More Australians in mix for Tour spots

AUSSIE cyclists Rohan Dennis and Jack Haig have given their teams BMC and OricaScott something to think about as squads are decided for next month’s Tour de France.

Dennis, 27, won the opening and closing individual time trials at the Tour de Suisse last week and will be considered to support Richie Porte in his bid to win the yellow jersey.

He was supposed to lead BMC at the Giro d’Italia but crashed and abandoned on Stage 4, which meant the team had to reassess his season.

High performance director Allan Peiper said the team would monitor Dennis’s form after the Swiss tour and make a call for the Tour de France starting in Dusseldorf on July 1.

“It hasn’t been an easy run for me. I haven’t felt too good and I think I have been lacking a little bit of form,” Dennis said. “But, there was something good at the end of it.”

BMC’s nine-man team for the Tour was expected to go under the microscope after Porte was isolated without a teammate on the final stage of the Criterium du Dauphine.

Haig, 23, is staking a serious claim to make his Tour debut in Orica-Scott’s team to support Esteban Chaves and Simon Yates after impressing at the Dauphine and Tour of Slovenia. He was 18th on the stage to Alpe d’Huez in the Dauphine and finished third overall in the Slovenia tour.

Orica-Scott has some big calls to make. Damien Howson has been training with Chaves in Colombia, Luke Durbridge and Mathew Hayman both finished it last year, and Simon Gerrans is a proven performer.

The big question is whether Orica-Scott decides it has room in the team to target stage wins with Gerrans as well as the overall yellow jersey with Yates and Chaves.

Michael Matthews has been confirmed to lead Team Sunweb, Simon Clarke will be hoping to start for Cannondale-Drapac, Adam Hansen will line up for his 18th consecutive grand tour with Lotto-Soudal and Mark Renshaw plans to support Mark Cavendish at Dimension Data.