“C’est la vie, eh,” Jai Hindley mentioned as soon as he had begun to heat down exterior the Bora-Hansgrohe bus in Culoz after he had descended from the end of stage 13 of the Tour de France atop the Grand Colombier.
Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard proceed to inhabit a separate realm from all people else, however Hindley stays steadfastly in his place because the race’s third man. The Australian restricted the injury higher than most on the mountain to retain third place total forward of the race’s entry into the Alps.
The 17km haul to the end was the lone categorized climb on Friday’s leg within the Jura, and the summit end repeated the identical fact as each different mountain on this race, specifically that Pogačar and Vingegaard are in a category aside.
When Pogačar and Vingegaard surged within the ultimate 600 metres, Hindley was unable to observe, however he restricted the injury as greatest he may. He positioned sixth on the stage, 1:05 down on escapee Michał Kwiatkowski and 15 seconds down on the irrepressible Pogačar.
Within the total standings, he’s now 2:51 off Vingegaard’s yellow jersey, however nonetheless in third place and now with a buffer of virtually two minutes on Carlos Rodríguez.
“It was a shorter stage as we speak and fairly robust. The final a part of the climb was actually quick and in addition fairly loopy with all of the followers on Bastille Day,” Hindley mentioned. “I am feeling alright and I am pleased to place a while into the fellows behind, however sadly I misplaced a while to the fellows in entrance.”
As Hindley clipped into his pedals exterior his crew bus, a Bora-Hansgrohe soigneur held up a telephone to indicate him the present state of the revised basic classification, although the Australian already had a dependable overview of the lie of the land from his place on the street.
Within the ultimate 600m of the climb, he noticed Pogačar and Vingegaard transfer past his grasp, however he knew that he had put time into each different podium contender save Tom Pidcock.
“Pogačar is fairly explosive on a end like that, so when he attacked, I additionally did my very own effort full fuel to the end and I simply gave every little thing,” Hindley mentioned. “I used to be working out of fuel on the finish there, the legs weren’t turning anymore, it was fairly arduous.”
Hindley, winner of the Giro d’Italia final yr after putting second total in 2020, is using his first Tour, and the race has already been garlanded by a solo stage victory in Laruns and a day within the maillot jaune. He misplaced the tunic to Vingegaard the following day at Cauterets, nevertheless it’s arduous to class his maiden Tour so far as something apart from a hit.
All yr, Pogačar and Vingegaard have been the overwhelming favourites to win this race. Hindley, for his half, has lived as much as his billing as doubtlessly proving the very best of the remaining.
“I believe it has been like each Grand Tour, with plenty of ups and downs, plenty of robust moments, but additionally plenty of good ones,” he mentioned. “It is my first Tour and I am actually having fun with it: the environment and the racing is unimaginable. It is actually like one other stage, and I am fairly pleased to be right here.”
The summit end at Le Grand Colombier was solely the opening part of a triptych within the mountains because the Tour enters the Alps on Saturday with a demanding stage to Morzine.
Whereas Friday’s leg was tactically simple, a shoot-out on the Grand Colombier, stage 14 has altogether extra strategic permutations, with the Col de Cou, Col du Feu, Col de la Ramaz and Col de Joux Airplane all on the menu earlier than the plunge to the end.
“I believe tomorrow will once more be tremendous robust, perhaps much like yesterday, with a giant struggle for the break,” mentioned Hindley, who product of level reconnoitring the Alpine phases forward of the Tour, together with Sunday’s testing outing to Saint Gervais-Mont Blanc. “The weekend developing is actually robust. I checked out stage 15 a few weeks in the past, it is going to be a cracker.”
Earlier than climbing aboard the Bora-Hansgrohe bus, Hindley additionally had a thought for his buddy and fellow West Australian bike owner Connor Lambert, who was tragically killed in after being hit by a truck driver in Belgium this week.
“I’ve misplaced a fairly good mate of mine from WA, he is in my ideas on a regular basis,” Hindley mentioned. “My coronary heart goes out to him and everybody again residence and his household. It is actually not simple to race every single day once you lose a mate like that. It is actually robust.”