Jai Hindley believes the fight for the podium at this year’s Tour de France will last until Paris, as the peloton approaches a triple-header of high mountain stages to end the second week.
The Bora-Hansgrohe rider sits third overall behind Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) ahead of Friday’s summit finish at Grand Colombier, with a handy buffer on the rest of the competition thanks to his solo stage victory in the Pyrenees.
Hindley has a plan but is keeping it in-house ahead of what could be a defining, but he does not believe deciding, three days of racing, and tapped the side of his nose knowingly when asked about strategy after stage 12 on Thursday.
“I’ll keep that under my hat, hey,” the Australian said. “I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. I’ve never ridden the Grand Colombier but I think it will be super tough and yeah, it’s the Tour de France so it’s going to be really hard and we’ll be racing up there full noise. It should be cool.”
The 27-year-old, after paying tribute to fellow West Australian cyclist Connor Lambert who died in a training accident in Belgium on Thursday, finished stage 12 in the yellow jersey group after a chaotic start in which he, Pogačar and Vingegaard all had to mark each other.
“It was a big fight for the break all day until kilometre 90 or something. Everyone was involved, so it was full on,” he said.
“Cycling isn’t so traditional anymore. Let’s say there’s a pretty modern way of racing now, which is expect the unexpected. You just have to roll with the punches. I mean, the yellow jersey putting in attacks there with over 100km to go…”
Hindley may be the only rider who hasn’t mentally conceded to the dominance of Vingegaard and Pogačar, saying he’s aiming to do his best in what is his Tour debut.
The climber lost touch with the pair over the Tourmalet on stage 6 and on the steepest slopes of the Puy de Dôme on stage 9, opting instead to pace his own effort.
Hindley conceded his stage triumph in Laruns may have affected his energy reserves for the following days but added the payoff – being a win, a day in yellow and what is currently a one minute and 42 second advantage on the next best on general classification, Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers), was worth it.
“It was pretty unexpected to be in the break that day, but I think everyone had a hard day in the end and everyone went up this last climb full gas,” he said….
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