Damien Howson ready for Tour de France debut

Australian a key climbing domestique for Chaves and Yates at Orica-Scott

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Damien Howson (Orica-Scott) at the Dauphine

(Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

At Orica-Scott, the triumvirate of Esteban Chaves and the Yates brothers are regarded as future Grand Tour winners following their breakout performances in the past 12-months. A key rider to the success of the trio working behind the scenes is Australian Damien Howson. The 24-year-old will shepherd Chaves and Simon Yates through the high mountains of France next month when he makes his Tour de France debut.

A former U23 time trial world champion, Howson hasreinvented himself as a key domestique at Orica-Scott and become an indispensable member of its general classification squad. When given the opportunity at the Herald Sun Tour, Howson also proved his winning instinct and ability when he claimed the queen stage and the overall title.

With Tour de France selection on the cards since December, Howson explained to Cyclingnews the satisfaction of securing a place in the nine-man team for July.

"I am super excited and elated with emotion. I knew from December last year that it was a potential for my programme to be riding the Tour de France this year. Everything had to go smoothly, and I had to be racing well and be injury and illness free. I was relieved to hear that I had done everything that I could and that the team put me in the starting nine for the Tour de France," said Howson of the team,built around Chaves and Yates.
"The team saw me as a valuable asset to join forces with Esteban. Things can change, and it was never guaranteed. Just because Esteban was doing a Grand Tour doesn't mean I will follow in his footsteps all the time. On this occasion, that was the case."
A promising basketballer in his youth, Howson added that his decision to change sports was well and truly the right one ahead of his Tour debut.

"As much as I did enjoy basketball and that was a massive passion of mine growing up, I made a tough decision when I was 13 to give up a sport I had been trying to make it in since I was five and I was getting places in," the Adelaide local said. "Cycling took my fancy and I just worked through the ranks through the years to the top of the sport and I guess you can call the Tour de France the very top."
After impressing at the Tour de Romandie where he finished 11th on GC, Howson, Chaves and Sam Bewley headed to Colombia for a May training camp in preparation for the Tour de France. Staying in a hotel in Bogotá at 2,600m, the trio were accompanied by a chef, physio, a coach, and a mechanic to ensure total focus on the task at hand.
"We had a good time with hard training and obviously being at that serious form of altitude, hopefully it had a positive effect," he said of the experience. "It was great to focus on everythin