Jai Hindley has cycled up the Dolomites and pedalled into a podium position in the Giro d'Italia with two days and 331 km to go of the three-week 3 469 km race.
The Australian and his Bora-Hansgrohe team managed stage 19 superbly, staying in touch with various breakaways before pulling clear on the final climb of Thymen Arensman, who had begun the day in third.
Hindley finished the stage sixth, 43 seconds behind stage winner Sepp Kuss. More importantly he was 62 seconds ahead of Arensman. That transformed a 33-second deficit to a 29 seconds advantage over the Netcompany-INEOS rider who dropped to fourth.
Jonas Vingegaard, Kuss's Visma Lease-A-Bike teammate, remains overall leader having come fifth on the stage with Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA-CGM) still second, albeit a distant four minutes, three seconds adrift of the Dane.
Hindley won this race in 2022, but with Vingegaard - one of the sport's dominant duo with Tadej Pogacar - competing in this year's competition another title was always going to be tough.
Before the stage he admitted "Jonas is looking very solid," then added, "but the fight for the podium will be an interesting one."
So it was on a brutal mountain stage to the Veneto village of Alleghe. It spanned 151 km featuring 5 000 metres of altitude gain in a relentless rollercoaster of high-altitude climbs and technical descents.
Australians Michael Storer and Chris Harper both got into the main breakaway of 15 riders but the latter was gradually dropped. Storer stayed in contention, even when they were caught by Vingegaard's maglia rosa group, but by then Italian Lidl-Trek rider Giulio Ciccone had gone clear followed by Kuss.
The American eventually hunted down the home rider and went clear to complete a personal treble of stage wins in the Tour de France, Spanish Vuelta and Giro. Adding to his joy his mother was there to watch.
"It's something I always dreamt of, but every year it's getting harder and harder. I keep progressing, but so does everyone else, so every year that goes by, I think it's going to be even harder to win a stage in the Giro to complete all three, but I just can't believe it," Kuss said
Canadian Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) was second and Ciccone third.
Storer came in 10th and remains seventh overall, Harper was 18th and is back up to 12th but Ben O'Connor lost more ground and is now 14th.
The winner of the Giro d'Italia will all but be decided on Saturday's penultimate stage before the largely processional ride to Rome the following day.
The 20th stage is a 200 km route from Gemona del Friuli that has three classified climbs, including the top-category ascent to the finish in Piancavallo.
with agencies
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