Mission accomplished: Simon Gerrans retained the yellow jersey of race leader in the Tour de France today and believes that it should be possible to keep the maillot jaune within the Orica GreenEdge squad for the immediate future.
The Australian finished fifteenth on today’s fifth stage to Marseille, rolling in just two places behind his team-mate Daryl Impey, who was tipped by some as a possible successor if he finished enough places in front.
However Gerrans remains best on accumulated stage placings and will once again hold the maillot jaune tomorrow.
Speaking afterwards, he said that he remained close to the front in the finale in order to steer clear of trouble. That tactic paid off, as he avoided a large crash which happened further back on the finishing straight.
“The dream continues: another day in the yellow jersey,” Gerrans said after the race. “It was a pretty solid stage: long day on small roads and quite a lot of wind but it's really thanks to some great teamwork again I was able to keep the yellow jersey for one more stage.”
Gerrans and the Orica GreenEdge team have had a very successful time thus far in the Tour, with the Australian winning stage three and then moving into the race lead yesterday when his Orica GreenEdge outfit was fastest in the team time trial.
That success ensured that he, Impey and Michael Albasini took over the first three places in the overall standings.
“I'm confident in our team and obviously there are a couple of us in our team who are on the same time so the main priority is just to keep the jersey in our team,” he said. “I think we're more than capable of doing that for the next couple of days.”
With a bunch sprint always likely, Gerrans’ biggest priority was to stay out of trouble. “There were a couple of crashes in the final part of the stage and that's just a few guys being a little nervous and a lot of guys fighting for position,” he said.
His team worked hard to defend his lead and also keep him out of trouble. As expected they rode at the front, then were later relieved by the sprinters’ teams, who were seeking to ensure a big bunch gallop.
“It was a tough stage and there was a strong break out there today. They got a big gap at the start and a few of our guys did a lot of work to control that before we got a little help in the second half of the stage,” he said.