It was all smiles on the streets of Adelaide, as Simon Gerrans held on to his overall lead to give new Australian national team GreenEDGE their first victory in their first race on the WorldTour.
But despite Gerrans’ second triumph in the Tour Down Under, would it be churlish to suggest that GreenEDGE’s debut was rather underwhelming?
It has been, from the moment Andre Greipel zipped to his emphatic win in the Down Under Classic right through to the powerful German’s fourth win of the week on Sunday.
“I certainly am [happy],” said an “elated” GreenEDGE manager Matt White after the stage six finale in the centre of Adelaide. “The nationals are one thing but to win the Tour Down Under with our newly crowned national champion, we couldn’t have written a better script.”
Well, Matt, you could have written a better script: you could have actually won a stage.
GreenEDGE owner Gerry Ryan, riders Robbie McEwen and Luke Durbridge – even Gerrans himself – all spoke likewise, saying it could not have been a better start for the team. But let’s be honest: a actual stage win (on top of the overall) would surely have been the real icing on the cake.
As it is, GreenEDGE essentially did the bare minimum required to take the overall victory. After all, Gerrans did not even finish the race faster than runner-up Alejandro Valverde; he simply posted a higher level of aggregate stage positions than the Movistar rider, who himself managed what GreenEDGE failed to do – win a stage.
In what other sport do you get prizes for nothing?
I put that (slightly more diplomatically) to Durbridge on the finish line, asking the youngster whether a lack of stage wins took anything away from the overall victory for GreenEDGE.
“Stage wins are always nice but at the end of the day people remember the overall,” he said. “To us, overall was always the plan and that’s what we came here to do. If we came here to win stages, we might have focused more on stage wins, but our plan was to win overall and that’s what we’ve done.”
Okay, I admit it: I’m playing devil’s advocate. GreenEDGE’s lack of stage spoils was not through lack of trying.
No one else managed to beat Greipel in the race’s three bunch sprint finishes, and so to chastise a team without any noticeable sprinter (Robbie McEwen is more of a statesman than a speedster nowadays, while Matt Goss is yet to hit form) is unfair.
If, as Durbridge (with all the benefits of hindsight) said, stage victories were not the aim and the overall victory was, then couldn’t you say that his team’s debut was actually pretty convincing?
The team were denied (or perhaps saved from scrutiny) on day one due to that nasty crash in the final kilometre; two other stages went to Greipel, an indisputable monster; and in the other three, I put my hands down – Gerrans really did ride consistently well.
Valverde was the clear favourite on Willunga Hill and so for Gerrans to finish second to him in stage five was equivalent to any sprinter (say Rabobank’s Mark Renshaw in stage six) finishing second to Greipel on Australian soil.
In stage four at Tanunda, Gerrans finished solidly in the leading group as Oscar Freire took the win, while the 31-year-old’s third place in Stirling helped secure him that ever-important higher aggregate position over his Spanish rival, who came home in fourth.
On top of Gerrans’ consistency, the likes of veterans McEwen and Stuart O’Grady, as well as defending champion Cameron Meyer, worked tirelessly and selflessly all week for the good of the team.
But the victory was more Gerrans’ than it was GreenEDGE’s. As McEwen said to reporters on the finish line: “We’ve all won this race, thanks to Simon.”
In that respect, GreenEDGE’s biggest achievement this week was perhaps that their team managed to drive a Subaru throughout the Skoda-sponsored race (you wouldn’t see similar leeway being given to RadioShack to dart around in a Nissan).
As for the race itself, it had its moments of great excitement – and it certainly picked up after Tuesday’s tedious opener to Clare.
Cycling was the real winner as fans flocked in their thousands to watch the action while Australia’s increasing love affair with bicycles was clear to all and sundry, what with the huge numbers of replica kits and amateur riders out on their bikes each day – and not just during the Bupa Challenge Tour on Friday.
But with regards to professional bike racing, what saved the race was the addition of a summit finish at Willunga and the gutsy ride from Tasmanian Will Clarke on the stage to Stirling.
The organisers will surely repeat the hilltop finish in 2013 – and they’ll be hoping that young Australian riders like Clarke will break up the monotony of what has now become a stage for Greipel to flex his considerable muscles.
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