Stage 14 of the 2024 Tour de France should have been a big day for Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe with Primoz Roglic fighting for the Maillot Jaune on the Col du Tourmalet and Pla d'Adet. Sadly, the Slovenian was forced to abandon after a crashing late on both stage 11 and stage 12.
With the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe team having been built around Roglic and their plan B in the general classification, Aleksandr Vlasov already out of the race, the team heads into the high mountains of stage 14 somewhat rudderless. "It's really tough for the whole team," Jai Hindley admits in his pre-stage 14 interview with ITV Sport. "I think obviously, for Primoz personally, he was putting everything into this race, along with the rest of the team, so it's a massive blow."
Now that Roglic has gone from the 2024 Tour de France, the team need to refocus and attempt to somehow, some way get themselves some success to take home. Is Hindley the man to do that via a breakaway stage win? Because at over 19 minutes down, any GC success for the former Giro d'Italia winner looks slim.
"The race continues and we have to change the mentality and try to still make something out of the Tour. We'll try and take the opportunities when they come," the Aussie explains. "The time loss wasn't optional to be honest! I didn't really have the legs when we've had some of the hard stages. I haven't felt like the old me for the first part of the race, which is unfortunate but it is what it is. Just got to keep rolling with the punches and like I said, we're still really motivated to make something of the race and try to go for a stage or something. I think there's a good possibility and I don't know if today is a breakaway day, I've a feeling it could be a big GC battle but anyway, if you want to be in the break, you've got to be in the mix and we'll be there."
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