We’re a third of the way through the Tour de France and the best any Australian sprinter could do was beat Mark Cavendish in a field sprint for points.
That happened in today’s sixth stage, as Matt Goss finally got the better of Cav and nipped him at the line for 5th place and 11 additional points in the green jersey competition.
There are two very gifted Australian sprinters in this Tour, Mark Renshaw of Rabobank and the abovementioned Matt Goss of Orica-GreenEdge. So what’s missing?
Renshaw might be the easier case to analyze. For most of this tour he’s had to fend for himself, while the rest of the team is likely focused on Robert Gesink, who’s coming off a win at the Tour of California. While train-hopping has worked for Cav, it hasn’t worked so well for Renshaw who’s just been coming up short in his efforts and today was caught out due to the massive crash with about 25km to go in the stage.
So now onto Matt Goss, who has the entire team working for him, as they don’t have a GC contender, but keeps coming up short. Orica-GreenEdge did an amazing job leading him out today and put him in a great position to sprint for the line. But once again he made the same mistake, he jumped too early and ran out of steam.
After stage 5, he tweeted: “2nd today, knew I had to try and get the jump but I only had 210m in my legs not 250 on that nasty uphill finish.”
And after stage 6: “My mistake today, jumped to early, should have stayed on the wheel. Miss red the meter boards and jumped when I saw a rider drop there chain”
The same mistake two days in a row when you have an entire team working for you? At this level? I think Goss is simply cracking under pressure.
Today, of all days, was his to win. Cav was caught out in the crash. Lotto-Belisol’s Greipel crashed hard earlier and dislocated his shoulder (which he popped back in on the go), and Goss has come ahead of Sagan nearly every time they were matched in a pure sprint.
I can understand the pressure. It’s the first time the team has been at the tour and without a GC contender, Goss was all they were relying on to get good results. The pressure to get a win at this point must be incredible, but that’s one of the things that Goss will have to overcome if he’s to be the leader of this team for the remaining two weeks of the tour. He needs the guys to keep believing he can win.
It’s not all lost for him. Stages 15, 18 and 20 will give him a few more opportunities to prove himself. With Cav likely leaving once we hit the mountains to get ready for the Olympics, Greipel will be his only rival. Beating Greipel is no easy task, but if Goss gets his timing right and the team is there to protect him and lead him out, he should be in great position to redeem himself.
The silver lining in all of this is that Goss is currently sitting in second place in the green jersey competition with 178 points. Liquigas’ Peter Sagan is in first with 209 — not an insurmountable lead.
The main goal for Goss over the next few stages is to save his legs as much as possible while making it over the climbs inside the time cutoff. Being as fresh as possible coming into the later stages will be crucial.
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