Jai Hindley enters the final block of mountain stages in the podium of the Tour de France. Whilst the explosive racing of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar has taken over the spotlight, the Australian continues a very strong and consistent race and faces a tough challenge to remain in the Top3 at the Grand Colombier.
"I’ve never ridden the Grand Colombier but I think it will be super tough and yeah, it’s the Tour de France so it’s going to be really hard and we’ll be racing up there full noise. It should be cool," Hindley said at the end of stage 12. Another hard day on the bike, which the leader of BORA - hansgrohe survived. After a very strong opening week he looks to continue his run of form all the way into Paris.
The heat and the overall fatigue that this Tour is putting on the riders will be felt for many this afternoon on the slopes of the 17-kilometer ascent, Hindley has got 1:42 minutes over Carlos Rodríguez, his closest chaser in the overall classification. However he remains wary that much of the race is still left to run, and many stages will be just as he important.
“We have a lot of tough stages coming up. I’m sure the time trial will be crucial, it’s a really tough TT. Stage 17 with Col de la Loze, I think this climb is pretty epic and will probably be one of the toughest of the race, also going to high altitude, and then with a tricky descent and then finishing on the landing strip there," he concludes. "That’s a monster day, and if you’re not having a good day on that stage, you can lose a lot of time. And I think also [stage] 15, the finish to Mont Blanc, that’s also epic with a really tough finish. I’m actually pretty keen.”
🇫🇷 #TDF2023 Taking place in the Ain department, the big challenge of the day awaits the riders on the Grand Colombier, at around 17.5km with an average gradient of over 7%. 📍 Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne ➡️ Grand Colombier 🚩 Start 13:45 🏁 Finish ca. 17:20 🛣️ 168.8km
