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A disappointing Tour de France continued a wretched season for Orica-GreenEDGE’s big money sprinter, who has managed just one individual win all year. Is it time for OGE to shift its focus away from riding for Matt Goss?
OGE’s amazing first week of the Tour meant that Goss was cut some slack. The team was basking in the euphoria of winning two stages (including the team time trial, of which Goss was an important part) and holding the yellow jersey for four days.
It was, arguably, the peak of this young team’s existence so far.
But ultimately the team’s Tour success was built on a new Grand Tour strategy that lessened the focus on an underperforming Goss, who went into the Tour clearly lacking the form he’s shown over the last few years.
His anonymous Tour was no surprise to many who’d followed his performances through the season.
Apart from that team time trial, Goss’s best results were 11th in stage 10, 12th in stage 21, and 15th in stage 6.
There are some mitigating circumstances: crashes or near-misses in the closing kilometres of stages 1, 10, and 12 cost him chances to sprint.
But at this level, crashes are the cost of doing business. The occasional bit of bad luck is unavoidable, but the likes of Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel also had to cope with crashes, and still managed to figure regularly in the results sheets.
If we’re honest, Gossy’s results were not really up to scratch for a guy rumoured to be on a couple of million dollars a year, with a dedicated leadout train and plenty of flat stages.
Sure, this was one of the hottest sprint contests in recent memory, but Goss was never even really mixing it in the top ten.
Goss was outperformed by his understudy Daryl Impey, who had more top ten results, wore the yellow jersey for two days, and finished much higher in the green jersey competition.
Goss’ form has been down all season: he’s managed just one win, in stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico. One podium at the Giro, a handful more at the Tour Down Under, Tour of Oman, and Tour de Suisse, and that’s about it.
As the number one man, Goss spends his time riding top-tier races where the competition is fiercest and opportunities are hard won.
This seems to be taking its toll. Perhaps the pressure to be on form in every race has damaged his preparation. Perhaps he needs a break, and a few confidence-boosting rides against less accomplished opposition.
Unfortunately for Goss there are diminishing opportunities remaining to redeem a disappointing season.
The world championships course in Florence looks too tough for a sprinter to feature. The Vuelta is probably a Grand Tour too far for a man who has already ridden the Giro and Tour this year.
The remainder of the season is a mix of short stage races in North America and Europe, and a string of single day races in France and Germany lead up to the year’s final monument, Il Lombardia, in October.
I think Goss should target some of these second-tier events and try to salvage some pride (and points).
The problem for OGE is that the team is still heavily skewed towards supporting a sprinter, and has recruited riders to that end.
A blunt spearhead can really put a wobble in the throwing arm – if the team stops believing that Goss can win races it becomes harder and harder to put everything behind him.
What’s the solution for Orica-GreenEdge?
The team has recently been hinting that 2014 may see a shift in priorities, as its initial roster of riders begin to come out of contract.
If Goss doesn’t improve in the latter stages of this season, should the team focus more on general classification by recruiting GC riders and domestiques to support them?
This would require significant changes to team composition, and is probably beyond what can be achieved in the short term while maintaining the ambition of developing young Australian riders (who tend to come from a track background and excel at sprints and time trialling).
Should they recruit another marquee sprinter to take some pressure off Goss? If you can’t have Cavendish, Greipel, Kittel, Sagan, Viviani, Bouhanni (all signed for 2014), who is better option than Goss?
With Australians Michael Matthews and Leigh Howard both improving, I think you could construct a reasonable argument that OGE should not target another overseas sprinter while these two continue to develop.
Impey also provides a credible option.
So there’s no obvious replacement and probably no short-term strategic shift. OGE fans really need to hope that Gossy comes good.
At his best, he can compete with the best in the business, even if it’s a season or so since we’ve seen him in top form.
Whether it’s the pressure of expectation, motivation, illness or injury, it really is up to Goss himself to turn things around.
His team’s success in the Tour was a welcome distraction from a disappointing personal performance, but part of the deal when you take the big bucks is you need to win races.
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