Jai Hindley

Born in Perth, Hindley started cycling at the age of six and quickly became a bike racer.

In 2016, at age 20, he joined the Australian Institute of Sport’s road cycling program, then known as the Jayco-AIS World Tour Academy. He spent the summer racing in Europe with a Continental team, Attaque Team Gusto, but one of his strongest results was for Australia at the Tour de l’Avenir, where he finished fifth overall.

His development continued in 2017 with the Mitchelton Scott Continental team, for which he won several under-23 races including a stage of the Baby Giro. He also won the Tour of Fuzhou overall in China.

2018 saw Hindley turn professional with Team Sunweb, for whom he raced his first grand tour, getting a top-10 result on a mountaintop finish at the Vuelta a España.

2020, however, was Hindley’s breakout year. He won the Herald Sun Tour overall, dominating the mountaintop finishes at Falls Creek and Mount Buller.

Later in the COVID-affected season, Hindley went to the Giro and put himself in GC contention after his excellent climbing performances, especially on Stage 18 to Laghi di Cancano, which he won in a sprint against Britain’s Tao Geoghegan Hart.

Hindley went into the leader’s pink jersey after the penultimate stage but had to settle for second overall behind Geoghegan Hart after the final time trial.

He would have to wait two years for his next big chance, withdrawing from the 2021 Giro due to a saddle sore.

In 2022, Hindley switched teams to BORA-hansgrohe and went to the Giro as an outside favourite. On Stage 9 to Blockhaus, he won a sprint between GC favourites to claim his second-ever Giro stage win.

He kept towards the top of the standings until a stunning attack on the penultimate stage, a mountaintop finish on the Passo Fedaia, saw him drop the GC leader Richard Carapaz and – once again – move into the pink jersey with just the individual time trial remaining.

This time, the West Australian banished the demons of 2020, doing enough to secure the overall win and become just the second Australian to win a grand tour, and the first to win the Giro d’Italia. He went on to race the Vuelta, where he finished ninth overall.

In 2023, Hindley wowed Aussie fans again when he won Stage 5 to Laruns with a daring solo attack, holding off GC favourites Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar to wear the leader’s yellow jersey for the first time. Hindley would finish seventh overall at the Tour.

2024 was a solid but quieter season for Hindley without any headline-grabbing wins. He finished on the podium of Tirreno-Adriatico and played a key role in Ben O’Connor’s silver medal at the UCI Road Race World Championships.