After a disappointing second phase of the Tour de France and the subsequent Stuart O’Grady scandal, recent victories have lifted up Orica-GreenEDGE from the doldrums.
Peter Weening’s last-ditch overall victory in the Tour of Poland was the team’s first GC stage race victory of the season, while both Michael Matthews and Jens Keukeleire picked up a maiden wins for Orica-GreenEDGE with respective scalps in the Tour of Utah and Vuelta a Burgos.
With more opportunities on the horizon for Matthews in the American stage race, plus the Vuelta a Espana and Tour of Britain just around the corner, Australia’s first and only WorldTour team finally have reason to smile again after recent travails.
Simon Gerrans’ stage victory, a superb team time trial scalp and stints in yellow for both Gerrans and Daryl Impey made the opening week of the Tour de France fairly special for Orica-GreenEDGE.
Matt Goss’ worrying incapacity to leave his mark in the sprints plus the team’s lack of a bona fide climber (not to mention BMC’s Cadel Evans’ implosion) made the remainder of the Tour difficult for the droves of Australian fans staying up late to watch SBS or Eurosport streams every night.
Used to caviar, they had to settle for a tough and tepid parma from the moment the race hit the Pyrenees.
Once in Paris, the celebrations of O’Grady’s completion of his 17th and final Tour were short lived.
Three days later, the 40-year-old was named in the French Senate report detailing EPO use in the 1998 Tour – when O’Grady won stage 14 and wore the yellow jersey for three days.
O’Grady’s hasty confession that, essentially, he had only ever smoked once and that the flavour had put him off cigarettes for the rest of his life, regardless of its veracity, did little to limit the damage.
Just as Orica-GreenEDGE had been thrown into turmoil by sports director Matt White’s previous doping confession in 2012, the Australian team once again were inadvertently dragged through the dirt by an ex-offender.
White managed to turn things round and return to the fold – but redemption will be a harder act to follow for O’Grady, so outspoken about those caught doping in his era.
I digress.
The point I’m trying to make is simple: having made their first significant ripples on the Tour de France in their second season of existence, Orica-GreenEDGE subsequently crashed back down to earth – and even Eritrean Daniel Teklehaymanot’s first professional win (in the Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia one-day race in Spain) was not enough to regain buoyancy.
But Weening’s surprise overall victory in a demanding Tour of Poland was a significant step back up for Orica-GreenEDGE.
Weening’s win was one of consistency and stealth: never outside the top ten but without even picking up a stage win on the way, the Dutchman was poised in fifth place and 27 seconds down going into the final day of the race.
Weening then had a Greg LeMond moment, moving to the top of the standings after outriding a Frenchman in the yellow jersey in an individual time trial on the final day of the race.
Unlike LeMond, Weening could not pick up that elusive win (which instead went to Sky’s Bradley Wiggins – remember him?). But his solid ride was enough to rise 13 seconds above Jon Izaguirre on GC, with overnight leader Christophe Riblon struggling in the ITT to drop to third, 16 seconds down.
Yet as much as it was a boon for Orica-GreenEDGE to net their first overall win of the season (and their first week-long WorldTour stage race scalp since Gerro’s Tour Down Under victory last year) a victory for a Dutchman (or even an Eritrean, for that matter) does not have quite the same ring to it as an Australian win.
Step forward Matthews, the 22-year-old sprinter from Canberra, who finally picked up his first win since joining the Orica-GreenEDGE family from Rabobank in the close season.
Matthews win didn’t come before he’d added to his run of second-place finishes this season: in the opening stage of the Tour of Utah, Orica-GreenEDGE were caught out by an early attack by Greg van Avermaet in the final kilometre, the Belgian from BMC hanging on to subject Matthews to his fifth runners-up spot of the season.
Speaking after the finish, Orica-GreenEDGE sports director Matt Wilson was upbeat about the result, saying it would nevertheless give Matthews “a lot of confidence going forward” while underlining that Friday’s fourth stage in Salt Lake City was “our best shot” for the win.
But the team did not need to wait so long. Just one day later, they got their tactics spot on and despite the lumpy parcours the Orica-GreenEDGE train was on hand to deliver the former U23 world champion to a sprint win over his Belgian rival.
By turning the tables on van Avermaet, Matthews, thanks to a one-second time bonus in the third intermediate sprint, also moved into the race lead.
“I’ve had a few opportunities this year that I haven’t quite pulled off the way I would have wanted,” said Matthews, whose nickname is ‘Bling’ because of his penchant for bracelets, chains, eyebrow studs, earrings and other glitzy items of jewellery, not to mention the garish tattoo of an angel underneath a halo and his birthdate emblazoned across his back.
(Still, at least he doesn’t have a tattoo of his own name and family coat of arms etched across his shoulders, unlike Leigh Howard…)
Continued Matthews: “It seemed like I’m always getting second [so] it’s really nice to get my first win for the team, especially when everyone worked so hard for me all day. To take the yellow jersey and the sprint jersey at the same time as my first win this year is really special.”
Matthews does not expect to feature in the hilly 191km third stage on Thursday but has promised to “ramp things up again” for the short criterium-style stage in Salt Lake City on Friday.
Bling has good memories of Salt Lake City: he won there in 2012, getting the better of BMC pair Michael Schar and Brent Bookwalter.
With a huge question mark looming above Goss’ ability to bring home the bacon, Matthews’ debut win for the team will be a huge sweetener. What’s more, another victory in Utah would put Orica-GreenEDGE on course to better their tally of wins from last season’s inaugural campaign.
After a tricky end to July, there’s no denying that things are on the up for Shayne Bannan’s men. This buoyancy was reflected by the decision by Canada’s Christian Meier to re-sign for another two years this week.
Following in Meier’s footsteps, Belgian Keukeleire also put pen to paper on another two years – and then just hours after it was announced, the 24-year-old repaid the team’s faith in him with an impressive uphill finish in stage two of the Vuelta a Burgos.
It was Keukeleire’s first since joining Orica-GreenEDGE last year – and the latest in a flurry of morale-boosting wins.
“For me the question isn’t ‘why stay?’ It’s ‘why leave?” said Meier after prolonging his contract.
“We have a great group of people to work with – riders, staff and sponsors. We’re always right on the leading edge of training, recovery methods and nutrition.
“The team gives us all the tools we need to grow and get the best out of ourselves. I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
The big question going forward for Orica-GreenEDGE is whether or not they can attract a genuine GC contender who would be able to echo those sentiments and, like Meier, not want to be anywhere else.
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