ALBURY cyclist Jesse Featonby has described his opportunity to go head-to-head with Tour de France champion Chris Froome as “crazy”.
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To be able to achieve it in one year of riding is pretty awesome
- Jesse Featonby
The young Drapac rider will emulate the feats of his father, Greg, when he makes his debut in the Herald Sun Tour on Wednesday.
“It’s going to be interesting to measure myself against the best rider in the world,” Featonby said.
“It’s crazy and a bit surreal really.
“It will be great to see close up how good he is.
“He’s the best in the world and a three-time Tour de France winner so I just see it as an awesome opportunity.”
Froome, who will ride for Team Sky, will be part of a crack field that weaves its way from Wangaratta to Falls Creek and Mt Beauty to Beechworth over two days.
Featonby, 29, said it was a dream come true to be riding in the tour.
“It doesn’t get any bigger,” he said.
“To be able to achieve it in one year of riding is pretty awesome.
“As soon as I could ride a bike, all I heard about were Dad’s Sun tour stories.
“My Dad was part of a winning team and a time-trial stage winner, and now I will get to have my own chance at it.
“To be a part of it myself is really cool.”
Greg rode in six tours and stood on the podium as a victor in the 37km team time trial from Mansfield to Jamieson alongside Neil Stephens, Wayne Nicholls, Shane Sutton and Jean Paul van Poppel in 1988.
“To get into the event was great and then to find out it’s coming through this region is even better,” he said.
“It will be fantastic.
“I’m very familiar with all these local roads around Beechworth and Bright so it’s really exciting for the race to be near home.
”It’s going to be hard as Team Sky and Orica are obviously really strong along with other teams but we will try and make the most of it and make some moves.”
