Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) looked tired but satisfied after the final mountain stage of the Tour de France.

The 2022 Giro d'Italia winner, in his first Tour de France, had a roller coaster of a race.

A dramatic victory in the Pyrenees and the maillot jaune in the first week was followed by a long battle for the overall lead with not only other GC contenders, but also riders who were not in shape or who had lost fitness in a huge 60 km/h crash early in stage 14.

Suffering from a large hematoma and back injury, Hindley slipped off the day's provisional podium and out of the top five.

However, as the race entered its third week, he managed to put the brakes on his downward spiral even harder. In the final alpine stage, he finished 11th, less than a minute behind winner Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) and 14:44 behind winner Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma), heading to Paris in seventh place. 9]

The Australian rider, will naturally wonder what he could have done after the crash and illness, but at least, as he said after stage 20, "I think I can walk away without any regrets."

He will be looking forward to the next stage, which will be the first in the series to be held in Paris.

"There were a lot of ups and downs, but I left it all on the road and got a stage win and a day in the yellow jersey.

It was his first time in the Tour and "of course, I didn't know what to expect.

"I felt like I was going in the right direction, but I was sick and this crash still affected me a little bit.

"But with all that said, I'm really happy to have arrived in Paris and to have finished my first Tour de France. So I'm pretty happy."

Hindley, who is aiming for second place in the 2020 Giro d'Italia and overall victory in 2022, feels motivated to come back and see how much better he can do in the future beyond his success on stage 5 of the Tour de France, the yellow jersey, and seventh place overall He promised.

Not all riders have been able to bridge the gap between the top-level Grand Tour races of the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France, but Hindley's performance this July proved to both himself and his team that he has mastered that particular challenge.

"I want to come back and see what else I can do in this race and definitely move up in the GC. That's going to take a lot of work, so I'm going to go back to the drawing board and see what else I can do to make this race even better next year."

Hindley said the final day of the "real" race through the Vosges Mountains was difficult because he had no idea how his body would react. [It was a 130 km long stage with climbs, ups and downs, and technical roads ...... and I knew I was going to be in full gas all day.

Hindley's parents were present during the final climbs and early stages of the race, and he described their participation in the Tour as "super special."

"They came to the finish of the Giro last year and saw me there. So did stage 5, when Hindley won yellow.

"The people who cheered me on from day one and supported me came to this race. I'm super happy to see them in Paris before I go back to Oz." "

Hindley himself grinned and confirmed that he would have a special day on the Champs Elysees on Sunday. Rolling down the Champs-Elysées Boulevard and finishing the Tour. It's every rider's dream."

After the final stage is over and the dust has settled, he said, the first thing he will probably do is "hug my girlfriend and my parents and enjoy the moment with my team."

He did not say when Hindley would look back on the 2024 Tour in more detail. But Hindley's gutsy run of high rankings from his debut and a top-10 GC finish through Paris must surely bode well for the future.