Cycling: Jenner riding on edge of a dream

By KEVIN NORQUAY

LONDON - New Zealand cyclist Chris Jenner has fulfilled an ambition he has held since he was 14, being selected to ride in the world's most famous race, the Tour de France.

Jenner, aged 26, was devastated to be passed over for the nine-man Credit Agricole team last year when two Frenchmen got the nod for what is one of the world's top 15 teams.

Vowing not to let politics cost him this year, Jenner switched to a French riding licence after the Olympic Games - sponsor Credit Agricole is a French bank. This week the former Upper Hutt rider got the news he had waited years to hear.

When the three-week, 3500km, tour starts at Dunkirk on Saturday he will be there - the first New Zealander to ride in the race since Stephen Swart in 1995.

Celebrations will wait until after he has ridden down the Champs Elysee on July 29 to the finish in Paris.

"The biggest aim is to finish it, it's one thing to get selected, it's another thing to finish it," he said. "Riding down the Champs Elysee ... it's what I picture the most.

"People probably don't realise how hard it is to get selected for a race like this, they probably think as long as you can ride all right anyone can do it. It's not actually that easy."

It was harder for Jenner than most. Cycling people were surprised when he was overlooked last year when the poorer performing Frenchmen were chosen.

So Jenner switched nationalities. It wasn't a huge jump; Jenner has lived in Toulouse, France, for five years and has a French wife, Christele, and daughter, Anais.

"The only reason I didn't [ride] last year was because I wasn't French. If I wasn't French this year, I probably wouldn't be doing it," he said.

Jenner, who has been in good form, had a late scare when he crashed in the Pyrenees mountains on the penultimate day of the four-day Route du Sud last week.

"I crashed on a downhill - I was going too fast, I locked up the brakes and kept on going straight ahead. I hit a big fence, and then fell off," said Jenner, who was not badly hurt.

The 189 Tour de France riders take on four stages of high mountain, with several steep climbs of 25km over passes up to 2115m above sea level - about as high as Mt Ngauruhoe in the central North Island.

There are three "medium" hill stages, two individual time-trials, a team time-trial and 10 flat stages. Jenner favoured rolling hill stages, not the big climbs, and thought he might be able to steal a stage win, or be in an important break.

His pay would rise substantially if he proved himself on tour.

"It's pretty much where you make your name. You have a couple of good days people will remember your name. It will put your popularity up by 30 or 40 per cent, just this one race," he said.

Initially his main job would be to support Australian Stuart O'Grady. Jenner did not expect to be matching pedals with the likes of the great American Lance Armstrong, who is chasing a third-straight win."Lance Armstrong compared to myself - it's just ridiculous, the difference. It's like Jonah Lomu against a schoolboy."

Jenner won the Tour of Wellington this year, and was fifth in Australia's Tour Down Under.

Pro Cycling magazine last year called him one of "The Tomorrow People" - seven young riders set to make their mark at the Tour de France.

- NZPA