Julian Dean (NZ)

Dean is becoming a Tour de France staple, and in 2008 reinforced his status as a world class cyclist with six top-ten finishes in the TDF. A former US Postal team-mate of seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong, Dean now races for Garmin-Transitions. Dean will be participating in his sixth Tour, with his best result coming in 2007 when he finished 107th, while he was ninth in the points competition in 2008. Dean was once described by Thor Hushovd, as 'the best lead-out man in the world'. He was 121st in the GC last year.

Cadel Evans (Australia)

After finishing second in 2007 and 2008, Evans had a far less successful 2009 TDF, coming in 30th in the GC - although his overall ability was reflected by his 39th place in the points standings and 22nd in the climber standings . It was widely recognised that his Silence-Lotto team had not given him enough support in the race, and it came as no surprise when he switched to US-based BMC Racing. Australia's most successful Tour de France rider, the former mountain bike World Cup winner finished eighth overall in his debut in 2005, fifth in 2006 and was beaten by just 27 seconds in 2007. An excellent climber, Evans also has ability as a time triallist and currently wears the famous rainbow jersey of the reigning Road Race World Champion, having won the prestigious event in Switzerland last September.

Simon Gerrans (Australia)

Melbourne-born Gerrans, who grew up in Mansfield, credits former Yellow Jersey holder and Australian professional cycling trailblazer Phil 'Skippy' Anderson with introducing him to cycling. He quickly came to notice as he won the under 23 title at the 2002 Australian Road Race Championships and finished fifth in the senior race. He won the 2005 and 2006 Herald Sun Tours and the 2006 Tour Down Under and rode for Australia at the 2006 Commonwealth Games only weeks after a heavy fall in southern France saw a pin inserted into a shattered left collarbone and a screw into his broken right shoulder. Gerrans finished 126th in his Tour de France debut in 2005, 79th in 2006 and 94th in 2007, then in 2008, riding for Credit Agricole, he won Stage 15 after getting the better of three fellow escapees. Following the closure of Credit Agricole, he signed with the Cervelo Test Team and claimed that team's first Grand Tour stage victory when he slauted on Stage 14 of the 2009 Giro d'Italia. By then winning Stage 10 of the 2009 Vuelta a Espana, Gerrans became the first Australian to win a stage of each of the three Grand Tours. To the amazement of all, CTT left him out of its Tour team last year, so Gerrans has something to prove riding for Team Sky in 2010.

Adam Hansen (Australia)

Hansen will be competing in his second Tour de France riding for HTC-Columbia alongside compatriots Mark Renshaw and Michael Rogers. The 29-year-old finished 108th on debut in 2008, the same year he won the Australian National Time Trial Championship and came second in the Australian National Road Race Championships.

Brett Lancaster (Australia)

A gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the Team Pursuit - a year after winning the same event at the World Championships - the 30-year-old Victorian, who now rides for Cervelo Test Team, is making his fourth Tour de France appearance. He was forced to withdraw after Stage 5 in 2007 due to a stomach bug, but finished 129th in 2008 and 127th overall last year. Apart from his success representing Australia, Lancaster is best known for having won the Prologue at the 2005 Giro d'Italia, while he also tasted success in the Prologue at the Tour of Germany in 2008.

Matthew Lloyd (Australia)

The 2008 Australian Road Race champion won a spot on the Silence-Lotto team for his Tour debut in 2009 with a courageous ride in the Dauphine-Libere where, despite coming off a sickening fall a few weeks earlier in which he fractured his sacrum and suffered six broken vertebrae, he stuck with Cadel Evans up the hills while his team-mates had all dropped away. As a result Lloyd, known as the 'mountain goat', rode his first Tour de France as a domestique for compatriot Evans and managed to finish a more-than-creditable 46th. Now riding for Omega Pharma-Lotto, the 27-year-old won Stage 6 of the 2010 Giro d'Italia on his way to victory in the King of the Mountains classification, the first Australian to achieve that feat in a Grand Tour.

Robbie McEwen (Australia)

The 38-year-old from Brisbane, nicknamed the 'Pocket Rocket', is back for his 12th Tour after missing the 2009 edition through injury. Now riding for the Russian Team Katusha, after many years with the various incarnations of the Lotto team, the Belgian-based super sprinter has won 12 stages of the Tour and claimed the overall points classification three times. He created history in 2002 when he became the first Australian winner of the sprinters' green jersey and then backed it up two years later when he wore it for all but five stages on the way to winning again. McEwen made it a hat-trick of green jersey wins in 2006, winning three stages along the way. He started the 2007 Tour with a victorious sprint in Stage 1, but was forced out of the race after failing to finish Stage 8 within the time limit. McEwen's best overall finish came in 1998 when he was 89th, while he was 134th in 2005, 116th in 2006 and 122nd in 2008.

Stuart O'Grady (Australia)

Riding for Team Saxobank, O'Grady first contested the Tour in 1997, when he was 109th overall but it was in 1998 that he announced himself by wearing the yellow jersey and also winning the 14th stage between Valreas and Grenoble. The following year he also wore the green jersey and in 2001, having worn both yellow and green during the race, he narrowly missed claiming the overall sprinters' honours as Erik Zabel again took the crown. In 2002 O'Grady was third overall in the green jersey rankings and seventh in 2003, both times beaten by compatriots in Robbie McEwen and Baden Cooke respectively. In 2007 O'Grady was forced to abandon the race on stage eight after crashing on a descent, fracturing five ribs, his right shoulder blade, right collarbone, three vertebrae and puncturing his right lung. O'Grady finished 109th overall in 2008 and 124th last year. The South Australian has seven Commonwealth Games medals - four of them gold - and four Olympic medals, including gold in the Madison at the 2004 Games in Athens. Early in 2007 O'Grady became the first Australian to win a major classic when he crossed the line first in the Paris-Roubaix.

Mark Renshaw (Australia)

Renshaw, a Commonwealth Games gold medalist in the team pursuit at Manchester 2002, will be making his third Tour de France appearance, a remarkable feat given that he suffered a career-threatening herniated disc in his back in 2003. After pulling out of the 2008 edition of the Tour on Stage 15, the Bathurst-born 27-year-old finished 149th last year. However his role is not to figure in the GC or stage finishes himself, but to lead out HTC-Columbia sprint star Mark Cavendish, something he did so well in 2009 he is now commonly referred to as the best lead-out man in the world. This was perfectly illustrated on the final stage of the 2009 Tour, when Cavendish won and Renshaw held on for second place.

Luke Roberts (Australia)

Roberts is competing in his second Tour, this time riding for the German-based Milram team, having finished 102nd on debut in 2005. The Adelaide-born 33-year-old specialises in both track and road cycling and won a gold medal in the Team Pursuit at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He also finished ninth in the Individual Pursuit at the Sydney 2000 Games and improved to fifth four years later at Athens. He is also a three-time Teams Pursuit World Champion and dual Commonwealth Games gold medalist.

Michael Rogers (Australia)

Rogers has long been considered a chance of becoming the first Australia to win the Tour, but Evans' emergence over the past few years and a combination of injury and illness has seen the HTC-Columbia rider take a back seat. In 2007 the three-time World Time Trial Champion (2003, 2004, 2005) crashed out on the eighth stage, before missing the 2008 Tour with glandular fever. He finished sixth in the Road Race at the Beijing Olympics (he also finished fourth in the Individual Time Trial at the 2004 Athens Games). Last year, after finishing eighth in the Giro d'Italia, his Tour de France was disappointing and he finished 103rd. This year has been a very successful one, so far, for the boy from Barham (NSW), who has won the Tour of Andalucia and the prestigious Tour of California (the first non-American to do so).

Wesley Sulzberger (Australia)

Launceston 23-year-old Sulzberger is making his Tour debut with Francaise des Jeux. He was the Under 23 National Road Race Champion in 2007 and won silver in the same event at the World Championships. Sulzberger was fifth overall in the 2009 Tour Down Under.