With less than a month to go until the start of the Tour de France, Jai Hindley and Primož Roglič have started just their second stage race and fourth race day together as Bora-Hansgrohe teammates on stage 1 of the Critérium du Dauphiné.
The Australian Giro winner is due to settle in as the key super domestique come the Grand Départ in Florence for Roglič after the Slovenian transferred last summer from Jumbo-Visma across to the German outfit.
However, the lack of experience together has made the pre-Tour, form-marking Dauphiné even more important for building both chemistry in races and ensuring all the work done in preparation hasn't been in vain.
“I haven’t done so many races with him but we just spent like three weeks on the mountain so it was pretty cosy,” Hindley told Cyclingnews before stage 1 in Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule. “But he’s a good guy and I think he’s good to work with.
“It’s massive [for building chemistry]. It’s sort of like the final dress rehearsal. If you’re good here then normally you’ll be good at the Tour and hopefully, we’re good.”
The ever-elusive Roglič had barely stopped his bike to respond to the scrum of reporters waiting for him before he was jetting off back to the team bus in the spitting rain, focused on the undulating opening sprint stage.
But it's the mountains where he, Hindley and team-mate Aleksandr Vlasov will come into their own and show what form they are in ahead of the Tour.
The trio present a formidable GC outfit prepared to take on the likes of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) at the Tour, with Roglič’s palmarès speaking for itself as a four-time Grand Tour winner, alongside Hindley the 2022 Giro champion and Vlasov a former fifth-place finisher at the Tour.
So it was no surprise to see the Australian's confidence heading into the tough eight-day stage race where the four opening stages should present the perfect amuse-bouche to the 34.3km stage 4 time trial.
All of which leads up to the brutally backloaded parcours on stages 6, 7 and 8. All of them feature summit finishes, two of which are up hors catégorie climbs. These days are where the 2024 Critérium du Dauphiné will certainly be decided.
“We want to try to win,” Hindley said bluntly to the expectations of Bora’s strong squad for the week, which looks similar to their provisional roster for the Tour de France.
The versatile work of Marco Haller, Nico Denz, Matteo Sobrero and Bob Jungels will be employed before the climbers take over on the Collet d’Allevard (11.2km at 8.1%), Samoëns 1600 (10km at 9.3%) and Plateau des Glières (9.4km at 7.1%) summit finishes at the end of next week.
Facing up against the likes of Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Juan Ayuso (UAE Tea Emirates) and possibly Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick-Step), Hindley believes Bora-Hansgrohe's multi-leader strategy will only be a good thing despite Roglič being the focus of the team.
The Slovenian’s arrival at Bora marked a change of role for Hindley who was their sole leader at the Tour last year and won a stage, wore the yellow jersey and finished seventh overall despite a tough crash in the second week.
“It takes the pressure off a lot,” said Hindley of his reworked role in the team. “But I also think having multiple options with multiple guys there is also good for the team.”
Hindley and Roglič are fresh off the back of building their relationship at a long altitude camp in Sierra Nevada with most of the Tour team, leaving the Australian satisfied with where his form was at 27 days before the Tour.
“Not too shabby, it was a pretty solid camp,” Hindley said of his form heading into the Dauphiné where he was fourth last year before making a solid debut at the Tour. “Also it was like 3 weeks so I think we laid down some good foundations for the next couple of months.”
Whether it be Hindley, Roglič or Vlasov, the German team are aiming high for the coming Tour with the incoming ownership and sponsorship from Red Bull all part of team boss Ralph Denk's plan to become cycling's newest super team.
