Add Category
Updated
Australian cycling fans are busy preparing themselves for three weeks of sleepless nights as the Tour de France gets underway this evening in Brussels.
Eight Australians will be among the 176 riders lining up for the grande depart of the 106th edition of the Grande Boucle, each with separate aims throughout the three-week tour.
As with all grand tours, there are a number of different sub-plots set to play out alongside the question of who will win overall.
As such, those eight Australians are set to play a key role in the drama to come, starting with the very first stage.
Caleb Ewan an early chance of yellow?
Australian sprint prodigy Caleb Ewan is poised for a win on the very first stage, something that if he manages will catapult him into the first yellow jersey of this year's race.
Australian Riders on the 2019 start list
| Race Number | Rider | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 44 | Rohan Dennis | Bahrain-Merida |
| 93 | Simon Clarke | EF Education First |
| 102 | Luke Durbridge | Mitchelton-Scott |
| 103 | Jack Haig | Mitchelton-Scott |
| 104 | Michael Hepburn | Mitchelton-Scott |
| 131 | Richie Porte | Trek-Segafredo |
| 141 | Michael Matthews | Team Sunweb |
| 161 | Caleb Ewan | Lotto Soudal |
However, if Ewan does sneak into the yellow jersey, it won't be for long.
The Tour opens with a flat, 194.5km jaunt around the Belgian countryside imbued with scenes from the spring classics that should end in a bunch sprint, affording the sprinters a rare chance at donning the yellow jersey in what is the 100th anniversary of it first being awarded.
A flat finish will suit Tour debutant Ewan, handing the 24-year-old a golden chance at a dream introduction to the Tour by joining the list of Australians who have donned the yellow jersey.
Cruelly denied a start last year by former team Mitchelton-Scott — who instead of chasing stage wins shifted to overall classification ambitions off the back of the form of Englishman Adam Yates — Ewan has been given the backing by new team Lotto-Soudal to chase sprint-stage victories.
Ewan, who said he would be "pinching himself" on the start line of his first Tour de France, will face the biggest threat from Elia Viviani — backed by the best lead-out train of any team in the peloton — and Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen.
Ewan got the better of Viviani at the Giro, winning two stages while the Italian went win-less, but Viviani has been in good form so far this season, notching eight victories and coming close to challenging Peter Sagan for the points jersey at the Tour de Suisse.
Should Ewan make it all the way to Paris he'll look to be in amongst the leaders in a final stage charge down the famous Champs Elysees.
'Confused' Matthews ill-prepared for green jersey tilt
The irrepressible Sagan — a six-time points winner at the Tour — is an almost unbackable favourite for the green jersey in 2019.
The Bora-Hansgrohe rider has notched an impressive 15 grand tour stage wins in his career and has an uncanny ability to pick up points towards the jersey throughout the race.
Looking to push the three-time world champion close though is Australian Michael Matthews, who will be tasked with leading Team Sunweb to as many stage wins as they can muster across the piece after the withdrawal of Tom Dumoulin with a knee injury.
Less an out-and-out sprinter and more a puncheur, Matthews has eight Grand Tour stage wins and the 2017 green jersey to his name.
This route favours riders of his type, and with the absence of Dumoulin perhaps Matthews would be given free rein to target stage wins.
Instead, Matthews told Dutch broadcaster NOS, "I haven't done any sprint training or any training that was preparing myself for my stages, and there are quite a lot of stages that do suit me".
"It's massively disappointing, obviously. I don't know what to do now, I'm totally confused," he said.
"It's just a massive disappointment, to be honest, and I don't know where to go from here."
The general classification contenders
No Froome. No Dumoulin.
This year's Tour de France is the most open in years after two of the big favourites withdrew from the start list due to injury.
Four-time champion Froome and last year's runner up Dumoulin leave the race for the yellow jersey wide open, with no clear favourites ready to step into the void.
Reigning champion Geraint Thomas may disagree — but an interrupted build-up that included a race-ending crash in the Tour de Suisse has shown that the Welshman is far from in ideal form.
As with last year, Thomas may have to face a fight from inside his own team, with Colombian prodigy Egan Bernal tipped to challenge the established order.
Just 22-years-old, Bernal is one of the top prospects in world cycling at the moment, the latest in a line of Colombian climbers hoping to conquer the Tour de France.
Bernal won Paris-Nice and the Tour de Suisse this season, firmly placing him at the top of several favourites lists.
At just 22 though, odds are stacked against him, despite his sensational form. The last time a 22-year-old won le Tour was when Frenchman Laurent Fignon won the first of his consecutive titles in 1983.
Other contenders include Danish rider Jakob Fuglsang, with controversial American cyclist Lance Armstrong telling the Outside website that this could be the Dane's year.
"If he wants to win, this is the year," he said. "He has the experience, the form, and the team."
Will this year be the year for Richie Porte to step up?
Is this the year? So often have Richie Porte's Tour prospects been cruelled by injury, with the Tasmanian departing on the ninth stage two years in a row thanks to falls, perhaps this year of no clear favourites suits the perennial underachiever.
However, after his now customary victory in the Tour Down Under at Wilunga Hill earlier this season, Porte has been in far from electric form, meaning a general classification victory may well be beyond him again, although a lack of pressure on his shoulders could pay off.
"I'm here under no pressure really from the team," Porte told SBS.
"I'm ready to take it one day at a time and see how it all goes. I think the last three stages in the Alps are really where it's going to be decided anyhow. It's not a bad thing to be coming in a little underdone.
"The form is pretty good. I just need to stay healthy."
Can an Australian team taste glory?
Three Australians — rouleur's Luke Durbridge, Jack Haig and Michael Hepburn — will have one clear goal at this year's race: ride to support the Yates twins, Simon and Adam.
Australian team Mitchelton-Scott will hope the British twins can help secure an historic Tour de France title to go alongside its maiden grand tour title, won by Simon Yates at the Vuelta a Espania last season.
That came off the back of a disappointing Tour for main hope Adam Yates, who blew up in the mountains and lost a bundle of time to eventually finish more than an hour behind British compatriot Thomas in 29th spot.
Adam converted that disappointment into helping his brother win in Spain and Mitchelton-Scott team boss Matt White hopes the twins can continue that partnership at the Tour.
Time trial hopes for Dennis
World time-trial champion Rohan Dennis is hot favourite to add another individual stage win to his tally in the stage 12 individual time trial around Pau.
The South Australian is undoubtedly the best pure time trial rider in the peloton, but will not have the chance to show his ability against the clock until deep in the second week, just before the race reached the Pyrenees.
At just 27.2km, the test against the clock is not as long as in previous years, but will still afford Dennis the chance to ride for his own personal ambitions after a gruelling 12 days assisting team leader Vincenzo Nibali maintain his own general classification ambitions.
Dennis is in good form. He finished second to Bernal in the recent Tour de Suisse.
Expect the unexpected
As ever with the Tour de France, predicting the outcome is a fool's game.
With the general classification prize as open as it has been in many years, expect plenty of nerves in the opening week as the contenders check out each other's form.
The stage two team time trial around Brussels could cause some contenders to lose time early, forcing them to play catch-up for the rest of the Tour.
Chaos is almost guaranteed as teams jostle for position ahead of the first true test up to La Plance des Belles Filles on stage six.
Although hopefully less chaos than at this French mountain bike race …
Topics: sport, cycling, france
First posted