The retirement of 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Richie Porte may mean the last victor at the WorldTour race will be missing from the Santos Tour Down Under in 2023 but there will be plenty of hope from local fans that another Australian could step into the void, particularly with 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) noꦍw confirmed as a starter at the January✱ 17 to 22 race.
The 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Giro d’Italia winner will be lining up at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour Down Under for a fourth time, but COVID-19 has meant the South Australian race hasn’t run since Porte claimed the crown in 2020, and so a lot has changed for Hindley sinꦍce he laܫst pinned on a number for the event.
When Hindley first raced the Tour Down Under in 2017, coming 25th, it was with the Australian national team, and he was lining up at his first WorldTour evꦑent ever. In 2019 he was riding with Team Sunweb in support of Chris Hamilton and came 18th. He then equalled that placing in 2020 before going on to round out his Australian summer of racing with victory at the Jayco Herald-Sun Tour.
That 2020 Australian summer victory turned out to be the beginning of a breakthrough year where Hindley's true potential became clearly evident, with the rider from Perth taking second in the Giro d’Italia. This year his shift up to the top step provided Australia with its first Grand Tour victor since 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Cadel Evans won the Tour de France in 2011.
“We spend so much of our season in Europe, so it is nice to come back and race in front ofജ Australian fans,” Hindley said in a media statement from the Tour Down Under. “2022 was a massive year for me and I’m looking forward to setting up my 2023 season with a strong performance🥃 in Adelaide.”
The 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:2023 Tour Down Under will mark the 26-year-old’s return to international racing after a break of more than three months, although the Australian Road National Championships could also be on the cards earlier in the month of January. Hindley’s off-season started right after the September 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Road World Championships in Wollongong, where he was asked 🌠by💯 reporters to look back on his season.
“With the Giro win and the stage win there, I still can’t believe it, it still hasn’t sunk in and probably never will,” Hindley told reporters after riding the road race in support of the third-placed 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Michael Matthews. “It was a nice year personally, especially after such a ജtough year last year – to change to a new team and win a Grand tou꧙r in my first year with the team was really cool.”
It will be Hindley’s first Tour Down Under with 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Bora-Hansgrohe, and w🅷hile the rest of the team around him is yet to be announced he is sure to be closely watched for the overall and climbing stages. There is no Willunga climb on the course this year – a stage synonymous with Porte after he won it six years running – but that doesn’t mean the race is without a good measure of challenging ascents.
“This course would be real🐭ly appealing to Jai, particularly the three tricky climbs through the Adelaide Hills on stage three,” said Tour Down Under Race Directo🀅r Stuart O’Grady.
Stage three from Norwood to Campbelltown inclu♒des Norton Summit, Checkers Hill and Corkscrew Road, delivering more than 2,400 metres of climbing. It is a stage that is expected to be pivotal in shaping the competition for the ochre jersey of the race leader and then there is also the challenꦆging final stage which takes on Mount Lofty multiple times before finishing on the summit.
