The man Eddie Dunbar beat into 2nd place when he won his Rás stage last May is now ripping it up; attacking and dropping Chaves and Froome (Photo: Ryan Byrne - Inpho)
Having been one of the stars of the An Post Rás just nine months ago, Australian Jai Hindley has put in the ride of his life at the Herald Sun Tour in his homeland.
The 20-year-old took 2nd on today's hilly stage but it was the manner of taking that result that really impressed. While Orica-Scott domestique Damien Howson was up the road enjoying his first ever pro win, Hindley was back the road in the select group.
They were riding up the monster 29km Falls Creek climb on stage 1 of the race after yesterday's prologue and Hindley found himself with the likes of Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott).
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But while both are on record saying they are at the Herald Sun Tour to win, it didn't bother Hindley when he attacked them and dropped them.
Hindley attacked with 2km remaining and rode away from those he was with. He would finish 32 seconds down on Howson, the former U23 world TT champion, but would take 1:10 out of Esteban and 1:11 out of from.
Hindley riding for Australia in the young riders classification jersey at the An Post Rás last year.
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“It was pretty scary, hey?" said Hindley, who had just turned 20-years-old by a couple of weeks when he was 2nd overall at the Rás last year.
"Coming into that last kilometre I didn’t know if I was going to catch up to Kenny or if Froome was just going to fly past me. It was just head down and give it everything.
“I’m pretty over the moon with the result. It’s pretty unreal, just racing guys like Chris Froome and Esteban Chaves. Froome has won three Tour de Frances and Chaves has podiumed at two grand tours. To be in the same race as them is amazing.”
Howson now leads overall from Hindley who said he would be looking to take the yellow jersey despite the quality in the race.
The only Irish rider in the race, Conor Dunne (Aqua Blue Sport) finish 64th on the day in a group 17:19 down.
Stage 1: Wangaratta - Falls Creek (174.2km)
1 Damien Howson (Aus) Orica-Scott 4:33:54
2 Jai Hindley (Aus) Australian National Team 0:00:32
3 Kenny Elissonde (Fra) Team Sky 0:00:47
4 Michael Storer (Aus) Australian National Team 0:01:03
5 Jhoan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott 0:01:10
6 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:11
7 Nathan Earle (Aus) Australian National Team
8 Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Australian National Team
9 Cameron Meyer (Aus) Australian National Team 0:01:13
10 Timothy Roe (Aus) IsoWhey Sports SwissWellness 0:01:15
11 Janier Alexis Acevedo Calle (Col) UnitedHealthcare 0:01:21
12 Ian Bibby (GBr) JLT Condor 0:01:28
13 Edmund Bradbury (GBr) JLT Condor 0:01:33
14 Jonathan Clarke (Aus) UnitedHealthcare
15 Sebastian Henao Gomez (Col) Team Sky 0:01:43
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