Jai Hindley conquers Blockhaus to win Giro d'Italia Stage 9

West Australian climber Jai Hindley has taken the second Giro d'Italia stage victory of his career, winning the brutally tough mountaintop finish on stage 9.

Hindley, from Midland Cycle Club in the Perth suburbs, won the sprint between general classification favourites atop the formidable Blockhaus climb.

Sunday's stage 9 produced the first GC test in this year's race. The Blockhaus (14km at 8.4%) came at the end of a difficult mountainous stage that included 5,000 metres of elevation gain.

Hindley, riding for Bora Hansgrohe, battled up the climb to reach the final kilometre within an elite group of six, including former overall winner Richard Carapaz and French climber Romain Bardet.

The 26-year-old Aussie took the initiative by leading out the sprint. He navigated the final turn in first position before giving it everything up the final uphill ramp to the finish.

Hindley had enough speed in the legs to hold off Carapaz and Bardet by a wheel-length, taking the stage win and 10 bonus seconds to propel him to fifth place overall, 20 seconds behind race leader Juan Pedro Lopez.

“I didn’t feel good on the climb so I just tried to stay with the front guys," Hindley said about the final climb.

"I knew it would level out a bit in the finale and also that I would have to take the last corner in the lead. I gave everything and after having suffered so much in recent years, I have no words to describe how I feel."

Hindley's performance confirms that he is a true contender for the Giro d'Italia podium after finishing second overall and winning a stage in 2020.

In other impressive Australian performances, Tasmania's Richie Porte put in an immense turn of pace on the Blockhaus to set up an attack by his INEOS Grenadiers teammate, Carapaz. This will be Porte's last grand tour participation before he retires at the end of the season.

Photo: Giro d'Italia