Why GreenEDGE is the talking point of 2012
Columnist
By Adrian Musolino, 17 Jan 2012 Adrian Musolino is a Roar Expert
Imagine if the Socceroos had guaranteed qualification to each World Cup, or the Wallabies awarded an automatic berth to the Rugby World Cup semis. That’s what Australian cycling has with its new pro team, GreenEDGE.
GreenEDGE is the first top-level Australian cycling team to compete on the UCI’s World Tour, starting with the Tour Down Under in Adelaide, which starts today.
While the focus for cycling fans has very much been on individuals – Cadel Evans, Lance Armstrong, and so on – GreenEDGE gives Australian sporting fans the equivalent of a national team representing the green and gold at the grand tours, from Le Tour in France to the Giro in Italy and the Vuelta in Spain, and on to the classics and more.
Created to not only represent Australia but also foster talent on the world stage, it gives young Australians a direct path to the top flight of world cycling, and the equivalent of a Socceroos or Wallabies to cheer for in a sport that’s on the rise in this country. It suddenly unifies most of the undoubted individual talent Australian has, previously spread across the pro teams.
But while the initial stage of getting the team up and running following the green light from the UCI is ticked following their debut this week, the real challenge is only just beginning, not only on the roads of the World Tour but on the commercial side of the operation.
On the road, GreenEDGE, like you’d expect from any newbie thrown into the deep end of the top flight, will be out to claim small battles where it can. Missing from their inaugural squad is a rider capable of contending in the grand tours in 2012, such as Cadel Evans, already tied to BMC, and the up and coming Richie Porte, who is with the United Kingdom’s Sky.
The GreenEDGE squad has a great mix of youth and experience, representing Australian cycling’s great depth across two overlapping generations, but has no rider capable of taking it to Evans in the Alps and the Pyrénées.
Robbie McEwen and Stuart O’Grady are crucial in their mentoring role with the younger generation in the team, and grooming the likes of Jack Bobridge and Matt Goss is the first development stage for the team.
But the team needs to make an impression when they can – victory in a major one-day classic, multiple stage wins at smaller tours such as the Tour Down Under, and, ideally, a stage win at Le Tour. A green sprinter’s jersey or the like would be even better, but expectations need to be realistic.
Such success is needed to get GreenEDGE into the Australian consciousness and create interest amongst the corporate world, with the team still without a title sponsor or other major backer.
Billionaire businessman Gerry Ryan will bankroll the team for between two and three seasons, and the riders present at the launch were keen to stress that his involvement is what pushed the GreenEDGE project over the line. But the team cannot rely on the philanthropic impulse of one man.
While the lack of a sponsor allows GreenEDGE to present a green and gold image, helping its representation as Australia’s national team, it needs the backing of a Qantas, Fosters, Telstra or similar entity eventually. Finding an Australian title sponsor is clearly preferred, to retain the Australianness that the team is eager to promote. Sponsorship from Mercedes or Budweiser would hardly endear the team to Australian patriots.
But this is a tough ask. You need only look to the team that was earmarked to represent Australia on the world stage, Pegasus, which was unable to secure the financial support needed to reach that level, to see the difficulty in finding major sponsors.
Cycling is even struggling in its European heartland, as witnessed by teams such as HTC-Highroad, with a winning pedigree dating back two decades, folding due to its inability to find a new title sponsor. Such matters are not helped by a European economy that teeters on the brink, with cycling powerhouses such as Italy and Spain at the heart of the problem.
While the focus of the cycling season will be on Cadel Evans’ Le Tour defense, and casual sporting fans will keep a passing interest on the events in Adelaide, no doubt yearning for Evans and Armstrong, there is also the birth of team that could be a game-changer for Australian cycling in the years to come. However it turns out, it’ll be a fascinating ride to watch.
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January 17th 2012 @ 7:38am
Redb said | January 17th 2012 @ 7:38am | Report comment
I don’t know if the GREENedge is THE talking point in sport generally in 2012, for sure amongst diehard cycling fans.
Its an interesting concept and as someone who takes a casual interest in road cycling I’ll check it out, its just a shame some marketing consulting firm thought up the team name because it lacks an Australian identity.
To really excel they need Cadel on board.
January 17th 2012 @ 8:07am
Kasey said | January 17th 2012 @ 8:07am | Report comment
As a long time cycling fan I am excited to finally see an Aussie Pro-tour team, but I worry that the weight of public expectation might be quite big for this team. Cycling is a quaint sport and it respects the old ways as much as the new technological advancement (but only up to a point!). The sport is very intolerant of bigging up oneself and brashness in any way. It respects those that build up and pay their dues in the peloton. I worry that the general Aussie will have read about Cadel’s big win last year and just decided that this cycling lark isn’t that hard and all that is required now is to get as many Aussies together on one team as possible and the ‘mellow Johnny’ will be ours for the taking. IMO we should be aiming to replicate some of the rides of blokes like Thomas Voekler in 2004, who riding for small French team Brioche La Boulangere(sp?) seized and held the maillot Jaune for 10 days(IIRC), making himself into a national hero. A young rider like Jack Bobridge (SA) could do similar when he is fully fit and firing – tipped for greatness by none other than Armstrong himself.
As a football fan I am surprised at how quickly the national psyche went from “wow, we made it to the world Cup – 2006” to, “geez, not making it to the knockout phases and losing 4-0 to a rampant Germany is a terrible disappointment.” Of course there were other influence at play, like Pim’s negative tactics and brisk attitude v Hiddink’s ‘mastery of managing the media’ and the squad to perform beyond the sum of their individual parts.
On the positive side, It is a firm reminder to all of the strides the sport of professional cycling has made in this country since the days of Phil Anderson. Now cycling means more to Aussies than just our 4-yearly love-in with our track ”Gold-Gold-Gold” Olympic cycling stars. I’m excited, Go Green edge!
January 17th 2012 @ 11:46am
Ben Carter said | January 17th 2012 @ 11:46am | Report comment
Hi Adrian – great story. I’ll plead generic ignorance as to the make-up of the team, etc, but when I first heard about the concept I was impressed already. The idea that Australia has a (hopefully) permanent national team presence at the major road classics throughout the world each year is brilliant. And as Kasey said, it will mean that it’s not all just about the (predominantly) track-based cycling from the Olympic team every four years.
Like Redb I’ll have to also admit that cycling is hardly my sport of personal preference as a fan, but I, too was amazed at Cadel Evans’ Le Tour win last year. And as Kasey points out, let’s hope there’s more awareness of cycling as a sport as a result of the GreenEDGE experiment. If the general population can go from considering a mere FIFA World Cup appearance to be fantastic via a four-year journey to getting ticked off that the team doesn’t perform better and progress further in four years, equally it’d be great to see GreenEDGE mount a serious Le Tour challenge this year and show that Evans’ feat (as incredible as it was of course) can be replicated for the green-and-gold supporters.
January 17th 2012 @ 1:31pm
Dinoweb said | January 17th 2012 @ 1:31pm | Report comment
Um, I’m not an expert and can someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but there is no gaurantee that GreenEdge will compete in any of the Grand Tours is there?
January 17th 2012 @ 1:37pm
Kasey said | January 17th 2012 @ 1:37pm | Report comment
The reason a Pro Tour license is so hard to acquire is because it brings with it entry to the three Grand Tours. The 18 ProTour teams, are obliged to take part in all 28 World Tour events,
ASO(who run the Tour de France) always invite a handfull of smaller(usually French) teams to bring that race to its full complement of riders. The 18 ProTour Teams plus 4 continental licence teams = 22 teams totalling 198 riders.