Cycling News

09 July 2007

SIMON Gerrans has revealed that he "gambled" his selection in the French Ag2r team for the Tour de France by opting to race less in the lead-up to ensure he began the 3569.9-kilometre race with enough reserves.

The Victorian, in his third Tour, bagged the last and ninth spot on the team led by evergreen French contender and national road champion Christophe Moreau. Gerrans will be one of Moreau's domestiques. However, when told of his selection 10 days before the start in London, Gerrans was warned that if any French teammate produced a top result in the national titles they would take his spot.
Luckily for Gerrans, 27, that didn't happen and he was among the 189 starters on Saturday.
"I was told I had been selected, then I said, 'I want to go into the Tour fully prepared and rested for it'," Gerrans told the Herald. "They said, 'OK, but if someone gets a good result they get your spot'. It was a gamble.

"But it was a gamble for my benefit and I think for the benefit of the team as well. One thing I have learned is that you can't go into the Tour feeling exhausted. And that happens when you have people fighting for that last spot. There is no point racing yourself into the ground just to get into the team and then having nothing left for the team when the Tour starts. But that still happens in cycling here, so competitive is it to get to start the Tour."

For Gerrans and domestiques like him in all of the 21 nine-man teams in the Tour, the next three weeks are arguably more taxing on the mind and body than they are for their respective leaders who are chasing victory. The domestique is a virtual slave to his leader. Their purpose is to do all they can - on the flat and in the mountains - to help the team win any of its objectives, from the yellow jersey for overall winner, to the green jersey for best sprinter, the red and white polka dot for best climber, the white for best under-25 rider, or for stage wins. That involves offering protection to the leader from the wind, chasing down dangerous attacks, setting the tempo in crucial parts of a stage to tire out rivals, and offering drinks, food or even their bike if their leader has mechanical problems. And more often than not, the domestique is cast adrift of the pack in exhaustion when their daily work is done, and left to "win" their own race - to finish the stage inside the time limit and do it all again on another day.

That task began overnight, Sydney time, in the first of 20 stages in this year's Tour - a 203km leg from London to Canterbury, after which the Tour transfers back to the European mainland for tonight's 168.5km second stage from Dunkirk to Gent.

For Gerrans results mattered not in Saturday's 7.9km prologue time trial in London, won by Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara (CSC). It was more a chance to test the legs and get a measure of form for the weeks ahead. Gerrans, 138th at one minute, six seconds, would have been more interested to see how Moreau fared (56th at 49 seconds) against his rivals - German Andreas Kloden (second at 13s), Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov (seventh at 30s), Australians Cadel Evans (17th at 36s) and Michael Rogers (20th at 37s), Spaniard Oscar Pereiro (21st at 37s), American Levi Leipheimer (26th at 40s) and Russian Denis Menchov (27th at 40s).

"It will be in the Alps [starting at stage seven] that the Tour will open up. Until then we have to make sure Christophe stays out of trouble. After the prologue we don't want him to lose any time," Gerrans said.

This article was published Monday 9 July, 2007 – The Sydney Morning Herald.

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