"Back being a team leader is a great feeling" - Jai Hindley's Grand Tour dreams resurface with strong start to La Vuelta 2025 after difficult seasons

After a challenging 18 months disrupted by illness, injury, and surgery, Jai Hindley is back where he wants to be: in a Grand Tour, in contention, and riding as a protected leader.

Currently sitting seventh overall after seven stages of the 2025 Vuelta a Espana, the 2022 Giro d’Italia winner trails red jersey Torstein Traeen by 2:53 — but perhaps more crucially, he's just 20 seconds behind second-placed Jonas Vingegaard, a rider he knows all too well from battles past. It’s a position that offers promise and, more importantly, opportunity — something Hindley has been craving since being forced out of the Giro earlier this season.

“Being back as a team leader is a great feeling,” the Australian said in quotes collected by Bici.Pro. “We’ve got a lot of strong riders and multiple leaders, so you have to take your chances when they come. I’ve been focused on this race since the start of the year because I knew there would be space for me to lead. After the crash at the Giro, it was all about recovering well and arriving here in the best shape possible.”

Hindley’s Vuelta campaign began on familiar ground. The opening stages in Italy — and particularly the start in Turin — had emotional weight for a rider who has deep ties to the country, both personally and professionally. “He loves Italy,” said Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe teammate Giulio Pellizzari, “so beginning the Vuelta here gave him a lift. He’s been really calm and focused.”

Indeed, there’s a sense of quiet determination around Hindley this time — a man who has endured the frustration of interrupted momentum, but whose belief hasn’t wavered. Illness plagued him between races in 2023, and it became clear that physical issues were hindering his progress. By year’s end, Hindley underwent surgery to correct a deviated septum, a long-standing issue compounded by seasonal allergies.

“Last year felt like a constant setback,” explained his fiancée, Martina Centomo, who has watched his comeback from close quarters. “He was sick between nearly every race. He couldn’t find rhythm. But the operation changed things — this season he’s finally been able to breathe and train properly again.”

But just as things appeared to be clicking, fate intervened once more. A heavy crash on stage six of the Giro d’Italia forced Hindley to abandon — and once again enter recovery mode. “I remember visiting him in hospital,” Centomo recalled. “He was really down. He’d worked so hard to be ready for the Giro and it all vanished in a moment. He couldn’t move properly, so he had to stay at my parents’ house for a week before he could even travel. But the team was fantastic with him. He followed the rehab plan at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center in Austria, and from July he was back training at altitude in Livigno.”

As ever, Centomo remains both support crew and close observer. A former youth cyclist herself, she worked on the Italian start of the Vuelta — translating for international broadcasters at the team presentation — before donning her supporter’s cap for the race itself. She’s seen enough to believe a big result is within reach. “Jai’s recharged — but also calm and confident in the work he’s done,” she said. “This time, he knows he’s done everything right. And he’s thrilled about the Worlds call-up too. That gave him another boost.”

“He pretends to be shy,” Centomo laughed, “but he does speak it a bit. The other day, one of the team staff told me he used Italian on the race radio to call out a hazard: ‘Occhio a sinistra!’”

As the Vuelta heads into the mountains, the next week will be decisive — not just for Hindley’s GC ambitions, but for his long-term trajectory within Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe. The team is already looking ahead to the future with Remco Evenepoel signed long-term, and Primoz Roglic potentially eyeing retirement in the next two seasons. A resurgent Hindley — still only 29 — could become a cornerstone of their Grand Tour plans.

But for now, it’s all about Madrid. “The route has some great uphill finishes where I can do something,” Hindley said. “The priority is a strong result in the GC. Vingegaard’s clearly in top shape — his comeback in Limone after that crash was impressive. But we’ll fight every day and see where we end up.”

From Giro champion to comeback hopeful, Jai Hindley is once again back in the mix. And this time, he’s not just riding — he’s leading.