Ten Aussie cyclists to line-up at Tour de France

Jack Haig is one of 10 Australians that will start the 112^th edition of the Tour de France on Saturday, which Slovenian sensation Tadej Pogacar enters as defending champion.

Pogacar at just 26 is fast building a legacy that may see him considered the greatest male road cyclist ever but will face arch-rival Jonas Vingegaard for only the second time this season at the race.

The off-contract Haig has previously entered the Tour in a leadership role, though this year will assume the position of road captain, with compatriot and Bahrain Victorious teammate Robert Stannard to make his race debut.

Ben O’Connor and national time trial champion Luke Plapp, who won a stage of the Giro d’Italia in May, will compete for Jayco-Alula. O’Connor in his first season with the Australian-registered squad will spearhead its general classification ambitions. The Perth climber, who enters on the back of a seventh-placed finish at the Tour de Suisse, will also be able to count on the support of national road champion Luke Durbridge, who is lining up for his career 11^th Tour.

Tour veteran: Men's national road race champion Luke Durbridge. Photo: Chris Auld

“We have a really versatile team and I’ve performed well in Grand Tours in the past so I’ll do everything I can to get back to the top five, which I’ve been able to finish in at the Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España, and Tour de France. It’s always an exciting time, it’s the biggest race, and biggest stress, but it’s also the biggest reward,” said O’Connor.

Decorated and in-form sprinter Kaden Groves will also make his debut for the Alpecin-Deceuninck team that includes Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel. The Grand Depart in Lille presents the fast men with an opportunity to take the first yellow jersey.

Kaden Groves pictured winning a stage at last year's Vuelta a Espana. Photo: Unipublic

Michael Storer, who finished 10^th overall at the Giro d'Italia for the second consecutive time this year, has been selected for Tudor Pro, and will have an opportunity to aim for stage wins, as will Harry Sweeny (EF Education-Easypost). Jarrod Drizners returns for Lotto as part of its lead-out, while Callum Scotson has received his maiden selection in what is his first season with the French Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale team, looking to aid Austrian climber Felix Gall.

Luke Plapp will make his Tour debut after winning a stage of the Giro. Photo: Getty

It’s tradition for the Aussies competing to get a picture together at the start or finish of the three-week race, which will see 185 riders from 23 teams cover a total distance of 3336.8km enroute to the final stage in Paris on July 27.

“I generally try to talk to a lot of the guys but now the racing has changed a little bit as well, there’s less really easy stages where you can move yourself around the peloton and chat with different guys,” Haig said of catching-up with compatriots on the road.

Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) and Vingegaard (Visma- Lease A Bike) have had a stranglehold on the Tour since 2020, with the yellow jersey interchanging between them.  How to beat the duo and their respective teams remains a talking point. Haig says it is not as simple as the rest of peloton collaborating to try and unseat them.

“The teams are so strong that even with that they generally have the depth in the eight riders that are here that they can deal with any sort of mass gang-up,” he said. “And then when it comes to a certain point everyone also looks for their own opportunity and their own ambition, so it kind of never quite works out.”

The 31-year-old believes rivals may instead start to place emphasis on other prizes in the race.

“It is the biggest bike race that we do, it’s one of the most viewed sporting events that happens annually, and it’s very important for the sport, for the team. Doing well here can change your career to an extent, so there is excitement there,” Haig said.

“But also, with the way cycling has gone with these quote unquote super teams, and especially these top riders that definitely seem to be a step above the rest of the peloton, it’s become a little bit less exciting from a personal ambition point of view.

“I think cycling is changing to figure out how teams that don’t have Pogacar, or don’t have Jonas, or aren’t a pure sprint team, what they can kind of get out these Grand Tours, and trying to figure out how that works.”

The Tour this year will see the peloton compete for 10 consecutive days, from northern to central France, before the first rest day of the three-week race. Haig tips that the yellow jersey won’t be won in that time – but it could be lost.

The route of the 112th Tour de France. Photo: ASO

“That first 10 days and the way the route was designed it can maybe lead towards more breakaways winning, and we’ll just need to sort of feel out the intention of the whole peloton, and especially the intention of the bigger teams, to figure out whether those opportunities will be there or not,” he said.

“The first week of the Tour de France is always really difficult and you always generally see one or two GC contenders eliminated.

“The route is definitely not simple, and we have a lot of short, hard climbs towards the end of these stages, where if you just looked at them on paper and didn’t go into detail you might think it’s an easy sprint stage, but if you look at the detail it’s actually quite hard.”

The Tour this year features seven flat stages, six hilly, six in the mountains and two individual time trials.

For Australian cycling fans wondering which ones they should stay up through the night to watch on TV, Haig has this advice: “I think between the uphill TT, the hard climbing stage in the Pyrenees, and the final two stages in the Alps, these will probably be the four biggest GC-defining stages.”

Cover image: Sprintcycling