By Jaap Haemers, translated by José Been

Their most known compatriote at the moment is of course Cadel Evans, the winner of this year's Tour de France. But the four Ozzies who are coming to the Jeugdtour look very promising too. Yeah you read it correctly; there are four riders from the land of the kangaroos coming to Assen to compete in the Nieuwelingen category.

Their names are Jai, Luke, Brendon en Robert. To introduce them to The Netherlands already we asked Brendon's mum Ann some questions.

How do four boys from Australia end up in the Jeugdtour?
“Gordon Hindley, the trainer of the team and Jai's dad wanted to see Europe in 2011. I arranged all this as a surprise for him. With the four boys, Gordon, me and some other family members we flew to Paris to see the Tour de France between July 14 and July 16. After that we went to Belgium where the boys rode some races and now we come to Assen where we rented a chalet on a camp site together."

All four boys are members of the Midland Cycle Club which is the same club as Cameron Meyer and Luke Durbridge. Gordon has always been their coach. Brendon and Luke just received a scholarship for the WAIS, the Western Australian Institute of Sport. Jai and Robert are in the development team leading to WAIS.

They all prefer road cycling over track cycling even though Jai, Luke and Brendon came third this year in the team pursuit on the Australian Championships. In the Australian summer the British track team comes to Australia and the boys then had the privilege to train with Sir Chris Hoy.

They have won quite a lot of prizes already. Luke became the national time trial champion in the U15 category in 2009. In that year Brendon took the yellow jersey in the Central Districts Junior Tour in Southern Australia.

Do the boys have other hobbies?
“They train 5 to 6 times a week and next to that they are in their senior years of school. It doesn't leave much time for other things. They take it in turns to stay at each others houses on weekends before they all head off together to training rides or races the next day.”

The four boys all have their own specialism. Luke is the best time trialer and Jai is a sprinter. He might end up the new Robbie McEwen. Robert is a good climber and Brendon is very allround.

We look forward to see what the guys from the land Down Under bring to Assen and to see in the future if they end up to be just as good as their famous compatriote Cadel Evans.

Brendon	Jai	Luke	Robert