Gerrans expecting Games rebound

The lack of opportunities for long breakaways, Gerrans's specialty, means he is likely to be fresh and dangerous on Saturday in the 250km London 2012 Olympic Games road race.

The Orica-GreenEDGE rider will have dual roles in the five-man Australia team.

Gerrans will help make sure that their sprinter Matt Goss is protected and expending as little energy as possible in case it comes down to a bunch sprint at the finish on London's Mall.

But there is no guarantee that fast men such as Goss, British world champion Mark Cavendish, German Andre Greipel and Slovakian Peter Sagan will decide the medals.

The nine circuits of the hilly Box Hill circuit will give rivals plenty of opportunity to break up the race.

Australia have a versatile team, with Gerrans, Michael Rogers and Cadel Evans all capable of a big finish if one of them finds himself in the right break.

"There wasn't a huge amount of opportunities for a rider like myself in this year's Tour," Gerrans said.

"There was really only one opportunistic breakaway that went right to the finish, and that was the stage to Pau.

"So the fact I didn't do any huge efforts up the road in breakaways and really go super-deep through entire stages at a time, I actually got through it pretty well.

"Hopefully after a few days' recovery, I should bounce back pretty good for this weekend."

Gerrans's arm was briefly caught in a barbed-wire fence when he crashed heavily in stage three, but he recovered quickly from those injuries and rode out the Tour.

He made a stunning start to the year, winning the Australian road title and the Tour Down Under in January.

Two months later, he joined Goss as the only Australians to win the prestigious Milan-Sanremo one-day classic.