Biography

Name: Simon Gerrans
DOB: 16/05/1980
Height: 170cm
Weight: 64kg
Hometown: Jamieson, AUSTRALIA
Lives: Monaco
Team: Credit Agricole
Cycling Club: Mansfield Mountain Cyclists

Past Teams:

• 2007-Present (Professional) Credit Agricole
• 2005-2007 (Professional) Ag2r Prevoyance
• 2004 (Amateur) Team U Nantes-Atlantique
• 2003 (GS3) Team Ringerike
• 2001-2002 (Under 23) AIS/Australian National Under 23 Team
• 2000 (Under 23) RDZ Cieffe Bibanese

Favourite Food: Thai Coconut and Red Curry Chicken
Favourite Movie: The Godfather
Favourite Quote: "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." Winston Churchill
Favourite Race: Tour de France
Most Memorable Race: Final stage of the 2006 Jayco Herald-Sun Tour
Hobbies: Listening to music, motorbike riding, watching dvd's, eating out and hanging out with family and friends.

By Rupert Guinness - of The Sydney Morning Herald

IT was July 21, 2005. … Simon Gerrans has just collapsed from exhaustion and dehydration after taking third place in the 17th stage of the Tour de France – a 239.5km haul from Pau, at the foot of the Pyrenees to Revel. It was hot. It was week three of Lance’s Armstrong’s soon-to-be historic seventh Tour win. And emotions within the peloton were still high over the death of Australian cyclist Amy Gillett and the injuries of five teammates who were all hit by a car on the eve of a stage race to be held in Germany. The ride by Gerrans in his first Tour de France, to place third in this stage after joining the eight-man decisive breakaway, continued the spirited showing by the Australians on that Tour in the wake of Gillett’s tragic death. “I thought if I crossed the line first I’d dedicate the win to the girls. I didn’t quite get there but I still dedicate the ride to the girls,” said Gerrans after. The 27 year-old Melbourne rider and last pick for the French Ag2r team was beaten to the post by Italian Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) and Norwegian Kurt-Asle Arvesen (CSC). They finished 8 seconds clear. But Gerrans still caught, passed and beat French rider Sebastian Hinault (Credit Agricole). The first four riders escaped on the third category Cote de St Ferreol with seven kilometres to go from an eight-man group that itself came from an original 17-man break away that escaped after only 35km. As Gerrans sat on bitumen at the finish, pouring water over him, he said between breaths: “Oh my God that is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” It was also arguably the most important thing he had done in his career too. For his third place after a gutsy and resilient ride that saw him spend all but the first 35km of the stage on the attack stamped him as a real Tour rider. That he took third place after being his team’s last pick in the nine-man line-up also repaid the faith that the team put in him. That he had to fight his way into the team last year – after injury cruelled his preparation – and again this year as Ag2r’s last selection reflects the dogged spirit deep within Gerrans.

A former swimmer, runner and motorcycle racer, Gerrans only turned to cycling by chance – and good fortune - after injuring his knee in the Victorian motocross titles at age 17 and undergoing a reconstruction. It was during his rehabilitation that he met Australian cycling legend Phil Anderson – the pair then lived in the high-country town of Jameison in north-east Victoria, and he borrowed one of Anderson’s bikes to ride. It was Anderson, a five times top-10 placegetter in the Tour (with bests of 5th in 1982 and 1985) and the first Australian to ever wear the yellow jersey, who suggested to Gerrans that he take up cycling to strengthen his knee. “I knew him as Phil, the guy who had the farm up the road – not Phil Anderson the cyclist,” says Gerrans when racing that first Tour in 2005. Gerrans even admitted then that: “I am still realising how good he (Anderson) was. These races I do, he used to rip’em apart 20 years ago.” Little wonder, that Phil Anderson soon became Gerrans’ coach too …

Fittingly, Anderson was at Revel to see Gerrans claim that third place. He admitted that he was surprised that his young charge had finished so well. “I never thought he would get into a team here, let alone into the Tour and even to a winning breakaway like he has,” said Anderson, clearly stunned.

History shows that Gerrans has achieved a lot more since that day too. For it was a virtual turning point to his career as a professional cyclist.

He returned to Australia at the season’s end to win the 2005 Herald Sun Tour, and then added the 2006 Tour Down Under to his “palmares” as well. He returned to Europe for the 2006 season burning with ambition – and was warmly welcomed back ‘home’ with high expectations from his Ag2r team which he joined as a ‘stagiere’ at the end of 2004 and has been with since. Shoulder and collar bone injuries sustained in a crash in the season opening Grand Prix d’Ouverture la Marseillaise cost him an almost certain berth in the Australian road team for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. But the steely resolve Gerrans found on the roads of France the year before never left him, and soon he was lining up for his second Tour de France. And how Gerrans and the Ag2r team set those same roads of France alight again. One of the highlights of the Tour was their brave defense of the yellow jersey claimed by Frenchman Cyril Dessel on stage 10 to Pau in the 11th stage to Pla de Beret in the Pyrenees. The image of the Ag2r team leading the peloton - with Gerrans in first position, jersey unzipped, face matted with sweat and eyes on the road ahead - was one of the most published in English speaking media. As impressive was the team’s effort to clinch Dessel’s eventual seventh place and eighth by Christophe Moreau. With another successful Tour – if not European season – to his credit, it was no coincidence that when Gerrans returned to Australia again, he did so with the self-confidence and strength to win a back-to-back Herald Sun Tour.

Gerrans would be the first to admit that he is not a cycling super star. But he is a super example of a rider milking every ounce of potential he or she may have. To see him race day-in, day-out and to put his 64kg and 170cm body and soul on the line as he does is nothing short of inspirational. And while he may modestly accept the praise that has come his way since that day to Revel in 2005, the fact that he has ridden the Tour so well after having fought for selection still places him as one of the worlds very best riders.