Aussies on Tour: The 10 riders flying the flag in France

Richie Porte and Ben O'Connor played leading roles at the recent Dauphiné and are set to do the same at the Tour de France (Image credit: Getty Images)

Last year, the Australian riders were thin on the ground at the Tour de France, with just two on the start line. Nevertheless, given those two riders were Richie Porte and Caleb Ewan, they gave the fans from across the other side of the globe plenty to cheer about.

This year both are back, but what's more, they are joined by a strong list of compatriots, adding depth to the presence that should give viewers from the nation plenty to keep them awake as they watch the racing unfold in the early hours of the morning.

In 2020, Richie Porte became the first Australian to stand on the podium since Cadel Evans, and now, fresh from a win at the Critérium du Dauphiné, there's no doubt he looks like a force to be reckoned with. This year, however, he is lining up with a team that's so packed with potential leaders that the most likely scenario is that you'll see him working hard in the mountains, so valuable as support that just 'domestique' alone as a description doesn't cut it.

If all plays out as expected, the super-domestique could be supporting 2018 Tour winner, Geraint Thomas, or maybe 2019 Giro d'Italia winner Richard Carapaz. But we all know that the Tour doesn't always run to plan, so with the consistency and strength the Tasmanian has been showing, there's still a chance that one of the most valuable mountain domestiques could end up stepping in to save the day if Carapaz and Thomas happen to stumble.

There was no looking over Ben O'Connor at last year's Giro d'Italia because if his second place on stage 16 wasn't enough to draw attention he quickly followed it up with his first WorldTour win on stage 17. At the start of 2021 came a change of team, a consistent string of strong results – impressive enough that his one year contract quickly had three more years added – and now he is set to line up for his first Tour de France, with a French team no less, as a GC rider.

The team have long been developing the rider they took on in 2018 when he was still under-23, and now it seems the time is right for him to step up into the leadership role he has been groomed for. Taking the pressure off somewhat, not to mention surrounding the riders with some handy experience, Simon Yates will be lining up post-Giro d'Italia with stage victories in mind rather than the overall, as will Esteban Chaves.

For Michael Matthews not to be racing the Tour de France would be unthinkable, since it was being left out of the race at Team Sunweb that was one of the factors that precipitated the move back to the Australian-based team. Leaving that aside, for a squad that's looking for stage wins you'd be hard-pressed to look past the sprinter who excels when the conditions get a little too hilly for many of his rivals. He has three stage victories and a green jersey to show for his five appearances at the race so far.

Matthews has already spotted some stages that he thinks suit him, among them opportunities in the first week, so if he can capitalise on one of those he could deliver some early excitement to get the Australia viewers hooked in for a nice long haul of sleep deprivation. He's bound to be hoping he can deliver a win, and the sooner the better, as while he has been in the top-five plenty of times so far this year, he hasn't made it to the top step of the podium since his return to Team BikeExchange.

While we are talking about sprinters and the green jersey, it seems an opportune time to bring Caleb Ewan into the conversation. He will probably be responsible for much of the chatter in the Australian mainstream media as, when it comes to Australians at the Tour, there is nothing like raking up victories to get sports reporters to – for a moment at least – stray from their usual diet of Aussie Rules football news.

Ewan may have walked away from the Giro d'Italia during stage 8, after suffering from knee pain, but he still already had two stage victories under his belt, leaving his rivals with the clear message that he is as fast as ever. The Tour de France is the next step in his plan to win at least one stage in every Grand Tour this year, but don't expect him to rest on his laurels if he gets that one victory under his belt early. The team have picked out six or seven sprint stages they think will suit him.

One of the things Caleb Ewan has going for him – apart from his incredibly powerful turn of speed of course – is that he is the clear leader of the team and, given the square focus on the sprints, he's got a handy bunch of riders around to lead him out. One of those is Queenslander Harry Sweeny, who, in his first year with the WorldTour team, will be making his Grand Tour debut in France as part of the crew supporting one of the top sprinters in the field. Not a bad start at all.

The versatile rider has spent much of his career being a crucial cog in delivering the success of his teammates but has also won the mountains classification at the Vuelta a España, as well as two stages. His wins come from the breaks, so while he's likely to fade into the peloton working for his team most of the time, if he does get an opportunity to go for a result, he'll likely be out the front for the long haul.

The 24-year-old took his first international victory in the professional ranks earlier this year, using his time-trialling prowess to go on a long solo to take the win on stage 1 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. He doesn't often have a chance to go for the victory himself, working toward the results of others, and that will also be the case when he makes his debut at this year's Tour de France.

Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.