The truth revealed in Stelvio was repeated with equal intensity on the road to Sestriere. Two of them, Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) and Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb), will battle for the overall win in Milan on Sunday, while a third, Geoghegan Hart's teammate Rohan Dennis, will have more influence on the outcome than anyone else.

Two days ago in Stelvio, Dennis' relentless pacemaking ended Joao Almeida's (Deceuninck-Quick Step) tenure in the pink jersey and cut into Wilco Kelderman's (Team Sunweb) lead. The Australian repeated the feat on Saturday, dropping all but Geoghegan Hart and Hindley 4km from the top of Sestriere's final climb.

Dennis was still in front when he reached the same point on the third and final climb. He eventually finished third in the stage, 25 seconds ahead of Geohegan Hart, who was in second place overall but with the same time as Maria Rosa Hindley before Sunday's final stage.

"I think that speaks for itself. Of Dennis, who moved to Ineos Grenadiers this year after a brief stint with Bahrain McLaren, Geoghegan Hart said, "He was incredible, like a machine. 'He was super focused on the work he wanted to do. It was brilliant, and I'm so grateful to him. He blew the race away in Stelvio and here today, and it's an honor to have a two-time time trial world champion working for us."

Geoghegan Hart started Saturday's stage 15 seconds behind Kelderman's Maria Rosa and 3 seconds behind Hindley. Ineos' strategy was cruel but effective, applying pressure as the road began to climb, sensing that Kelderman, already on the ropes at Stelvio, would collapse to the canvas here.

The decisive blow came from Dennis at the 30km mark, but as the final climb came, Kjelderman's teammate Hindley went on the offensive to ensure a more comfortable buffer ahead of Sunday's time trial.

Hindley accelerated five times in the last 3 km, but Geoghegan Hart absorbed these jabs. But Geoghegan Hart absorbed these jabs and sprinted to a stage win and a bonus second.

"I was very comfortable. I knew I couldn't push too hard. I was focused on the stage. There was a big gap to the guys behind me, so it was up to him [Hindley] to make the difference. Once he made his first attack, I knew he couldn't do it."

Geoghegan Hart had never climbed so high in a Grand Tour and was working for Geraint Thomas in this Giro. When Thomas left the race after a crash on stage 3, Ineos initially seemed intent on chasing stage wins rather than reusing Geoghegan Hart as his leader. However, as the days went by and the overall standings became clearer, 25-year-old Geoghegan Hart steadily improved his position.

A week earlier, after he had outpaced Hindley and Kelderman to take the stage win on the summit of Piacavallo, Astana's sportif director Giuseppe Martinelli had named him the favorite to win, even if Geoghegan Hart himself was cautious. That attitude certainly changed in Stelvio on Thursday, and with 15.7 km to go before the end of the Giro, he could be the most unexpected winner.

"Certainly before the race, I didn't expect this to happen. Definitely, I didn't think the race would turn out like this. We have about 15 kilometers to go to finish the Giro," said Geoghegan Hart. He was behind Hindley in the opening time trial in Palermo (a stage with strong winds), but beat him in the Valdobbiadene test last weekend.

"That was 20 stages ago, a completely different course, a completely different day. 'I think I showed my TT legs on the last TT. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I'll give it my all and we'll see what happens."

When the 2020 season resumed after the coronavirus was shut down in early August, there was much debate over whether Thomas, Chris Froome, or Egan Bernal would lead Ineos Grenadier in the Tour de France. No one could have imagined that two of that trio would fail to start and that a third would be forced to abandon the race.

Even fewer would have imagined that Geoghegan Hart, whose 20th place in last year's Vuelta was his best finish in a Grand Tour, would be in a position to give the British team a Giro victory. However, Trek-Segafredo director Paolo Srongo credited the top three in the race with producing better power data than the Tour's top riders.

Geoghegan Hart, on the other hand, is not convinced by the theory that the rise of young talent in this year's Grand Tour is due to the season interruption.

"I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Last year, too, there were unexpected youngsters in the Grand Tours, and I don't think it's so much that COVID has had a weird year." Cycling has definitely changed a bit in the last few years. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but that's the way it is."