Simon Gerrans (born 16 May 1980) is an Australian former professional

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2018, for the , , , , and squads. Post-retirement he initially worked as an athlete intern at Goldman Sachs in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, then joine
The Service Course
in which he is an investor, as COO and now CEO, in early 2020. He can also be heard commentating road cycling for ASO and SBS. Gerrans was a two-time winner of the Australian National Road Race Championships, having won the title in 2012, and 2014. Aside from his National Championship successes, his biggest triumphs were winning the

Tour Down Under The Tour Down Under (branded as the Santos Tour Down Under under a partnership arrangement) is a cycling race in and around Adelaide, South Australia, and is traditionally the opening event of the UCI World Tour and features all 19 UCI World ...

a record four times, and getting the better of one-day races such as the 2009 GP Ouest-France, the 2012 Milan–San Remo, the

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and

2014 Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec The 2014 Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec was the fifth edition of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, a single-day professional bicycle road race. It was held on 12 September 2014, over a distance of , starting and finishing in Quebec City. It was t ...

, the 2014 Liège–Bastogne–Liège, and stage wins in all three Grand Tours. In the

2013 Tour de France The 2013 Tour de France was the 100th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started on the island of Corsica on 30 June and finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 21 July. The Tour consisted of twenty-one stag ...

, Gerrans claimed the yellow jersey on Stage 4 after being part of the winning team in the Stage 4 team time trial in Nice.

Biography

Gerrans was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

, Victoria and grew up in

Mansfield, Victoria Mansfield is a small town in the foothills of the Victorian Alps in the Australian state of Victoria. It is approximately north-east of Melbourne by road. The population around Mansfield was as at the 2016 census. The town itself has 341 ...

. He took up cycling after injuring his knee and speaking with his neighbour, former

Yellow Jersey The general classification is the most important classification, the one by which the winner of the Tour de France is determined. Since 1919, the leader of the general classification wears the yellow jersey (french: maillot jaune ). History Th ...

holder Phil Anderson whom he credits with introducing him to the sport. Gerrans was an

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of th ...

scholarship holder. In 2002, he finished fifth in the senior Australian National Road Race Championships, and took the under 23 title. He went on to ride as a trainee with the Carvalhelhos-Boavista team, based in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

from 1 September 2003, and then as a trainee for the team from 1 September 2004. He turned professional in 2005, staying with AG2R Prévoyance, and participated in his first

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consist ...

in the same year. Gerrans underwent surgery at a hospital in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

following a heavy fall in the GP d'Ouverture la Marseillaise in February, 2006. A pin was inserted into his shattered left collarbone and a screw put into his broken right shoulder, and had stitches in his head. He resumed training three weeks later and went on to represent Australia at the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006 ( Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm 2006'' or ''Naarm 2006''), was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth held ...

in Melbourne. In 2008, Gerrans rode for the Crédit Agricole team. He won stage 15 of the

, the high point of his career so far, after being in the four-man breakaway for most of the day. Barely surviving attacks from the other strong climbers in the breakaway, in which the fourth rider was dropped from the group, he eventually sprinted away in the last few dozen metres, without a response from the two remaining contenders. Following the closure of the Crédit Agricole team Gerrans signed with the

UCI Professional Continental The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union Cycliste Internationale The ''Union Cycliste Internationale'' (UCI; ; en, International Cycling Union) is the world gove ...

for the 2009 season. Despite his success of the previous year, he was not included in the squad for the

2009 Tour de France The 2009 Tour de France was the 96th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started on 4 July in the principality of Monaco with a individual time trial which included a section of the Circuit de Monaco. The race visi ...

. On stage 14 of the 2009 Giro d'Italia Gerrans attacked his breakaway companions on the short steep climb of San Luca, near Bologna, to win the stage – the first Grand Tour stage victory for Cervélo TestTeam. After winning 10th stage of the

2009 Vuelta a España The 2009 Vuelta a España was the 64th Vuelta a España. The event took place from 29 August to 20 September 2009. For only the second time in the race's history, it began away from Spanish soil, with the race not in fact reaching Spain until Stag ...

Gerrans became the first Australian to win a stage of each of the three Grand Tours. Simon-Gerrans

He signed with for season 2010 and made the Team Sky selection for the 2010 Tour de France. Gerrans was involved in a large crash on Stage 8 of the race resulting in a broken arm and his withdrawal from the race. In 2011, Gerrans came 3rd in the Amstel Gold Race. In August, he won the Danmark Rundt. Shortly after that victory, it was announced that Gerrans would join for the team's inaugural season in 2012.

2012 season

In January 2012, Gerrans became national road race champion for the first time, out-sprinting 's Matthew Lloyd and 's

Richie Porte Richard Julian Porte (born 30 January 1985) is an Australian professional road bicycle racer who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . His successes include wins at 8 World Tour stage races: Paris–Nice in 2013 and 2015, the Volta a Catalunya in ...

for victory. Later in the month he won the

for the second time. He secured the victory on stage 5, where his second-place finish allowed him to take the ochre jersey ahead of Valverde, who won the stage. Both riders were on the same time, but due to better cumulative stage finishes, Gerrans took the lead and did not relinquish it. On 17 March 2012, Gerrans won Milan–San Remo in a three-man sprint finish, beating 's Fabian Cancellara and 's

Vincenzo Nibali ), The Nibbler , birth_date = , birth_place = Messina, Sicily, Italy , height = , weight = , currentteam = , discipline = Road , role = Rider , ridertype = Climber , proyears1 = 2005 , proteam1 = , proyears2 = 2006–2012 , protea ...

to the line in

Sanremo Sanremo (; lij, Sanrémmo(ro) or , ) or San Remo is a city and comune on the Mediterranean coast of Liguria, in northwestern Italy. Founded in Roman times, it has a population of 55,000, and is known as a tourist destination on the Italian Rivie ...

. Later in the season, Gerrans took second place at the

Clásica de San Sebastián The Donostia-Donostia Klasikoa — Clásica San Sebastián-San Sebastián (San Sebastián Classic) is a one-day professional men's bicycle road race in northern Spain that has been held every summer since 1981 in San Sebastián. It is the mo ...

, dominating the chase group sprint as the lone escapee Luis Leon Sanchez () crossed the line seven seconds before him. In September, Gerrans took his third victory in a

2012 UCI World Tour The 2012 UCI World Tour was the fourth edition of the ranking system launched by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) in 2009. The series started with the 2012 Tour Down Under, Tour Down Under's opening stage on 17 January, and consisted of 14 ...

race by being victorious in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec. He countered an attack by 's

Greg Van Avermaet Greg Van Avermaet (born 17 May 1985) is a Belgian professional cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Considered one of the most versatile riders of modern cycling, Van Avermaet is a specialist of the classic cycle races, but has also ...

with to race. The pair went up the final difficulties of the day and broke clear of the bunch. Gerrans then out sprinted the Belgian to the finish line while the chasers were closing in at four seconds.

2013 season

Tour de France 20130704 Aix-en-Provence 071

In 2013, with the help of his team , he enjoyed much success on the bike. He began the season with a decent

, winning the penultimate stage; after getting in a breakaway with Javier Moreno of Spain and

Tom-Jelte Slagter Tom-Jelte Slagter (born 1 July 1989) is a Dutch former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2011 and 2020, for the , , and teams. Career Born in Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands, Slagter currently resides in Leeu ...

of the Netherlands, Gerrans out-sprinted Slagter for the stage win. However most of his real successes came from Europe. Gerrans enjoyed a third-place finish in the Amstel Gold Race. His participation in the

Volta a Catalunya The Volta a Catalunya (; en, Tour of Catalonia, es, Vuelta a Cataluña, link=no) is a road bicycle race held annually in Catalonia, Spain. It is one of three World Tour stage races in Spain, together with the Vuelta a España and the Tour of t ...

yielded more success, winning the sixth stage in a sprint finish; he did so by a bike length ahead of Gianni Meersman of Belgium. Gerrans began the Tour of the Basque Country well taking out the first stage honours. After a lead-out from teammate Pieter Weening, Gerrans sprinted to his third stage victory of the year ahead of a fast-finishing

Peter Velits Peter Velits (born 21 February 1985 in Bratislava) is a Slovakian former professional road racing cyclist. His career highlights included third place overall and a stage win at the 2010 Vuelta a España, the 2007 World Under-23 Road Race Champion ...

of . He also finished tenth at

Liège–Bastogne–Liège Liège–Bastogne–Liège, also known as ''La Doyenne'' ("The Old Lady"), is a one-day classic cycling race in Belgium.Cycling Weekly, UK, 13 March 1993 First run in 1892, it is the oldest of the five ''Monuments'' of the European professional ...

. At the

, Gerrans and his team enjoyed a very successful start to the tour. After avoiding much of the carnage of the first two stages of the tour, Gerrans ended up taking the stage honours for the third stage after a sprint to the line finish where he narrowly edged out Slovakian Peter Sagan. The stage win was the first for at the Tour. also won the

team time trial A team time trial (TTT) is a road bicycle race in which teams of cyclists race against the clock (see individual time trial for a more detailed description of ITT events). The winning team in a TTT is determined by the comparing the times of ...

the following day, beating ; as a result, Gerrans donned the race leader's yellow jersey, only the sixth Australian cyclist to do so. He earned plaudits during stage 6 by holding back at the stage finish, allowing his teammate Daryl Impey to take the yellow jersey from him and become its first South African wearer.

2014 season

After winning the Australian National road race, Gerrans went on to win the

for the third time in his career, besting his fellow countryman Cadel Evans by a single second. He also prevailed on the first stage in the process and gained the leader's jersey thanks to time bonuses at intermediate sprints and stage finishes. On 27 April 2014 Gerrans won the cycling monument

in the sprint, becoming the first Australian to win the race. On Stage 1 of the 2014 Tour de France, Mark Cavendish collided with Gerrans in the final 500 metres, with both crashing heavily to the ground. The crash happened as the front of the peloton overtook lone escapee Fabian Cancellara. Having failed to get the inside line on the left-hand curve, with his Omega-Pharma team out of the picture, Cavendish was pushing with his head and shoulders in a desperate attempt to move Australia's Simon Gerrans to the left. Cavendish wanted to get a clear run to the line, but Gerrans did not yield because the Frenchman Bryan Coquard was to his left. Cavendish lost control of his front wheel and fell heavily on his right shoulder, with Gerrans, a stage winner and yellow jersey wearer last year, hitting the deck simultaneously. Gerrans went back to his winning ways in Quebec City, coming back from a mechanical with 20 km left to win the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec after surging past Tom Dumoulin on the slightly uphill finish. He is the first cyclist to take two victories in the Canadian World Tour event. Two days later, Gerrans realized another first: he became the first rider to win the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Montreal back-to-back in the same year as he won the sprint in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. Those two wins announced very good form just ahead of the World Championships in Ponferrada, in which he came in second place after his select group failed to reach lone escapee

Michal Kwiatkowski Michal (; he, מיכל , gr, Μιχάλ) was, according to the first Book of Samuel, a princess of the United Kingdom of Israel; the younger daughter of King Saul, she was the first wife of David (), who later became king, first of Judah, ...

2015 season

Gerrans had an unlucky start to the season, as he broke his collarbone in January while he was training for the

. His first race back was the Strade Bianche, but he fractured his elbow in another crash during the Italian event. He was looking for a result as he came back to racing, but his bad luck continued as he crashed twice in

and abandoned. However, he did not sustain any serious injuries in the latter crashes. He participated to the Giro d'Italia and crashed again on the rainy twelfth stage, forcing him to abandon. In the

, Gerrans was involved in a massive, high-speed crash on stage 3 and he had to quit the race due to a broken wrist.

2016 season

Gerrans started the year well by winning two stages of an Australian World Tour race, the

. Thanks to the bonus seconds on offer for placing highly in the individual stages, he won the general classification for the fourth time in his career. This sent Gerrans to the top of the new UCI World Ranking, which was starting fresh from January 2016, a position he held for 7 weeks. He broke his collarbone on Stage 12 of the

2017 season

Gerrans endured a winless 2017, and was not selected for any of the Grand Tours. In September 2017 it was announced that he would join the for 2018, with a role as a road captain and key domestique for

and

. Gerrans subsequently revealed that he had been considering retirement before being personally approached by Porte after the Tour de France to join BMC.

2018 season

Gerrans was selected for the 2018 Tour de France, his 12th participation in the race. In August 2018, he announced in an open letter published by the that he would retire from competition at the end of the season, stating that his "passion for the sport is not what it used to be", but indicating that he wanted to remain involved in cycling in some capacity after spending more time with his family.

Major results

;2002 : 1st MaillotAustralia

Road race Road racing, road race of road racer may refer to: * Road racing in motorsport * Road running on foot * Road bicycle racing * ''Road Race'', initial name of 1976 arcade game ''Fonz'' (video game) * Roadracers (1994 film) * Roadracers (1959 fi ...

, National Under-23 Road Championships : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

Tour of Tasmania The Tour of Tasmania is a cycling road race contested annually in Tasmania, Australia. Created in 1996, the race formed part of the calendar of the Union Cycliste International from 1997 to 2002. The race was not contested the 2001, 2003 and 20 ...

::1st Stage 3 : 7th Overall Grand Prix Guillaume Tell ::1st Stage 2 ;2003 : 1st Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic : 1st Stage 3

: 4th Overall Herald Sun Tour ;2004 : 2nd Overall

Ringerike GP Ringerike Grand Prix is a road bicycle race held annually near Hønefoss, in the region of Ringerike, Norway. The race was created in 1975 as the Fossen Grand Prix, and was ranked 2.2 The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world's gove ...

: 2nd Overall Paris–Corrèze : 3rd Overall

Ruban Granitier Breton Tour de Bretagne Cycliste, also known as the Tour de Bretagne trophée des granitiers and formerly known as Ruban Granitier Breton, is an annual early season professional cycling stage race held in late April and early May in Brittany, France. T ...

: 4th

Archer Grand Prix The Archer Grand Prix was part of the British Cycling Premier Calendar. History The Archer Grand Prix was run annually for over fifty years, organised by Stuart Benstead of the Archer Road Club (although Stuart Cook organised the last two even ...

: 7th Overall Boucles de la Mayenne : 8th Overall Herald Sun Tour ::1st Stage 9 ;2005 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Herald Sun Tour ::1st Stage 3 : 1st Gran Premio Industria e Commercio Artigianato Carnaghese : 1st Tour du Finistère : 4th Overall Circuit des Ardennes : 6th Gran Premio Industria e Commercio di Prato : 7th Overall

: 8th Brabantse Pijl ;2006 : 1st Jersey orange

Overall

::1st Stage 1 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Herald Sun Tour : 6th GP Triberg-Schwarzwald ;2007 : 1st Grand Prix de Plumelec-Morbihan : 2nd Overall Bay Classic Series ::1st Jersey green

Sprints classification ::1st Stage 5 : 2nd Tour du Haut Var : 5th Grand Prix de Fourmies : 9th Boucles de l'Aulne ;2008 : 1st Stage 15

: 1st Stage 2 Critérium International : 4th Overall Route du Sud ::1st Stage 1 ;2009 : 1st GP Ouest–France : 1st Stage 14 Giro d'Italia : 1st Stage 10

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the ...

: 1st Stage 1 Bay Classic Series : 3rd

Gran Premio di Lugano The Gran Premio di Lugano ( en, Grand Prix of Lugano) is a road bicycle race held annually in Lugano, Switzerland. Prior to 1981 it was held as an individual time trial but in recent years it has been organised as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe ...

: 6th

: 7th Amstel Gold Race : 8th Overall Volta ao Algarve : 8th La Flèche Wallonne : 10th

UCI Road World Championships The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and a mixed team relay. Events ...

;2011 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Danmark Rundt : 2nd GP Ouest–France : 3rd

, National Road Championships : 3rd Amstel Gold Race : 5th Coppa Sabatini : 10th Overall Volta ao Algarve : 10th

;2012 : 1st MaillotAustralia

, National Road Championships : 1st Jersey orange

Overall

: 1st Milan–San Remo : 1st Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec : 2nd

: 4th Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal : 6th UCI World Tour ;2013 :

::1st Stages 3 & 4 ( TTT) ::Held Jersey yellow

after Stages 4–5 : 1st Stage 5

: 1st Stage 6

: 1st Stage 1 Tour of the Basque Country : 3rd Amstel Gold Race : 10th