Tour de France. Jay Hindley’s hunchback hit

Looking up from the hills that anticipate, gentle and bald, the Pyrenees, the runners saw, in the distance, more clouds than peaks. And that was good news: the heat wouldn’t attack them, it wouldn’t stick to their wheel, weighing it down. Sometimes a trivial signal is enough to reinforce the riotous intentions that perhaps had been dreamed of the previous day or the morning itself. Jay Hindley didn’t have the slightest desire at the start of the Tour de France to act as a distant, lost backdrop behind those two, the usual suspects: Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar. He wanted to put himself to the test, to understand if he could also race as a great protagonist in the Tour de France. He had already won a Giro d’Italia, a year ago, but they had pointed out to him that those two, the usual suspects, weren’t there.

Jay Hindley saw the clouds in the distance and those rushing overhead, he thought it was a good day to try the hunchback shot. He placed himself in the first positions, he told his teammates to pay attention to what was happening and that if the right conditions were created, he would be ready. They were ready, he was ready. Between one burst and another of more or less usual attackers, about thirty kilometers from the start, the group broke up, thirty-six riders found themselves in the vanguard, among them many strong-legged people: from Julian Alaphilippe to Wout van Aert , from Felix Gall to Giulio Ciccone, from Matteo Jorgenson to Valentin Madouas, from Maxime van Gils to Krists Neilands. And then him, Jay Hindley with Patrick Konrad and Emanuel Buchmann, the best of the gregarious at his disposal.

Bora-hansgrohe kept the speed up, tried to put as many minutes between their captain and the peloton as possible. Then he thought about it. First on the Col du Soudet, Pyrenean debut in this year’s Tour, managing the desire for enterprise of others. Then on the Col du Marie Blanque, this time in cohabitation with Felix Gall and finally alone. A solitude twenty kilometers long. A very sweet, exciting solitude, made of ascending lightness and descending precision, finally winning and yellow. Stage victory and first position overall with 47 seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard. Not bad this Jay Hindley.

Behind the Australian, the second to cross the finish line was Giulio Ciccone, who preceded Felix Gall, Emanuel Buchmann and Jonas Vingegaard in the sprint. The Italian was quite angry, partly mad at the lost opportunity, partly at the decision of his flagship not to collaborate with the Dane. It would have been difficult to film Hindley, not impossible to judge Ciccone’s reaction.

Among the first pursuers there was an obvious absence: Tadej Pogacar.

The Slovenian’s face had progressively darkened as Sepp Kuss, Vingegaard’s teammate, increased speed uphill. He had turned black when the Dane got up on the pedals to sprint twenty kilometers from the finish. He hadn’t followed him, he had tried not to overdo it, to stay as close to him as possible, even if from afar. The distance between them had gradually widened, when the back of the last Tour winner had disappeared from his field of vision, Pogacar snorted, tried to do everything possible not to lose his temper, defended himself as best he could. He arrived in Laruns one minute and four seconds after taking away the eleven seconds advantage he had in the morning, they make fifty-three seconds on the rump to be taken around tomorrow for the second Pyrenean stage, that of the Col du Tourmalet, the one that leads to Cauterets-Cabasque ; that make a minute and forty by Jay Hindley.

Tadej Pogacar hasn’t lost his smile upon arrival. He admitted that Vingegaard was stronger, that his legs were lacking in the last kilometer of the Marie Blanque – where much of his gap materialized – but that the hopes are the same. That’s how they always say, that the Tour is long. It really is and a shot immediately can turn into a given shot. Hopes. Jonas Vingegaard looks quite fit, seems quite motivated, maybe he’s not invincible, but he rides like a marvel. However in the yellow jersey is Jay Hindley and this is an interesting variation on a theme that seemed to be the same as it was a year ago.

The Tour is long, still two and a half weeks and many opportunities to question what the road said today. It will be an intense July, it will be a very short and fast July.

The fifth stage of the Tour de France 2023: the order of arrival and the general classification