The retirement of Richie Porte may mean the last victor at the WorldTour race will be missing from the Santos Tour Down Under in 2023 but there will be plenty of hope from local fans that another Australian could step into the void, particularly with Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) now confirmed as a starter at the January 17 to 22 race.
The Giro d’Italia winner will be lining up at the Tour Down Under for a fourth time, but COVID-19 has meant the South Australian race hasn’t run since Porte claimed the crown in 2020, and so a lot has changed for Hindley since he last pinned on a number for the event.
When Hindley first raced the Tour Down Under in 2017, coming 25th, it was with the Australian national team, and he was lining up at his first WorldTour event ever. In 2019 he was riding with Team Sunweb in support of Chris Hamilton and came 18th. He then equalled that placing in 2020 before going on to round out his Australian summer of racing with victory at the Jayco Herald-Sun Tour.
That 2020 Australian summer victory turned out to be the beginning of a breakthrough year where Hindley's true potential became clearly evident, with the rider from Perth taking second in the Giro d’Italia. This year his shift up to the top step provided Australia with its first Grand Tour victor since Cadel Evans won the Tour de France in 2011.
“We spend so much of our season in Europe, so it is nice to come back and race in front of Australian fans,” Hindley said in a media statement from the Tour Down Under. “2022 was a massive year for me and I’m looking forward to setting up my 2023 season with a strong performance in Adelaide.”
The 2023 Tour Down Under will mark the 26-year-old’s return to international racing after a break of more than three months, although the Australian Road National Championships could also be on the cards earlier in the month of January. Hindley’s off-season started right after the September Road World Championships in Wollongong, where he was asked by reporters to look back on his season.
“With the Giro win and the stage win there, I still can’t believe it, it still hasn’t sunk in and probably never will,” Hindley told reporters after riding the road race in support of the third-placed Michael Matthews. “It was a nice year personally, especially after such a tough year last year – to change to a new team and win a Grand tour in my first year with the team was really cool.”
It will be Hindley’s first Tour Down Under with Bora-Hansgrohe, and while the rest of the team around him is yet to be announced he is sure to be closely watched for the overall and climbing stages. There is no Willunga climb on the course this year – a stage synonymous with Porte after he won it six years running – but that doesn’t mean the race is without a good measure of challenging ascents.
“This course would be really appealing to Jai, particularly the three tricky climbs through the Adelaide Hills on stage three,” said Tour Down Under Race Director Stuart O’Grady.
Stage three from Norwood to Campbelltown includes Norton Summit, Checkers Hill and Corkscrew Road, delivering more than 2,400 metres of climbing. It is a stage that is expected to be pivotal in shaping the competition for the ochre jersey of the race leader and then there is also the challenging final stage which takes on Mount Lofty multiple times before finishing on the summit.
