Australian Jai Hindley thrust himself into contention to win the Tour de France after seizing the yellow jersey with a shock victory in stage five which left him “lost for words”.
Riding in the race for the first time, Hindley, who won last year’s Giro d’Italia, broke away from the pack in the Pyrenees to win the 162.4km mountain trek, with his parents on hand to share the joy.
“It’s really incredible, and I’ve no words,” Hindley said after his win.
“The guys on the radio were screaming… I just wanted to get as much time as possible and get the win.
“I didn’t really know what to expect; it’s my first tour; it’s hard to come here with such massive ambition (to win it) already, but I wanna be competitive and have some form of success, and yeah, I just won a stage of the Tour de France.
“On the Soudet, I started thinking about a stage win. At the bottom of the climb, I also saw my parents, which was really special and emotional.
“When I attacked, everything went so fast, I knew I had a good chance, but I only started really believing on the home straight.”
After winning the stage from Pau to Laruns, Hindley took the yellow jersey and race lead from Briton, Adam Yates Hindley, to stamp himself as a legitimate contender.
Hindley, who showed his world class abilities by winning last year’s Giro d’Italia now leads from defending champion Jonas Vingegaard who came fifth on the stage to be 47 seconds down on Hindley.
In the first real mountain battle of the Tour, Hindley got himself into a 36-man early breakaway, pulling as much as four minutes clear midway through the stage.
Though the advantage would tumble later, Hindley broke away from his fellow escapees on the final climb of the Col de Marie Blanque for a significant victory.
“I can’t believe it. I was pretty surprised to find myself in that group,” Hindley added.
“I just sort of slipped into it. I was sort of having fun, then looked back, and there was no group behind, so I thought, ‘I guess we’re in for a bike race’.
“The gap grew out initially, and I was just trying to get maybe a bit of a buffer on the GC (general classification) guys, and then I started to think about the stage win.”
Thursday’s sixth stage is another mountain ride over 144.9km between Tarbes and Cauterets.
