"You should not let a man of Jai Hindley's calibre in the breakaway this early on" - Peter Kennaugh reacts to hectic stage 5 at the Tour de France

Cycling
Thursday, 06 July 2023 at 13:00
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A former Giro d'Italia winner, Jai Hindley came into this Tour de France as many people's favourite for the third step on the podium behind Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. Now though, after a brilliant win on stage 5 he is in the Yellow Jersey.
Speaking on ITV as part of the UK coverage of the race, former Team Sky rider Peter Kennaugh and the man Hindley is trying to emulate, the only Australian Tour de France winner, Cadel Evans, discussed the tactics of the stage. "He can certainly think of the podium right now," says Evans. "50 seconds on Vingegaard, more than a minute and a half on Pogacar, no ones been in this position in quite a few years."
Kennaugh meanwhile questioned the tactics of UAE Team Emirates and Jumbo-Visma in allowing someone like Hindley to get into the break. "You should not let a man of Jai Hindley's calibre in the breakaway this early on in a Tour de France. He's a Giro winner for heaven's sake!" Kennaugh explains before admitting it would have been hard to control. "But the stage was that frantic and that hectic at the start, 36 riders going in the original break shows how hard it was to control."
Winning the stage and moving into the Maillot Jaune, Kennaugh was full of praise for Hindley, who is riding his first Tour de France. "It's a special asset of a rider to gamble with the energy that you might waste going into the breakaway if it doesn't pan out the way you'd expect," he says. "Just chapeau to him. He put all his cards on the table, taken that risk and look at where he is now."

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