Phil Anderson wrote an article not too far back entitled GreenEDGE lack the edge as Europe heats up.
The article certainly stirred up some debate. Many responses, including my own, to his article did did not agree with his position.
To be clear, GreenEDGE has had a great year those far. Simon Gerrans has been in great form. Simon won the National Jersey (something that is highly coveted in Australian cycling circles), took line honours at the Tour Down Under and then pulled out a huge finish to take Milan San-Remo (MSR), one of the biggest one-day races of the calendar.
Phil Anderson noted the win at MSR was against the odds. It is completely unclear what he means by this, but the reality is Gerrans rode an exceptional race, he jumped when he needed to and timed his sprint to near perfection.
Michael Albasini took second in the Fleche Wallone and also won the Tour of Catalonia
Full stop at this point – GreenEDGE could not win another race this year and it would be considered a success. Some pro teams, who have been around for a lot longer than GreenEDGE, have never won a Classic or a Grand Tour.
The Tour of Turkey is currently underway and Matt Goss (who was a very close second to the ultimate winner Mark Cavendish at the World Champs in 2011 and won MSR in 2011) is starting to hit some form at the right time. He has had three second placings behind Andrew ‘The Gorilla’ Griepel, (who has been in great form following stage wins at the 2012 touchdownU) and Rabo Bank’s Theo Bos and Australian Mark Renshaw who pipped Goss by 0.0008 seconds.
Wilst the Tour of Turkey is not a major tour event, it attracts all the top sprinters as a major race block before the Giro D’Italia starts. The only major big name sprinter missing in Turkey is Cavendish so Goss and Renshaw’s efforts are not to be underestimated.
So, where to from here for GreenEDGE?
First up is the Giro D’Italia with a clear focus on stage wins, specifically during the first two weeks of the three week Grand Tour where the team hopes to be able to conquer the Maglia Rosa leader’s jersey. Green Edge have named a nine man team with Matt Goss the leader for the sprints and the key man they will look to put into the race leader’s pink jersey. They will then pull him out before the start of the third week as this is where the mountains take hold.
For those of you that don’t know much about the Giro, it is one of the three Grand Tours (the others being the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España), and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar. It is the second most prominent stage race in the world (after the Tour), and along with the Tour and the Road World Cycling Championship it makes up the Triple Crown of Cycling. It has been running since 1909 and has some of the most brutal mountain climbs that a cyclist can endure, culminating in the penultimate stage which sees the riders climb the famous Stelvio – roughly 25km at an average gradient of 7.4 percent with 60 hairpin turns.
From there the focus will shift to the Tour de France with much the same layout as the Giro. GreenEDGE’s goal must be to win a few stages and potentially have a crack at the Green Jersey if things start well enough. Personally I hope that Cameron Meyer is given the green light for the Tour de France as I believe he is the next big thing in world cycling.
His size and power output (in time) could make him a real contender for the GC classification. One only needed to see his efforts at the Track World champs a few weeks ago to see that this guy has the goods.
Until next time, clip in!
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