Professional cyclist Jai Hindley from the German Bora-hansgrohe team took the pink jersey on the penultimate day of the Giro d'Italia.
Hindley outpaces Carapaz at the Giro
With an attack a good two kilometres into the final climb on the Fedaia Pass, the 26-year-old Hindley was able to distance himself from the previous leader Richard Carapaz from Ecuador and take the maglia rosa from the 2019 overall winner. Hindley has the chance to become the first Australian to win the Tour of Italy on Sunday after the final individual time trial in Verona.
After 168 kilometres from Belluno to the mountain finish in Marmolada on the 2057-metre-high Fedaia Pass, Italian Alessandro Covi secured the stage win on the 20th stage as a soloist.
Buchmann remains seventh overall
The 23-year-old was able to break away from an original breakaway group of 15 riders, which included Lennard Kämna for a long time. The bora-Hansgrohe pro had secured the only German stage win of this year's Giro on day four and finished the stage in tenth place, 3:39 minutes behind Covi. Emanuel Buchmann finished 22nd, five and a half minutes behind, but defended his seventh place overall.
"Jai was so pushed to the limit, he couldn't even react to my congratulations at the finish," said Kämna after the tough stage. 4490 metres in altitude had to be conquered on the way to the finish, including the 1918-metre-high San Pellegrino Pass and the Pordoi Pass (2239 metres) in addition to the finish. "I knew that this would be the decisive stage. It was really brutal in the finale," said Hindley. With a 1:25 minute lead over Carapaz, the Australian goes into Sunday's final 17.4 kilometre individual time trial with start and finish in Verona. The Spaniard Mikel Landa is third, 1:51 minutes behind.
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