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There have only been two Australian winners from 74 editions of the Criterium du Dauphine, with Richie Porte's victory in 2021 arriving some 36 years after Phil Anderson first claimed the title in 1985.
Australia now boasts a triple-threat in the makings of the 2023 race with reigning Tour de France champion Jonas Vingagaard (Jumbo-Visma) leading second-placed Aussie O'Connor by only 70 seconds in the GC standings, with Hindley (+1:37) and Haig (+1:44) close behind in fifth and sixth respectively.
Closing the gap to their Danish rival would not only be a special achievement in itself, the trio would all have a piece of individual history to claim in the event of an overall victory at the Tour de France warm-up event.
Hindley made headlines last year when he became just the second Australian behind 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans to win a grand tour, with a hard-fought win at the Giro d'Italia.
The Perth-born rider looks well placed to continue his assault on the GC standings after finishing only 48 seconds behind Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) on Stage 6 of the Dauphine - the first of the event's three mountain stages.
"It was a very hard day, particularly the first 60km until the breakaway went was a proper tough bike race," he said after the stage.
"The boys did a great job looking after me and keeping me in a good position. Emanuel Buchmann was on my side until the last kilometre, so I think overall it was a good day for us. Another day done, two hard days still to come - I’m looking forward to it!”
A win at the eight-day stage race would be a first for O'Connor at the WorldTour, with the 27-year-old having previously won two stages at the Tour de France - finishing fourth overall in 2021.
Haig will be looking to continue his impressive form of late which includes a 10th-place finish at the Paris-Nice as well as finishing third at the Tour of the Alps. His career highlight, a podium finish at the 2021 Vuelta a Espana, will undoubtedly be in the back of his mind in his bid to shake up the general classification over the weekend.
Meanwhile, race favourite Vingegaard assured that he will need to be at his best to hold off the likes of the Aussie trio and the rest of his GC rivals to hold on for an overall victory on Sunday (AEST) at La Bastille.
"I think they'll be super hard stages, they're long mountain stages, so hopefully I'll feel good," race leader Vingeaard said.
"I'm looking at the whole top ten, you can't give space to anyone. You have to look at everyone and not let any gaps go."
The seventh stage doubles as the queen stage and contains the highest finish in the event’s history, on the Col de la Croix de Fer. Though the stage itself only stretches 147.7 kilometres, there are several category climbs involved and little respite by the time the peloton begin the 13.1-kilometre trek to the finale.
The eighth stage saves the Dauphine’s best for last with six categorised climbs scattered along the 152.8-kilometre course from Le Pont-de-Claix to La Bastille. Two category 2 climbs are present in the opening 50 kilometres of the day before a further four follow in the final 50, headlined by the 1.8-kilometre ascent to Fort de la Bastille at an average of 14.2 per cent.
SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand will air both stages live and free, starting tonight with Stage 7 from 9:10 pm AEST on SBS On Demand and 9:15pm AEST on SBS VICELAND.
