Tuft gets Tour de France start
Orica-GreenEdge's Canadian makes la grande boucle debut at 36
Canadian Svein Tuft will make his Tour de France debut at the age of 36, as his Australia-based WorldTour squad Orica-GreenEdge released its Tour start list Wednesday. Tuft, eight-time Canadian time trial champion, recently won the Tour of Slovenia’s prologue chrono.
Tuft will be part of a team focused on getting Australian sprinter Matthew Goss to the line first. Orica-GreenEdge’s sports director Matt White said that Tuft will be “crucial for our team time trial ambitions. He’s a strong guy with a huge amount of power to chase breakaways and look after the sprint train.”
Besides Tuft and Goss, Orica-GreenEdge will have Swiss Michael Albasini for the mountains and GC, Australians Simon Gerrans and Simon Clarke out for stage wins and wily Aussie vet Stuart O’Grady, wearer of the yellow jersey in 1998 and 2001, equaling American George Hincapie’s record of 17 Tour starts.
Tuft will join compatriot David Veilleux (Europcar) on the start line in Corsica on June 29.
