Durbo Eyes Big 2017 Campaign

Western Australian road cyclist Luke Durbridge is preparing for a busy 2017 season off the back of a successful Australian summer that saw him compete at the Road Championships, Tour Down Under and at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race last weekend.

The 25 year-old ORICA-Scott rider departs this week for a fortnight in South Africa where he will ramp up preparations for the one-day classic season in Europe.

On quick stop in Perth, he told InsideWAIS that the summer campaign in Australia had been a productive one for the tough season ahead.

“Yeah the campaign’s been really good actually, a good Aussie summer – second in the nationals in the time trial and then Tour Down Under, the team (ORICA-Scott) won five stages, so yeah it was a really good summer but I think I’m ready to go now,” he said.

“I head to South Africa tomorrow for a training camp for a couple of weeks and then I head up to Belgium where the Flemish classics are on, so I’m preparing for March and April and the Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, so that’s the immediate objective, and then I’ll have a bit of recovery and then prepare for the Tour de France.

Since joining with ORICA-Scott, Durbridge has forged a highly successful road career, regularly featuring in the grand tours, whilst often taking a key role in assisting his team’s general classification or sprint riders in stage races.

Durbridge was again in the thick of the action at last week’s UCI Tour event named in honour of Australia’s first Tour de France winner – Cadel Evans, supporting Simon Gerrans to a second place finish in the Great Ocean Road Race.

The Bassendean product also produced a herculean effort at the recent Australian road championships in Ballarat to chase down a break-away and nearly spur Gerrans on for a third national title.

Photo credit: ORICA-Scott