News: Simon Yates for the Tour de France

Simon Yates selected for BikeExchange’s Tour de France team to go and chase stage wins, it is Simon’s fifth time racing the Tour de France

News: Simon Yates for the Tour de France

Team BikeExchange announced its diverse Tour de France team boasting a powerful trio of opportunists, hunting down stage victories as a primary objective for the 108th edition, starting on Saturday, 26th June in Brest.

Former Tour de France stage winners Michael Matthews and Simon Yates, along with two-time Grand Tour podium finisher Esteban Chaves will lead the outfit’s offensive charge, while 25-year-old Lucas Hamilton looks to gather experience in the general classification battle, as he makes his debut appearance.

Team BikeExchange at the Tour de France (26th June – 18th July 2021):
Esteban Chaves (COL) – 3rd appearance
Luke Durbridge (AUS) – 7th appearance
Amund Grøndahl Jansen (NOR) – 4th appearance
Lucas Hamilton (AUS) – Debut appearance
Chris Juul-Jensen (DEN) – 4th appearance
Michael Matthews (AUS) – 6th appearance
Luka Mezgec (SLO) – 2nd appearance
Simon Yates (GBR) – 5th appearance

The quality quartet will have experienced support riders guiding them through the 21-stages, with a trio of powerhouses in Denmark’s Chris Juul-Jensen and Norway’s Amund Grøndahl Jansen; both lining-up for their fourth Tour de France, plus Australia’s Luke Durbridge, who is set to make his seventh appearance at the ‘Grande Boucle.’ After finishing in second place on two occasions in his debut appearance last year, Slovenian sprinter Luka Mezgec is back for more in 2021 and rounds out the well-balanced eight-rider squad.

Having previously achieved three top-10 overall finishes (2016, 2017, 2020), seven-days in the Maillot Jaune (3x 2013, 4x 2020), one TTT victory, six individual stage victories from five different riders and two overall victories in the young rider classification (2016, 2017), Team BikeExchange return confident and ambitious for its 10th Tour de France start.

Brent Copeland – General Manager “We are coming into this year’s Tour de France really motivated after a fantastic podium at Giro d’Italia with Simon Yates. We have worked closely together with our team owner Gerry Ryan and Team BikeExchange’s technical staff and coaches to select the most competitive line-up of riders for this year’s edition. It has not been an easy task by any means to make the final selection due to us having many riders in great condition at the moment, but we are confident in the process that we have followed.

Our goals and ambitions are different to that of the recent Giro d’Italia where we will be mostly concentrated in two areas; namely stage wins and experience for the younger riders. We are also very excited to have a strong presence of Australian riders at this year’s edition and as always, we guarantee some very aggressive and exciting racing from Team BikeExchange for all our fans

A big thanks also goes out to our team’s medical staff and the ASO for the medical protocols which have been closely monitored in order for such a prestigious race to be held under the challenging conditions we all currently face.”

Matt White – Head Sport Director
“We have assembled a very well-balanced unit for this year’s TDF. The group has multiple options as we go after stage wins across the entire three-weeks. We are welcoming Michael Matthews back into our TDF roster as we target selective sprints and medium mountain stages. In support of him, we have Luka Mezgec who was very impressive in his Tour debut last year and is capable winning in his own right.

We have an engine room that is tried and tested with road captain Luke Durbridge working with our Scandinavian duo of Chris Juul-Jensen and Amund Grøndahl Jansen, who have plenty of experience in riding for world class leaders. Then our elite climbing unit is led by Simon Yates who is looking to add more stage wins to his tally and Esteban Chaves who has won stages at both the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España and is aiming to add wins at the TDF to his resume.

Finally, we have our only Tour de France debutant in Lucas Hamilton who has had a very consistent year so far and he will be getting our full support as he rides for GC.”