‘Suffering the whole time’: Jai Hindley fights for Paris finish after Tour crash
By Sophie Smith
Poligny: A crash appears to have spoiled Jai Hindley’s chances of finishing on the podium in his debut Tour de France, but the injured Australian refuses to quit the race he has already vowed a return to.
Hindley has suffered pain with every pedal stroke since his slight, 61-kilogram frame crashed at a purported 60 km/h on stage 14, right before the most decisive days of competition in the sky-high Alps.
A crash derailed Australian Jai Hindley’s chance of a podium finish in his debut Tour de France.Credit: Reuters
Before that, the 27-year-old, who won stage five in the Pyrenees to spend a day in the coveted yellow jersey, was third on general classification, behind defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and two-time winner Tadej Pogacar, with a healthy time advantage on the rest of the competition.
The advantage was swallowed after Hindley’s performance dipped in the high mountains following the crash, the injuries from which he continues to defy with two stages remaining.
“When I crashed, I think I landed on my tailbone, so that whole area is really sore. I was really lucky to not have that much skin off, but my backside is really sore. It’s not making it so easy to ride a bike through France in July,” Hindley told this masthead.
Bora-hansgrohe sports director Rolf Aldag commended Hindley for not abandoning his fight for a top spot on the general classification after suffering a haematoma and back pain, which inhibited his ability to walk properly let alone be competitive. When the peloton reached the highest summit of this year’s Tour, the Col de la Loze, on Wednesday, Hindley wasn’t at his best on the ascent that topped out at 2304 metres, but he did look better.
“The actual day that I crashed I was feeling not too bad, but then I think the crash was taking it out of me a bit,” Hindley continued.
“Sort of like stopping me from getting maximum power out of the seat, so that’s not ideal, and then also when I ride out of the seat it’s really painful, so it’s sort of just like suffering the whole time, even in neutral.”
Hindley, despite his condition, said he will go “all-in” on Saturday’s penultimate stage in the mountains, where climbers will have their last chance to take line honours and improve their position on the general classification.
“The fact is I prepared full gas for this race, and it was the big goal of the season. Also, the team, everyone here has supported me 110 per cent since day dot, so you don’t give up on everyone like that,” Hindley said of his motivation to persevere.
“I’m in a fair bit of pain but we’re also not too far from the finish. I’m super motivated to finish my first Tour and regardless of the crash and the end result, I’m still really happy with how it’s gone, considering it’s my first one. Like, to win a stage and to wear the yellow jersey, there’s probably only going to be three guys that were in the yellow jersey this race, and I’m one of them, so it’s not all bad.
“It’s always been a dream of mine just to pin a number on, so to come here and race and be competitive is also pretty cool for this kid from Perth.”
The 2022 Giro d’Italia winner was seventh on the overall standings after stage 19 on Friday, 13 minutes and 50 seconds behind Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), who barring incident will win his second consecutive title, after cracking arch rival Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) in the Alps, when the three-week race finishes with a flat stage in Paris on Sunday.
The 173-kilometre stage was won by Slovenian Matej Mohoric (Bahrain) who fought tears of relief after edging Kasper Asgreen to win the Tour’s closest-ever finish by just 0.004 seconds, with Australia’s Ben O’Connor third.
“There were some really epic moments and some really terrible moments but for sure it’s an unreal event,” Hindley said. “I want to come back and have another crack, and hopefully have a clean run.”
Aldag described Hindley’s debut as “brilliant”, and the team believes he has room to improve.
“For sure now the situation we’re in with that crash, there’s a lot of ‘what, would have, if,’” Aldag said.
“On one side, of course that’s really sad because we were pretty confident to be on a good path for a podium spot, but at least now it wasn’t like an unexplainable break in performance.
“Every time he gets out of the saddle, he knows why he is where he is now, that he did lose time, that it’s not about legs, it’s about his health status, and I do think that is a difference.
“If you’re just like, ‘maybe I don’t have it, maybe the Tour is different than the Giro, maybe this, maybe, that,’ we have answers to the open questions, I think. And those answers is pretty much, you know what, if everything would have run smooth and perfect, we would have been in the best spot we could ever think of.”
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