Jai Hindley, the cyclist who forged his winning character after learning the taste of defeat

Before the 105th edition of the Giro d’Italia began, Jai Hindley’s name appeared on some of the pools of favorites to lift the precise Senza Fine Trophy at the Verona amphitheater awarding the Corsa Rosa champion. But where he appeared he made it in small print, as behind the door, as in the background. It’s true that he was 2nd in the 2021 Giro, but after a 2021 marked by Covid and injuries, few bet on this 26-year-old cyclist, who before the Giro started was writing pretty color- gray season.

But when the push came, Hindley was the best. Supported by the best team, the German squad Bora, the bravest and strongest in the race, Hindley has the wisdom to be consistent, to go from less to more, to conserve his energy, to show his arguments with success at the Blockhays and waiting for his moment, at the wheel of a Richard Carapaz who feared the worst. A fierce attack on Hindley in the most demanding kilometers of Marmolada was enough to ascend the Giro throne. As in 2020, he faces a decisive time of career leadership, but three years later the same thing will no longer happen to him as before, when British Man Geoghegan Hart snatched the glory from him. The situation favored him, the margin with respect to Carapaz (2nd) and the time trial profile. Defeat in 2020 further hardened his character and he will not be allowed to repeat the same thing this year. “In 2020 I lost the Giro on the last day. Not winning broke my soul. And that memory, the desire to never suffer that horrible again, motivated me more than anything. I thought about it a lot and it was a great motivation ”, he said after winning the pink jersey at the Marmolada.

A resident of Andorra, Hindley, who has only eight successes as a professional, is one of those cyclists with a special character, solid as an oak, capable of overcoming everything and everything, the distance and the lack of affection for having his relatives far, far away. He was born in the city of Perth, the state capital of Western Australia, the largest city on Australia’s west coast, with nearly two million inhabitants, a privileged enclave for surfing, windsurfing or kitesurfing, but Jai, little friend of the social network, he chose cycling, even though he also liked football.

His father, British Gordon, flew him for the first time like many fathers. He did it at the age of six and the boy liked it so he became the best junior in Australia, knowing how to take advantage of his pure climbing condition (60 kg, 1.75 cm tall). To succeed or try, he needs to pack his bags. He first tried it on a team from Taiwan, the Attaque Team Gusto, and then he went to Italian Abruzzo, where he spent six months and where he left a record of his class. He made his debut in the top cycling category on the Sunweb team, before signing for DSM and graduating this year in Bora, and they both made history at the same time. Hindley as the first Australian to win the Giro and the German team to achieve their first big, without their great star, Peter Sagan, which they removed this year and could not find his pedal stroke.

Ambitious, Hindley’s challenge now is to stay on top of the wave, not on a board like many of his friends in Perth do, but on his bike, a challenge where again, beyond his category, he has the character to in his favor. “When you’re from Australia and you’re a professional cyclist you have to be strong mentally. A lot of people take for granted how difficult it is. I haven’t seen my parents since the start of 2020” , says the 2022 champion Giro, who needs to find the necessary motivation after a gray 2021, marked by Covid and injuries, which ended up being a fighter that he wasn’t. satisfied with reign in Italy. He has already warned that we will likely see him at the Vuelta, which fits his characteristics, and at the Cycling World Championship, to be held this year from September 18 to 25 in Wollongong, in New South Wales, Australia. , the best of the awards for this Australian cyclist emigré who until this past Sunday had not seen his parents for more than two years.