“Sometimes Jai is too nice!" - BORA - hansgrohe hoping Hindley can learn from Primoz Roglic and take on a killer instinct

After leading BORA - hansgrohe's charge at the 2023 Tour de France, even getting himself into the Maillot Jaune, Jai Hindley has a different role this year as a plan-B/super domestique for Primoz Roglic.

“I also expected some discussion or some arguments about it but there was really zero,” admits sports director Enrico Gasparotto in conversation with Cycling News. “Jai is a super nice person. He’s a champion in cycling but as a person he’s a really, nice, polite person. And sometimes what I told him to do is when he has the leadership of a team, he should be a little bit more, not hard with his teammates, but he should probably say what he wants in a straight way. Sometimes Jai is too nice! In the crucial moments… I see the position of a leader like a person who has to take the responsibility and also address directly to everybody the things that he wants, that has to be done in a way that he wants."

In their new signing Primoz Roglic, BORA - hansgrohe have the perfect role model for Hindley to learn from and improve alongside. “Primoz is that type of rider. They are champions, they want almost everything. He’s a proper winner, he goes to the race to win the race, he doesn’t go to the race to be second or third," the sports director explains. "He doesn’t like minor places and that’s probably why he’s with us now, he didn’t like to be the second choice in Team Visma | Lease a Bike for example. This approach to the races is something important and something Jai, Aleksandr Vlasov, all the other guys, can learn from him. And they see that. The possibility.”

“The goal is to win the Tour. But, you know, having that as a goal, which is a super big goal and difficult one as well obviously, I do hope we can achieve it, but it’s still a long way," Gasparotto continues. “They should be top form, top shape at the Tour and that’s something that has to work for Primož but the same for Jai. And then you never know what can happen in the Tour. Maybe we have to swap roles because something goes wrong. The most important thing is that the riders are in really good shape for it.”