Fresh from a dominant performance at the national road championships, the Orica-GreenEDGE machine now rolls onto the next test of its home summer.
The team has announced its squad for the Tour Down Under, which begins next Tuesday the 22nd of January, and there are a couple of surprise omissions.
Defending champion Simon Gerrans is rightly designated team leader, and perennial Adelaide favourite Stuart O’Grady will reprise his road captain role in what could be his last major race on Australian soil. Both automatic selections.
Newly-minted national road and time trial champion Luke Durbridge was another obvious selection following his marauding performances in Ballarat over the past week, and previous good form in the Mitchelton Bay Series. Durbridge has a potent combination of outstanding early-season form, undeniable talent, and is riding a wave of hype that should help bring out the fans. Win, win, as they say.
Simon Clarke has also shown good legs in the Jayco Herald-Sun Tour, and his climbing ability will be important either as a support rider for Gerrans or as a threat in his own right, particularly on the Old Willunga stage.
But here’s where it gets interesting: Matt Goss is the team’s marquee sprinter, and has shown over the past two seasons that when in form he can outsprint the best in the world. But he hasn’t shown great form so far this season; in fact from what I saw at the Sun Tour and at nationals he looked decidedly underdone.
Daryl Impey takes the second sprinter’s spot, and will probably act as lead-out man for Goss if things go to plan. Big Dutch powerhouse Jens Mouris plays the enforcer role in the train, and his selection is what really makes me think this team has been selected with medium-term ambitions for the team in mind.
The team will be eager to get its train functioning smoothly, with an eye on the Tours of Qatar and Oman, and the various single-day races in Belgium and France in late February. These may not be World Tour races, but they still carry significant UCI points, not to mention prizemoney.
In horse racing parlance, the combination of O’Grady, Mouris, Impey and Goss will be better for the run when the team hits Europe in a few weeks.
This is a sign of maturity for the team: after a successful 2012 campaign it no longer has a point to prove in front of the Australian fans and media. It has a strong fan base, a good squad of riders in form, and if it doesn’t dominate the TDU it isn’t going to prompt questions about the team’s legitimacy.
So I think the team is playing a longer game than it may have in 2012. This might explain why they have left a couple of really good riders on the sidelines.
New recruit Michael ‘Bling’ Matthews has just come second at nationals (winning the bunch sprint), also made the podium in the time trial, and generally seems to be in much better shape than Goss.
Cameron Meyer has also shown outstanding form, winning the national criterium title with a scintillating solo effort which was also not enough to earn selection in his home World Tour race.
I actually think Matthews and Meyer would be more likely to win stages next week than Goss and Impey. But success in the Tour Down Under is no longer enough for a team that wants to grow into a real force in professional cycling.
This squad has been selected as part of a broader plan for the season, and that’s a sign that the team is growing up.
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