The Jai Hindley thread

[WKA311]

My guess is that during the next few years we'll mainly just see track guys like Plapp make it, since the rest of the developmental structure got pretty much demolished...

Junior program still seems to have enough money. At least they got a team over in europe currently racing some of the big junior races like Morbihan, Pays de Vaud etc.

And concerning the U23s there is at least the cooperation between Inform and Trinity these days which should see some of the top talent being able to race in Europe regularly.

 

[yaco]

My guess is that during the next few years we'll mainly just see track guys like Plapp make it, since the rest of the developmental structure got pretty much demolished...

Some will come through by using the European Amateur program BUT they will need sponsorship - There is a junior team currently racing in Europe that is funded by the Aussie federation, although there is no under 23 National development team - Yes the track program will still WT level riders - This year Plapp, O'Brien and Welsford have performed well, while on the women's side, Manly and Baker have seamlessly fitted into WT standard.

 

[42x16ss]

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next five years, seeing the developmental system has been stymied by lack of funding - The track program got far too much money in the last Olympic cycle resulting in the under 23 overseas program being mostly stopped, while during the COVID years, there were no juniors racing overseas and very limited options for the under 23's - Gerry Ryan's money can only go so far.

With the change of government at Federal level, results like this, plus Haig/Storer at Vuelta, O'Connor at the TDF and the 2032 Olympics being in Brisbane I'm pretty confident that a funding boost is in the works.

 

[42x16ss]

Some will come through by using the European Amateur program BUT they will need sponsorship - There is a junior team currently racing in Europe that is funded by the Aussie federation, although there is no under 23 National development team - Yes the track program will still WT level riders - This year Plapp, O'Brien and Welsford have performed well, while on the women's side, Manly and Baker have seamlessly fitted into WT standard.

Blake Quick hasn't even made it to Europe yet and he's embarrassed almost every WT rider he went up against over the summer

 

[hayneplane]

There will be a lot of pressure for Hindley to target the Tour next year now, but he loves Italy, and it's actually pretty rare for Giro winners to even attempt to go back to back, let alone actually do it. So I wouldn't mind him targeting the Giro again in 2023, especially if the course suits him, and if the Tour has a significant number of ITT kms.

It might well depend as much on how close Vlasov gets to the Slovenians this year as on what Hindley wants to do.

 

[dazaau]

What a win. Jai's TT was excellent and would have been even better if he was racing for the win in the second half and not also trying to reduce risks. He's clearly worked on it. A quiet achiever, but what an achievement!

Not sure what is next, but for the minute this is pretty awesome.

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

So where does this put him in the hierarchy? I suppose with Vingegaard a half step above Carapaz? Hopefully he can build on this and develop an attacking spirit.

 

[StryderHells]

Blake Quick hasn't even made it to Europe yet and he's embarrassed almost every WT rider he went up against over the summer

Blake Quick has been in Europe for 3 months.

 

[yaco]

With the change of government at Federal level, results like this, plus Haig/Storer at Vuelta, O'Connor at the TDF and the 2032 Olympics being in Brisbane I'm pretty confident that a funding boost is in the works.

The funding has been there - It's how the funding is allocated - Under Jones reign as head of the Track team, they got a disproportionate amount of funding - Blind Freddie can see that the endurance part of the track program should be all professsional riders from trade teams which will free up cash and achieve better outcomes on the track - The under 23 pathway program which has ceased to exist was an outstanding success and needs to be reinstated.

 

[Cookster15]

The Australian media was very slow to pick up on Hindley's impending achievement but they have finally woken up today. Here is an example. Times like this its fun to be from a non cycling country.

‘Hot property’: How an Australian kid who dreamed of the grand tours became a superstar

Australia’s first Giro d’Italia winner Jai Hindley always wanted to be a pro cyclist even when coaches who trained him as a junior weren’t sure if the kid who was born to climb, talented as he was, had superstar qualities.

www.smh.com.au

 

[StryderHells]

The Australian media was very slow to pick up on Hindley's impending achievement but they have finally woken up today. Here is an example. Times like this its fun to be from a non cycling country.

‘Hot property’: How an Australian kid who dreamed of the grand tours became a superstar

Australia’s first Giro d’Italia winner Jai Hindley always wanted to be a pro cyclist even when coaches who trained him as a junior weren’t sure if the kid who was born to climb, talented as he was, had superstar qualities.

www.smh.com.au

It was on the ABC and The Age news sites pretty much straight after he won the race.

 

[OlavEH]

I am mightily impressed by Hindley and his performances in this Giro. After the performances by Tao and Hindley last year, I thought the Giro 2020 was something of a fluke and that they would never achieve the same results again. But Hindley really proved to be the real deal. The Fedaia climb was enormous. With this Giro he seems to be on par with the top GC contenders behind the two Slovenians.

 

[yaco]

It was on the ABC and The Age news sites pretty much straight after he won the race.

It did not make the hourly news bulletin on a number of major radio stations even six hours after the finish.

 

[Scarponi]

Yeah was pretty disappointing he was barely
mentioned on radio or tv for a long time. Evans used to get mentioned a lot.

 

[Cookster15]

Yeah was pretty disappointing he was barely
mentioned on radio or tv for a long time. Evans used to get mentioned a lot.

Yes very disappointing but hopefully he gets more exposure when Australian sports journalists stop acting like sheep and start appreciating a truly good news story. You are right we have gone backwards since Evans time.

Although maybe also partially because the Giro doesn’t have the prestige of the TdF - at least in Australia. But any half decent journalist could do even a small amount of research and realise just how big Hindley’s achievement really is.

 

[spalco]

I am mightily impressed by Hindley and his performances in this Giro. After the performances by Tao and Hindley last year, I thought the Giro 2020 was something of a fluke and that they would never achieve the same results again. But Hindley really proved to be the real deal. The Fedaia climb was enormous. With this Giro he seems to be on par with the top GC contenders behind the two Slovenians.

The frustrating thing about this Giro is that we don't really know. Ok, he beat Carapaz (and imo pretty convincingly), but almost nothing actually happened until stage 20. He's one of the younger GT winners, so he could still improve, but what does this victory mean for his future - I have no idea, especially in a GT with a reasonable amount of TT kms.

 

[OlavEH]

The frustrating thing about this Giro is that we don't really know. Ok, he beat Carapaz (and imo pretty convincingly), but almost nothing actually happened until stage 20. He's one of the younger GT winners, so he could still improve, but what does this victory mean for his future - I have no idea, especially in a GT with a reasonable amount of TT kms.

He also beat Landa by solid margin and was far ahead of Almeida before he withdrew. I'm pretty sure that means that Hindley is a quality rider. Except for the Slovenians, I can't really see anyone else than Bernal and Vingegaard who could have beat him if they showed up in good form. And perhaps S.Yates could have done something if he wasn't injured (and also is consistently unstable). Mas, Vlasov, Martinez, etc., would IMO had trouble beating Hindley.

 

[saganftw]

i think hindley is that type of GT winner who cant win tour because of lack of really hard steep mountain stages, but can win giro or vuelta, he doesnt have problems with changing pace, he has good end of hard stage sprint, he is not a grinder who always have to catch up, also long TT will set him back too much

right now he is in 2nd tier (with vingegaard,carapaz) of GT riders,if he goes to vuelta without pog or roglic or vingegaard he has to be the favourite to win it as well, he is also only 26, thats like the start of his prime and most importantly he is not the "there is always something wrong with him" guy like MAL,Dumoulin,Yates so there is chance he keeps going like that he will win more GTs in the future

 

[Unchained]

Cadel Evans lost all credibility.

 

[SafeBet]

Yesterday Jai Hindley visited the museum of cycling on top of Ghisallo. At first nobody recognized him, but after his visit he came back in to sign and donate his maglia rosa (there's a long-lasting tradition of Giro d'Italia winners donating their jersey). You can see the moment in his IG stories.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yeah was pretty disappointing he was barely
mentioned on radio or tv for a long time. Evans used to get mentioned a lot.

The thing with Evans was, though, although he got a lot of criticism for negative racing, he did at least create talking points elsewise, like threatening to cut journalists' heads off or whining about some perceived injustice or another in the race, so there would be something to cover. Because of the timid nature of the racing at this Giro, there wasn't a great deal to grab the news for non-cycling fans in Australia until the Fedaia stage. I mean, the headlines would have been things like "Hindley still in contention after stage (X)" with not a great deal else to say until all of a sudden it was "Hindley in prime position to win the second biggest stage race on the planet with one stage remaining".

Given the fact most stages will have taken place in the middle of the night for Australians as well it's probably harder to grab a casual audience that way, while the dedicated audience that follows cycling I would presume to already be well aware of what the Giro is and how well Hindley is doing in it.

 

[Cookster15]

Today on the Peñas Blancas MTF Hindley didn't have the power to follow the leaders and leaked more time finishing 1'32" behind Remco, Mas & Roglic.

Today Bora got some return with Kelderman getting into a break and is now 6th on GC. But as mentioned elsewhere Giro riders curiously not so good in this Vuelta despite 3 months to recover and prepare and Jai Hindley is no exception. Despite Carapaz winning today's stage he has obviously given up on GC. and lies behind Hindley in 16th.

As far as I can tell, only Rein Taaramäe who is 29th on GC has improved his level since the Giro, although special mention to Almeida who lies 8th on GC and was a big podium threat in the Giro before Covid took him out on stage 18.

@Mods: I tried making a list of those who rode the Giro showing current Vuelta GC position after stage 12 and final GC position at the Giro but the site aligns and renumbers - so I left off?

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

Bravo Jai! A Tour stage win and yellow for at least a day, should be favorite for 3rd right now.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Fantastic performance. A mod needs to change the thread poll...

 

[Gigs_98]

I only wish he would have gained a bit more time. Could have made the rest of this Tour quite a bit more interesting.