Video: Durbridge on riding and surviving his first grand tour

Riding your debut grand tour can be a daunting prospect but Orica GreenEdge's Luke Durbridge has taken it in his stride.

Ten days down, 11 to go in the Giro d'Italia and so far the Australian time trial champion has kept his head well above water, quite a achievement given the amount of rain that has showed down on the peloton in the opening week.

Durbridge came into the Giro with a number of objectives. First and more foremost he was at the race to help his team, and secondly to see how far he could last through three-weeks of racing.

The third aim centred purely on the individual time trial on stage eight, a torturous 54.8 kilometre test to Saltara that had a number of more experienced riders looking at their road book with furrowed brows.

Durbridge came out of the stage in 6th, and in his this exclusive interview with Cyclingnews, he talks about his race so far, his feelings on his time trial performance and the mountain time trial that’s still to come.

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Daniel Benson

Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.