Just wanted to drop a note to say thank you for the detailed and well-written article, although I did think ‘largely underwhelming’ was an understatement!

Yes, lost in this article is any kind of perspective about priorities for law enforcement agencies and the spending of taxpayers’ money. This is one problem that we should not expect governments to fix.

Perhaps not entirely; Rabobank says it will honour its contracts for next season, and the World Tour team will continue to race, albeit not under the Rabobank name: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rabobank-to-become-white-label-team

I think Tim is right to caution against knee-jerk reactions. I feel quite sorry for Matt White. How many of us could put our hand on our heart and say that if we were a mediocre professional in that era, struggling to make a living, we would not succumb to the pressures that he did? There are very few confirmed heros that emerge from that era – Bassons and Moncoutie are the only two that spring to mind – we can’t expect everyone to have that kind of character.

It seems from what Gerry Ryan has said over the last couple of days that Orica-Greenedge is working through the situation very carefully and not doing anything hasty. I think that is good. Although I read with interest this morning that Allan Peiper has quit Garmin to move to an un-named World Tour team. Could be Radioshack of course but perhaps he’ll take over Matt White’s job at Greenedge. I think it would be sad for White to be cast out of the sport while far greater sinners — Bjarne Riis I’m looking at you, Armstrong-scale doper and the ring-leader of the disgraceful 1998 strike – remain at the top.

Thank you, GreenEDGEFans, for securing and sharing these interviews.

I agree, Tim: Rogers and Porte for the ITT. Durbridge’s form looks good on paper, but as you say, it’s against third-tier opposition or lucky weather conditions (Dauphine).

Watch out for Orica-GreenEDGE in the trade team time trial; I reckon they’re a real chance.

But you’re adding more riders into the mix, making crashes worse. At this year’s TDF, RadioShack would have had to be at the front of every sprint finish to protect Cancellara; without bonuses they could have sat back a bit.

In any case time bonuses wouldn’t have changed a thing about the TDF. After the first ITT Wiggins already had a comfortable lead; time bonuses here and there would have only marginally eaten into that lead. The problem with this year’s TDF (if you accept there was one, which I don’t) was the long and early ITT.

The problem is the crashes in the opening week. If this year’s crashes were bad, with time bonuses and the yellow jersey up for grabs they’d be much worse. Crashes are less of an issue in the Vuelta where there are fewer sprinters and fewer cowboys looking for their moment in the sun.

On Tiralongo: the importance of having friends in the bunch, eh. Tiralongo’s first ever Grand Tour stage win came courtesy of Contador in the 2011 Giro: AC essentially donated the win. Payback time last night.

Then every Grand Tour will be won by a specialist climber; not much variety there (I feel an article about that coming on…).

Indeed — in today’s OGE backstage pass, Clarke says he’s going to get in the break tonight and get as many points as possible. Good luck to him!

Thanks zac. No doubt commentators will put Froome’s performance down to accumulated fatigue, conveniently overlooking Valverde’s much more difficult schedule for the year.

It doesn’t seem that Greenedge are interested in defending Simon Clarke’s lead in the mountains classification, would you say?

I have to agree with the above. In my view Meyer has had a very good Vuelta so far: his performance should not be measured on numbers alone.

I have no idea why Meyer is expected to do ‘well’ on the GC in this event. Where have these expectations come from?

For sure — as I said above about Renshaw: “He is no Cadel Evans or Mick Rogers; unlike those two he should not be entitled to selection in national teams regardless of his team.”

The bias should only be against the mid-tier riders like Renshaw. A top rider like Cadel should be able to go to whatever team he likes and still represent Australia. Clearly he couldn’t achieve what he would want at OGE, and that’s even if Gerry Ryan matched BMC’s money. I’d put Rogers in that category too.

I know this is not the point of your article, but in response to the above posts: I fully support a national selection policy biased in favour of Orica-GreenEDGE riders. Bias is not necessarily a bad thing. The reasons are as follows. OGE is good for Australian cycling. It gives Australian cycling the opportunity to have a couple of dozen Australian riders getting regular Grand Tour and World Tour racing, together, under Australian national coaches. That will only serve to better our chance in Worlds and Olympic events.

So Cycling Australia should support the OGE project, as it is currently doing so. Riders should be rewarded for joining the team. Renshaw is not a world-beater; he’s proved that this year. He is no Cadel Evans or Mick Rogers; unlike those two he should not be entitled to selection in national teams regardless of his team. The message to a Renshaw should be: join OGE, ride with your national team year round (say, by leading out Matt Goss who is a better sprinter), or don’t ride with your national team at all. In the short-term the non-selection of Renshaw might marginally hurt our national teams, but two to three years down the track it will pay dividends on a broader scale just as the Sky-GB lovefest does.

As for Durbridge, well in hindsight he would have been a better pick than Evans for the Olympic ITT. But Durbo would have been a top 10 prospect at best; no chance of a medal. His international TT wins this year have been against either weak opposition (the two French 2.1 events) or in very fortunate racing and weather conditions (Dauphine). He got owned by Zabriskie in the Tour of California which was an Olympic-type course against good opposition. So I don’t think the selectors can be faulted too much.

I’d agree with Rogers’ self-assessment there. If Greenedge were to sign him, I think it should be as a one-week stage racer and gun team-time trialist. The signing of Michael Matthews, rather than Cavendish or Rogers who are both said to be on the market, shows that the team has its priorities spot on at the moment.

I worry that repeat circuit courses are going to become an increasing occurrence in Grand Tours. I imagine that circuits are much easier and cheaper for organisers, police and public authorities to manage.

The other impressive thing about Degenkolb is that he seems to be able to climb ‘well’ enough to make it through three weeks – well, he did last year. That’s obviously the biggest thing holding the other young German Kittel back at this level.

Thanks for the updates Zac. I don’t have cable so can’t watch it live and I get home too late for the SBS highlights, so all I have is you, cyclingnews and the Greenedge backstage passes…

I think a lot of fans, riders and race organisers want to get rid of radios. It’s probably just the DS’s who want to keep them. They don’t use them for ProCont races, so that disparity is one of many reasons to give them the flick. One does wonder if Caja Rural would fork out for radios for their 2 or 3 (max) World Tour races each year.

Voeckler raised another good argument at the TDF: that they’re causing crashes because DS’s are using them to direct their teams to all go to the front of the peloton at the same time.

There’s footage of Neil Stephens talking into his radio in a OGE backstage pass a few days ago during the final sprint. He was just yelling ‘go, c’mon, yes, go, c’mon’, etc. Must be a massive irritant for the poor riders.

My hero of the day was no-name Marcos Garcia, who outsprinted a bemused Nicolas Roche for 4th place and started celebrating the stage win that he didn’t realise had already been taken by Simon Clarke. I wonder: is it that Caja Rural, a Pro Continental team, can’t afford race radios?

“But Clarke’s win was certainly no surprise to those familiar with the Melbourne-born rider.” Indeed. I got the sense that perhaps Tony Martin didn’t really know who he was practically leading out for the win over the final couple of kilometres.

It seemed like a well-planned effort from OGE. Clarke said after the stage that he deliberately shipped time on Stage 3 to be able to ride in last night’s breakaway. I wonder if Clarke will now pivot to try to hang on to one of his jerseys for as long as possible.

I reckon it could be a good couple of weeks coming up for the team. Watch out for Gerrans in the GP Ouest-France (a World Tour event).

Yes, people’s views on different dopers tend to be completely inconsistent; I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there. I think that the public respond to Valverde, Basso, etc, better than Vinokourov because Vino is an uncharismatic rider from Kazakhstan. Conversely, in Australia, there’s very little appetite for scrutiny of Neil Stephens, a lovable larrikin who’s now a DS for GreenEDGE but was very much caught up in the Festina affair.

Similarly, Lance Armstrong is seen as a much bigger pariah than Ullrich, Pantani and Riis, even though the evidence that he doped is at this stage much scanter than the evidence for those other three TDF winners of his era. I think it’s because he is an American who the non-American public never really warmed to and were ready to turn against. On the other hand, Eddie Merckz had multiple positive tests during his career but is still a hero.

I liked Floyd Landis’ comment after Vinokourov’s gold medal: “If Vino says ‘it’s a victory for clean cycling” he’d be my hero. Alternatively if he said ‘f*** every single mother******* one of you,’ that would work too.”

Glad to see Cameron Meyer ship almost 4 minutes, as that should put an end to the unfair over-expectations of him being a GC contender.

It sounds like last night was a top stage; I can’t wait for the weekend when the SBS Live stages start.

Yes, I agree he’s unlikely to get the opportunities he’s been speaking of. His palmares isn’t really that impressive for someone who’s talking that big (although granted he’s still very young). I think OGE would be well served keeping him for week-long stage races next season, such as the Tour Down Under. At 22 years of age I don’t think it would be necessary or desirable to put a three-week Grand Tour into his legs yet.

But it’s a good move for OGE. They’ve only got one or two roster spots available for next season and I’m glad they’re using them for young Australians rather than spending big on someone like Cavendish.

I agree. Plus there are only five stages in this Vuelta classified as ‘flat’. That’s significantly fewer than this year’s Giro and this year’s TDF. Therefore, even aside from the fact that the Vuelta gets significantly less exposure (exponentially so in Australia), OGE did the right thing putting Goss in the Giro and the TDF. The sprinting field at this year’s Vuelta is so weak (probably because there are so few opportunities) that Allan Davis is a good selection as primary sprinter: as he showed last night he stands a real chance at picking up a win or two.

On another note, it was interesting to see Bling Matthews (new OGE signing) saying publicly how he would like to challenge Sagan at the TDF next year. I wonder how Goss will take that.

It was very good to see him wear the KoM jersey at the Tour of Poland for a few days and even better to see him named in the team’s Vuelta squad. His confidence must be growing. Good on GreenEDGE for taking the punt on him; I hope it pays off for both parties.