TOUR DE FRANCE: AUSSIE MENTORS SWEAT AS STAR TRIO FIGHTS IT OUT
THEY are the two Australians behind the three biggest contenders at the Tour de France.
Luke Roberts and Tim Kerrison are the brains behind the brawn in the fight for yellow at the world’s biggest bike race, which resumed overnight after a rest day. Adelaideborn Roberts is the sports director at Team Sunweb, where Dutchman Tom Dumoulin sits third.
Brisbane native Kerrison, a former rowing and swimming coach, is the revered head of performance at Team Sky, where he is plotting the path for race leader Geraint Thomas and second-placed Chris Froome. With the world’s biggest bike race entering its final week, the duo are totally focused on Thomas, Froome and Dumoulin and the 1min50sec separating them.
“I’m watching closely and trying to look at ways to expose them,” Roberts said. “I think I have some cards up my sleeve. Whether I use them yet or we wait until we’re ready to challenge them full-on, I’ll see.”
Thomas’s emergence as a legitimate threat in this year’s race has come as a shock, particularly with four-time champ Froome so far relegated to second.
Sky insists it is happy to have options, with two potential winners better than one. “I think it’s a story but for us there’s nothing there,” Kerrison said. “It’s a fantastic position to be in.” Roberts isn’t so sure. “They’re pros, those guys,” he said. “I expect, among themselves, they’ll work it out and how they’ll race.
“But history says it’s difficult. If it was the other way around, with Froome already in yellow, maybe they’d ride different.
“With Thomas having a handy lead over Froome, Thomas is yet to prove he can sustain it for three weeks.”
Kerrison has question marks over all three riders — Thomas because he’s never done it and Froome and Dumoulin because they ran one-two in May’s Giro d’Italia.
“People for years have been saying you can’t do the Giro-Tour double and that it’s impossible to compete in both and yet we have the situation now where these guys are in a podium position at the Tour,” Kerrison said.
With five days left to decide this year’s Tour, Roberts and Kerrison pointed to Stage 17’s revolutionary 65km mountain test as the most likely day to reveal the winner.