“Massive for the team” - Jai Hindley reacts to incoming Evenepoel at Red Bull

Jai Hindley has been handed leadership duties for Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe at the 2025 Vuelta a España, a race the team won last year with Primoz Roglic. The Slovenian is absent this time, having already raced both the Giro and Tour, leaving Hindley to spearhead the squad’s ambitions in Spain. The Australian is motivated after his Giro d’Italia campaign ended in disaster when he crashed heavily in the first week, forcing him out with multiple injuries. Now, he wants to put that disappointment behind him with a strong showing across the next three weeks.

"For me, it's clear that the GC is the big ambition of the race and I'm going for that," Hindley told Cyclingnews before the opening stage. "It'll be a big fight over three weeks, but I think it's a pretty open race, I'd say."

While acknowledging the strength of the favorites, he remains confident of his own chances. "Jonas [Vingegaard] is the big favourite of course, and then there are the two guys from UAE [João Almeida and Juan Ayuso]. But if you look at the Vuelta it's always aggressive, and anyway I'm really up for it, I'm really keen. I've been looking forward to the Vuelta since I crashed out of the Giro."

That crash was a brutal experience, but Hindley is grateful it was not worse. "I had a small concussion, also a fractured L3 vertebrae, also a small fracture of the scaphoid, so it wasn't the nicest," he recalled. "But I was also quite lucky given the heaviness of the crash and that it was at a really high speed." Recovery was not easy, but he was back on the bike relatively quickly. "In the end I had two weeks off which was also quite fast [for recovery], and I was well supported by the team, they gave me time to recover properly."

Hindley has been candid about the pressure he puts on himself. "It's not so much from the team, but I do have my own self-expectations," he admitted. "I haven't ridden the best Grand Tours in the last couple of years, so I really keen to have a good one here, and really show myself. I want to be at the pointy end of things again." The Vuelta, with its relentless climbing and aggressive racing, offers the ideal stage for him to do just that.

Looking beyond this year, Hindley also welcomed the news that Remco Evenepoel will join Red Bull–BORA–Hansgrohe in 2026, a signing that could reshape the landscape of Grand Tour racing. "We already had quite a lot of guys already for the general classification, but the addition of Remco is really massive for the team," Hindley said. "It means we can take big steps, he's a phenomenal rider, a phenomenal talent, a young guy, and a huge addition. It's exciting times for the team."