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It's been an action-packed opening week-and-a-bit of the Tour de France, especially for the Aussies. From the highs of Jai Hindley's day in yellow to the taunts of Caleb Ewan's near misses, the bumper Australian contingent has a lot to be proud of, and a lot to look forward to, in the racing to come.
Jai Hindley sits in a solid third on the general classification
No prizes for picking the best-performing Australian rider in the opening nine stages of the 2023 Tour de France. Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) was already doing well before slipping into the breakaway on Stage 5 and then capitalising on the opportunity to take the stage and the yellow jersey.
The 27-year-old dropped to third overall after a brutal Col du Tourmalet assault from Jumbo-Visma saw Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) overtake him. Between that pair are the past three Tour de France victories and they are still everyone’s favourites for the overall victory.
The likable Australian lost more time on Stage 9's steep summit finish up the Puy de Dome, but showed his grit and climbing prowess to limit his losses and finish just over a minute behind Vingegaard and Pogacar.
"I didn't feel super great today, and I just knew I needed to do my own race and pace my own effort and that's what I did," Hindley said.
"So instead of trying to sit on those guys [Pogacar & Vingegaard] for any longer I just let them go and tried to pace myself to the finish."
The pacing strategy worked and Hindley held his third place on the GC. He also holds a healthy gap of one minute and 42 seconds to Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) in fourth going into the first rest day.
Hindley is still close enough if good enough, and he does have a strong history of getting better and better as a Grand Tour progresses. He can look up at Pogacar and Vingegaard and still fight for a chance to jump up some positions.
There are quality riders behind him though with the Yates twins, Rodriguez, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Thomas Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers) and Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich) all close enough to challenge the Western Australian rider.
Ben O’Connor feeling average by own standards, but faster than all of us watching from the couch
It has been an odd race for Ben O’Connor (AG2R-Citroen), with the former fourth-place getter at the Tour struggling to put his finger on the issue that has seen him lose time in the major climbing stages so far.
"Feeling pretty average" has been the consistent refrain, but for a rider in form far from his best, he’s still doing well.
Unfortunately for O'Connor he slipped a further seven places down the overall leaderboard after last night's fireworks on the Puy de Dome. He now sits in 18th overall, 14 minutes and four seconds off Vingegaard's yellow-jersey-wearing pace.
This is far from the expectations coming into the race. AG2R-Citroen look to have switched up their tactics to a more aggressive mindset that sees most of the riders that would have supported O’Connor to breakaway attacks.
If luck improves for O'Connor maybe we'll see him break away from the bunch later in the Tour now that he is no longer a threat to the GC.
Caleb Ewan has proven he has the speed but is forced to keep improvising with a reduced leadout
It’s been so close on a few occasions for Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny). He ran second on Stage 4 when bursting through the pack to almost overhaul Philipsen. He also finished third on Stage 3 when he had to handle himself in the final and did a good job to finish as impressively as he did.
The problem for Ewan lies in his sprint train, a crash for Jasper de Buyst early in the race and for Jacopo Guarnieri being ruled out of the race on stage 4 has seen his two main leadout riders taking a beating.
De Buyst looks to be back in good shape, but even at his best, he’s not a match for the likes of other final men for the top sprinters, riders like Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma).
In this Tour, you’re not going to see Ewan being delivered at speed by his teammates with 200 metres to go. The Bowral product is going to have to ride his luck as well as his ability. The good news is that there are plenty of chances left for the sprinters.
Sam Welsford's moment will come!
Track rider turned road professional Sam Welsford (DSM-Firmenich) is riding his first Grand Tour and he looks to be drinking it all in at the moment, enjoying himself with the crowds and his teammates in the laidback atmosphere of Team DSM.
Sprinting-wise Welsford clearly has the power but he’s having a tough time making it to the finish in a position to unleash the massive engine most observers of Australian cycling agree the prodigiously talented Welsford possesses in spades.
In every sprint stage, Welsford has had to move up the bunch well into the final kilometre, and by the time he approaches the front riders, he’s been too cooked to sprint to his full ability.
Once his leadout is perfected, his moment will come. And when it does, watch out!
Matt Dinham, Chris Hamilton and Alex Edmondson proving invaluable as super domestiques
The Aussie trio of DSM-firmenich riders have been visible in doing their jobs protecting Romain Bardet, grabbing bottles and bringing their team leader into the positions he needs to be in. Dinham had a crash on an early stage, but looks to have shaken it off.
Dinham and Hamilton will come to the fore in the mountains for Bardet, it would be good to see them given the chance to attack. Hamilton was in the Stage 5 breakaway, so clearly there’s some leeway for them to pursue a bit of glory for themselves.
Luke Durbridge and Chris Harper keeping Jayco-AlUla riding strong
There are few more valuable diesel engines in the peloton than 32-year-old Luke Durbridge (Jayco-AlUla), and he appears to be on a mix of Dylan Groenewegen duty in the mountains and the flat, and doing what he can for team leader, and current sixth overall, Simon Yates at other times.
Harper’s most significant moment came on Stage 2 as he lead the peloton on the Jaizkibel for a few kilometres to stretch things out for Yates.
Harper’s a tough competitor and he has been climbing very well in the lead-up races to the Tour de France. It would be a shame if he didn’t get the chance to go for a breakaway to take a shot at a stage win at some stage, though he looks to be Yates’ main man on the climbs.
Jack Haig hoping and hunting for a winning breakaway
We haven't heard a whole lot from Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) yet in this Tour de France. His best performance so far is 11th on Stage 5 from Pau to Laruns where Jai Hindley took the peloton by surprise and rode into yellow.
Haig currently sits almost 45 minutes behind Vingegaard on the GC, so we can expect him to be fighting again for a winning breakaway move in stages to come.
Stage 9 one to celebrate for Simon Clarke and Nick Schultz
We expect Simon Clarke and Nick Schultz to be celebrating hard after Israel-Premier Tech teammate Michael Woods won Stage 9 with an impressive late acceleration up the Puy de Dome.
"The rest day tomorrow (tonight AEST) will certainly be festive," team owner Sylvan Adams said.
"We have two more weeks to hunt for more success. We won two stages last year. How nice would it be to exceed that lofty result?"
Clarke bagged one of those wins, and Schultz, riding for BikeExchange last year, came close to doing the same with a second-place finish on Stage 10.
As we've seen already after an exciting first nine days of racing, anything can happen next!
