Maiden Voyage: The Tour's First Timers

CW speaks to some of the 13 riders who are making their Grand Tour debuts this year.

- James Shrubsall

If you’re going to become a king of the road, you’ve got to ride your first Tour de France sometime. A daunting prospect, but with the Vuelta a España or perhaps the Giro d’Italia offering a less stressful and well-trodden path to a first Grand Départ, going in blind isn’t a requirement. Sometimes though, it’s just what happens.

This July there are a total of 13 riders taking part in what is not only their first Tour de France, but also their first ever Grand Tour. For most pro bike riders this is the dream ticket; the zenith of everything they have worked for since signing their first contract; the world’s biggest annual sporting event and the pinnacle of the sport. Perhaps that is exactly the very reason that experiencing your first Grand Tour here is such a formidable challenge.

Dion Smith of Pro Continental team Wanty-Groupe Gobert, reflects: “It’s pretty crazy and hectic — as expected; but they usually say the first week in the peloton is very stressful... and all the media — I think that’s gonna be all the three weeks but it should calm down a bit by next week. 

“But first impressions are it’s a pretty unreal and crazy experience.”

“At the start I was reasonably nervous,” adds the 24-year-old Kiwi, “but once you get into the Tour you kind of just get into a routine and just do the job at the end of the day really.”

Smith is far from alone in riding his first Tour — in fact, while some have ridden the Vuelta previously, the whole of the Wanty Tour roster are riding their first Grande Boucle. It’s not a situation that Lotto-Soudal’s Grand Tour debutant Teisj Benoot finds himself in. His Tour team includes seasoned pros such as André Greipel, Adam Hansen and Lars Bak, who boast a total of 57 Grand Tour starts between them.