Days after Jai Hindley became the first Australian to win the Giro d’Italia last year, pundits were already asking the sudden global star: is the Tour de France next?
Eight months on the man himself is still processing the feat that landed him in the same league as Cadel Evans – the only other Australian to have claimed one of cycling’s three-week grand tours.
Evans, who claimed the yellow jersey in 2011, was impressed by Hindley’s history-making ride but in the immediate aftermath softly warned his young compatriot that Le Tour would be tougher.
Jai Hindley powers to Passo Fedaia at the Giro d’Italia last year.Credit:LaPresse
Hindley has intimated more than once since his Giro victory in May that he’s got eyes on the Tour, having also finished 10th at the Vuelta a Espana in September. The course for the Giro this year doesn’t suggest a title defence, and the Vuelta route at the time of interview had not been released.
However, speaking to The Age and Sydney Morning Herald on the eve of a new season, the 26-year-old declined to say whether a Tour title bid in July with his Bora-hansgrohe team is indeed an objective this year.
“I can’t actually say what the big plan is unfortunately,” Hindley said.
“The route does look really nice, and that’s all I’m going to say.”
The climber, who will commence his 2023 campaign at the Tour Down Under in Adelaide from January 17, knows that a Tour de France title victory on debut would be a tall though not impossible task.
Advancements in sports science, nutrition and technology has seen a shift in culture and results since Evans’ day. Grand tour victories aren’t always years in the making, and today’s young riders don’t need to first earn their stripes. They can win big on race debuts, with obvious strength, conviction and an impressive ability to gel quickly with teammates.
Hindley had been at Bora-hansgrohe for less than six months when he triumphed at the Giro in what was his fourth start, stealing the pink jersey on the penultimate stage with a supreme display of fortitude. It came after he, with former team Sunweb, finished second overall in his second attempt in 2020, having lost the race lead on the last stage, and one year after a winless and “really rough” season on and off the bike.
Hindley figures experience was the difference in 2022.
“It definitely helps if you’ve gone to a grand tour and tried to target it for GC [general classification],” he said. “Some guys can do it out the gates but for me, it’s important to have the experience prior and just knowing, like, how the race is, getting a feel for it as well.
“In 2020 I was completely surprised that I was up there at the pointy end, riding for the win of a grand tour. No one expected that, including myself.
“That was a real shock to the system in a good way because it’s something that I’ve always dreamed of doing, but it was a time thing. It took time to get to that level to be competitive. When you finally are there, then it’s like, ‘f—ing hell.’ It’s crazy.”
What sets the Tour apart from the Giro and Vuelta is the noise in and around it as cycling’s biggest event. The hype about Hindley’s pink-jersey success, and his hero’s welcome in Australia, is perhaps what more than anything will prepare him for any future title berth at the Tour, where managing incomparable, deafening din is pivotal to performance.
Hindley has now had months of practise operating in a cacophony.
“The post-grand tour stress and hype and everyone wanting a piece of you, that’s pretty hard to prepare for, and you can’t really prepare for that until it happens,” he said.
“And then while you’re dealing with all that you’re also preparing for the next grand tour, and before you know it you’re on the start line in Holland for the Vuelta, and it’s like, ‘Jesus.’”
Hindley recovered from COVID-19 in time to return to Australia for the first time since the onset of the pandemic in September when he ended his emphatic 2022 campaign at the UCI road world championships, supporting Michael Matthews to a bronze medal. Behind the finish line, he was noticeably beat – the skin on his small but powerful frame appeared sickly, wide eyes bloodshot and staring into space. The extreme physical undertaking of racing two grand tours in one season for the first time, whilst great for his career and general conditioning, had caught up.
“I was pretty nailed,” he laughed. “I don’t think I could hide it either. I was a shell of a human.
“It was nice that it was in Oz, and then I could go back home for a bit, see everyone and then go back to Europe, but ultimately the off-season was also just full gas. I had a month-and-a-half completely off the bike, but it was just doing this or doing that, or come here or go there, or we need you here, or we need you there.
“I got to the end of the off-season and I felt more tired than before, and then I had to start training again.”
Hindley was able to do pre-season training in his native Perth, instead of Europe, a rare treat, but the plaudits haven’t stopped either – he was named AusCycling’s Cyclist of the Year in December. It’s understandable why he and his team may right now wish to temper expectation by not discussing potential grand tour – or Tour – ambitions, thereby reducing noise.
“I’m not the type of person who enjoys all that media attention and being the centre of attention. I actually don’t like it at all,” he said.
“It was good to do and to help out these people, or these organisations, or give back to the community, but it was just full-on for me personally, and I also learnt in the end you can say no to people, and you can say no to doing events. Another lesson, basically.”
Hindley will start the Tour Down Under with a modest outlook on title victory, before travelling to Victoria for the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and then Europe for the rest of the season, and whatever that may or may not entail.
“It will be the first race back, so I’m not sure how it’s going to go,” Hindley said of the Adelaide event. “I don’t think I’ll be blowing anyone’s socks off. The socks will be on centipedes!
“We’ve actually got a really decent team coming out and a couple of guys who would be more suited to the course and have a good crack there but at the same time I’ll never say never, and I’ll see how it goes.”
