Jai Hindley eyeing second Vuelta week: "I’m still hoping that the legs are gonna turn around"

Jai Hindley won the Giro d'Italia this year and into the Vuelta a Espana he's been seeking the same form that has seen him thrive in Italy. Currently he looks a level below, but is well within the GC fight after the opening week.

“I was hoping to go a bit better than I currently am, to be honest, but you get that sometimes. Sometimes when everything goes right beforehand, it doesn’t go right in the race and vice versa," Hindley said in a press conference on the race's second rest day. "So I'm not too sure what's going on, but I’m still enjoying the racing. There's still plenty of hard days to come and I’m still hoping that the legs are gonna turn around.”

The opening week of the race saw three harshly-attacked summit finished from Remco Evenepoel which have forced the GC riders to go all-out on each of them. This has created massive gaps within the Top10, to which Hindley sits in ninth position after a difficult day in Les Praeres. The Australian is one who prefers the high mountains, altitude and third week of racing however, so he will be favoured by the second half of the Spanish race.

“I think the podium might be a bit out of reach," he argues however. "The top five guys have just shown they’re really consistent and up there every day. They’re looking quite strong… but you never know".

Most of this damage has been created by Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian has shown stellar form after the opening week, Hindley has commented on the 22-year old. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins the Vuelta. He’s flying and fair play to him. There’s still a long way to go, you never know how he’s going to go in this last week but he’s done everything right so far.”

Hindley has also pointed out how hard the opening week was - which may play to his advantage later on in the race. “Starting with the days in the Netherlands, they were maybe not the hardest on paper, but stage 3 was actually really hard. If you asked a lot of the riders how they felt, they’d say they were pretty nailed," he pointed out.

“That pretty much set the tone for the days to come. First stage in Spain was also really hard and pretty hot. There haven’t been too many days where we’ve just been rolling round: the breakaway has always taken a while to go and it’s been pretty aggressive racing at the start most days. Classic Vuelta style, it’s just very unpredictable. Still a long way to go, still a lot of hard days to come, still plenty of opportunities for us as a team," he concluded.

Today's time-trial will be an important day for the Australian, as he will try to limit the losses as much as possible in unfavourable terrain.