Australian Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) created history atop the Blockhaus, a place where legends of the sport like Eddy Merckx, José Manuel Fuente, Moreno Argentin, and Nairo Quintana, have saluted victory in the past.
Hindley put his name alongside those greats with a gritty ride on a day where he overcame bad sensations to fight back and sprint to the win from a select group of climbers.
“I was in shock yesterday,” said Hindley in an interview with SBS Sport's Jamie Finch-Penninger. “I didn’t know how my legs were going to feel on that final climb, I actually didn’t feel super great but to come away with a win was great. I’m riding on cloud nine today.”
The 26-year-old from Perth thought he was in trouble when Tasmanian Richie Porte (INEOS Grenadiers) produced a characteristic leg-sapping surge up the steep inclines of the Blockhaus, the retiring rider reminding those why he has been one of the top climbers in the world for the last decade.
“Pretty savage,” was how Hindley characterised the tempo set by Porte. “Richie’s a world-class rider and he’s in pretty good form I’d say. He was ripping people’s legs off on that climb.
“I wasn’t on the best day and I was in survival mode. To tell the truth, I was pretty happy when he pulled off and was done for the day because he was dishing out the pain.”
With 4.5 kilometres to go, Porte peeled off from the front and it was down to the top favourites for the overall win, with some contenders like Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) and Hindley’s BORA-hansgrohe teammate Wilco Kelderman already dropped. Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) launched an attack that Hindley tried to follow, hanging between two groups before tactically retreating to the chasers.
“I knew when Richie pulled off that Carapaz was going to go,” said Hindley. “I knew I didn’t really have the explosive acceleration on the day so I was just trying to ride my tempo. I looked behind and saw [Joao] Almeida and he’s quite a good rider at setting his own tempo.
“I did a few turns with him. When I was on the front, I wasn’t really closing the gap, when he was pulling he was holding ground and making some time back on the front three guys. He kind of saved me yesterday. Fortunately, they were cat-and-mousing a bit in front so we were able to come back.”
Hindley had to fight back again from a later attack and it became a sprint between six on the hardest day of the 2022 Giro to date. The Perth-born rider decided to take things up from the front.
“I knew there was this right-hand corner with 200 metres to go and I wanted to be first through it,” said Hindley. “I opened up the sprint pretty early, maybe too early, but at the end of a hard mountain stage like that it was better to lead it out and go long rather than come off the wheel of the punchier guys there.”
The rest is what cycling fans already know, the gutsy, long sprint to the line saw him hold the more experienced and credentialled pair of Carapaz and Romain Bardet (Team DSM), with Hindley collapsing to the ground just after the finish, fully spent from the effort that saw him claim the landmark win.
“I was pretty done,” said Hindley. “I was happy to see the finish line and happy there was no one in front of me. It took me a while to get my breath back after the finish, it was an all-out effort from the bottom of the climb to the top. An epic day out for sure.”
Hindley is quickly building a reputation for himself as an athlete who excels on the biggest stage in the hardest races, with all of his wins coming in races where the hardest climbs feature.
“Those are the days that suit me, epic days with lots of climbing elevation,” said Hindley. “I just enjoy and look forward to those days. To get a win on the Blockhaus is, it’s an iconic climb and it’s pretty cool to add it to the palmares.”
Stages 10 to 15 look to be easier than the test Hindley just passed with flying colours, but the West Australian was wary of unforeseen difficulties that can ruin the GC candidature of top riders.
“There are quite a lot of stages for the sprinters but I find these intermediate stages with 3,000 metres of climbing where it’s quite undulating - where you least expect it - it can be a massive fight for GC. Maybe on paper the second week isn’t the hardest but I think there will be some interesting days. Then the third week is just standard Giro d’Italia, just epic.”
‘Epic’ should suit Hindley, but he’s not the only man for his team with the German squad featuring German rider Emanuel ‘Emu’ Buchmann in a handy position on the general classification as well. Buchmann is ninth overall at 1’06, while Hindley is fifth, just 20 seconds behind race leader Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo).
“As far as I’m concerned yesterday didn’t really change much,” said Hindley. “It’s a three-week race and Emu also had a really strong day. The more options and cards we have to play the better. It was super unfortunate that Wilco (Kelderman) needed the bike change when it was full-on racing, but that’s racing.
“In terms of leadership, we have two guys trying to do the best they can on GC.”
When the climbing gets toughest, Jai Hindley, even when ‘not on the best day’, excels in a field containing some of the best cyclists in the world. He’ll get plenty of opportunities to showcase that ability in the rest of the 2022 Giro d’Italia and going one better than his runner-up finish overall in the 2020 Giro is a real possibility.
The Giro d’Italia returns with Stage 10 on Tuesday evening, a 196km stage with a hilly finale from Pescara to Jesi. Watch on Tuesday from 8.10pm AEST on SBS On Demand, with the SBS broadcast starting at 11.00pm AEST. WA viewers can tune in from 9pm AWST on SBS VICELAND.
