"Super steep and unforgiving" - Jai Hindley on his brutal first experience of the historic Puy de Dôme

The historic and infamous climb of the Puy de Dôme made it's long-awaited return to the Tour de France on stage 9 on Sunday. For BORA - hansgrohe's Jai Hindley the brutal climb was about limiting his losses.

“It was a tough day and a really hard final climb, super steep and unforgiving," the Australian recapped in his post-stage interview. "The temperature also played its role and I suffered a lot on the Puy de Dome. I didn’t have the best legs today and felt I need to ride my own race. I didn’t hang on to the guys as long as I could but let them go and paced myself to the finish. That worked out well and I am quite happy with the outcome of the day.”

Crossing the line in 19th position, Hindley lost time on many of rivals for the podium, not only the somewhat expected losses to the two main Yellow Jersey contenders, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar. Nevertheless, Hindley remains in third position and BORA remain confident in their leader.

“It was of course difficult after a few flat stages to climb up a wall like the Puy de Dome today. The team did a great job in positioning Jai at the beginning of the climb and after that it was up to the legs," says Christian Pömer, Sports Director at BORA - hansgrohe. "I think Jai didn’t have his best day today but still he did very well. He limited his losses and now we all are looking forward to the first and well deserved rest day.”