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If Jai Hindley gets back to his Giro d’Italia-winning form this year, it’ll make a mangling over the winter all worthwhile.
The Australian climber felt pretty beat up during the off season, with a nose operation leaving him bloodied and sore.
He’d had repeated bouts of illness in 2024. Like compatriot Michael Matthews, who was under the weather for a different issue within the facial area, things flared up whenever Hindley went deep.
“It basically started after Tirreno, I just had this run of illness,” he told Velo recently. “It was not normal at all.”
He and team doctors racked their brains as to what might be the issue, but remained puzzled.
Hindley gave everything to be in shape for the Tour but that didn’t work out at all. “You put in the work, put in the time, sacrifice everything and then you still go like shit, basically. It was pretty frustrating.”
The next step was a trip to the mega Red Bull Athlete Performance Center in Salzburg, where he did a full range of examinations. The answer — well, what they hope is the answer — was discovered by an ENT specialist.
He diagnosed a deviated nasal septum, something the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team doctor concluded might be the root of the problem.
“We came to the idea that potentially can be the reason why I’m getting so sick. My nose is quite narrow and it’s just easy for bacteria to get stuck in there,” Hindley explained.
The remedy is not for the squeamish.
“They make a cut inside your nose, take out the cartilage. And from what I understand, they hammer it flat on a table or something, and then they put it back in.
“I think it’s a bit more scientific than that, but I think that’s the general way of working.”
Searching for success: ‘You have to do everything you can’
Hindley was stitched back up and then began a two-week recovery period. “It’s pretty rough. For two weeks your nose is really out of action and feeling really grim,” he said.
“You are spitting up a lot of blood all the time, and just feeling really blocked. The nose is really swollen too — if you look at the team photos, my nose is pretty big …”
He was also feeling those after-effects of the operation at two weddings he attended.
Suffice to say it was not the ideal way to spend the off-season.
So will it work? He hopes so; time will tell.
“Basically our team doctor was pretty convinced that if I got this surgery, then it would help a lot,” he explained. “You have got to do everything you can.
“In theory it should help the breathing a lot, and also should reduce the amount of sickness during the season.
“If it can help even a little bit, then it’s worth doing, in my opinion.”
Giro winner finding his way again
Hindley is down to earth and affable. There’s no hint of ego about him, no question of swagger.
When he’s in full form, though, he’s one of the best GC riders in the world.
He proved that back in 2022. Hindley won stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia and then moved up to second overall six days later. He remained in that slot heading into the last mountain stage, and then put in a huge attack inside the closing four kilometers of the Marmolada.
Overnight race leader Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) cracked and finished over a minute back, with Hindley taking over the pink jersey and winning the grand tour one day later.
Since then he won a stage in the 2023 Tour de France and finished seventh overall.
But does he believe he has ever reached the same level as during his Giro victory?
“It’s hard to say,” he told Velo. “I think Tirreno was good last year, and it was also going in the right way. Maybe not like my best, best shape, but I think I was pretty good. I also felt like I was pretty competitive.
“Since then, I don’t think so. I don’t think I really hit top shape. Also in the Canadian races, I was feeling good again, but that top shape, I don’t think so, no. It was quite hard to get back there.
“I hope the operation will help.”
Hindley was speaking in the leadup to the start of his season. He’s been showing good form since then, firstly in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and now Tirreno-Adriatico.
He was prominent in the finale of Friday’s tough stage to Pergola, sitting right at the front on the climbs and launching a cheeky move on flatter ground with just over 3km to go.
He’s looking good heading towards Saturday’s queen stage to Frontigano.
But the real test of his form will be when he returns to the Giro for the first time since his win three years ago.
Breakthrough moment for Hindley and his team
Hindley’s big Giro win was one of the most important points in his team’s history. It was its sole grand tour success right up until Primož Roglič’s victory in last year’s Vuelta a España.
The Slovenian’s signing is all part of a big push for greatness by the German squad. So too its involvement with Red Bull, which is now a majority stakeholder.
Hindley has been with the team since 2022 and so is well placed to see the changes. So what effect has the new sponsorship had thus far?
“It’s really cool to see such a brand and a company like Red Bull come on board,” he said. “They’re involved in more sports and things than you could even imagine.
“Last year there weren’t so many noticeable changes. But this year, there’s been a big shift. A big step in the right direction of the team wanting to grow and be more successful.”
This push has seen many new signings, a ramping up of staff, the addition of an under-23 team. And, of course, the benefits conveyed by the use of the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center.
All in all, he is convinced big success is on the way. “I think that is inevitable. If you massively invest in all these separate departments like they have done, sooner or later you will get the return for that.”
Roglič is part of that drive to improve too. He’s long had the goal of winning the Tour de France, and he is pushing the whole operation to move in the right direction.
“Primož is coming from Jumbo-Visma, which is one of the best teams in the world currently,” Hindley said.
“They’re doing a lot of good things. They’re probably leading the way in terms of performance, science, innovation, everything. I think a lot of the teams are playing catch up.
“I think and hope we will be closing that gap. And maybe at some point, lead the way.”
Room for two leaders?
Roglič’s signing is, of course, something that directly affects Hindley.
The Australian’s previous grand tour win proves he has the ability to take another three-week race. The team could have structured its future around the him, but instead it signed a multiple grand tour winner.
Hindley will still get his opportunities, of course, but he will be required at times to ride for Roglič.
Fortunately there doesn’t seem to be any sign of resentment at that.
“He’s a good dude,” he said of Roglič. “He’s some bike rider. He has got a hell of a palmares and an incredible work ethic. He’s a good leader, for sure. I think also the impact that he’s had on the team has also been for the better, to really lift the game and to bring everyone up.
“Everyone is also super motivated to succeed, or to help the rest of the team succeed. So I think his impact has been really massive.”
Importantly, it sounds like they get on well off the bike. Hindley smiles when asked what Roglič is like as a person. His reaction echoes that of teammates Jan Tratnik and Ryan Mullen.
“He’s good,” Hindley said. “He is a good dude. He’s pretty funny also. I get on pretty well with him.”
So, big question: is he content to ride for him when required?
“Every race the team will go to now, stage race or one-day race, we want to try to win,” Hindley said. “For sure it’s the ambition of the team to win the Giro.
“Primož will be the leader there. I’ll be just trying to help him as best as I can, basically.”
Getting the chance to ‘have a crack’
Every top athlete has, of course, their own driving ambition. You don’t win major races without that big motivation for success.
Hindley is still just 28 years of age, seven years younger than Roglič. He wants and needs his own opportunities, and will get his chance this year.
Both will do the Giro; Roglič will then focus on the Tour de France, trying to finally win it, while the Australian should have leadership in the Spanish grand tour.
“I’m really keen to do the Vuelta,” he said. “I was really keen to do it in the last couple of years, but I just got to the end of the Tour and was completely cooked both times.
“It was part of my thinking to do the Giro this year, then have a proper break and reset and then build up again. I’m really keen to do the Vuelta and have a crack there. It would also be nice to to go for a stage as well. We will see.”
Asked about the possibility of aiming for future victory in the Tour, though, and he looks a little uncertain. Winning the Giro at 26 shows he has the chops to aim higher, but the impression he gives is that the final yellow jersey might be a little ambitious.
That could change over time, of course, but he sounds a little scarred by his experiences of the race.
“I would like to go back to the Tour, maybe in 2026 or something. But these last two editions that I did, it really burnt me,” he admitted.
“I came to the end of it and I was pretty fried, and also the rest of my season was pretty much in the bin.”
Hence the caution and the uncertainty.
Never say never
Does that mean Hindley is abandoning all hope of performing in cycling’s biggest event?
Not quite.
His two participations have been tough but he doesn’t rule out performing well there in the future.
First things first, though. He wants to get back to his top shape, with his body cooperating when he goes deep.
Hopefully the surgery on his schnoz this winter will pay off and he will be healthier than before. Initial signs are certainly positive.
“For sure it would be nice to go back and have a crack and see what I can do,” he said of future Tours.
“I mean, in ‘23 I felt like I was going in the right direction. But I had some illness, and then had a pretty nasty crash, and then the rest of the race was sort of sliding through my fingers.”
Right now he won’t obsess about that particular race, but instead aims to be strong across whatever three-week race he does.
“The main goal is just to keep the health on track and to go to the grand tours and be competitive. Not only in the Tour, but all three of the grand tours. For me they are the pinnacles of the sport.
“They’re the races that I really get motivation to be at, to get results at.”
If he’s once again challenging for stages and the overall, it’ll make that painful winter operation fully worthwhile.
