‘It’s Netflix – it’s got to be drama’: Australian star speaks out on rivalry ahead of Tour de France
By Sophie Smith
Jai Hindley insists he has no beef with Australian rival Ben O’Connor as he prepares for the Tour de France, set to play a vital role in what could be one of the most open and hard-fought contests for the title in years.
Perth climbers Hindley and O’Connor both competed for the yellow jersey last season, their exploits captured in a Netflix series on the 21-stage race, which this year covers 3498 kilometres over three weeks.
Jai Hindley ahead of the start of this year’s Tour de France.Credit: Joerg Mitter (Red Bull Content Pool)
Tour de France: Unchained breaks the media’s unwritten Tour rules, with brazen crews ignorant of or indifferent to protocols cycling journalists have abided by and enforced like Bible commandments for decades. In this era, TV has priority and Netflix’s microphones loom over all conversations between reporters, riders, team staff, and even lovers. Nothing is sacred. Cameras now loiter inside team buses that have previously been a sanctuary from the noise of the unremitting sport’s most-watched event.
The dramatisation of a rivalry between two countrymen was different from the usual nationalistic camaraderie purported by Australian media, such as Simon Clarke last year mustering all the Aussie riders together for a photo before battle commenced. But it did make for gripping viewing.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s Grand Depart in Florence, Italy, Hindley set the record straight.
“Netflix, they just take the piss, and cut and change and dramatise everything,” he said.
“I get it, but all the things I said were also (taken) completely out of context.
“I’ve got no issues with Ben O’Connor at all. It’s Netflix. It’s got to be drama.
“(But it’s) good exposure for the team.”
O’Connor isn’t racing in this year’s Tour.
Hindley on the bike is calculated and daring. His victory at the 2022 Giro d’Italia and Tour debut last season, when he won a stage – underestimated by two-time champions Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar – and had a stint in the yellow jersey, which only three riders wore, attests.
However, the 28-year-old also has a natural ability to put others at ease. That may aid what is shaping as another career-defining chapter for him and new Bora-hansgrohe teammate Primoz Roglic. So too could Red Bull’s sponsorship, after the energy drink goliath bought a 51 per cent share in the German outfit earlier this year. The team was officially renamed Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe on Wednesday.
No one challenged their demoted status when Slovenian star Roglic signed with the squad last October, on the proviso he got outright team leadership at the Tour. Before the emergence of defending champion Vingegaard at Team Visma - Lease a Bike, it was Roglic who led the Dutch squad and who posed the biggest threat to his countryman Pogacar (UAE Emirates).
“The Tour is always quite a unique race with the selection process – sometimes the guys who are going don’t know until the last minute,” Hindley said. “But our team, they were clear and upfront with who the team would be, and it’s also nice to be with the majority of the team, and to do training camps, and races together, and to really get to know the guys that you’re going to be racing with.”
In February, Hindley had no answer on how to beat Vingegaard and Pogacar, such was their dominance in France, but that gap appears to have since narrowed.
“To have big riders spread out across different teams makes the race better,” he said.
Roglic won the litmus test that is the Criterium du Dauphine this month – rebounding from a death-defying crash at April’s Itzulia Basque Country that saw multiple Tour favourites hospitalised. The Tour will be Vingegaard’s first race back since that crash where he sustained lung damage, a broken collarbone and ribs.
“Not really any of the big favourites have had an ideal run into the Tour,” Hindley said. “The big crash … for all those guys to come back from that is impressive.
“We are definitely right up there in the mix but the red-hot favourite – I don’t think so. In saying that, we also come with big ambitions and a really strong team, so hopefully we can be in the mix from day one.”
Pundits have tipped Pogacar to claim his third yellow jersey after twice finishing runner-up to Vingegaard in 2022 and 2023. It’s not surprising considering the once “small, shy, boy” turned supernova has won four of the five races he’s started this season, including the Giro by a considerable margin.
However, as Hindley knows, the Giro takes a toll that may impede Pogacar’s quest for another Grand Tour title.
“It’s quite hard to back that effort up after the Tour,” Hindley said.
“Stage one is already super hard. You can’t win the Tour there, but you can lose it, and potentially also day two. Then you have stage nine with the gravel – this could be a really tricky stage. The final TT will be crucial and could come down to the wire.”
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