Sitting pretty in pink
One week after the end of the 2020 Giro d’Italia, Tao Geoghegan Hart sits down in a cafe in London’s Soho and tucks into a breakfast fry up. The pink jersey of race winner is stuffed into his coat pocket, and while he stirs his pot of tea the kid from Hackney slides out of his Ineos Grenadiers shell jacket to reveal a retro Arsenal shirt, vintage 1995 season.
He may be a lifelong Arsenal fan, a dyed-in-the-wool Gooner, but Geoghegan Hart is not a kid anymore. Now 25, he finally came of age as a Grand Tour rider in the most spectacular of settings, under a bone-chilling sky on the towering climb of the Stelvio pass, racing Australian rival Jai Hindley through the endless hairpins against a backdrop of vast autumnal snowfields.
The trio of riders – Geoghegan Hart’s Ineos Grenadiers teammate Rohan Dennis drove the pace for much of the ascent – were dwarfed by the legendary climb, the ribbon of dark tarmac snaking across the rock and snow as the Londoner ascended unerringly to higher ground, both on the mountainside and within his sport.
Geoghegan Hart’s was a relentless, slow-burn progress towards overall success at the Giro, underpinned by consistency and durability. He was 128th
