Pundits and some in the peloton may have already declared this year’s Tour de France a two-man contest for the yellow jersey and a separate battle for third, but Jai Hindley isn’t writing anything or anyone off in what has already been a remarkable race debut for the Australian.
The 27-year-old conceded time to Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) after losing touch with the pair on the steep slopes of the Puy de Dôme on Sunday but maintained his third place on general classification.
Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) after nine stages is two minutes and 40 seconds adrift of defending champion and race leader Vingegaard and 2:23 on Pogačar, but has a handy buffer on ‘the rest’, with Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Pogačar’s teammate Adam Yates, and Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), the next best on the overall standings at more than four minutes down.
The climber is tempering expectations in his maiden Tour participation just over 12 months after becoming the first Australian to win the Giro d’Italia. But the understated, though no less steely, conviction that helped deliver him the maglia rosa has already been seen at the Tour, when he won stage five to wear the yellow jersey for a day, and he is prepared for what’s to come.
“I’m feeling pretty good and pretty fresh still considering, and ready for some more hard racing,” Hindley said. “I’m not focusing too much on the end result at the moment. I’m just really trying to do my best each and every day and take the opportunities when they come.
“There’s still a long way to go and I don’t think the race is done by any means. I think these top two guys have shown they’re in a level of their own but it’s still a lot of racing and a lot of things can happen. And there’s plenty of other guys still in the top 10 who are not out of the fight, and I would never write anyone off.”
Hindley spent five to six weeks on the road with Bora-Hansgrohe coach Hendrik Werner specifically in preparation for the Tour. The pair worked on sharpening his strengths as much as perceived weaknesses and underwent a hefty amount of physical course reconnaissance, including multiple stages in the first and third term of the race.
The latter has already paid off, with Hindley’s solo win in Laruns. Bora-Hansgrohe were aware then that they couldn’t defend the yellow jersey to Paris but had hoped to keep it until Sunday. Hindley lost touch with Vingegaard and Pogačar…
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