Jai Hindley is an Australian rider competing for BORA-hansgrohe. In recent years, he has emerged as one of the better general classification riders in the peloton, with his victory in the 2022 Giro d'Italia being his standout achievement. In 2020, he also secured second place in the Italian Grand Tour. IDLProCycling.com keeps a close eye on all news related to Hindley, along with maintaining a biography of his career.
In 2017, Jai Hindley got his first opportunity with the continental team of Mitchelton-Scott. At just twenty years old, he managed to win several lower-level races. Additionally, in the more prestigious Herald Sun Tour, he finished second in the general classification, ahead of Chris Froome and Esteban Chaves. This performance caught the attention of several teams, including Team Sunweb, which recruited the young Australian and immediately had him start in major races.
In his first professional year (2018), he participated in various smaller tours, as well as the Tour of Lombardy and the Vuelta a España. He finished the Vuelta in 32nd place and shortly after competed in the Under-23 World Championships, where he placed eleventh, with the victory going to Marc Hirschi. In 2019, Hindley continued to progress and started another grand tour, this time the Giro d'Italia, finishing in 35th place. A few months later, in the Tour of Poland, he ended up second in the general classification. Just two seconds behind Pavel Sivakov, he narrowly missed the overall victory but managed to stay ahead of well-known riders like Diego Ulissi, Tao Geoghegan Hart, and Rafal Majka. This race marked the first significant introduction to the cyclist.
While Hindley was certainly talented, his ability to contend for the overall victory in the 2020 Giro d'Italia came as somewhat of a surprise. For a long time, it seemed his teammate Wilco Kelderman would take the win, but in the final week, Tao Geoghegan Hart and Hindley proved to be stronger. The latter fell short by just 39 seconds for the overall win, but he had made his mark, and in the following years, his performances were closely scrutinized.
In 2021, Hindley struggled to replicate his impressive feats. He failed to finish the Giro d'Italia, and his best result of the season was a modest seventh place in the general classification of the Tour of Poland. It was time for a change for the once-promising, yet not fully written off, general classification rider. He left Team DSM and joined BORA-hansgrohe.
This move turned out to be a masterstroke. In the 2022 Giro d'Italia, he engaged in fierce battles with 2019 winner Richard Carapaz. After thrilling sprints and remarkable uphill duels, Hindley emerged as the strongest, beating his Ecuadorian rival by over a minute to clinch the victory, fulfilling his promise. In the Vuelta a España, he couldn't compete for the overall win, finishing tenth in the general classification.
On 5 July 2023, Hindley achieved a remarkable victory in Stage 5 of the Tour de France, crossing the finish line 32 seconds ahead of his closest competitor. This stellar performance not only won him the stage but also earned him the prestigious Yellow Jersey going into Stage 6. Over the course of 2023, Hindley finished 4th overall at the Critérium du Dauphiné, securing a commendable 7th place in the overall standings of the Tour de France, and achieving an 8th place finish in the Volta a Catalunya.