The Australians racing the 2023 Tour de France

Late nights in July mean one thing - it's Tour de France season.

Start lists for the 2023 Tour de France have all been officially released ahead of Stage 1 departing Bilbao on July 1 and there are 12 Australians preparing for 21 stages of action.

Find out about those 12 Aussies below.

Jack Haig

• Team: Bahrain Victorious
• Age: 29
• TdF starts: 3
• Where you'll see him most: Mountains supporting Mikel Landa
• Hometown club: Bendigo & District Cycling Club/Bendigo Mountain Bike Club (VIC)

It's been a busy 2023 for Haig, who has amassed 53 race days, and will start and hopefully finish the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France double.

The tall climber wasn't expected to race at the Tour following the Giro, but is clearly in good shape a month removed from the Rome finish and a solid fifth-place finish at Critérium du Dauphiné three weeks ago.

Haig won't have the pressure of general classification ambition of years past on his shoulders and will be supporting team leader Mikel Landa.

The 2021 Vuelta a España third-place finisher has never won a Grand Tour stage but could have his day in the sun if he finds himself with some race situation-driven freedom as a satellite rider in a breakaway.

Jai Hindley

• Team: BORA–hansgrohe
• Age: 27
• TdF starts: Debut
• Where you'll see him most: Mountains and GC group
• Hometown club: Midland Cycle Club (WA)

The 2022 Giro winner was all-in on the Tour before the season even began and has prepared meticulously for the three-week GC battle that awaits him.

He himself has stated the 2023 Tour de France route is "as good as it gets" for a rider of his profile, one with solid but not amazing time trial pedigree.

"It will be a GC fight from day one," Hindley told SBS Sport before his fourth-place finish at Critérium du Dauphiné three weeks ago.

"There’s lots of climbing, and a hard first week so already the GC is pretty well-established after the first week of racing.

"There’s only one time trial which is also not super long and it is a bit lumpy. For me, I was super excited when I saw the route and I’m really keen."

Matching it with Tour heavyweights Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard will be Hindley's toughest task to date in his career, but the Western Australian is up for the fight.

Nick Schultz

• Team: Israel–Premier Tech
• Age: 28
• TdF starts: 1
• Where you'll see him most: Breakaways and stage hunting
• Hometown club: Hamilton Wheelers Cycling Club (QLD)

Schultz and Israel–Premier Tech have one thing on their mind over the next month and it's stage wins.

The Queenslander came within millimetres of winning Stage 10 of last year's Tour de France from the breakaway and will hope the same opportunity arises in July.

The Tour's Grand Depart in Bilbao is a long way away from the possible career purgatory Schultz found himself in last December after the collapse of B&B Hotels, the team he had been strongly linked to signing with for 2023.

Thankfully Israel–Premier Tech deservedly offered Schultz a last-minute spot on their roster for this season, and in May extended that contract for another two seasons.

Simon Clarke

• Team: Israel–Premier Tech
• Age: 36
• TdF starts: 7
• Stage wins: 1
• Where you'll see him most: Breakaways and stage hunting
• Hometown club: Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club (VIC)

It's been covered time and time again over the last 18 months but the facts and results don't lie when it comes to Clarke's late-career surge at Israel–Premier Tech.

The veteran has spent more than 20 years in Europe and finally ticked off the Tour de France stage win he had been chasing on Stage 5 last year.

Simo nearly won his first Giro stage during Stage 6 this year after 145km in the breakaway and had another big 174km involvement ahead of the peloton on Stage 14 before leaving the race after Stage 15 with illness.

His team will be wanting more of the same trademark breakaway nous in France in the hope of recreating last year's memorable winning moment.

Caleb Ewan

• Team: Lotto Dstny
• Age: 28
• TdF starts: 4
• Stage wins: 5
• Where you'll see him most: Sprint finishes
• Hometown club: Southern Highlands Cycle Club (NSW)

It's been a tough 2023 for the five-time Tour de France stage winner, with only one UCI 1.1 victory to his name, but Ewan is hungry to make amends in France.

The 28-year-old star sprinter has received the backing of Lotto Dstny via their team selection and will have the support of Jacobo Guarnieri and Jasper de Buyst as his leadout men.

Despite his struggles over the past 18 months, Ewan remains his team's best option for stage glory at the Tour, as Lotto Dstny sports manager Kurt Van de Wouwer said.

"The past two years, he has had his share of bad luck at the Tour and also the past months haven’t been going perfectly but he still remains one of the fastest riders of the bunch," Van de Wouwer said in the team announcement.

"He is our biggest chance to take a stage win. That is why we have surrounded him really well with De Buyst, who has shown his excellent shape the past weeks, and Guarnieri as important elements in the sprint train. Florian (Vermeersch) and Frederik (Frison), their task is to launch that train in a good position."

Chris Hamilton

• Team: Team DSM
• Age: 28
• TdF starts: 1
• Where you'll see him most: Mountains supporting Romain Bardet
• Hometown club: Bendigo & District Cycling Club/Bendigo Mountain Bike Club (VIC)

Hurricane Hamo is as dependable of a teammate as you can get in the UCI WorldTour.

The Bendigo product will start his second consecutive Tour de France as part of a core GC group supporting team leader Romain Bardet that contains Australian neo-pro teammate Matt Dinham and Kevin Vermaerke.

That quartet had a steady test at Tour de Suisse a fortnight ago, where Bardet finished fifth overall.

Alex Edmondson

• Team: Team DSM
• Age: 29
• TdF starts: Debut
• Where you'll see him most: Sprint train for Sam Welsford
• Hometown club: Central Districts Cycling Club (SA)

The 2018 road race national champion has had to wait eight years for an opportunity at the Tour de France, but has received it in his first year with Team DSM after leaving Australian-based GreenEDGE Cycling (Team Jayco AlUla) in the off-season.

Edmo will play a big part in Team DSM's stage hopes on the flatter days of the Tour, largely in support of Australian teammate Welsford, who is the designated leader of the sprint train.

The 28-year-old's best results outside of his national road race championship have come in prologues and flat individual time trials, so a sneaky good performance in Stage 16's 22.4km time trial could be on, but the 2.5km ramp to the finish at 9.4% is likely too tough.

Nevertheless, the London 2012 Olympian has good chemistry with Welsford and both were on form at ZLM Tour and Baloise Belgium Tour in June.

Sam Welsford

• Team: Team DSM
• Age: 27
• TdF starts: Debut
• Where you'll see him most: Sprint finishes
• Hometown club: Northern Beaches Cycling Club (WA)

Big Sammy has been waiting for this day for a long time.

Welsford will make his Grand Tour debut in Bilbao on Saturday and will be in the mix to light it up on the flatter days.

The Olympic silver and bronze medallist has nine podium finishes this season, three of which were wins.

Two came at Vuelta a San Juan Internacional in Argentina in January, and the most recent came in March at the Belgian Grand Prix Criquielion.

If you want a potential breakout sprint star from this year's tour then Welsford is your man. He has the speed to win stages - stamp it.

Matt Dinham

• Team: Team DSM
• Age: 23
• TdF starts: Debut
• Where you'll see him most: Mountains supporting Romain Bardet
• Hometown club: Manly Warringah Cycling Club (NSW)

Things are happening very quickly for Dinham, who will be racing in his debut Grand Tour during his neo-pro season with Team DSM.

The 23-year-old will ride in support of team leader Bardet in the mountains after impressive stage results of 13th and 10th at Tour de Suisse a fortnight ago.

It's been no secret in Australia that Dinham can ride a bike pretty fast, and that's any bike for that matter.

The Sydneysider was the 2022 elite men's XCO national champion and was splitting his time on the dirt and road fairly evenly until the road path became the real deal in recent years.

He was also Australia's top finisher in seventh at the U23 Road Race World Championships during Wollongong 2022.

The Team BridgeLane product is consistent, quiet and determined. One to watch both now and over the coming years as he continues to improve.

Chris Harper

• Team: Team Jayco AlUla
• Age: 28
• TdF starts: Debut
• Where you'll see him most: Mountains supporting Simon Yates
• Hometown club: Norwood Cycling Club (SA)

Harper gets his Tour de France debut in support of Simon Yates in his first year with Team Jayco AlUla.

The 28-year-old is a quiet achiever among the Australians in the UCI WorldTour and was a handy pick-up for Jayco AlUla after three seasons at Jumbo-Visma.

The Australian-based team has their eyes on stages ahead of GC ambitions, however, 2018 Vuelta a España winner Yates could naturally fall into a GC podium chasing position. That's where Harper will answer the call as his closest domestique.

Harper is yet to win a race since the Tour of Japan with Team BridgeLane in 2019 but he could be a breakaway bandit on the climbing days depending on how the Tour unfolds.

Luke Durbridge

• Team: Team Jayco AlUla
• Age: 32
• TdF starts: 8
• Where you'll see him most: Being a workhorse, positioning teammates for crucial moments
• Hometown club: Midland Cycle Club (WA)

Durbridge is the stalwart of Team Jayco AlUla and will start his 138th Tour de France stage on Saturday.

He'll be leading the engine room for his team over the next month for both Yates and sprinter Dylan Groenewegen.

There may be days where you see Durbo jump up the road in an early breakaway on tough, undulating stages, however the majority of his Tour will be spent working for teammates.

Whatever situation Durbo finds himself in over the coming 21 stages, you can guarantee he will ride hard.

Ben O'Connor

• Team: AG2R Citroën Team
• Age: 27
• TdF starts: 2
• Stage wins: 1
• Where you'll see him most: Mountains and GC group
• Hometown club: Peel District Cycling Club (WA)

It was a rough Tour de France crash and injury-driven DNF for O'Connor in 2022 but the Western Australian is back for his third start as a genuine podium threat once again.

O'Connor bounced back quickly from that disappointment last year with a top-10 finish in the Vuelta a España, and closed out his season with a big stint in the breakaway at the Road World Championships in Wollongong.

The 2021 Stage 9 winner has been building gradually over 33 race days this season and was right there at the Critérium du Dauphiné three weeks ago, finishing third behind Vingegaard and Adam Yates.

AG2R Citroën Team general manager Vincent Lavenu said in the team announcement that his squad has been selected in full support of O'Connor's podium ambition.

"He's in very good physical and mental shape. His third place in the Critérium du Dauphiné showed that he's riding at a very high level," Lavenu said.

"His preparation has been optimal, with a training camp in Sierra Nevada and reconnaissance of the stages of this 110th edition over the last few days.

"All the indicators are in the green to achieve the best possible overall classification."

The real question is who will win the WA Cup - O'Connor or Hindley?

Feature picture: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images