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The summit finish to Grand Colombier on stage 13 of the 2023 Tour de France proved to be a close affair in the end, and while Michal Kwiatkowski won the stage from the breakaway, most of the top general classification riders were able to follow the pace of UAE Team Emirates until the final 500 metres of the climb, where Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) attacked.
Pogacar gapped everyone including yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) as the pair continued their titanic struggle at the head of the leaderboard.
Australian Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) was 15 seconds behind Pogacar on the stage, gaining time on all of his major rivals for the final spot on the podium, bar Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers).
With Pidcock starting and finishing the day in eighth overall, he was one of the least impactful of the top ten riders to take time on Hindley, and Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), and fourth-placed Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers), Hindley's closet rival all ceded time to the Australian.
“It was a shorter stage and pretty tough," said Hindley. "The last climb was really fast and pretty crazy with all the fans on Bastille Day. But feeling alright and happy to put some time into the guys behind, unfortunately, I lost a bit of time to the guys in front, but c’est la vie.
"He’s (Pogacar) pretty explosive on a finish like that, and when he attacked, I just did my own full gas effort to the finish. I gave it everything, I was running out of gas and at the end there, the legs weren’t turning."
Hindley now sits 1'57 ahead of Rodriguez, and 2'42 behind Pogacar, in a bit of an odd spot of being significantly behind the ascendant pair of Vingegaard and Pogacar, but also handily holding a buffer over those challenging for his podium position.
The Western Australian rider is in the prime position to benefit in the event that one or both of the top pair suffer a bad day or misadventure, with his tendency to improve as a Grand Tour continues another positive indicator for Hindley's prospects.
Hindley reflected on the struggles and triumphs of his Tour de France to date, his debut at the premier cycling event in the world.
"It’s been like every Grand Tour, a lot of ups and downs, a lot of tough moments but also some really good ones," said Hindley. "It’s my first Tour (de France) and I’m really enjoying it. The atmosphere and the racing is incredible, you know. It’s really at another level and it’s pretty epic to be here.”
The Western Australian rider continues to ride with memories of deceased friend and fellow cyclist Connor Lambert, who was killed after being hit by a truck while riding in Belgium on Wednesday. The drama and high emotion of the Tour has been put into perspective with the loss of his friend.
"I lost a pretty good mate of mine from WA," said Hindley. "He’s in my thoughts all the time. My heart goes out to him and everyone back home and his family.
"It’s really not easy to race every day when you lose a mate like that, it’s really tough."
