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While Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) has shown that he is in a league of his own at the 2023 Criterium du Dauphine, the battle behind him is equally inspiring, especially for what it says about Australian cycling.
Vingegaard took time on all his major rivals any time the road turned upwards as well as on the time trial. He beat second-placed Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) by two minutes and 23 seconds, but bunched behind Yates were the Aussie trio of Ben O'Connor (AG2R-Citroen), Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) and Jack Haig (Bahrain-Victorious).
“It went pretty well," O'Connor said after Stage 7, the Queen Stage finishing atop Col de la Croix de Fer. "I didn’t have my best legs, but what Jonas did is impressive.
"I tried to ‘play’ a bit on the Croix de Fer and lost some time to Jai Hindley, but I also had to try to get rid of other riders, which I managed," said the 2021 Tour de France stage winner.
Fellow West Australian Hindley finished third on the Dauphine's queen stage, before O'Connor managed to reverse the climbing performance on the final, super-steep ascent to conclude the race, cementing the final spot on the podium.
“It was a tough day to finish a tough week of racing here at the Dauphine," said Hindley.
"I’m really proud of how we worked as a team, the guys were very strong all week. A big thanks to them!
"Unfortunately, I couldn’t take a podium in the end but overall I’m happy with my race. Looking at the Tour de France I am where I wanted to be at the moment, with still a few weeks to go."
Bendigo's Haig, representing Australia's Eastern states, took out fifth overall, continuing a serendipitous run of fifth-placings overall at the prestigious race, his third in a row.
Following a crash-blighted Giro d’Italia, Haig was significantly better on both the climbs and against the clock, the most impressive of the riders backing up from the Giro d'Italia by a significant margin. He entered the Dauphiné with determination, finding comfort in the warmer weather conditions of the Alps.
In the end, he was less than a minute off the final podium, finishing off the race with another strong climbing performance on the final day.
“I’m really satisfied with another fifth place," said Haig. "Today was actually really hard, especially on the Col du Granier, where the pace set there was super hard, and I actually really suffered on the steeper climbs.
"After that I was able to get back into the rhythm and I knew Martinez was dropped, so I just needed to mark Martin on the final climb, and I tried to keep a controlled effort to make sure I didn’t blow. Because I knew if you blew up on this, even in the last 100m you can lose a lot of time.”
Honourable additional mentions go to Aussies Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla) who climbed his way up to 16th overall and Robert Stannard (Alpecin-Deceuninck) who had top 10 finishes in stages one and two.
While the focus is often on the winner of the race, to have not one but three Australians in the top five is an achievement worth celebrating - especially given the many barriers cyclists from Down Under face to finding and securing a pathway to race overseas, let alone challenge for the overall podium.
It marks a first in the Dauphine's history, the first occasion that three Australians have finished within the top 5. It has been a strong race for riders from Down Under in the past, but even the below strong performances can't match the consistent showings of O'Connor, Hindley and Haig.
2022- O’Connor 3rd, Haig 5th
2021- Richie Porte 1st, Haig 5th, (O’Connor 8th)
2013- Porte 1st (Michael Rogers 6th, Rohan Dennis 8th)
2012- Rogers 2nd, Cadel Evans 3rd, (Porte 9th)
Beyond the Dauphine, these riders' credentials and those of their fellow countrymen and women in the professional peloton are something other Australian cyclists can, and should, feel really proud of.
Like the legacy created by riders before them, this current generation of cyclists provides a benchmark for other up-and-coming riders when they race domestically over the Australian summer. And they show through their strength, their work ethic, and their fast-increasing collective achievements, that where there is a will to achieve on the world stage, there really is a way.
Next up for Hindley and O'Connor is the Tour de France, which you can watch exclusively LIVE and FREE on SBS and SBS On Demand.
