Geoghegan Hart storms to Giro glory

Plucky Londoner latest in long line of Brit Grand Tour winners

- Chris Marshall-Bell

Tao Geoghegan Hart claimed Britain’s most unexpected Grand Tour victory after a spectacular final week in the Giro d’Italia. The Londoner beat Australian Jai Hindley to the maglia rosa by 39 seconds after stage 21’s time trial in Milan, having started the final day level on seconds with Hindley, the first time in one of cycling’s three-week races that has happened.

It completed a remarkable result for the 25-year-old who began the Italian Grand Tour riding in support of team leader Geraint Thomas and after stage 14 was 3:44 off the race lead and in 11th position. But a storming final eight days for Geoghegan Hart saw him win two stages and become the youngest Briton to win a Grand Tour and the fifth to do so since Bradley Wiggins’s 2012 Tour win.

“It’s spectacular. It’s been an incredible three weeks,” he said. “Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine that this would be possible when we started in Sicily. I think for all of my career I’ve dreamt of trying to be top-five or top-10 in a race of this stature. This is something completely different to that and I think it’s going to take a long time to sink in.”

Earmarked several years ago as one of the brightest talents within cycling, the belief was that he would not challenge for Grand Tour glory for another few years, continuing instead to develop as a credible back-up option, a super-domestique and aiming to add to his two professional wins (both from the 2019 Tour of the Alps) in the smaller stage races.

His victory, therefore, shocked even his team. “It’s not a surprise to win the Giro with Tao, but it’s a fast forward in some way,” Ollie Cookson, one of the team’s sports directors told Cycling Weekly.