After much anticipation, the 2015 Tour de France got underway in Utrecht today, Canadian Svein Tuft the top finisher for ORICA-GreenEDGE in the 13.8km individual time trial.
Tuft crossed the finish line 45seconds behind Rohan Dennis’ (BMC Racing) winning time of 14minutes 56seconds to claim 25th position on the first stage.
Each of ORICA-GreenEDGE’s first three riders on the road – Luke Durbridge (2nd), Tuft (3rd) and Simon Yates (10th) – sat inside the top ten at their time of finishing before eventually recording 32nd, 25th and 33rd places respectively.
For sport director Matt White, it was Yates’ performance that stood out – the 22-year-old losing just one second to Tuft and finishing on the same time as former Australian time trial champion Durbridge.
“The most impressive ride for us today was Simon Yates,” White said. “Svein and Durbo were around the mark of where we thought they would be but for Simon Yates to finish alongside those guys in a time trial of that distance is pretty impressive.”
