tour reporter
Jai Hindley takes over the yellow jersey at the Tour de France with his victory on the first stage of the Pyrenees. For the German World Tour team Bora-hansgrohe, this is a significant success for the tenth participation.
When Jai Hindley had everything behind him, the double appearance on the podium as stage winner and as the new wearer of the yellow jersey, the doping control and the press conference, Ralph Denk had finally arrived at the finish of the 5th stage of the Tour de France in Laruns. The head of the Bora-hansgrohe team and the Australian professional cyclist hugged. “Thank you”said Hindley. And that’s exactly what his counterpart could have said at that moment.
Team boss Denk has tears in his eyes
Denk and his team are taking part in the Tour de France for the tenth time. In 2014, the team was still at the start with a wild card at the invitation of the organizer ASO. In the meantime, the German team has long been part of the establishment in the World Tour with automatic starting authorization for all major cycling races – and of course also the biggest and most important one, the Tour.
As team boss, Denk has celebrated stage victories for his drivers, and the team has also owned the yellow jersey: In 2018, Peter Sagan wore the jaune maillot with the Bora-hansgrohe lettering for a day. But that day in Laruns could have brought Denk a big step closer to his goal of placing a rider on the podium in Paris. And that’s probably why he had a few tears in his eyes.
For Hindley “nothing changes”
Jai Hindley, 28, was a winner of the Giro d’Italia last year and was considered one of the contenders for third place on the podium ahead of this Tour behind the top two favorites, last year’s winner Jonas Vingegaard and 2020 and 2021 winner Tadej Pogacar. But now Hindley is wearing the yellow jersey, 47 seconds ahead of Vingegaard.
“Podium means one, two, three – there are three on top”, says the sporting director of the team, Rolf Aldag. Hindley himself doesn’t want to let himself be put under pressure by the burden of the overall lead, which – as he said – he didn’t expect at all when he rolled out of bed in the morning. “Nothing changes for me”Hindley explained. “I don’t want to have too many expectations of myself, I came here to be competitive.”
On the first real mountain stage in the Pyrenees, he impressively demonstrated that he is. A day when Hindley and his team took advantage of an opportunity that unexpectedly presented itself. In the hectic early phase of the race, they suddenly found themselves with three drivers in a large breakaway group – in addition to Hindley, the Austrian Patrick Konrad and the German champion Emanuel Buchmann. “It wasn’t the plan at all”Buchmann later marveled at the finish. “And suddenly we have a stage win and the yellow jersey. That’s crazy.”
Vingegaard’s team lets Hindley do it
Konrad and he played a big part in Hindley being able to land his coup. Whenever the pace in the group threatened to slow down before the first difficult climb of the day, the Col de Soudet, Konrad took over the work at the front. Later, Buchmann did important work for his captain on the Col de Marie Blanque until he set out on his solo journey towards winning the stage. As a result, he himself moved up to fourth place in the overall classification.
Hindley and Bora-hansgrohe also benefited from the fact that Vingegaard’s team Jumbo-Visma was also represented with two riders and accepted that Hindley took over the yellow jersey. “Of course it’s a fine line”said the sports director of the Dutch team, Grischa Niermann. “And of course Hindley is one of our competitors.”
Pogacar can’t keep up
But at Jumbo-Visma, they first decided to challenge main rival Tadej Pogacar. The race constellation ensured that his UAE team had to drive at the front of the field all day. At the Col de Marie Blanque, Pogacar had already worn out his helpers. And when Vingegaard finally attacked there, the Slovenian had nothing left to counter.
Pogacar was visibly upset in Laruns, which also had to do with the fact that his girlfriend Urska Zigart fell at the Giro delle Donne and had to be taken to the hospital with a suspected concussion. “It’s worse than losing a few seconds on Jonas”said Pogacar. In fact, it was just over a minute that Pogacar arrived after the Dane crossed the finish line. In the overall standings, he is now 53 seconds behind.
That’s not a big deal. But the six-week break after breaking his scaphoid in his left wrist was probably too much for the high-flyer of the spring. And the hunt for bonus seconds at the start of the tour in the Basque Country probably also had something to do with the fact that Pogacar is not yet in full possession of his strength. “Jonas was the favorite from the start”said UAE team boss Mauro Gianetti in Laruns. “And Tadej still needs to improve his form.”
Hindley’s team now in charge
The responsibility for the race now lies with Bora-hansgrohe with the man in the yellow jersey in their ranks. And that before another day in the Pyrenees with the Tourmalet and the mountain finish in Cauterets. “We don’t have the team to drive everything from the front and control the race”knows the sports director Rolf Aldag. “But we will do everything to defend yellow.”
On Thursday it will also be decided how much energy Hindley and the team took to get to the Maillot jaune. “That was a risky move by Jai”said the touched team manager Ralph Denk. “But if you don’t risk anything, you can’t win anything either.”