And this most unpredictable of Giro d'Italia throws up a surprisingly familiar plot in its waning days. On the Corsa Rosa, the old trope repeats itself endlessly, but somehow it is always new. Wilco Kelderman took the pink jersey at Thursday's Laghi di Cancano, but his teammate Jai Hindley won the stage, and the Sunweb duo was by far the stronger team at the Passo dello Stelvio, the Giro's most rigorously and fairly judged event.

In the overall standings, Hindley was only 12 seconds behind the leader. Saturday's summit finish in Sestriere favored Hindley. The short final time trial in Milan the following day favors Kelderman. Like the intra-team rivals in race history, such as Roche and Visentini and Simoni and Cunego, "Who's the boss?

"I don't know if I can win this Giro; one, I want Wilco Kelderman to win, and two, the time trial is nowhere near as good. As I have said from the beginning, I am here for Wilco. He's in the pink and I want him to win."

Kelderman expressed satisfaction at taking the maglia rosa from longtime leader Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick Step), but was puzzled that Sunweb did not order Hindley to wait for him at the top of Stelvio after starting nearly three minutes late He confessed that he had been told to wait for him at the top of Stelvio.

Instead, the Australian chased Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) all the way to the wind-swept summit, down the frigid descent into the valley, and the tight hairpin to Laghi di Cancano. Hindley won the sprint for the stage, but Kelderman expressed concern that Geoghegan Hart was only 15 seconds behind him in third place overall.

"I think it would have been better if [Hindley] had waited, that's for sure," Kelderman said. But he won this stage and now we are close on GC. Maybe not so good for me, but now we are close on GC."

The intensity from the foot of the Stelvio on Sunweb caused Almeida, along with grandees like Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), to break away from the lead group around the midpoint of the climb. However, when Rohan Dennis took the reins over Geoghegan Hart, Kelderman made his displeasure known. Hindley continued to follow the lead group, leaving Kelderman to battle with the mountains and reach the summit 45 seconds behind.

The gap widened in the valley before the final climb and at one point seemed to be infinite, but Kelderman's pedaling slowed dramatically on the first slope to Laghi di Cancano. Kelderman continued to lose time until the finish, arriving at the summit lake in fifth place, 2:18 behind.

"Yesterday we talked about scenarios. We wanted to keep the gas pedal at full throttle all day to drop Almeida in Stelvio, and it worked," Kelderman said. Ineos was pretty strong as a team." Ineos was pretty strong as a team. I wanted to go back with him to pull in the valley, but the team had a different plan."

Kelderman was the first Sunweb athlete to arrive in the press conference room after the finish, but there was no sign of nervousness when Hindley sat alongside him and jokingly corrected a reporter who had misspelled his name as "Jay" in a question to Maglia Rosa. Asked if he was afraid of Hindley, Kelderman replied: "He is running very well, but at the moment I am doing quite well in the GC and I have the TT coming up, so I am confident. "

After Kelderman went out for an anti-doping test, Hindley was asked if Maria Rosa's move to Bora-Hansgrohe in 2021 would affect the Sunweb Hierarchy's decision until Saturday's Sestriere. Hindley's answer was spot on.

"Mate, he's wearing a pink jersey. I don't care where he goes next year. I really like Wilco too and I know he's had a tough time with injuries in his career. I respect him as a man and as a bike rider and I want him to win this race."

And yet, and yet. In Piancavallo last Sunday, and again here, Hindley pedaled with equipment that seemed to confirm Nibali's assessment that he is the strongest rider in the race. When the 24-year-old Hindley, a stage winner, was waved off the idea, he must surely suspect it to be true.

"I don't know if you can say 'strongest.'" Hindley said. 'I'm definitely here in the form of my life and I'm pretty happy with how I'm feeling.'

Before the stage, Sunweb gave Hindley the task of marking Geoghegan Hart, and he faithfully fulfilled the task, chasing the Englishman all the way to the finish in Laghi di Cancano.

"It's not my favorite way to race, but I knew Wilco was behind me and was going to get into the jersey, so I wasn't going to pull him. Also, Tao did the same thing a week ago [in Piacavallo]. I didn't ask him to pull. That's just the way it is."

When the Giro d'Italia left Palermo on October 3, no one could have predicted that Kelderman, Hindley, and Geoghegan Hart would be the last three before the final weekend. Given the history so far, it seems equally risky to bet on their final position on the podium in Piazza del Duomo on Sunday evening.

"I think that's the nice thing about bike racing, you never know what's going to happen: 'But Wilco is a good time trialist, so I'm sure he'll do well.'