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No socks on centipedes and Jai's in pink

Ian ChadbandAAP
Australia's Jai Hindley has proved he's no one-tour wonder with his Giro d'Italia triumph.
Camera IconAustralia's Jai Hindley has proved he's no one-tour wonder with his Giro d'Italia triumph. Credit: AP

Now we know he was right all along. Jai Hindley wasn't at the Giro d'Italia to put socks on centipedes at all - but to put a pink jersey on his own back.

The cyclist who might just have been Australia's most unsung sporting high achiever has now forced the nation to recognise and salute a new sporting giant after his historic triumph at the Giro d'Italia on Sunday.

In fair Verona, it can't be stressed enough what an extraordinary sporting tale was laid by this unassuming, likeable lad from Perth.

Unconsidered even after the first of the three weeks, British bookmakers still had Hindley as a 50-1 outsider to win, even though he was going along nice and smoothly.

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That was actually an insult to a brilliant rider who, in 2020, had lost the race by just 39 seconds after the final time trial on a heartbreaking day in Milan. His pedigree was being quite overlooked.

Even by the final rest day, when he'd moved within seven seconds of the lead, Hindley was still capturing most interest with his wonderful observation that "we're not here to put socks on centipedes".

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That, he explained to bemused foreign journalists, was Australian for "we're not playing around here" - and yet Richard Carapaz, Ecuador's Olympic champion, was still seen as overwhelming favourite.

Another comment from Hindley that day, though, was more revealing as he asserted quietly how he wanted to prove his 2020 breakthrough hadn't been "a fluke like people on social media think".

Because for 20 months since the Milan anti-climax, the man from Perth had not come remotely close to emulating his original Giro success and the suggestion was he might just be a one-tour wonder.

Yet that was to quite under-estimate the woes Hindley had suffered in the interim.

2021 was his annus horribilis, pockmarked with crashes and illnesses which tripped him up at every turn.

He got sick at Paris-Nice, abandoned Volta a Catalunya with the after-effects, had a bad spill at the Tour of the Alps and withdrew during last year's Giro with a saddle sore which even made the team doctor wince about Hindley's battle with unbelievable pain.

When a broken collarbone after another crash at the Tour of Slovakia ended his season, he admitted that, mentally and physically, life had become difficult, and the reset he needed came with his move from DSM to German team Bora-hansgrohe.

Even this year, though, the forgotten man hadn't pulled up any trees before the Giro as Bora-hansgrohe went into the race with three potential leaders before Hindley asserted himself with the epic stage nine win on the Blockhaus, the climb that once kick-started Eddy Merckx to cycling immortality.

Each Grand Tour triumph deserves its signature victory and this was it for Hindley - a lung-busting performance which saw him on the verge of being cracked several times but he kept fighting up the brutal slopes, hung in and then sprinted to victory.

It was the true announcement that he was back - and his subsequent strength on all the mountain stages, topped by his destruction of Carapaz on the Dolomites' highest mountain, Marmolada, on Saturday actually showcased a dominant champion here.

Cadel Evans was, previously, the only Australian man to win a grand tour and finish on the podium of another.

Well, now he has company and, as he strives to pursue Evans, the feisty great always known as 'Cuddles', the reborn Hindley doubtless won't be putting socks on centipedes.

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