Tao Geoghegan Hart is on the threshold of Giro d’Italia victory going into Sunday’s time trial stage into Milan. After winning Saturday’s mountain stage at the Sestriere ski resort, the 25-year-old, London-born Scot is level on time with the new race leader, Jai Hindley of Australia, an unprecedentedly tight and tense situation after more than 85 hours of racing. No Grand Tour has been this close going into the final day, but Geoghegan Hart is a stronger time triallist; a single second’s advantage would suffice, meaning that he will be expected to give Great Britain its second Giro d’Italia win in three years after Chris Froome’s last-ditch victory in 2018. For a rider who had expected to support either Richard Carapaz or Geraint Thomas in an attempt for overall victory, it is an astonishing twist of fortune. After the way Geoghegan Hart’s Ineos team split the race into bits on Friday’s massive climb of the Stelvio Pass, it was no surprise to see them attempting something similar at Sestriere, where they had to dislodge the overnight leader, Wilco Kelderman. Even though Geoghegan Hart started 15sec behind Kelderman, the Dutchman would have the advantage on Sunday, so he had to be removed from the equation. After the French authorities refused to allow the race to use the Col d’Izoard and Colle dell’Agnello – both among the toughest climbs in the Alps – the race organisers had improvised an easier route at the last minute, with an initial ascent into Sestriere followed by two loops including another climb into the resort. These were lower-altitude roads, wider and less steep, and shorter ascents, but Kelderman did not profit from the change. Ineos set up a full-frontal assault, with their former world time trial champion Rohan Dennis putting in a massive injection of pace approaching the penultimate climb. Just as he had done on the Stelvio, he split the main group to pieces. By the time the field took the bell with one 27km loop remaining, Kelderman was trailing Geoghegan Hart, Dennis and Hindley by 35sec. That left the race perfectly balanced. If Kelderman could hold Hindley, Dennis and Geoghegan Hart to within a minute, he might be able to start the time trial with a modicum of hope in his heart. As a teammate of Kelderman’s at the German Sunweb team, Hindley was obliged merely to follow the Ineos pair. Geoghegan Hart had to save his strength for Sunday, so it fell to Dennis to make the pace. The Australian was picked up by Team Sky in 2019 after he quit that year’s Tour de France following a bizarre dispute with the Bahrain-Merida squad and went on to win the world time trial title in Harrogate in dominant style. If Geoghegan Hart goes on to win the Giro, Dennis will have played an instrumental role; indeed, there were times on both of the key mountain stages when he looked stronger than his leader. Over the final lap at Sestriere, Kelderman had no teammates at his side, but he found allies of circumstance in the Deceuninck-Quickstep team, working for their Portuguese leader João Almeida. Together with a couple of Vincenzo Nibali’s Trek-Segafredo teammates they attempted to set up the chase, with Kelderman in tow – but with Dennis unleashed up ahead, their numerical advantage counted for little. Kelderman, it seemed, had yet to recover totally from his long solo chase on Friday’s stage behind Dennis and Geoghegan Hart. With his leader floundering, Hindley needed to finish ahead of Geoghegan Hart to build an advantage. So the Sunweb rider went on the attack time after time approaching the finish, but each time the Londoner proved equal to the task. At times he sat level with Hindley’s shoulder, as if to underline that he was just as strong, and in the final metres, when the Australian looked in the wrong direction for a split second, Geoghegan Hart sprang clear to take the stage win by a bike length, snaffling bonus seconds that may prove vital. That left Ineos with their sixth stage win and they have another chance with Filippo Ganna, who has won both previous time trials. None of the top three overall are likely to challenge the Italian and going on their respective form in the mid-race time trial, Kelderman should be faster than Hindley and Geoghegan Hart, but he will struggle to close his deficit of 1min 32sec on the pair. There will be no margin for punctures, mechanicals or missed corners for the top two, which explains why Hindley was not going to call the result. “It’s a surreal moment for me, but that’s the beauty of a Grand Tour. This edition has been special. It’s going to come down to the wire and may the best man win.”