Hindley on verge of taking Tour of Fuzhou title

Jai Hindley (Mitchelton-Scott) is just one stage away from winning the Tour of Fuzhou after the Australian picked up the Queen stage and moved into the overall lead with just one day remaining.

Hindley sat fifth overall coming into stage 4, but on the final climb he followed a number of moves before unleashing his own attack with seven kilometers remaining. Ka Hoo Fung finished second, on the same time, and sits four seconds down on Hindley before Sunday’s final stage.

“It was super nice to win today,” said Hindley. “It feels good to be able to give something back to the team that has given me so much support over the past couple of years.

“On tomorrow’s final stage we will do everything we can as a team to defend the jersey and the race lead.”

Hindley has enjoyed a long but fruitful season and is set to move into the WorldTour next year as part of Sunweb. He raced the Tour Down Under in January and backed that up with second place at the Herald Sun Tour. He then travelled to Europe and finished second at the GP Industria & Commercio. He followed that with fourth overall at the Rhône-Alpes Isère Tour and an impressive stage win and third overall at the Baby Giro.

In August the Australian finished 10th in the Tour de l’Avenir but he has found his form once more at the Tour of Fuzhou.

With just one day to go in the race, Hindley and his teammates will be put under pressure – especially with such small time gaps. Fifteen seconds separate the top three places overall.

““I am really happy for the guys to get this result today,” sport director Dave Sanders said in a statement issued by the team.

“We have had some bad luck with crashes and sickness throughout the Asia Tour and it has cost us some potential results, but the guys have not stopped trying and they deserved to be up there today. The field kept splitting as they went up the final climb, it was pretty steep in places and over a tough road and that suited us. Jai rode really well and as it got down to first three riders, then two he looked confident and took the sprint convincingly.

“It won't be easy tomorrow, it will be a challenging race around Yong Tai over some fast circuits, but we will do our best to defend the jersey and we are motivated for the challenge.”