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Australian cycling fans can celebrate with more local riders confirmed to take on this year's Tour de France. Israel-Premier Tech has confirmed Simon Clarke and Nick Schultz will be racing for the team.
The eight-rider squad also includes Canadians Guillaume Boivin, Hugo Houle and Michael Woods, Corbin Strong (New Zealand), Krists Neilands (Latvia) and Dylan Teuns (Belgium). One notable omission is four-time Tour de France overall winner, Chris Froome.
“It was a tough decision to select our Tour de France team this year but we feel we selected eight riders best suited to fulfilling our performance objectives," General Manager Kjell Calström said.
"The fact that we had a difficult decision to make when looking at our long list shows the strength and depth of our rider group, and unfortunately we could not select everyone," Calström said, revealing the team's priority in 2023 would be stage victories.
"We carefully looked at the necessary roles to fill when it comes to hunting for stage wins and chose our eight riders accordingly. The team is versatile and balanced and the guys can be impacting the race in almost any stage throughout the race.
"After the last few months of nice results, we’re eager to see what we can achieve in what will most certainly be a very competitive race.”
Clarke thrilled Australian audiences last year with his maiden Tour de France stage win on Stage 5, where he won from a breakaway group after almost 20 kilometres of particularly tough riding on and over cobbles.
Schultz came tantalisingly close to a win in 2022, with a second-place photo finish on Stage 10. The stage was won by Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost).
Froome didn't elaborate on his omission from the team on social media, instead sharing images from Israel where he's been mixing up his training on the road with rock climbing and mountain biking. Fans were quick to react with messages of sympathy and support.
The pressure to perform is high for Israel-Premier Tech who are a wild card entry at this year's Tour. The team has only achieved three wins so far in 2023 including a stage and overall win by Woods at the four-day La Route d'Occitanie last week.
“I’m really excited for this year’s Tour de France," Woods said.
"The course suits me quite well, especially the opening stages in the Basque Country. This is an area I’ve had a lot of success in with my two Vuelta a España stage wins both taking place there. I really enjoy racing in this area,” he added.
“My big ambition is to win a stage and inspired by my Ottawa teammate, Derek Gee, I want to race a really aggressive race, trying to be as active as possible. The victory in La Route d’Occitanie gave me a lot of confidence. I’m really motivated and ready to race!”
