GreenEDGE – pectations… oh yes. How about THAT for a play on words! 2012 is here and I’ve managed to get a blog post going in the first week of the year. Two New Years resolutions in one; get a blog post a fortnight out there, and at least make it past January 10th prior to failing at keeping to all resolutions.
BOOM. And now, into the opinion posting…
To an outside observer, an Australian based cycling team has come about after many years of grumbling about something needing to be done; one year of huge, unfulfillable (and unfulfilled) promises by a rival consortium; and a year of consistent preparation and sound management by the GreenEDGE team.
It is a very exciting development for Australian cycling, and despite an abysmal website www.greenedgecycling.com/ (as a tip, leaving hints as to who your riders and staff are isn’t a bad idea for content on the worldwide interwebs), these guys are joining Team SKY in bringing a very modern edge to the sport.
There is talk of a great YouTube presence very soon indeed.
Now, after all of the speculation as to who is and who isn’t signing, and what the expectations should be, we get to see them start racing.
National roads this weekend will be a very interesting prospect as the team itself has (rightfully) stated that they should dominate. In a similar vein to Rabobank racing at the Dutch nationals, GreenEDGE have such a huge number of riders in the race compared to the rest of the field that they can control proceedings with ease.
They can conceivably have six protected riders and put ten other blokes on the front. Ouch!
SKY boasts CJ Sutton, Richie Porte, Mick Rogers and Matty Hayman, which is a lot of talent, and they have the potential to spoil the GreenEDGE party, as do the fast men from Rabo; Michael “Bling” Matthews, Mark Renshaw and Graeme Brown.
Bling is particularly rapid, and has that elusive “winningness” that is pure gold in an athlete. Whether they are riding for Bling or Renshaw remains to be seen. There are a couple of other pros who could also be in the mix: Heino Haussler for Garmin being another major threat, but at the end of the day, this is a race for GreenEDGE to lose.
Welcome to the big time gentlemen! I can’t wait to see how they go!
My tips: Gerro to win the road race in a break, and Cam Meyer to just pip Richie Porte in the TT and hold on for another year in the national TT champion’s jersey.
Read more from Toby at his site, Tobbloganning.
