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Jai Hindley rode into the cycling history books with a magnificent performance to win stage 5 of the Tour de France and move into the yellow jersey as the new race leader.
The 27-year-old got a jump on his rivals by slipping into the early breakaway, using his teammates well to give himself a buffer heading into the final climb. There, he attacked away from his rivals and held off a rampant Jonas Vingegaard to win the stage and move into the yellow jersey as the overall leader.
"It’s really incredible," said Hindley. "The guys in the radio were just screaming about riding to the line… I couldn’t hear anything else."
“This was not really the plan. We kinda improvised out there, it was a way to enjoy bike racing. I found myself in that group and enjoyed it.
"I wanted to put as much as time as possible on the GC, and win the stage… and now find myself in the yellow jersey."
Hindley is a Grand Tour winner with his 2022 Giro d'Italia success, but he is a Tour de France rookie, albeit a highly-credentialled one.
"I didn’t really know what to expect," said Hindley. "It’s my first Tour and it’s hard to come here with such massive ambitions already. I wanted to be competitive, be on the hunt for success. And I just one a stage, which is pretty incredible.
"Thanks to my family, my girlfriend, my fans, everyone who supported me throughout my whole career… and I’m just so thankful to everyone.”
Hindley was part of the early breakaway that formed with 140 kilometres left to race, splitting away gradually over a small rise, with Hindley attentive to slip into the move.
It was a large group of 36 riders, including representation from most teams. They quickly gained a big advantage on the peloton, pushing out to a minute and a half quite quickly, perhaps before they realised the presence of the Australian general classification threat.
Also in the move were Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) both relevant as their teams, especially as the super-squad of Jumbo-Visma wouldn’t commit to chasing the escapees down.
Yellow jersey holders UAE Team Emirates were left to make the pace by themselves, and the lead stretched out to four minutes for the breakaway. Hindley saved his efforts on the climbs and the descents was more attentive on the climbs and descents, taking more responsibility on himself to follow moves and set the pace, but he was conserving where he could rely on his teammates.
The breakaway was essentially together at the bottom of the final climb of the stage, the Col de Marie Blanque with a two-minute and 40 second advantage back to the chasing peloton with 27 kilometres remaining.
Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroen) was the first to attack, and while Hindley was patient earlier, here he followed before attacking clear to go solo at the head of the race.
There was action behind as the peloton ramped up their speed, with Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) launching a massive attack that saw his main rival, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) dropped and struggling to follow.
Hindley crested the climb with just over a minute lead on the charging Vingegaard, with a few stragglers from the breakaway, Ciccone, Gall and Emanuel Buchmann (BORA-hansgrohe) swept by the defending champion en route to the finish in Laruns.
With just the descent and short run along the flat into the finish remaining, Hindley held strong to take the stage victory and move into the race lead, the eighth Australian to wear the yellow jersey.
