Jai Hindley turns to extreme surgery in bid to keep Grand Tour winning hopes alive: “You are spitting up a lot of blood all the time"
CyclingTuesday, 18 March 2025 at 09:09
A former Giro d'Italia winner and wearer of the Maillot Jaune at the Tour de France, Jai Hindley has found big results a lot harder to come by over the last couple of years. In search of a return to his best, the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe star has now turned to an extreme surgery at the request of his team doctor.
“It basically started after Tirreno (2024 ed.), I just had this run of illness. It was not normal at all,” the Australian details of his past run of bad luck in conversation with Velo, from the 2025 edition of Tirreno-Adriatico. “You put in the work, put in the time, sacrifice everything and then you still go like shit, basically. It was pretty frustrating.”
Even more frustrating was the fact that the issue still remained relatively unknown. At least that was until an ENT specialist diagnosed Hindley with a deviated nasal septum. “We came to the idea that potentially can be the reason why I’m getting so sick. My nose is quite narrow and it’s just easy for bacteria to get stuck in there,” Hindley explained.
With a diagnosis of the issue found, now Hindley and Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe doctors set about trying to find a solution to the problem. They hope, that has come in form of an extreme and bloody surgery. “They make a cut inside your nose, take out the cartilage. And from what I understand, they hammer it flat on a table or something, and then they put it back in. I think it’s a bit more scientific than that, but I think that’s the general way of working,” Hindley says of the fix proposed by his team's doctors. “It’s pretty rough. For two weeks your nose is really out of action and feeling really grim. You are spitting up a lot of blood all the time, and just feeling really blocked. The nose is really swollen too — if you look at the team photos, my nose is pretty big…”
Although it's probably still too early to tell if the problem has been solved for good, Hindley took a creditable 5th overall at Tirreno-Adriatico 2025 and is hopeful for the future. “Basically our team doctor was pretty convinced that if I got this surgery, then it would help a lot. You have got to do everything you can," says the Aussie. “In theory it should help the breathing a lot, and also should reduce the amount of sickness during the season. If it can help even a little bit, then it’s worth doing, in my opinion.”
Hindley won the Giro d'Italia in 2023
The big question though, is whether or not Hindley can get back to the kind of form that saw him win the Maglia Rosa at the 2022 Giro d'Italia. “It’s hard to say. I think Tirreno was good last year, and it was also going in the right way. Maybe not like my best, best shape, but I think I was pretty good. I also felt like I was pretty competitive," he assesses honesty. “Since then, I don’t think so. I don’t think I really hit top shape. Also in the Canadian races, I was feeling good again, but that top shape, I don’t think so, no. It was quite hard to get back there. I hope the operation will help.”
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🇮🇹 #TirrenoAdriatico
— Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe (@RBH_ProCycling) March 15, 2025
Great effort by @JaiHindley and the team! After the boys put in a lot of work on today's 6th stage, Jai finished 3rd at the mountain-top finish, climbing up to 5th in the GC.
📷@GettySport pic.twitter.com/F0ZZW3moTk
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- I think it’s pretty weird under the circumstances and won’t be surprised if one day we discover some unmentioned detail that triggered this. In the meantime, hope he finds himself elsewhere.Mistermaumau08-05-2025
- Reusser is amazing too. More than just a TT specialist.mobk08-05-2025
- Tough to beat her on the long climbs if she has a team that will bring her fresh to the bottom of the climbsmobk08-05-2025
- Er, building up a 20 second gap in less than a km against the best is not exactly nothing, must have been at least 10% faster. Peletons also reel in breakaways but if they don’t manage BEFORE the end the reeling in doesn’t really mean much does it. She did exactly the right think, destroyed the others’ chances of catching her with a massive attack.Mistermaumau08-05-2025
- Demi must be so happy to now be on a team that works for her, and not against her. I think that if she and the team get their tactics dialed in, she could prove to be unstoppable this year.
santiagobenites08-05-2025 - I wouldn't call 24 seconds destroyed. At the end she was suffering and Reusser was slowly reeling her backabstractengineer08-05-2025
- I dont expect much from them top 5 maybeabstractengineer08-05-2025
- G does not strike me as a tactical support but more of a strategic one. His tactics were follow train and opponents and sprint at the endabstractengineer08-05-2025
- These pro forma statements, always the same, no wonder most people don’t get enthusiastic about follow cycling in depth.Mistermaumau08-05-2025
- Go, Yatesy!! And Felix!mhfrvz08-05-2025
I had a deviated septum. Legacy of falling out of a tree on to my face. The op which was basically a hammer and chisel job, took a long time to get over. Even now years laterI'm susceptible to infections on one side of my sinuses. During high pollen count periods it's worse. It always held me back at times when endurence cycling. It's an extreme cure and I hope it works out for Jai.
Sad. Have you ever tried a humidifier?
Yes but I found it difficult to hold onto it while cycling......... Seriously though I've researched and tried pretty much every remedy imaginable. Last week was bad, this last few days no problems.
Funny :-)
You probably are the only Scot here and we’re lucky to even have one, not sure there are even 30 of us in total so many countries aren’t even “represented”.
"We came to the idea that potentially can be the reason why I’m getting so sick" It is not even confirmed. Is the only cyclist with this issue? I think they are grasping at straws
Not sure that’s the whole story otherwise babies would be a lit more susceptible to nose bacteria too. Obviously cyclist breathe far more than average humans which should help keep things cleaner, on the other hand if you don’t clean your nose well or use an infected finger … and then why bacteria and not viruses? I would prepare mentally for more testing if this doesn’t solve things. Teeth and gums are the most overlooked entry point for infectious agents. Ears and eyes can also be easily contaminated.
Crazy