Simon Yates went solo in the finale to win the 14th stage of the Giro d'Italia as Richard Carapaz took over as overall race leader — but Jai Hindley is looming in second place after a brilliant tactical ride by the Australian and his team.
Briton Yates, whose title ambitions had already been dashed, attacked from a group of four with four kilometres left to prevail in Turin after a 147-km ride from Santena.
Hindley's Bora-Handsgrohe team had blown up the race with more than 60km to go, with a big surge led by his teammate Wilco Kelderman that fractured the group of general classification (overall) contenders.
Ecuador's Carapaz, who was third on the day behind Hindley, snatched the leader's maglia rosa jersey from Juanpe Lopez after the Spaniard cracked on the penultimate ascent of the day.
Former champion Vincenzo Nibali was fourth, 15 seconds down on Yates and beaten in the sprint by Hindley and Carapaz.
Ineos-Grenadiers rider Carapaz, who won the 2019 Giro when riding for Movistar, attacked on the Superga climb, a five-kilometre ascent at an 8.6 per cent gradient, and Lopez lost touch to finish four minutes and 25 seconds off the pace.
Carapaz was however caught by Hindley, Nibali and Yates on the final ascent to the Colle della Maddalena and he lacked a bit of juice for the decisive sprint.
Hindley came through for second in the final sprint, outlasting Carapaz to take a six-second time bonus.
Overall, Carapaz now leads Hindley by seven seconds, and Portugal's Joao Almeida, who took sixth place 39 seconds behind Yates, by 30 seconds.
Hindley came second to Britain's Tao Geoghegan-Hart in the 2020 edition of the Giro, and the Perth-born rider is now well in the mix for another podium finish in Verona next Sunday.
Tom Dumoulin, the 2017 winner, abandoned early in the stage as he was suffering from back problems.
Sunday's 15th stage is a brutal 177km mountain trek from Rivarolo Cavanese to Cogne in the Aosta valley.
Reuters/ABC
