Australian cycling star Michael Matthews is back at the Tour de France, having survived a health condition and a training crash that could have killed him.
Matthews will be one of the key riders for the Australian-based Jayco AlUla team in the July 4-26 Tour, with stage wins their key goal.
Compatriots Luke Plapp and Ben O'Connor, Swiss all-rounder Mauro Schmid and German sprinter Pascal Ackermann will be their other key stage hunters.
The Paris Olympian had to pull out of last year's edition because of a pulmonary embolism at a training camp, a few weeks before the race. He later revealed the health problem could have killed him.
He made a successful return to racing, but Matthews had a head-on crash with a fire truck during a March training ride.
Matthews was riding at about 50km/h and estimates the truck was doing the same speed when they collided on a blind corner in Italy.
His list of injuries from the crash was eye-watering - an open arm fracture, wrist fractures, a facial fracture and severed tendons in a thumb.
It ruined Matthews' European spring classics campaign, and he returned to racing this month ahead of his ninth Tour start.
“If you’d told me three months ago that I would be lining up for the Tour de France, I don’t think I would have believed you," Matthews said.
"I’ve worked really hard to get back in time for the Tour, together with the team, and I’m really looking forward to being back. "After missing last year with my illness and then with my crash earlier this year, it’s given me even more motivation and hunger."
Matthews, 35, is a four-time Tour stage winner and also won its points classification in 2017.
O'Connor won the Tour's Queen stage in the mountains last year. He is a coming off a disappointing Giro d'Italia last month, where he was hoping for a high overall result but finished 16th.
Schmid, the most in-form rider of Jayco AlUla's Tour squad, Plapp and Ackermann are yet to win stages at the Tour.
Australian Luke Durbridge will race at his 12th Tour before he retires in January at the national road championships.
Compatriot Kell O'Brien, a member of the gold medal-winning team pursuit squad at the Paris Olympics, will make his Tour debut.
German Felix Engelhart will also ride at his first Tour de France.
