The Tour de France fire was lit for Jai Hindley almost 20 years ago with the West Australian rider finally getting his chance to challenge in cycling's biggest race.
The 27-year-old is one of 12 Australians to contest the French Grand Tour, which gets underway in Bilbao, Spain, on Saturday and stretches 3,404km over 21 days to finish in Paris.
Since World War II, only eight riders have won the Tour on debut but Hindley is a genuine general classification contender after winning the Giro d’Italia last year - the first triumph there by an Australian.
Dane Jonas Vingegaard, the defending champion, and Slovenia's two-time winner Tadej Pogacar are the riders to beat.
The leader for German team BORA-hansgrohe, Hindley said as a young boy he watched the Tour with his father and knew then it was a goal.
He described it as the "pinnacle" of the sport and instead of defending his Giro title this year has focused on preparing for France with the climb-heavy and low time-trial kilometre route expected to suit his strengths.
"When I first started watching bike racing I was watching the tour highlights with my old man back in 2002 or 2003," Hindley told ABC.
"I remember watching it then and thinking 'I really want to do that when I'm older, I really want to race the tour', and here we are.
"I really enjoy the grand tour racing, it's probably my favourite style of racing and suits me better than one day or one week racing so I can have a bit of confidence in that but it's the pinnacle of the sport.
"It's a different level compared to the other two with the pressure and sheer size of the event - I'm nervous but super excited."
Hindley isn't alone in wanting to become the second Australian to win the race after Cadel Evans’ victory at the 2011 edition, with fellow West Australian Ben O'Connor also confident.
Riding with AG2R-Citroen, O'Connor finished an impressive fourth in the Tour in 2021 despite an early-race crash and recently made the podium at renowned warm-up event, the Criterium du Dauphine.
O’Connor finished third and Hindley fourth while Victorian Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) placed fifth, with Australia the only country to have three riders in the top 10.
Haig isn’t expected to carry his team’s general classification hopes while also dealing with the tragic loss of teammate Gino Mader, who died after crashing into a ravine at the recent Tour de Suisse.
Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) is a strong chance for a stage win while another sprinter in former track world champion Sam Welsford is now flying for Team DSM, where he is joined by fellow Aussies Matthew Dinham, Chris Hamilton and Alex Edmondson.
Luke Durbridge, Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla) and Premier Tech's Nick Schultz and veteran Simon Clarke, who had an epic stage win last year (Israel-Premier Tech), round out the Australian contingent.
Hindley called the challenge between local riders the 'Australian Cup' and said it was special to be up against the likes of O'Connor, whom he raced as a teenager back in Perth.
“The ‘Australian Cup’ is pretty hotly contested at the moment,” Hindley told SBS Sport.
“It’s super-nice to see - I’ve got a lot of respect for all the Australian pros; I know how hard it is to become a pro from Australia so it’s really nice to see these guys up there in the mix as well.
“Ben showed he’s in really good form with the podium at the Dauphine. (Haig) was also moving really well after a pretty solid Giro - he’s had a pretty solid season actually.
“I was riding River Loop with Ben when we were teenagers (and now) we’re at the Tour, and he’s also one of the favourites so it’s pretty special.”
