Since Phil Anderson's breakthrough Tour de France in 1981 when he became the first non-European to wear the yellow jersey, Australians have regularly animated the race and made numerous visits to the podium. Cadel Evans' 2011 overall victory was obvious highlight for Australians, while the creation of the Australian WorldTour outfit Orica-GreenEdge has given the fans a fully fledged team, rather than individual riders, to cheer on during the late night broadcasts.
Australian riders have won at least won stage all but six occasions since 1996 with the class of 2016 offering several options to continue the good run. In recent years, Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) and Rohan Dennis (BMC) have both won stages and wore the yellow jersey while Michael Rogers enjoyed a stage win in 2014.
Following the retirement of Evans early-last year, the inventible search for a successor has settled on Richie Porte (BMC) for the coming years with the 30-year-old to co-lead a team at the Tour for the first time in his career. While Porte is the Australian best placed for a tilt at the general classification in 2016, there are several of his compatriots more than capable of claiming stage wins.
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Ahead of the 103rd Tour, Cyclingnews has cast its eyes over the eight Australian riders who are spread across four different teams.
Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) 5 previous appearances (2011-), best finish 19th in 2013
Having helped Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and Chris Froome in 2013 and 2015 to overall Tour victory, Porte will start the race as a team leader in for the first time in his career. A proven winner of WorldTour one-week stage races, it's yet to go right for Porte in the three-week races so far but the 30-year-old enters the race after a promising Criterium du Dauphine. in which he finished fourth.
Porte made the move from Sky to BMC for 2016 to pursue his personal ambitions at the Tour where he will co-lead the team with Tejay van Garderen. Porte's 2016 season has been one of consistency for the Tasmanian with top-four finishes at the Tour Down Under, Paris-Nice, Volta a Catalunya and the Dauphine.
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