Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) won the 2022 Giro d'Italia, but with the 2023 race route being more of a time trial, the West Australian native has his sights set on this year's Tour de France.

The Tour de France has only one 22-km time trial and has alpine stages every week. This will be Hindley's Tour de France debut, and he will be part of the overall contenders.

"Of course, Bora-Hansgrohe wants to build the best team possible," Hindley said.

"But when I look at the Tour route as opposed to the Giro, sure it would be nice to go back to the Giro with the number 1 on my back, but realistically speaking, the Tour route is better for me and maybe it will never be good for me again."

The 2023 Tour de France starts in the Basque Country and has mountain stages in all five French mountain ranges during the long road to Paris.

"Having one uphill route and one time trial is a big draw, and I think the teams see that," Hindley explained.

For Hindley, who is aiming for the Tour de France, 2023 will be a very different season. For the past four years he competed in the Giro d'Italia, and in 2018 and 2022 he competed in the Vuelta a España. This time around, the races will be different, the timing of the high-altitude training camps will be different, and the season will peak later.

"It will be a slower build-up to the peak in July," Hindley said.

Early in the Tour Down Under, Hindley was unsure of his form. In the rain-soaked prologue time trial, he lost time to avoid risk, but was determined to enjoy the week.

"Hopefully it will be a good aggressive race. A lot of teams brought multiple racers for the GC."

On stage 2, those fireworks had already begun, and despite being warned before the race began, Hindley was able to take the final climb with Rohan Dennis (Jumbo Visma), Jay Veen (UAE Team Emirates), Simon Yates ( Jayco Alura) and Mauro Schmidt (Sourdal-Quickstep) joined him in the late attack and were in the mix.

"I was doing everything I could to pull away from the rest of the pack," Hindley said after the stage.

"I closed the gap a little bit at the chicane section, but in the end I didn't have the legs to get to the line, and eventually the other guys passed me."

Three more stages remain in the Tour Down Under, and Hindley will also compete in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Before the Tour de France, Hindley will target other stage races like the Ituriá Basque Country in April, which he last raced in 2018 and 2019.

"It's a good race to peak early," Hindley said.

"It would be nice to have a crack there, but ultimately the goal is to do well in July, so that's important. But the Basque is a hard race, and the few times I've run it, I've always gotten my head kicked in.