Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) was among the elite cadre of riders who endeavoured to track the initial acceleration of Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl) at Pico Jano on stage 6 of the Vuelta a España, but there came a point when they could follow no longer. Evenepoel was, for an afternoon at least, travelling at a rate of knots they simply could not match.
“That last climb was pretty much a full gas effort from bottom to top, and chapeau to Remco, he was phenomenal,” Hindley told Cyclingnews in Camargo on Friday morning. “He just rode away from everyone, no worries, and there’s not much you can do in that situation. It’s like that.”
Pico Jano was wrapped in low cloud and buffeted by driving rain on Thursday afternoon, with the best climbers in the Vuelta flitting faintly in and out of sight like spectres amid the gloom that enveloped the mountainside. While Evenepoel’s every pedal stroke – not to mention the contortions of Enric Mas, condemned to match his pace to the top – was captured clearly by the television motorbike, the level of collaboration among the chasers was harder to assess.
“Everyone in that group was completely on the limit, I think. If anyone was feeling stronger then they probably would have been on Remco’s wheel,” Hindley said. “But in the end, no one really works well together in that situation, because everyone’s trying to save as much energy and everyone’s on the limit. The cooperation wasn’t super great, but that’s pretty understandable.”
Hindley reached the summit 1:22 behind Evenepoel in an 11-strong group that was led home by defending champion Primož Roglič. (Jumbo-Visma). Other contenders, including his Bora-Hansgrohe teammate Wilco Kelderman and Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco), were also aboard. As the Vuelta re-enters the mountains in Asturias on Saturday, Hindley lies 11th overall, 1:55 off Evenepoel’s red jersey.
“To be honest, I really didn’t feel like the strongest guy there, that’s for sure,” he admitted. “It was a really hard stage, especially when the rain started coming down at the bottom of that descent. That made it a very stressful and hard day. It added another dynamic to the race and it meant you used up a lot more energy.”
Post-Giro
On winning the Giro d’Italia in May, Hindley’s first act was to make an unannounced visit to the chapel atop Madonna del Ghisallo to donate…
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