The muttering about GreenEDGE’s form has started. Quietened temporarily by victory in the team time trial at Tirreno Adriatico, fans are nevertheless asking each other when Australia’s road team is going to win something serious.
Sure, Simon Gerrans nearly grabbed a stage win at Paris Nice, and Matt Goss wore the leader’s jersey at Tirreno Adriatico for a couple of days, but apart from those isolated successes the team has been travelling in virtual stealth mode since it left Australia in January.
GreenEDGE’s highest-placed finisher at Paris Nice was Michael Albasini in 37th place, 9:26 behind Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins. Gerrans was 75th, over 26 minutes behind Wiggins.
Meanwhile, at Tirreno-Adriatico, since the team’s maiden European victory in the stage one team time trial, only Cameron Meyer has shown any form. After stage five he was sitting in 10th place overall, 1:22 behind Radioshack-Nissan’s evergreen race leader Chris Horner. Meyer also leads the young rider competition, which is a strong positive.
Goss was sixth in stage three, but has since pulled out with a cold, hopefully to recover in time to defend his Milan-San Remo title this weekend.
It’s not that we ever expected GreenEDGE to have a GC contender in the grand tours, certainly not this season, but the fact is they aren’t really looking like winning much of anything. The team has rarely had a rider in dangerous breaks, hasn’t looked organised in the sprints, and please don’t even mention the mountains.
Perhaps this criticism is a little too quick to rush to judgment. The team did manage a win this week, after all. Some other major teams are also struggling for a victory, not least Cadel Evans’ BMC squad, despite its embarrassment of stars.
But GreenEDGE is our team. There was so much excitement as the dream of an Australian pro-team became a reality. Hence the mumblings and mutterings about, “When are they going to win something?”
It doesn’t help that British-based Sky Procycling seems to be winning at will, through Mark Cavendish, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Wiggins, and that’s just this week.
Indeed, Sky provides the template for GreenEDGE. Ostensibly built to further the cause of British cycling, and closely linked to the British high-performance system, the team now features all of that country’s road stars, and a mix of top talent from other nations (including four Australians).
Sky’s first season (2010) was unspectacular, but the team now boasts a balanced roster that can win classics, bunch sprints, time trials, and has a genuine grand tour GC favourite in Wiggins.
GreenEDGE has a parallel aim: to develop upcoming Australian talent like Cameron Meyer, Luke Durbridge and Jack Bobridge into the Cavendish’s and Wiggins’s (or the Evans’s and McEwens, if you prefer) of 2014. This will take patience from team management and from the fans. Building a strong squad takes time.
But without a few more victories, or even some near misses, the muttered questions about how much success is enough will continue.
Roll on Milan-San Remo.
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