In a conversation with Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster, Giro d'Italia winner Tao Geoghegan Hart revealed that his stage 15 victory at Piancavallo was one of the top three performances in the history of the Ineos team organisation.
Geoghegan Hart appeared in Friday's episode on Fosters' 'The Cycling GK' channel, riding with the Championship league player through Hertfordshire on the custom pink Pinarello that the team presented to him following his victory.
About 12 minutes into the video, the pair discuss the close-fought victory taken in the final time trial over Sunweb's Jai Hindley.
Geoghegan Hart and Hindley went into the 15.7km final stage tied on time but the Briton ended the day 39 seconds ahead of the Australian to seal the overall title by pushing an average of 430 watts for 18 minutes - or 6.4W/kg.
Foster asks if that was the peak power for the whole Giro, and Geoghegan replies, "I think the first stage win when Jai was riding on the front, when I won my first stage, the peak - for a 40 minute climb which was far north of 400 (Watts) for the whole 40 minutes - I think the peak 30 minutes was more like 440 or close to that. It was pretty high. It was a fast day that day."
The Giro d'Italia may have been missing some of its major contenders in the end - Geoghegan Hart started the race with the goal of working for teammate Geraint Thomas, Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) were forced out after a COVID-19 positives - but the Ineos rider revealed his power numbers were among the best ever recorded by riders on his team, according to coach Tim Kerrison.
"There was one day I remember after that stage, the head coach of the team came up to me and he said the numbers you did yesterday were up there with the best performances we've ever had in this team."
That includes Bradley Wiggins' Tour de France victory in 2012, Chris Froome's four Tour wins, Giro d'Italia and two Vuelta a España victories, Geraint Thomas' 2018 and Egan Bernal's 2019 Tour wins.
"I grew up idolizing this team. Obviously it's a bit mad," Geoghegan Hart said. "So when he said that to me, he said 'you should be confident because the numbers were up there with all of those guys' - he might not even meant it but the impact it had on me was massive. It just gives you another level of belief in yourself."
Foster presented Geoghegan Hart with an Arsenal FC jersey signed by the team while the rider returned the favour by giving Foster a signed maglia rosa. The pink jersey is being given away to a subscriber at random.
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