Jan Hirt moves up two places to conclude Giro d'Italia as number 8: "I am content with how things went for me"

Sixth at the 2022 Giro d'Italia, Jan Hirt returned to his favourite Grand tour to give it another go at the final standings. Coming into the Italian race, his team Soudal - Quick-Step had multiple goals to chase after and Hirt's GC ambition didn't have the highest priority among them. However Hirt quickly proved that he deserves the support and will pay back for the given trust with a top 10 result in Rome.

The 33-year-old was slightly overlooked when analysts were drafting their expected GC standings. However with a solid spring campaign and parcours without too many classics-like stages, you could see the skinny Czech go for a good result. Even despite the two long time trials where he was going to (and did) lose a lot of time, putting the top 5 too far from Hirt's reach.

The Czech climber did exactly what he needed to do - ride three consistent weeks and wait for his opponents to crack. And that's exactly what happened on the Monte Grappa, where Hirt himself didn't have a spectacular day, but he was still able to put enough time into Romain Bardet and Filippo Zana to move up to 8th overall.

"I felt very good today on an incredibly hard day. Monta Grappa was a tough ascent, you could really feel those steep gradients biting, especially as they came after three weeks, but I believed in myself and in keeping my place in the general classification. It wasn’t easy at all, but I am content with how things went for me and with this ride that vaulted me two positions in the standings. It’s a great result," Hirt evaluates in a press release.

Hirt also hoped to have a crack at a stage win from a breakaway in one of the harded mountain stages. However Tadej Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates had no understanding for lower-ranked GC riders jumping into moves, making it clear for anyone aiming for the top 10 there won't be any gifts from the Slovenian. Thus best stage results are three top 10 finishes on stages 2, 15 and 17.