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Simon Gerrans’ injury has forced top Australian cycling team Orica-GreenEDGE to temper their expectations for the Tour Down Under.
Cameron Meyer, the 2011 Tour winner, will replace Gerrans in their line-up for the January 18-25 race, the opening event of the WorldTour calendar.
As expected, their seven-man line-up will not feature new star Caleb Ewan.
The team’s goals for the Australian road championships and the Tour were dealt a blow when Gerrans broke his collarbone in a pre-Christmas mountain bike training crash.
Gerrans is their top rider, the defending Down Under champion and the only competitor to win the race three times.
But with the Milan-Sanremo and Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner sidelined, Orica-GreenEDGE will be happy to secure at least one stage win rather than publicly set their sights on another overall title.
“The aim this year is to try and win a stage and to animate the action,” team sport director Matt White said.
“We might be going in without our defending champion but, like the national championships, it’s a time for our guys to step up and prove that we are a multi-dimensional team and that we can win at all stages of the year even without some of our key riders.”
While Gerrans’ injury is a blow, Orica-GreenEDGE have made a solid start to the season.
Ewan dominated the Mitchelton Bay Classic series on the back of strong teamwork, winning three of the four races.
He also won a breakthrough silver medal in the elite men’s road race on Sunday behind winner Heinrich Haussler.
This was the first time since the team’s formation in 2012 that Orica-GreenEDGE had not won a gold medal at the road nationals.
But along with Gerrans, several members of their Orica-AIS women’s team were also unavailable.
And Ewan’s silver medals in the road race and criterium emphasise his massive potential.
“Caleb has a program that I am very confident will get him wins during the season,” White said.
“Yes, he is in great shape at the moment, but he has only two weeks until he races again in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Rd Race.
“We are definitely looking big picture for Caleb with his goals for the year and his long-term future, which is why he will not be lining up in Adelaide.”
Their Tour Down Under team is Meyer, New Zealander Sam Bewley, Luke Durbridge, Mathew Hayman, Michael Hepburn and South African Daryl Impey.
With the exception of Impey, all those riders competed on Sunday in their national road championships.
Bewley was fourth in the NZ race.
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