 Gerrans at the2011 Critérium du Dauphiné | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Simon Gerrans | |||||||||||
| Born | (1980-05-16)16 May 1980 (age 45) Melbourne, Australia | |||||||||||
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)[1] | |||||||||||
| Weight | 64 kg (141 lb; 10 st 1 lb)[1] | |||||||||||
| Team information | ||||||||||||
| Current team | Retired | |||||||||||
| Discipline | Road | |||||||||||
| Role | Rider | |||||||||||
| Rider type | Puncheur | |||||||||||
| Amateur teams | ||||||||||||
| 2003 | Team Ringerike SK | |||||||||||
| 2003 | Carvalhelhos–Boavista(stagiaire) | |||||||||||
| 2004 | AG2R Prévoyance(stagiaire) | |||||||||||
| Professional teams | ||||||||||||
| 2005–2007 | AG2R Prévoyance | |||||||||||
| 2008 | Crédit Agricole | |||||||||||
| 2009 | Cervélo TestTeam | |||||||||||
| 2010–2011 | Team Sky | |||||||||||
| 2012–2017 | GreenEDGE[2] | |||||||||||
| 2018 | BMC Racing Team[3] | |||||||||||
| Major wins | ||||||||||||
Grand Tours
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Medal record
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Simon Gerrans (born 16 May 1980) is an Australian former professionalroad bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2018, for theAG2R Prévoyance,Crédit Agricole,Cervélo TestTeam,Team Sky,Orica–Scott[2] andBMC Racing Team squads.[3] Post-retirement he initially worked as an athlete intern atGoldman Sachs in London,[4] then joinedThe Service Course, in which he is an investor, as COO and now CEO, in early 2020.[5][6][7] He can also be heard commentating road cycling forASO andSBS.
Gerrans was a two-time winner of theAustralian National Road Race Championships, having won the title in 2012,[8] and 2014. Aside from his National Championship successes, his biggest triumphs were winning theTour Down Under a record four times,[9] and getting the better of one-day races such as the2009 GP Ouest-France, the2012 Milan–San Remo, the2012 and2014 Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec,[10] the2014 Liège–Bastogne–Liège, and stage wins in all threeGrand Tours. In the2013 Tour de France, Gerrans claimed the yellow jersey on Stage 4 after being part of the winning team in the Stage 4 team time trial in Nice.
Gerrans was born inMelbourne,Victoria and grew up inMansfield, Victoria.[citation needed]
Gerrans took up cycling after injuring his knee and speaking with his neighbour, formerYellow Jersey holderPhil Anderson whom he credits with introducing him to the sport.[11] Gerrans was anAustralian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.[12]
In 2002, he finished fifth in the seniorAustralian National Road Race Championships, and took the under 23 title. He went on to ride as a trainee with the Carvalhelhos–Boavista team, based in Portugal from 1 September 2003, and then as a trainee for theAG2R Prévoyance team from 1 September 2004. He turned professional in 2005, staying with AG2R Prévoyance, and participated in his firstTour de France in thesame year.[citation needed]
Gerrans underwent surgery at a hospital inNice following a heavy fall in the GP d'Ouverture la Marseillaise in February, 2006. A pin was inserted into his shattered left collarbone and a screw put into his broken right shoulder, and had stitches in his head.[13] He resumed training three weeks later and went on to represent Australia at the2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.[14]
In 2008, Gerrans rode for the Crédit Agricole team. He wonstage 15 of theTour de France, the high point of his career so far, after being in the four-man breakaway for most of the day. Barely surviving attacks from the other strong climbers in the breakaway, in which the fourth rider was dropped from the group, he eventually sprinted away in the last few dozen metres, without a response from the two remaining contenders.[15]
Following the closure of the Crédit Agricole team Gerrans signed with theUCI Professional ContinentalCervélo TestTeam for the 2009 season.[16] Despite his success of the previous year, he was not included in the squad for the2009 Tour de France.[17]
On stage 14 of the2009 Giro d'Italia Gerrans attacked his breakaway companions on the short steep climb of San Luca, near Bologna, to win the stage – the first Grand Tour stage victory for Cervélo TestTeam.[18] After winning 10th stage of the2009 Vuelta a España Gerrans became the first Australian to win a stage of each of the three Grand Tours.[19]
He signed withTeam Sky for season 2010[20] and made the Team Sky selection for the2010 Tour de France. Gerrans was involved in a large crash on Stage 8 of the race resulting in a broken arm and his withdrawal from the race.[21]
In 2011, Gerrans came 3rd in theAmstel Gold Race.[22] In August, he won theDanmark Rundt.[23] Shortly after that victory, it was announced that Gerrans would joinGreenEDGE for the team's inaugural season in 2012.[2]
In January 2012, Gerrans became national road race champion for the first time, out-sprintingLampre–ISD'sMatthew Lloyd andTeam Sky'sRichie Porte for victory.[8] Later in the month he won theTour Down Under for the second time. He secured the victory on stage 5, where his second-place finish allowed him to take the ochre jersey ahead of Valverde, who won the stage. Both riders were on the same time, but due to better cumulative stage finishes, Gerrans took the lead and did not relinquish it.[24][25] On 17 March 2012, Gerrans wonMilan–San Remo in a three-man sprint finish, beatingRadioShack–Nissan'sFabian Cancellara andLiquigas–Cannondale'sVincenzo Nibali to the line inSanremo.[26] Later in the season, Gerrans took second place at theClásica de San Sebastián, dominating the chase group sprint as the lone escapeeLuis León Sánchez (Rabobank) crossed the line seven seconds before him.[27] In September, Gerrans took his third victory in a2012 UCI World Tour race by being victorious in theGrand Prix Cycliste de Québec. He countered an attack byBMC Racing Team'sGreg Van Avermaet with 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) to race. The pair went up the final difficulties of the day and broke clear of the bunch. Gerrans then out sprinted the Belgian to the finish line while the chasers were closing in at four seconds.[28]
In 2013, with the help of his teamOrica–GreenEDGE, he enjoyed much success on the bike. He began the season with a decentTour Down Under, winning the penultimate stage; after getting in a breakaway withJavier Moreno of Spain andTom-Jelte Slagter of the Netherlands, Gerrans out-sprinted Slagter for the stage win. However most of his real successes came from Europe. Gerrans enjoyed a third-place finish in theAmstel Gold Race. His participation in theVolta a Catalunya yielded more success, winning the sixth stage in a sprint finish; he did so by a bike length ahead ofGianni Meersman of Belgium. Gerrans began theTour of the Basque Country well taking out the first stage honours. After a lead-out from teammatePieter Weening, Gerrans sprinted to his third stage victory of the year ahead of a fast-finishingPeter Velits ofOmega Pharma–Quick-Step. He also finished tenth atLiège–Bastogne–Liège. At theTour de France, Gerrans and his team enjoyed a very successful start to the tour. After avoiding much of the carnage of the first two stages of the tour, Gerrans ended up taking the stage honours for the third stage after a sprint to the line finish where he narrowly edged out SlovakianPeter Sagan. The stage win was the first for Orica–GreenEDGE at the Tour. Orica–GreenEDGE also won theteam time trial the following day, beating Omega Pharma–Quick-Step; as a result, Gerrans donned the race leader's yellow jersey, only the sixth Australian cyclist to do so. He earned plaudits during stage 6 by holding back at the stage finish, allowing his teammateDaryl Impey to take the yellow jersey from him and become its first South African wearer.[29]
After winning the Australian National road race, Gerrans went on to win theTour Down Under for the third time in his career, besting his fellow countryman Cadel Evans by a single second. He also prevailed on the first stage in the process and gained the leader's jersey thanks to time bonuses at intermediate sprints and stage finishes.[9] On 27 April 2014 Gerrans won the cycling monumentLiège–Bastogne–Liège in the sprint, becoming the first Australian to win the race.[30]On Stage 1 of the 2014 Tour de France, Mark Cavendish collided with Gerrans in the final 500 metres, with both crashing heavily to the ground. The crash happened as the front of the peloton overtook lone escapee Fabian Cancellara. Having failed to get the inside line on the left-hand curve, with his Omega-Pharma team out of the picture, Cavendish was pushing with his head and shoulders in a desperate attempt to move Australia's Simon Gerrans to the left. Cavendish wanted to get a clear run to the line, but Gerrans did not yield because the Frenchman Bryan Coquard was to his left. Cavendish lost control of his front wheel and fell heavily on his right shoulder, with Gerrans, a stage winner and yellow jersey wearer last year, hitting the deck simultaneously.[31] Gerrans went back to his winning ways in Quebec City, coming back from a mechanical with 20 km left to win theGrand Prix Cycliste de Québec after surging pastTom Dumoulin on the slightly uphill finish. He is the first cyclist to take two victories in the CanadianWorld Tour event.[10] Two days later, Gerrans realised another first: he became the first rider to win the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Montreal back-to-back in the same year as he won the sprint in theGrand Prix Cycliste de Montréal.[32] Those two wins announced very good form just ahead of the World Championships inPonferrada, in which he came in second place after his select group failed to reach lone escapeeMichał Kwiatkowski.[33]
Gerrans had an unlucky start to the season, as he broke his collarbone in January while he was training for theTour Down Under. His first race back was theStrade Bianche, but he fractured his elbow in another crash during the Italian event.[34] He was looking for a result as he came back to racing, but his bad luck continued as he crashed twice inLiège–Bastogne–Liège and abandoned.[35] However, he did not sustain any serious injuries in the latter crashes. He participated to theGiro d'Italia and crashed again on the rainy twelfth stage, forcing him to abandon.[36] In theTour de France, Gerrans was involved in a massive, high-speed crash on stage 3 and he had to quit the race due to a broken wrist.[37]
Gerrans started the year well by winning two stages of an Australian World Tour race, theTour Down Under.[38] Thanks to the bonus seconds on offer for placing highly in the individual stages, he won the general classification for the fourth time in his career.[39] This sent Gerrans to the top of the newUCI World Ranking, which was starting fresh from January 2016,[40] a position he held for 7 weeks.[41]He broke his collarbone on Stage 12 of theTour de France.[42]
Gerrans endured a winless 2017, and was not selected for any of the Grand Tours.[43] In September 2017 it was announced that he would join theBMC Racing Team for 2018, with a role as a road captain and key domestique forRichie Porte andGreg Van Avermaet.[44] Gerrans subsequently revealed that he had been considering retirement before being personally approached by Porte after the Tour de France to join BMC.[45]
Gerrans was selected for the2018 Tour de France, his 12th participation in the race.[46] In August 2018, he announced in an open letter published by theBMC Racing Team that he would retire from competition at the end of the season, stating that his "passion for the sport is not what it used to be", but indicating that he wanted to remain involved in cycling in some capacity after spending more time with his family.[47]
Road race, National Under-23 Road Championships
OverallTour of Tasmania OverallHerald Sun Tour
OverallTour Down Under OverallHerald Sun Tour
Sprints classification OverallDanmark RundtRoad race, National Road Championships OverallTour Down Under after Stages 4–5Road race, National Road Championships OverallTour Down Under
Sprints classification
Road race,UCI Road World Championships
after Stage 1 OverallTour Down Under Sprints classification
Combativity award Stage 14Vuelta a España| Grand Tour | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Giro d'Italia | — | — | — | — | 43 | — | — | — | — | — | DNF | — | — | — |
| Tour de France | 126 | 77 | 94 | 77 | — | DNF | 96 | 79 | 80 | DNF | — | DNF | — | 107 |
 Vuelta a España | — | — | — | — | DNF | DNF | — | — | DNF | — | 114 | 86 | — | — |
| Monument | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milan–San Remo | — | — | — | 147 | — | — | — | 1 | 68 | — | — | — | 36 | — |
| Tour of Flanders | 92 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Paris–Roubaix | Did not contest during career | |||||||||||||
| Liège–Bastogne–Liège | DNF | — | DNF | 54 | 6 | 11 | 12 | 19 | 10 | 1 | DNF | 33 | 139 | 77 |
| Giro di Lombardia | — | — | — | — | DNF | — | — | DNF | — | — | DNF | — | — | DNF |
| Classic | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
| Great Ocean Road Race | Race did not exist | — | 5 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||
| Brabantse Pijl | 8 | — | — | — | 53 | DNF | — | — | — | 46 | — | — | 52 | — |
| Amstel Gold Race | — | — | 37 | 12 | 7 | 63 | 3 | 20 | 3 | 3 | 70 | 11 | DNF | 79 |
| La Flèche Wallonne | 66 | — | 74 | — | 8 | 54 | 21 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 86 |
| Clásica de San Sebastián | — | 53 | 93 | — | — | — | 10 | 2 | 34 | — | — | — | 75 | DNF |
| Hamburg Cyclassics | — | DNF | 58 | DNF | — | — | — | — | — | 3 | — | — | 76 | 57 |
| GP Ouest–France | 52 | 18 | 62 | — | 1 | 101 | 2 | 12 | — | 51 | — | — | 95 | 47 |
| Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec | Race did not exist | — | 32 | 1 | — | 1 | — | — | 58 | 90 | ||||
| Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal | — | 71 | 4 | — | 1 | — | — | 66 | 92 | |||||
| Event | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Olympic Games | Road race | — | Not held | — | Not held | 36 | Not held | 83 | Not held | — | Not held | |||||||||
 World Championships | Road race | — | — | — | — | DNF | 86 | 89 | 66 | DNF | 10 | DNF | 79 | 20 | — | 2 | 6 | — | — | — |
| National Championships | Road race | 6 | — | — | 19 | — | 8 | DNF | — | 5 | — | — | 3 | 1 | 9 | 1 | — | 6 | 2 | DNF |
| — | Did not compete |
|---|---|
| DNF | Did not finish |
| NH | Event not held |
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