Dennis rules himself out of Le Tour

ROHAN Dennis has ruled himself out of the powerful BMC team that will support fellow Australian Richie Porte at the Tour de France.

Dennis’s two time trial stage wins earlier this month at the Tour de Suisse boosted hopes he would secure a third Tour de France start.

But after crashing out of the Giro d’Italia in May and also during the Swiss tour, Dennis knew he would not be right.

“I just want to clarify that it was my decision to not start the #TDF2017,” Dennis said on Twitter.

“Due to recent crashes I simply won’t be at the level needed.”

At his Tour debut two years ago, Dennis won the opening stage with the fastest average time trial speed in race history. He became the seventh Australian to win the Tour’s fabled yellow jersey as overall leader.

Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet, Damiano Caruso and Micky Schar add considerable firepower as Porte tries to become the second Australian to win cycling’s most famous race. ORICA-SCOTT has dropped a selection bombshell, leaving Australian star Simon Gerrans out of the Tour.

The Australian team also decided to stick with long-term plans for young sprint ace Caleb Ewan and not give him his Tour debut this year.

It will be the first time since 2009 that 37-year-old Gerrans, one of Australia’s greatest cyclists, has not ridden at the Tour. Gerrans has given Orica-Scott some of its greatest Tour highlights since the team debuted in 2012 at the race.

In 2013, he was the first Orica-Scott rider to win a Tour de France stage and, the following day, Gerrans also gave the team its first yellow jersey in the race as the overall leader.

But Orica-Scott now has different goals, with the focus this year on young general classification hopes.