VIS scholarship holder Simon Clarke has been named as the replacement rider in Australia's Rio Olympic Games road race after Simon Gerrans ruled himself out due to injury.
Clarke will line up alongside Richie Porte, Rohan Dennis and a fourth rider who is still to be chosen to compete on what is a varied and challenging Rio course.
Gerrans was forced to pull out of his third Olympic Games after he suffered a broken clavicle following a high speed fall at the Tour de France, paving the way for Clarke’s call-up.
The 30 year old Clarke recently competed in the Tour of Poland World Tour stage race event where he finished 25th and has been a regular on the Grand Tour circuit in recent years.
Having started his career on the track, Clarke has claimed an individual stage win at the Vuelta a Espana and was a member of team time trial stage wins at both the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.
He showed his climbing ability when he took out the Mountains Classification of the 2012 Vuelta a Espana and finished 10th at last year’s Rio test event.
Clarke will compete at the UCI World Tour one day Classica San Sebastian event on July 30 before flying out to Rio to meet up with his road race compatriots.
