Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
For more than 70 kilometres Chris Harper dared to dream, but in the end Jonas Vingegaard was too strong for him, as he has been for everyone else in the Giro d”Italia.
The Dane claimed his fourth stage win of the race, his first wearing pink, after racing away in the Swiss Alps making the 11.6-km category one climb to the summit finish look like a training ride.
Yet for a while it could have been victory for a Victorian with Harper (Pinarello–Q36.5) looking as if he might emulate last year’s Giro stage win on the penultimate day when he rode alone into the ski resort of Sestriere.
The 31-year-old was part of a breakaway that formed around 80-90 km from the finish and gradually came down to four, then three, then with less than 10km to go, just Harper.
Harper was thus able to pick up some time and points bonuses but as the final climb steepened Visma drove the chasing pack forward to reel him in, then Vingegaard stepped on the gas. Harper finished 12th, moving him up to 12th overall.
Australia’s Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), the 2022 Giro winner, came in third, taking him up a place to fourth overall with a podium placing in Rome on Sunday in his sights.
On Monday’s rest day, Vingegaard declared his desire to win a stage while wearing the maglia rosa, and quickly followed up that promise in Switzerland on the 113-km ride from Bellinzona. His lead is now more than four minutes.
With five stages left including two more mountain rides a first Giro win now seems assured for the Visma-Lease A Bike rider.
The 29-year-old is seeking to complete the grand tour set having won the Tour de France in 2022 and ’23 and last year the Spanish Vuelta.
“We wanted to try to win in the pink jersey and obviously it can also go wrong,” Vingegaard said.
“So we chose the first option to do it because if we failed then we would have another one as well.”
Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) came second, beating Hindley in a sprint to the line. That lifted the Austrian to second in the general classification as long-time race leader Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious) fell away. Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) is third, 33 seconds ahead of Hindley.
There are four Australians in the top dozen with Michael Storer still seventh after finishing eight on the stage and Ben O’Connor down a place to ninth after coming 13th on the stage.
But with five stages to go Australia are yet to claim one stage win, despite a strong entry.
Last year Harper, Kaden Groves and Luke Plapp won stages but this could be only the second Giro in a decade (the other being 2024) no Australian has won a stage.
Wednesday’s 17th stage returns to Italy and is a 202km route from Cassano d’Adda to Andolo that includes three category three climbs.
