Mark Jamieson and Matt New had ridden well in their opening two races and as we went to complete the Middle East stage racing double in the Tour of Oman the team was in high spirits.
The aim here is to test team leader Trent Lowe's climbing legs on stage 4's green mountain and indeed look for another decent time trial performance from young Matt New.
Certainly the lack of Jonny Vaughters presence gave Trent a real boost.
Our tactics were slightly different to Qatar keeping our powder fairly dry until stage four's demanding parcours.
The stage leading up to the climb was fairly windy as we had experienced in the previous stages, though the youngsters did a fantastic job of keeping Trent Lowe in place. Trent moved to the front of the pack to set his own steady tempo.
The excitement in the team car was huge as it was clear that Trent was looking in absolutely stonking form, as he lifted the pace a little with 7.5km to go, everyone was struggling to follow the wheels.
I blasted out 'Keep the tempo Trent' over the ear pieces, realising now I had to start to look at the possibility of a stage win, I scrolled through the guys who were closest to Trent. We had Gerient Thomas of Sky, he looked about on his limit as did former Sky rider Sylvian Calzati. The threat now was from Astana with Kiserlowski, Kessiakoff and Iglinskiy. Fredrik Kessiakoff was the best time trial man but it was Kiserlowski and Iglinskiy who proved the only two men who could live with Trent.
Trent looked calm though and had another little kick left and this would rid him of Iglinskiy with Kiserlowski struggling to keep pace.
Sadly though Kiserlowski was able to hold Trent's wheel and deny him a deserved victory on Green Mountain
Nobody on the team seemed to mind though, this was a fantastic result for Trent and the GreenEdge brand. Remember Trent's main objective was the Tour de Langkawi, doing so fantastically well here was a huge boost for his confidence.
Stage 4 result:
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Robert Kiserlovski
Pro Team Astana
4h44'11
2
Trent Lowe
GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM
s.t.
3
Fredrik Kessiakoff
Pro Team Astana
+ 1'03
4
Maxim Iglinskiy
Pro Team Astana
+ 1'27
5
Geraint Thomas
Sky ProCycling
+ 1'37
6
Sylvain Calzati
Bretagne - Schuller
s.t.
7
Francis De Greef
Omega Pharma - Lotto
+ 2'20
8
Stephen Cummings
Sky ProCycling
+ 3'47
9
Alexsandr Dyachenko
Pro Team Astana
+ 3'55
10
Glen Alan Chadwick
PureBlack Racing
+ 5'15
11
Yann Huguet
Skil - Shimano
+ 5'23
12
Mathieu Sprick
Skil - Shimano
s.t.
13
Thomas Bonnin
Skil - Shimano
+ 5'31
14
Kjell Carlström
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
77
Matt New
GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM
+ 10'37
106
Ryan Koprivcic
GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM
+ 21'33
136
Anatoliy Pakthusov
ISD - Lampre Continental
+ 27'33
The time trial the next day saw the teams high morale manifest itself in yet more sensational results. With both Matty New...
and surprisingly Trent Lowe...
able to live with the Astana 'K-Club' Kessiakoff and Kiserlowski.
New producing a superb second place with Trent an unbelievable third.
Stage result:
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Fredrik Kessiakoff
Pro Team Astana
38'16
2
Matt New
GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM
+ 17
3
Trent Lowe
GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM
+ 18
4
Robert Kiserlovski
Pro Team Astana
s.t.
5
Geraint Thomas
Sky ProCycling
+ 27
6
Rubens Bertogliati
Team Type 1
+ 36
7
Stephen Cummings
Sky ProCycling
+ 46
8
Laszló Bodrogi
Team Type 1
s.t.
9
Juan Antonio Flecha
Sky ProCycling
+ 49
10
Francis De Greef
Omega Pharma - Lotto
+ 50
It occured to us at this stage that Matty New having gathered some early sprint primes had a shot at the points jersey. He duly went out and nabbed some easy bonus points in the final stages breakaway.
and gained another final classification jersey for GreenEdge.
His and Trent Lowe's performances coupled with Jamiesons GC podium in Qatar had made the Middle East races a groundbreaking start for GreenEdge's new cycling adventure.
GreenEdge had made some useful progress in the February races surprising warming up ProTour and high class pro-contis in Qatar and Oman. We now travelled to Malaysia for an exciting Tour de Langkawi course back up to a 10 stage marathon, with both the Camaron and Genting Highlands climbs included.
With Protour teams attentions focussed on the start of the European season we looked at the startlists and certianly there is an oppurtunity of a high placing for Oman's Green mountain star Trent Lowe.
The sponsors were keeping a close eye on this one, looking for us to be standing on the podium wearing some of the classification jerseys. I just wondered whether we could get Trent onto that top step for either a stage win or more ambitiously GC.
The opening three stages were wars of attrition with the likes of Spanish fast men Galdos and Milan taking the first two stages and team Sky's future stage racing hope Peter Kennaugh taking the tough 3rd stage from a small group sprint.
GreenEdge looked to try and sneak into the KoM jersey on these earlier stages, but despite a lot of activity from Mark Jamieson and Matt New we came up short. Trent Lowe though had maintain a decent enough position on GC
Stage four saw the arrival of the really big climbs, with things kicking off with the Cameron Highlands
Trent worked hard on the steep sections of the climb
He would be rewarded with the KoM jersey at the end of the stage for his efforts which would please the sponsors no end.
But it was Team Sky who put the hammer down here, managing to drop both of Caja Rujal's stage winners as well as the dangerous Astana rider Fofonov despite the flattish ending. Christian Knees took the stage win and Peter Kennaugh the GC lead before stage fives Genting showdown.
Camaron Highlands didn't really split the evenly looking matched field and as yet Trent had not been able to make that decisive moment as he had in Oman. No excuses today though in a true slog up the classic Genting climb
Trent was unfortunately not feeling at his very best so instead of powering on the front he had little choice but to follow wheels. Early on in the climb we had our hopes raises as he was well positioned on Javiar Moreno (Caja Rujal)'s wheel
However we were later swamped as Sky took complete control
As the speed ramped up a handful of contenders were making the decisive selection and Trent was not one of them
Trent battled hard and certainly was not the only one in some difficulty, he would make 12th for the day and maintain a top ten GC position. At the front Fofonov having lost time on stage four made up for it by denying a Team Sky hattrick edging out new GC leader Serge Pauwels.
The final five stages of the race were flat, but given the large time gaps that had opened up, the chances of breakaway success was high. Stages 6 and 8 saw Matt New go close nabbing a 6th and a 4th.
Stage 8 result:
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Oleg Chuzhda
Caja Rural
3h30'00
2
Blazej Janiaczyk
CCC Polsat Polkowice
s.t.
3
Sergey Rudaskov
Itera - Katusha
s.t.
4
Matt New
GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM
s.t.
5
Blaz Furdi
Adria Mobil
s.t.
6
Juan Javier Estrada
AndalucÃa Caja Granada
s.t.
7
Shem Rodger
PureBlack Racing
s.t.
8
Russell Downing
Sky ProCycling
+ 9'49
9
Javier BenÃtez
AndalucÃa Caja Granada
s.t.
10
Aldo Ino Ilesic
Team Type 1
s.t.
Mark Jamieson came very, very close to giving the team its first ever win on stage seven narrowly being edged out but useful British all rounder Kristian House on stage 7.
Stage 7 result:
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Kristian House
Rapha Condor - Sharp
3h41'08
2
Mark Jamieson
GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM
s.t.
3
Roman Kireyev
Pro Team Astana
s.t.
4
Pavel Gorenc
Adria Mobil
s.t.
5
David Dvorsky
PSK Whirlpool - Author
+ 47
6
Aitor Galdos
Caja Rural
+ 5'18
7
Jan Bakelandts
Omega Pharma - Lotto
s.t.
8
Javier BenÃtez
AndalucÃa Caja Granada
s.t.
9
Yann Huguet
Skil - Shimano
s.t.
10
Glen Alan Chadwick
PureBlack Racing
s.t.
Jamieson had indeed taken a large amount of bonification points and whilst stages 9 and 10 did not end in a breakaway win there were plenty of hotspots out there. This allowed Mark to hoover up enough points to take the overall points classification jersey which was another big plus for the sponsors.
Overall points classification:
Rank
Name
Team
Points
General
1
Mark Jamieson
GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM
6
94
2
Russell Downing
Sky ProCycling
20
87
3
Aitor Galdos
Caja Rural
20
86
4
Matt New
GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM
0
70
5
Javier BenÃtez
AndalucÃa Caja Granada
8
69
6
Peter McDonald
V Australia
14
63
7
Diego Milán
Caja Rural
25
61
8
Jan Bakelandts
Omega Pharma - Lotto
0
61
9
Jacek Morajko
CCC Polsat Polkowice
20
53
10
Serge Pauwels
Sky ProCycling
0
46
The GC had really been sorted out on stage fives brutal Genting ascent, one which had been slightly too hard for Trent Lowe here. After Oman the hopes had been raised of a possible victory here so we were a little disappointed with an 8th place. Still Trent had grafted well and with almost no support when the going got tough.
I had 7 of those scouted riders on my team (a few of them not even scouted) one season in 2 of them are looking useful. But none of them were close to your guy.
What's next now you are through the early season international tours?
Pelli: Yeah tinged with a bit of disappointment at Langkawi, that was the tour with a bullseye on for Lowe, but he is more of a punchaer then out and out climber.
Ulrich: New is a real gem, but I am struggling to get much stats improvement from him at the moment with finances restricting the class of training. Lowe will return in mid season to take on the Tour of Austria, Quinhai Lake, Burgos, L'Ain and Utah, in the meantime a more junior squad will be in action at the Tour of Turkey and the FBD Ras in Ireland.
2011: Phase two - Act one
Following some good GC performances in the early season races it was time for team leader Trent Lowe to rest up and wait for the July/August climbing tours.
GreenEdge would now focus on some of the small hilly stage races on the European circuit targetting in particular the Tour of Turkey and the FBD Insurance RAS (in Ireland). Our team leaders here would be young climber Adam Semple, sprint hope Glenn O'Shea and breakaway punchy man Nathan Earle. It will be pretty tough going with a lot of the riders from other teams now looking to be in peak condition for some of their early season goals.
Thinking ahead I decide to get the team to race three prep races in France, Spain and Italy looking towards possible wildcards in the 2012. We take in the Vuelta a Castille y Leon, Circuit de Sarthe and Giro del Trentino which will be ones which the team looks to animate the breakaways.
The prep races
After doing little of note in the Circuit de la Sarthe in France, the youngsters began to look up to the pace in Spain with Nathan Earle earning himself the KoM crown
But it did the boys a lot of good to rub shoulders with star riders on nearto Grand Tour form, giving them a benchmark to work towards.
Turkey
We had high ambitions for the Tour of Turkey and after a disappointing opening two stages we managed to score another really nice result with Adam Semple on stage 3.
Stage 3 result
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Steven Van Vooren
Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
5h34'19
2
Adam Semple
GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM
+ 4'21
3
Julián Sánchez Pimienta
Caja Rural
s.t.
4
Fredrik Kessiakoff
Pro Team Astana
s.t.
5
Jure Kocjan
Team Type 1
s.t.
6
Rigoberto Urán
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
7
Chris Froome
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
8
Alexander Efimkin
Team Type 1
s.t.
9
Diego Milán
Caja Rural
s.t.
10
Jacek Morajko
CCC Polsat Polkowice
s.t.
The Belgian rider Steven Van Vooren who hitched a lift with Semple for most of stage three proved capable enough to hold onto the overall. With Topsport keen to defend at all costs we could only console ourselves with chasing the mountains jersey. Nathan Earle managed to bag us this reasonable little sponsor prestige earner.
King of the Mountains standings from the Tour of Turkey:
