With wins in both Canada and Britain – on the back of Simon Clarke’s brilliant Grand Tour debut in Spain – things are looking rosy for Orica-GreenEdge towards the end of a promising debut season.
Clarke picked up a stage victory in only his fourth day of three-week stage racing, sweeping past Tony Martin to take the spoils on the first summit finish of the Vuelta.
Victory saw him take an early lead in the mountains classification – and although the 26-year-old lost the polka dot jersey to Alejandro Valverde for a six-day stint in the middle of the race, Clarke won it back in stage 14 and then defended it with true grit until the end.
The penultimate stage of the race saw Clarke get into the main break of the day and amass maximum points over the first three summit finishes – enough to secure him GreenEDGE’s first classification jersey in a Grand Tour.
As Clarke crossed the line after the brutal ascent of the Bolo del Mundo, he was arm-in-arm with Irishman Nick Roche – his friend and off-season training partner – in what was one of the abiding memories of a terrifically entertaining and challenging race (that, and the rip-roaringly camp GreenEDGE ‘Call Me, Maybe’ video that went viral).
“I’m not a climber, I’m an opportunist and I had to use every opportunity I could,” Clarke said after taking the polka dots safely into Madrid. That’s been pretty much a motto for the Australian team throughout their debut season – make the most of every opportunity.
The effect is clearly rubbing off: just over a week later, GreenEDGE fast-man Leigh Howard out-sprinted (on home soil) the British world champion Mark Cavendish – of all people – to take stage two of the Tour of Britain.
It was Howard’s first win of the season – although it was an odd one. While the Victorian clearly benefited from slipstreaming a TV motorbike on the final straight at Knowsley Safari Park, it also looked as if he was simply pacing his former HTC teammate, who failed to come through in time.
A day later, Howard moved into the leader’s gold jersey after finishing second to Cav in the Scottish town of Dumfries. A third place behind Team Sky’s Cavendish and fellow Australian Steele Von Hoff (Garmin-Sharp) in the next stage saw the Briton take the race lead in Blackpool.
Howard then finished more than 10 minutes ahead of Cavendish in stage five to take back the gold jersey in Stoke – although the 22-year-old was replaced on the summit by another Briton, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, after stage six in Wales.
Still, a stage win and two days in the race lead is a great return for GreenEDGE – especially on the back of Simon Gerrans’ expert win in the Grand Prix de Quebec last weekend.
Gerrans was back to his best in the first of two UCI World Tour races in Canada, shadowing an attack from Belgian Greg van Avermaet inside the final 4km, before powering home to take his first win since Milan-San Remo.
Unable to repeat his star turn in Montreal two days later, the 32-year-old did finish best-of-the-rest, pipping Edvald Boasson Hagen for fourth place to lead the chasing group over the line four seconds down on winner Lars Petter Nordhaug of Norway.
“Right from the beginning of the season it was a goal of mine to come into good shape for these later races of the year so it’s a real buzz to be back there winning again,” said Gerrans, winner of the Tour Down Under back in January.
Included in these “later races” is, no doubt, next week’s World Championships road race. The hilly 261km race through the Dutch province of Limburg, which includes 10 laps of a 16km circuit that concludes with the famous Cauberg climb used in the Amstel Gold spring classic.
It’s a climb that Gerrans knows well – he finished third in the Amstel gold in 2010, behind winner Philippe Gilbert and runner-up Joaquim Rodriguez – and the fact that the final ascent is followed by a 1.7km run into the finish could well play into Gerrans’s hands. A top sprinter who will be able to hang in on the Cauberg as well as outsprint those of a more uphill ilk on the flat, the Australian will start the race as one of the main favourites – especially in the light of his showing in Canada.
Indeed, Gerrans is coming into solid form at just the right time. In Quebec, pre-race favourite Peter Sagan faded fast in the final few hundred metres, finishing 26th. The Slovakian youngster has had another remarkable season – but it could well turn out to be one in which his hat-trick of wins in July’s Tour de France proves to be the pinnacle.
On the back of two wins in Spain, Gilbert, too, is riding into promising form after what has been a largely disappointing first season at BMC for the Belgian. The rainbow stripes are a prize that still eludes the once all-conquering Gilbert – and he will certainly be one to watch in an area where he loves racing.
The other rider to finish above Gerrans at last year’s Amstel was that man Rodriguez, winner of three stages in the Vuelta and a regular fixture on uphill sprint finishes. ‘Purito’, however, could well be feeling the brunt of three weeks of constant climbing in Spain – and the same can be said for his compatriots Valverde and Alberto Contador.
Thomas Voeckler is looking good – he was there or thereabouts in both Quebec and Montreal last weekend – while a classics specialist such as Tom Boonen can’t be discounted, although he’s never performed well in the Amstel Gold.
One thing is certain, the pure sprinters such as reigning world champion Cavendish, German trio Andre Greipel, John Degenkolb and Marcel Kittel, and Australian duo Matt Goss and Mark Renshaw (both of whom, like Italy’s Daniele Bennati, have not even been selected) won’t stand a chance, given the demanding parcours and accumulation of punchy climbs.
Which all means, in short, things are looking very promising for Gerrans. Should GreenEDGE start next season with the rainbow stripes among their ranks, it would be an even better opening to the year than when ‘Gerro’ won the Tour Down Under.
Gerrans is not the only chance of success for Shayne Bannan’s men, too. This year sees the return of the World Championships team time trial – and GreenEDGE’s six-man squad looks tasty: Sebastian Langeveld, Jens Mouris, Cameron Meyer, Luke Durbridge, Sam Bewley and Svein Tuft.
Rabobank, racing on home soil, are expected to shine, as are the likes of Team Sky, BMC, Garmin-Sharp and RadioShack. But it’s been a long season – and the GreenEDGE team is made up of riders who, despite this being September, are fresh.
“To win is achievable. Anything less than a podium and we’ll be disappointed,” said directeur sportif Matt White. And given GreenEDGE’s ascendency, as well he might.
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