The 2016 Giro d’Italia shapes as the most important Grand Tour for Australia since Cadel Evans’ 2011 Tour de France victory.
A host of Aussies will line up in Apeldoorn, but the man who could write the next chapter in our little nation’s illustrious cycling history hails from Colombia.
The 2015 Vuelta a Espana – the most recent Grand Tour held – was won by Italian Fabio Aru, and Dutchman Tom Dumoulin was the deserved story of the race.
But a tiny bloke named Esteban Chaves quietly went about his business and came fifth.
Fifth. In a race that had a starting list including Grand Tour winners Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali, Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde. Of those four, only his compatriot Quintana finished higher than Chaves.
Couple the finish with two stage wins, and Chaves well and truly announced himself on the world stage.
So why do we care Down Under? Because Chaves rides for Australia’s Orica-GreenEDGE team.
In their few short years, OGE have never had a genuine general classification contender. That’s not to say they haven’t been successful – with multiple stage wins and jerseys at Grand Tours, as well as victories in one-day races, OGE are one of the best teams on the WorldTour.
But after Cadel’s retirement and Richie Porte’s series of false starts, Aussies haven’t had anyone to cheer on in back part of a three-week race.
That’s about to change.
Granted, Chaves isn’t technically one of ours, but nationality has never stopped us from claiming a sportsperson before.
Think ‘our’ Kim Clijsters, ‘our’ Guus Hiddink, ‘our’ Phar Lapp.
Cycling is a global sport, and thus can be hard to put your finger on. It was easy to cheer on Evans as he rode Australia to glory, but he did so for the American BMC team.
It’s been a bit of a struggle to get behind Porte, because he was riding for British Team Sky – and being an Aussie living in England at the time, there’s nothing worse than the Poms winning at anything.
To be fair, Australia’s fledgling WorldTour team have flown the flag, with Simon Gerrans and Michael Matthews pulling off some seriously impressive wins – not to mention Matthew Hayman’s awesome Paris-Roubaix victory a few weeks back.
But while the classics and Week 1 of a Grand Tour are great, I want to see the bloke I barrack popping champagne on the Champs-Elysees. And Esteban Chaves has the talent to do it.
Fifth at the Vuelta a Espana may seem innocuous – not even on the podium – but the way Chaves went about it was seriously impressive.
While OGE did their best to support him, no one who lined up to start the race in Marbella were noted climbers, and the Vuelta is a climber’s race.
It’s harder to win the Tour because it’s the most famous bike race in the world, so riders model their entire season on that one race. But in terms of the parcours, the Vuelta is perhaps the hardest race on the planet – it’s relentless from start to finish.
So for one man with no support in the high mountains to finish fifth is insane.
What made it better was the way young Chaves went about it.
He spent most of the first week as the race leader, and therefore was in the media spotlight. But when questioned about how well he was performing, he deferred to his team – “I couldn’t have done it without them” was the standard response to every piece of praise he received.
Even better was the daily presentation of the red leader’s jersey. At 164 centimetres and 54 kilograms, Chaves is both shorter and lighter than his pint-sized compatriot Quintana – something the race organisers were not prepared for. Thus, each time he was presented with the jersey, he would raise his arms in celebration and the red fabric would bundle up beneath him, several sizes too big.
But his over-sized shirt was dwarfed by his smile, Chaves’ elation was no secret and a joy to behold.
But on to the Giro.
Two-time winner Nibali is the deserved favourite, while last year’s third place winner, Mikel Landa, will this year have the full support of his new Sky team and is a decent bet to go two places better.
Also present will be previous winner Ryder Hesjedal, twice second-place getter Rigobrto Uran, and the still dangerous at 36 Valverde.
Giant-Alpecin say they’re just there for stage wins, but Tom Dumolin was one stage away from winning the 2015 Vuelta – he’s not turning up at Grand Tours just for time trial victories anymore.
And Rafal Majka is Team Tinkoff’s heir apparent to a little-known cyclist named Alberto Contador – the guy’s got some well-deserved raps.
He also doesn’t have the advantage of anonymity anymore either – after such a solid showing in the freshest Grand Tour in anyone’s memory, Chaves will be a marked man. We’re not likely to see him slip off the front for a couple of stage victories here.
In short, Chaves has a mountain to climb if he wants to stand on the podium in Torino.
Luckily, the kid’s a climber.
Of course, climber or no, it’s a lot easier to do well on the bergs if you’ve got teammates supporting you, so OGE have recruited seasoned mountain specialists Ruben Plaza and Amets Txurruka as Chaves’ lieutenants.
Perhaps more importantly, OGE sport director Matt White has thrown the team’s full support behind their Colombian star, saying “supporting him will be our big focus for the race”.
“This is the first time in the team’s history that we have a team assembled around a rider who has the genuine credentials to compete for the general classification,” White said this week.
“This is new territory for us. We have enjoyed success at the Giro d’Italia in recent years with stage results and consecutive days in the leader’s jersey in 2014 and 2015 but we have never realistically gone into the race looking to challenge for the overall.”
Can Chaves win it?
Honestly, if all the main contenders ride to their potential, stay healthy and keep out of trouble, no.
But the podium is absolutely on the cards.
And with unexpected illnesses, mechanical issues, crashes and bad days all guaranteed in three-week races, if a podium finish is on the cards, then a win is possible.
But let’s not theorise on the inevitable sad stories.
The first Grand Tour of the year starts tonight, and Aussies have a genuine GC contender to cheer for: Our Esteban.
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