Orica-GreenEDGE in World War I tribute on stage five of Tour de France

By Rupert Guinness
Updated July 20 2015 - 10:08am, first published July 8 2015 - 11:33am
Tribute: SImon Gerrans with the armband his team-mates will wear on Wednesday's stage of the Tour de France. Photo: Orica-GreenEDGE
Tribute: SImon Gerrans with the armband his team-mates will wear on Wednesday's stage of the Tour de France. Photo: Orica-GreenEDGE

Shortly before Simon Gerrans crashed out of the Tour de France on Monday, he took some time to think of a special moment in the race that is to come on Wednesday. That;s when the Tour passes through Villers-Bretonneux, the French town in the Somme that was liberated during World War I from the Germans by Australian forces on April 24-25, 1918 and where, on the Memorial National Australien, the names of 10,773 Australian soldiers killed during the war are  listed.