Czech rider Jan Hirt took the 16th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Wednesday to claim his first ever Grand Tour win, while Richard Carapaz held on to his slender overall lead after a brutal mountain stage.
The 31-year-old Intermarche rider attacked two kilometres before the summit of the final of three huge climbs on the 202km run from Salo to Aprica and held off chaser Thyman Arensman for the win.
Hirt’s stage win was by far the biggest of his ca-reer and added to his overall victory at the Tour of Oman this year.
“When people ask me what I want to do with cycling I say that I want to win one stage on the Giro and then I can stop my career,” Hirt joked after the win.
“So now I am happy but I don’t want to stop now.” Hirt had been chasing Lennard Kamna after the Bora-Hansgrohe rider made a run for it just be-fore the start of the final Santa Cristina ascent.
However he and Arensman caught Kamna within the closing 10km and Hirt then made his charge for the line in wet Aprica after wrestling with mechanical problems in the last kilometres.—APP
