Luke Durbridge eyeing more than time trial glory for Orica-GreenEDGE

AUSTRALIAN Luke Durbridge may be a time trial specialist but he believes he can have Tour de France success away from the race against the clock.

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - MAY 10: Best Young Rider jersey wearer Luke Durbridge of Australia and Orica-Greenedge looks on ahead of the second stage of the 2014 Giro d'Italia, a 219km flat road stage on May 10, 2014 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Bryn Lennon - Velo/Getty Images)

AUSTRALIAN Luke Durbridge may be a time trial specialist but he believes he can still enjoy Tour de France success away from the race against the clock.

The 23-year-old won back-to-back national time trial titles in 2012 and 2013, the year he did the double by also winning the national road race.

Although racing his first Tour de France, Durbridge has acquitted himself well with his Australian Orica GreenEDGE team. He may be more than two hours behind race leader Vincenzo Nibali and outside the top 100 but he’s enjoying the ride.

“This is definitely a much bigger circus than I’ve ever been a part of,” he said.

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“It’s my first Tour de France and I’m enjoying the experience. It’s much more stressful and faster than any other race I’ve done.

“I’ve still got a while to go but I hope to continue the way I’m going and get to Paris.” Durbridge admitted he would be targeting the 54km individual time trial on the penultimate stage but he said he would not limit himself to that one goal.

“I’m here to take every opportunity, I’m not just here to be a passenger in the peloton all the way to Paris,” he said.

“Obviously (I’m targeting) the time trial the second last day but that’s quite far away.

“I’m also targeting a couple of opportunities I want to take to do a good result for myself.” Durbridge rolled in almost 40 minutes behind winner Nibali on the first alpine mountain stage on Friday but said he wasn’t daunted by the Tour’s summit finishes.

“I did the Giro d’Italia the last two years and some of those stages are probably even harder than here, but it’s just the pace they ride (at the Tour).

“I’m not afraid of the mountains but it might be just one of those cases of getting through and see how you might come out the other side.”

So far the Tour has been a disappointing one for Orica-GreenEDGE, which has not even come close to a stage win.

But Durbridge said their hopes were tempered by team leader Simon Gerrans crashing in the sprint finish at the end of the opening stage in northern England.

“We had a little bad luck with Simon crashing early on and Mathew Hayman crashing out at the start.

“Last year for us was such a great success at the Tour de France. A lot of people think it just makes or breaks their season but we’ve had an unbelievable season so far if you look at all the results we’ve had.

“The other week we had almost one week with a victory in every race that whole week.

“For sure the Tour de France is a make or break race for us. We feel a little bit of pressure and we want to try and perform.

“We give it 100 per cent every day and if it doesn’t come off, it doesn’t come off, that’s just the way it is.”

Originally published as Luke Durbridge eyeing more than time trial glory for Orica-GreenEDGE