italia showdown in the mountains came down to two riders vying for the stage and the general classification lead. Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) claimed his second stage win of this year's race, this one atop Sestriere, beating Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb) to the line in an exciting finish. However, Hindley claimed the pink jersey, which came down to fractions of seconds from the time trials to break the tie.
Having started the day three seconds apart, Hindley added one second at the late intermediate sprint and six bonus seconds on the line, while Geoghegan Hart took six seconds at the finish. This meant they were tied for time atop the overall standings.
Geoghegan Hart's teammate Rohan Dennis blew the GC field apart on the second of three ascents of Sestriere, and would finish third on the stage. The reconfigured course, which was originally planned to include climbs of the Colle dell'Agnello and Col d'Izoard, was reduced by only eight kilometres to 190 and provided three passes of Sestriere - once up the gentle side, twice up the steeper side.
Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), who wore the pink jersey on stage 20, finished in eighth place alongside Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren), at 1:35 back, and fell to third overall at 1:32. The battle for the maglia rosa will continue Sunday in the race against the clock, the final stage of this year's event.
Watch the full highlights in the video above.
