Three stages, three seconds apart. Close margins in the Giro d'Italia don't get much tougher than this, but no one is better at suspense in this race than Jai Hindley.

Two years ago, he entered the final day one second ahead of Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers), but lost the pink jersey in the Milan time trial. This time, he enters the final day of the Giro d'Italia with a time bonus gap to Richard Kalapas, also of Ineos.

"It's really even. Otherwise we wouldn't be here three stages from the end of the Giro with a three-second gap," Enrico Gasparotto, the Directeur Sportif of Hindley's Bora-Hansgrohe, told Cycling News in Borgo Valsgana on Thursday. 'It's going to be a great fight, no doubt about it.'

It took a while for the hazy narrative of the Giro to come into focus, but as the race approached its final weekend, it was looking more and more like a battle between Hindley and Karapas, even if Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) was still holding his own by over a minute.

In this curious Giro, Hindley and Kalapas have yet to go head-to-head. From Romain Bardet to Vincenzo Nibali to Landa, the top two have always formed the lead group on the toughest stages, but their contrasting styles became more and more pronounced as the race progressed.

On Wednesday's steep Passo del Menador section, Hindley's pedaling was still agile, while Kalapas' seemed rather forceful. Of course, there is no bonus to elegance, and Hindley and Kalapas remain largely competitive after more than 3000 km of racing.

"From the look on his face, Kalapas appears to be having difficulties at times, but in reality he is not. Jai does something similar." If Kalapas always makes it look like he's tired when he's not, Jai makes it look like he's not suffering when he's working extremely hard. I myself can see it on TV from the team car."

Hindley lost four seconds to Kalapas when the peloton split in the opening stage in Visegrad and lost another six seconds in the time trial in Budapest the next day, but they have finished 15 consecutive stages together since. Hindley has gained 21 seconds and Kalapas 14 seconds in bonus seconds.

On Thursday, on stage 18 in Treviso, Hindley finished nearly a minute ahead of Kalapas, but the Australian suffered a puncture in the last 3km. The three-second gap held firm as the Giro entered the final mountain stage.

While all eyes will be on Saturday's Dolomites Tappone in San Pellegrino, Pordoi, and Fedaia, the 19th stage, which detours from Friuli to neighboring Slovenia, should not be underestimated. Gasparotto, who hails from nearby Sachile, took his time on this route last winter. The day will include the terribly steep Kolovrat (10.3 km, 9.2%), which climbs to the Italian-Slovenian border, and the final climb to Santuario di Castelmonte, above Cividale del Friuli.

Gasparotto, in his first Giro as a Directeur Sportif, has already drawn up a game plan for Bora Hansgrohe's surprising onslaught on last weekend's short, intense stage around Turin, and Friday's terrain will allow his team to get Carapas on his Ineos team may provide another opportunity to try to isolate him from the

"Obviously we have a plan and we will discuss it with the youngsters. But to actually go from there, you always have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages," Gasparotto said, suggesting that Hindley and Kalapas have little choice in the depth of their supporting cast.

"Our team is structured differently than Ineos, but on Wednesday we had five riders in the group at the foot of the Menador. Otherwise, we would not have made it this far in the Giro. But Ineos was also strong, and we had four riders in the Menador."

If the course and their respective teams cannot decide the issue, Hindley and Karapas will face a tiebreaker in the 17.4km time trial in Verona on Sunday. Hindley endured the ordeal of losing Maria Rosa two years ago in these circumstances, but his performance in the Budapest time trial earlier in the race suggested considerable progress against the clock. In the event of a near tie before the time trial, Calapaz would be the favorite to win, but Gasparotto insisted that it was not a foregone conclusion.

"I think Budapest was the best time trial of Jai's young career.

"In the Verona time trial, I think he reached the level of Calapaz on the Torricelli climb. If you ask me, I would like to go to Verona with a two-minute lead over Calapaz. But this Giro will be a great battle to the end."

Last winter, Bora-Hansgrohe invested heavily in this Giro and made the decision to use proven Grand Tour riders Hindley, Wilco Kelderman, and Emmanuel Buchmann as the leader trio. This plan seemed sensible, given Tadej Pogachar's dominance in the Tour de France, but this grand design fell apart in late April when Hindley fell ill before the Liege-Bastogne-Liege stage, and then Kelderman crashed during the race. The grand design was in danger of collapsing.

"The Monday after Liège, the idea was to find a reserve on the Giro team to replace Wilco and Jai," Gasparotto said.

"The Monday after Liège, we were thinking about finding replacements for Wilco and Gyai on the Giro team. But Jai was already very solid during the winter and early season. He was always growing and it showed in this Giro."

"I think Jai is in the process of confirming the results he got two years ago. It's one thing to have good results as a young rider, but to confirm them is a little more difficult. So this is more of a pleasant confirmation than a surprise."

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