Giro d’Italia: Jai Hindley's special family moment after win and more than two years away from Perth

Jai Hindley has talked of his joy at being able to savour his historic Giro d’Italia triumph with his family after not having seen them for two and a half years.

And Australia’s new Grand Tour star reckons he could be heading back home in September to have a crack at winning the world road race title in front of his home fans.

The West Australian, who hasn’t been home to Perth since the start of the COVID pandemic, was left full of emotion after sealing his victory with parents Gordon and Robyn cheering him on in the time trial in Verona.

The 26-year-old last saw his folks in a 24-hour stopover in Perth after he’d competed in the Sun Tour back in Australia in February 2020.

He then returned to Europe where he has a base in Girona, Spain, and reflected on Sunday: “I didn’t know that was the last time I was going to be back home for a couple of years.”

It was only this week as the race came to its dramatic conclusion that the Bora-hansgrohe rider learned they were coming to see the race denouement.

“When I found out a few days ago that they were going to be coming to the finish, I was really blown away,” Hindley said.

“To not see your parents for two and a half years is unbelievable.”

Gordon, a former cyclist himself, and Robyn were both in the Verona Arena, the city’s famous Roman amphitheatre, to see Hindley collect one of the gaudiest and hardest-earned trophies in sport.

“To have them at the finish in the Arena today was special, really special,” Hindley, who reckoned he planned to go home and “savour every minute” of his triumph later this year, said.

But, for the moment, he added: “I’ll take it easy for a bit, sink some beers, park up and just really savour the moment.”

Hindley also revealed how hard he had been working on his time trialling after the 2020 race against the clock in Milan which saw him pipped for the Giro title by Briton Tao Geoghegan Hart by just 39 seconds.

“I went to California, to this specialised headquarters, spent quite a bit of time in the wind tunnel trying to work on better positions on the new set up and I think it’s helped a lot,” he said.

The results were evident as he finished 15th in Sunday’s stage to comfortably protect his overnight 85-second lead and end up winning by 1:18 from runner-up Richard Carapaz.

Hindley said he was also thinking of competing in this year’s final Grand Tour at the Vuelta a Espana, which ends a week before September’s world championships start in Wollongong.

“I think it would be a great event and it’s not every day you get to do the worlds in your home country, especially when you’re form Oz. So yeah I’m super keen to be in that team,” he said.