Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) struck a rich vein of yellow with a huge effort on the final climb of the Col de Marie Blanque on Wednesday and rode solo to victory on stage 5 at the Tour de France, propelling him into the race lead. His grasp on living out a ‘childhood dream’ lasted just one day, but he had no regrets.
Once he arrived at the finish in Cauterets-Cambasque after 144.9km in the Pyrenees, Hindley clung to third place overall, having finished 2:39 behind stage winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), now second on GC, and 2:15 back of Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), who took over the maillot jaune. Hindley’s ride was valiant, scrambling up the final 16km climb to keep a podium position.
“What can I say, [it] was just an epic day rolling around in the yellow jersey doing some mythical climbs. And to be honest, I got my ass handed to me, but I really enjoyed it,” Hindley told Eurosport/GCN at the finish. “I knew I just wanted to ride my own race and if I could hang onto the two big favourites then I would do my best and I did. Gave it a red hot crack so that’s all I can do.”
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The Bora-Hansgrohe squad carried their star Australian climber in the peloton with a measured pace for the first half of Thursday’s race, letting a large group of 20 riders move more than three minutes ahead on the climb of the Col d’Aspin. On the penultimate climb, the Tourmalet, Jumbo-Visma massed at the head of the yellow jersey group. It was with 4km to go on the massive ascent that Jumbo riders Wilco Kelderman, Sepp Kuss and Vingegaard ignited the pace, with only Pogačar staying close and Hindley losing contact.
“I wanted to ride my own race. Of course, I tried to hang on to the two big guys, I did my best, but it wasn’t enough. Basically, that was it for the day when I lost contact on the Tourmalet,” Hindley said about staying in touch with Pogačaar and Vingegaard.
“It’s pretty painful. Jumbo, they were going to set something up on the Tourmalet. They started riding a pretty solid tempo on the bottom, which was pretty uncomfortable. And then with 5k from the top or something, they really went super hard. I didn’t manage to hold on to that one.
“I mean everybody did a great job in supporting me and especially Emu [Emanuel Buchmann] gave his all in the final part, but the jersey was gone already on the Tourmalet.”
The 2022 Giro d’Italia winner moved into chase mode on the descent of the Tourmalet with the German national champion. But they couldn’t close the gap on the flatter terrain headed to the final climb, as Jumbo’s Wout van Aert launched Vingegaard with 10km to go, and only Pogacar and Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) remained intact.
“It was super cool. I mean, it’s like a childhood dream [to wear the yellow jersey]. To win a stage of the Tour and take the yellow jersey and wear it the next day. I still can’t believe it,” Hindley said at the team bus after the stage.
“I knew it was an epic day. I had a look at it before the race and knew what was coming. In the end it was unfortunate to not be able to follow those two, they’re really on another level. I’m pretty happy. I just did my best. Today was pretty grim to lose the jersey, but I was super happy.”
It is still the first week of the Tour de France, and Hindley pointed out there was a long way to go. With a stage win and a day in yellow, he already had a Grand Tour’s worth of memories.
“It was a lot of guys coming up and saying congrats. Also, to all the Aussie flags on the side of the road, it means a lot, it was super cool to see.”
