Who is Jai Hindley? The Australian leading the race in his maiden Tour de France
Rising Australian cycling star Jai Hindley could join Cadel Evans as the only Australian to have won the Tour de France.
In Hindley’s first appearance at the Tour, and after entering the major race as third favourite, he has taken the lead following victory in stage five – and looks to have a genuine shot at winning it all.
Jai Hindley in the famous yellow jersey.Credit: Reuters
Hindley took a step onto the big stage when he won his first grand tour in 2022, the Giro d’Italia. But a Tour de France win would propel him directly into the spotlight.
So, who is Hindley? Who inspired him to race? What are his greatest strengths? And who are his main competitors in this year’s race?
Junior days
Hindley grew up in Perth and remembers riding since he was six years old.
“My dad used to be a rider back in the day, and he got me and my brother into it. My brother stopped riding at quite an early age, but I kept up with it,” Hindley told this masthead last year.
Jai Hindley has been racing bikes since he was a kid.Credit: Jodie Craig
During his formative years as a junior, Hindley was coached by the esteemed Dave Sanders, who helped him through road cycling development pathways. Sanders had a program to take talented juniors to Europe for six weeks to race and travel to world championships. Hindley was chosen in 2016, when they went to Spain.
Hindley used to watch the Tour de France and take inspiration from professional road racers Robbie McEwen, Baden Cooke, Stuart O’Grady and road and track racer Brad McGee.
Hindley specifically recalls McGee’s win of the 2003 Tour opening prologue as his inspiration – someone from the same continent as him riding at the highest level.
“I watched the Tour like most people do and was pretty hooked on it. From that point on I just wanted to be a professional cyclist.
“For a young Aussie guy to watch that race it was pretty inspirational, when you see these guys from the same continent as you racing over in Europe at the highest level.”
Hindley moved to Italy at 18 and has spent most of his career overseas in Europe to date.
“It’s pretty hard to develop that if you weren’t born to do it,” Sanders said last year in an interview with this masthead.
“But his other greatest talent is his commitment to the task. All he ever wanted to be was a pro bike rider. That’s it. That’s what he’s going to do, and he’s just climbed the [ladder] step by step, and it’s a great justice that he’s got to this level now.
“[It’s] your mental capacity and your drive and your conviction, doing everything right day after day, month after month, and years after to get to that level.”
Road to the Tour
Hindley turned professional in 2016 and the following year won the Toscana-Terra di Ciclismo and Tour of Fuzhou. In 2020, he claimed a victory in the Herald Sun Tour in Victoria and propelled his name onto the world stage with second place overall at the Giro d’Italia (where he also won stage 18).
Hindley came close to achieving a Giro win in 2020 but fell agonisingly short when he entered the final stage as leader but lost the pink jersey in the race-ending time trial to Britain’s Tao Geoghegan Hart.
But he made up for that heartbreak in 2022, when he became the first Australian to win the Giro and the only other Australian to win one of cycling’s three revered, three-week grand tours. Evans, who won the Tour in 2011, is the only other Australian winner.
Hindley’s 2022 victory was made even more impressive after his 2021 season was marred by illness and injury. Then racing with Dutch team Sunweb, he was forced to withdraw from his first race of the year, Paris-Nice, with illness, then had to leave the Giro d’Italia with a saddle sore and finished the year with a broken collarbone after a crash at the Tour of Slovakia.
Now 27, Hindley has taken a slow and steady road to his maiden Tour, choosing to first focus on claiming the title at the Giro and building up to ride in the French race over the last seven years.
Last year, Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour at 25 and when Evans won the title at 34, he was among the five oldest winners in the race’s 120-year history.
Hindley rides with UCI WorldTeam Bora-hansgrohe. He joined the German squad at the beginning of 2022 after three years with Sunweb.
His Giro win was not only big for the Australian – it was Bora-hansgrohe’s first grand tour victory.
What are his chances of winning the Tour de France?
In short, pretty good. But he has a few mountains to climb – so to speak.
Hindley entered the race as third favourite, but there were expectations the two recent champions ahead of him, Vingegaard (2022) and Tadej Pogacar (2020, 2021) would make it a two-horse race.
Tadej Pogacar celebrates his Tour de France victory in 2021.Credit: AP
However, after Hindley stood on the Tour’s podium for the first time after his stage five victory and claimed the yellow jersey with a 46-second lead over Vingegaard, he has announced himself as a serious contender.
There are 16 stages over the next two-and-a-half weeks when Hindley will have to prove his endurance and mental strength.
If he wins, he’ll join Evans as the only Australian to have claimed the title.
What is Hindley’s impact on Australian cycling?
After Hindley took out the title at the Giro, Agostino Giramondo, AusCycling’s general manager of commercial, member and club development said the young cycling star would be an inspiration to kids across the country – which would be even further felt after the Tour.
“This is a significant and important moment in Australian cycling, and it will inspire not only those currently racing bikes, but those who don’t even know they love cycling yet,” Giramondo told this masthead.
“The win will inspire kids all over the country, but it’s not just the juniors. The riders coming through the ranks in under-19s will be inspired because Jai has been a member of national development teams, world junior championships and Oceania [championships].”
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