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GreenEdge 2011 - Developing the Aussie talent
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| Smowz |
Posted on 21-05-2011 18:02
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December, 2010:
I'm back on my feet again.
After walking away from the Saxobank/Leopard fiasco I got a couple of phone calls from well wishers and even some interesting project offers from within Danish cycling. Representatives from Michael Rasmussan's little redemption project were most persistent but I resisted the urge to join in his club it felt to close to home.
A more interesting offer came my way during the worlds to set up an Australian development squad. The idea that it would form a sort of feeder to the heavily hyped Pegasus cycling team. They had seen some of the work I had done with young Richie Porte and seemed impressed.
However it proved just all talk, when it came to contracts and a business plan they were found wanting. It was a shame because in addition to discussing young talents with Baden Cooke and Richie Porte from the Saxobank squad I had been in touch with Trent Lowe. His sad story and subsequent falling out with Garmin:
Interview with Trent Lowe
: had seen Trent frozen out of the European peloton.
When we all realised in early January that Pegasus's main squad was going tits up, I got in touch with the people behind the new GreenEdge project that was doing the rounds. I put up a fairly impassioned case of getting Aussie youngsters and the brand name out there in a low budget capacity first.
After a weekend out in Melbourne we hammered (read we had plenty of beers) out the details and I can present the 2011 GreenEdge development team:
Trent Lowe is the team captain of course and he will be heavily relied upon to get GC results with the team which will concentrate mainly on small tours.
Glenn O'Shea, Adam Semple and Mark Jamieson will look for decent stage results from sprints and breakaways. With Matt New the one outstanding youngster we discovered in the extensive talent search, this super young crono man will look to develop his road racing skills this season.
The other riders will ride as domestiques in the main as we will monitor them carefully to see if any can develop into geniune professionals by season end.
Edited by Smowz on 11-06-2011 19:38
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 21-05-2011 18:04
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Nice ideas there, will be very interesting to see how it plays out - especially when results may be a 'little' harder to come by than with Saxo Bank!
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| Agamir |
Posted on 21-05-2011 18:06
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Looking good man, will definetly follow this one  |
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| Smowz |
Posted on 21-05-2011 18:15
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Team Leader
Posts: 6479
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2011: Phase one - Act one
Trent is pretty keen to get racing and we get on the phone to organise a decent early season stage race assault.
The Tour Down Under lot were not likely to take a punt on us and besides I was looking to avoid the teams Saxobank and Leopard with my young charges! Besides Trent was looking for plenty of climbing and I was eager to test our TTing little nugget, Matt New.
January's other big Tour down in Argentina, the Tour de San Luis would be our first race, we then would take the Pegasus slot in the Middle East tours or Qatar and Oman before aiming our sights at the Tour de Langkawi.
San Luis
This one seems to have a raised profile, even so it was to our surprise to see strong squads from Teams Sky and Astana here. It would prove some really mighty fine training for Trent Lowe on the comback trail with no less than three medium mountain stages to contend with.
Astana and Sky indeed kinda smothered the thing with Uran and Kessiakoff showing some excellent early season form
After Trent struggled to a half decent top twenty-ish finish in the first tough finish
Stage 2 result:
| Rank | Name | Team | Time | | 1 | Rigoberto Urán | Sky ProCycling | 4h26'25 | | 2 | Fredrik Kessiakoff | Pro Team Astana | s.t. | | 3 | Paolo Tiralongo | Pro Team Astana | + 27 | | 4 | Bobbie Traksel | Landbouwkrediet | + 1'19 | | 5 | Robert Kiserlovski | Pro Team Astana | + 1'27 | | 21 | Trent Lowe | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 3'34 |
Trent took a bit of a flyer in later mountain stages and was later dropped when the going got tough. It was a lesson for the youngsters in how to find form and usefully as well gain the team financial bonuses and exposure.
I was quietly impressed with Matty New who performed very decently in the mid tour time trial, narrowly missing a top ten against some decent Pro Tour company. This youngster has some real star potential.
Stage four result:
| Rank | Name | Team | Time | | 1 | Fredrik Kessiakoff | Pro Team Astana | 25'56 | | 2 | Stephen Cummings | Sky ProCycling | + 3 | | 3 | Vitaliy Popkov | ISD - Lampre Continental | + 8 | | 4 | Chris Froome | Sky ProCycling | + 10 | | 5 | Marcel Kittel | Skil - Shimano | + 13 | | 11 | Matt New | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | s.t. |
It was not the most sparkling opening race for the squad, but it serves its purpose the team can head for the middle East in good form
San Luis Overall:
| Rank | Name | Team | Time | | 1 | Rigoberto Urán | Sky ProCycling | 26h16'02 | | 2 | Fredrik Kessiakoff | Pro Team Astana | + 33 | | 3 | Bobbie Traksel | Landbouwkrediet | + 6'48 | | 4 | Paolo Tiralongo | Pro Team Astana | + 7'43 | | 5 | Christophe Kern | Team Europcar | + 8'22 | | 6 | Stephen Cummings | Sky ProCycling | + 9'48 | | 7 | Robert Kiserlovski | Pro Team Astana | + 10'10 | | 8 | Alexsandr Dyachenko | Pro Team Astana | + 10'23 | | 9 | Chris Froome | Sky ProCycling | + 11'47 | | 10 | Lars Petter Nordhaug | Sky ProCycling | + 12'02 | | 69 | Trent Lowe | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 20'02 | | 75 | Matt New | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 20'51 | | 77 | Mark Jamieson | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 20'57 | | 141 | Sanjay Mack | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 30'58 | | 144 | Ryan Koprivcic | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 37'42 | | 145 | Gerard Barraclough | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 49'43 |
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| olabj |
Posted on 21-05-2011 18:17
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Nice thingy you've got started here. Will follow and hope that it will be as fun/good read as the Saxo story
EDIT: And how did the NCs go?
Edited by olabj on 21-05-2011 18:22
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 21-05-2011 18:31
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Directeur Sportif
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Nice one! Will be definitely interesting to follow!
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 21-05-2011 18:40
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Cool idea, I always have respect for people that play with really weak teams. Good luck.
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 21-05-2011 20:49
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World Champion
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Great to see you back with a new story! Good luck with this one, I'll be following.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 22-05-2011 07:26
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Team Leader
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Feedback:
SN: Certainly a victory for these guys is a real achievement, I estimate that I will have more of a chance to build funds in stage racing then others. The ultimate aim is for Saxobank style domination with an all Aussie team though!
Agamir: Glad to have you on board.
Olabj: Here you go, I could have done with the win for the prize money... but I screwed it up!
Spoiler | Rank | Name | Team | Time | | 1 | Robbie McEwen | Team RadioShack | 5h16'23 | | 2 | Richie Porte | Saxo Bank SunGard | s.t. | | 3 | Stuart O'Grady | Leopard Trek | s.t. | | 4 | Matthew Lloyd | Omega Pharma - Lotto | s.t. | | 5 | Simon Gerrans | Sky ProCycling | + 3'08 | | 6 | Simon Clarke | Pro Team Astana | s.t. | | 7 | Michael Rogers | Sky ProCycling | s.t. | | 8 | Heinrich Haussler | Team Garmin - Cervélo | s.t. | | 9 | Allan Davis | Pro Team Astana | s.t. | | 10 | Cadel Evans | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | 11 | Michael Matthews | Rabobank Cycling Team | s.t. | | 12 | Karl Menzies | UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling | s.t. | | 13 | Matthew Goss | HTC - Highroad | s.t. | | 14 | Rory Sutherland | UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling | s.t. | | 15 | Christopher Sutton | Sky ProCycling | s.t. | | 16 | Casey Munro | Rapha Condor - Sharp | s.t. | | 17 | Trent Lowe | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | s.t. | | 18 | Mark Renshaw | HTC - Highroad | s.t. | | 19 | Graeme Brown | Rabobank Cycling Team | s.t. | | 20 | Alastair Loutit | Jelly Belly p/b Kenda | s.t. | | 21 | Brett Lancaster | Team Garmin - Cervélo | s.t. | | 22 | Cameron Meyer | Team Garmin - Cervélo | s.t. | | 23 | Adam Semple | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | s.t. | | 24 | William Dickeson | Jelly Belly p/b Kenda | s.t. | | 25 | Matthew Wilson | Team Garmin - Cervélo | s.t. | | 26 | Leigh Howard | HTC - Highroad | s.t. | | 27 | Nicholas Walker | V Australia | s.t. | | 28 | Travis Meyer | Team Garmin - Cervélo | s.t. | | 29 | Zakkari Dempster | Rapha Condor - Sharp | s.t. | | 30 | Jonathan Clarke | UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling | s.t. | | 31 | Timothy Roe | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | 32 | Peter McDonald | V Australia | s.t. | | 33 | Hayden Brooks | V Australia | s.t. | | 34 | Matthew Hayman | Sky ProCycling | s.t. | | 35 | Dean Windsor | Rapha Condor - Sharp | s.t. | | 36 | Chris Winn | V Australia | s.t. | | 37 | Sean Sullivan | V Australia | s.t. | | 38 | Jack Bobridge | Team Garmin - Cervélo | s.t. | | 39 | Baden Cooke | Saxo Bank SunGard | s.t. | | 40 | Tommy Nankervis | RealCyclist.com Cycling Team | s.t. | | 41 | Mark Jamieson | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | s.t. | | 42 | Matt New | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | s.t. | | 43 | Adam Hansen | Omega Pharma - Lotto | s.t. | | 44 | Frank Fowler | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 5'44 | | 45 | Hilton Clarke | UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling | s.t. | | 46 | Michael Freiberg | V Australia | s.t. | | 47 | Jack Anderson | Endura Racing | s.t. | | 48 | Fabio Calabria | Team Type 1 | s.t. | | 49 | Luke Roberts | Saxo Bank SunGard | s.t. | | 50 | David Tanner | Saxo Bank SunGard | s.t. | | 51 | Nicolas Sanderson | Amore & Vita | s.t. | | 52 | William Clarke | Leopard Trek | s.t. | | 53 | Dale Parker | Trek Livestrong U23 | s.t. | | 54 | Benjamin King | Team Type 1 | s.t. | | 55 | Raphael Massey | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | s.t. | | 56 | Joseph Lewis | Trek Livestrong U23 | s.t. | | 57 | Glenn O'Shea | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 11'28 | | 58 | Sanjay Mack | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 12'56 | | 59 | Nathan Earle | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | s.t. |
Valv321: I agree, the thing I wanted with this custom team was to take all riders who were not on a team (at least in the pcmdaily 2011 database) anyway. I didn't want to ruin the AI squads.
Pelli: Thanks mate, I will still be erratic I think with updates but this shoud keep rolling a bit like Crommy's Caterpiller one.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 22-05-2011 07:35
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Team Leader
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2011: Phase one - Act two
We had got through our first month of existence and this thing was off the ground, now we had the two desert tours which attracts those men searching for early season form.
Qatar
Instead of the usual short team burst we got this bizarre cordened off prologue thingee to kick things off. Half the riders rode round like they couldn't give a monkeys, trust JV's mob Garmin-Cervelo to make a decent job managing to outdo Sky here.
Matty New is not really the best for this short sharp type but still manages another top 15 which set the ball rolling nicely
Stage one result:
| Rank | Name | Team | Time | | 1 | Brett Lancaster | Team Garmin - Cervélo | 3'19 | | 2 | Juan Antonio Flecha | Sky ProCycling | + 1 | | 3 | Tom Danielson | Team Garmin - Cervélo | s.t. | | 4 | Stijn Devolder | Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team | s.t. | | 5 | Geraint Thomas | Sky ProCycling | s.t. | | 14 | Matt New | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 4 | | 42 | Ryan Koprivcic | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 7 |
The lack of any climbs, and the presence of a decent Garmin-Cervelo squad had Trent keeping a very aloof figure in Doha. He did an incredibly good job of martialling the youngsters though as we had some of those nightmare windy stages to contend with
The trick in Qatar is to pick up those bonifications either in the sprints or out on the course. The Qatari's generously sprinking some handy primes out on flat, short stages for our youngsters to go gobbling them up. Both Mark Jamieson and Matty New gleefully went gobbling them up.
Jamieson really showed himself to be a gritty competitor, by gaining some decent results in the inevitable field sprints following some good wheels. High stage placings on stages two (10th), five (12th) and six (6th), certainly giving the team a nice little pay packet
Stage two result:
| Rank | Name | Team | Time | | 1 | Romain Feillu | Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team | 3h15'02 | | 2 | Davide Viganò | Leopard Trek | s.t. | | 3 | Borut Božic | Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team | s.t. | | 4 | Geraint Thomas | Sky ProCycling | s.t. | | 5 | Kenny De Haes | Omega Pharma - Lotto | s.t. | | 10 | Mark Jamieson | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | s.t. |
Stage five result:
| Rank | Name | Team | Time | | 1 | Mirco Lorenzetto | Pro Team Astana | 3h23'48 | | 2 | Borut Božic | Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team | s.t. | | 3 | Grega Bole | Lampre - ISD | s.t. | | 4 | Yevgeniy Nepomnyachshiy | Pro Team Astana | s.t. | | 5 | Tanel Kangert | Pro Team Astana | s.t. | | 12 | Mark Jamieson | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | s.t. |
Stage six result:
| Rank | Name | Team | Time | | 1 | André Greipel | Omega Pharma - Lotto | 2h47'14 | | 2 | Geraint Thomas | Sky ProCycling | s.t. | | 3 | Ben Swift | Sky ProCycling | s.t. | | 4 | Jeremy Hunt | Sky ProCycling | s.t. | | 5 | Greg Henderson | Sky ProCycling | s.t. | | 6 | Mark Jamieson | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | s.t. |
But most impressive of all was the way that the Jamieson managed to pick up bonuses out on the course to pick up a 3rd place and best young rider overall! Now thats what I call an impact
| Rank | Name | Team | Time | | 1 | Brett Lancaster | Team Garmin - Cervélo | 15h55'15 | | 2 | Romain Feillu | Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team | s.t. | | 3 | Mark Jamieson | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 4 | | 4 | Russell Downing | Sky ProCycling | + 6 | | 5 | Kenny De Haes | Omega Pharma - Lotto | s.t. | | 6 | Borut Božic | Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team | s.t. | | 7 | Ben Swift | Sky ProCycling | + 8 | | 8 | Geraint Thomas | Sky ProCycling | + 9 | | 9 | André Greipel | Omega Pharma - Lotto | s.t. | | 10 | Juan Antonio Flecha | Sky ProCycling | s.t. | | 12 | Matt New | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 12 | | 123 | Gerard Barraclough | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 36 | | 124 | Trent Lowe | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | s.t. | | 136 | Ryan Koprivcic | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 3'24 | | 147 | Fred Sigmund | GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM | + 15'35 |
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 22-05-2011 07:56
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World Champion
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3rd place overall and best young rider is a very good result. Well done.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 22-05-2011 08:37
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Directeur Sportif
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Pellizotti2 wrote:
3rd place overall and best young rider is a very good result. Well done.
+ 1.. Qatar is always a good place to do some surprising things You did, well done!
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| roturn |
Posted on 22-05-2011 08:56
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Team Manager
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Nice tactic. 3rd is great for your team.
Stage 6 was quite a Sky domination without winning.  |
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| FreitasPCM |
Posted on 22-05-2011 09:13
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8389
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roturn wrote:
Nice tactic. 3rd is great for your team.
Stage 6 was quite a Sky domination without winning.
Stage 6 was a Sky fail. 
Good start. I love stories with small teams. |
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| CountArach |
Posted on 22-05-2011 12:53
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Grand Tour Champion
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Nice result there, I'll be keeping my eye on this thread for sure.
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 22-05-2011 15:49
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World Champion
Posts: 12986
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@Smowz, yeah when I chose custom teams, I like to try and pick only free riders too. Sometimes I'll pick small riders from really small teams too though.
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| BikeRoel |
Posted on 23-05-2011 09:01
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Domestique
Posts: 497
Joined: 05-04-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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nice, but try to make your own names in bold black that we can read it easier, and I'm really going to follow this one.
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| ricotero_uy |
Posted on 23-05-2011 14:16
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Domestique
Posts: 610
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Good luck with your story!!! |
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| Tombola |
Posted on 23-05-2011 18:24
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Domestique
Posts: 473
Joined: 25-10-2007
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Nice story! Keep it up!
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| Smowz |
Posted on 27-05-2011 11:54
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Team Leader
Posts: 6479
Joined: 09-04-2009
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Feedback:
Pelli: I was pleased with it, there were a couple of stages where the wind was really high and we have to remember how limited Jamieson really is!
Tsmoha: The key with Qatar is the stages are so short as well with two or three bonification points... and yeah AI seems to have riders programmed for later peaks.
roturn: It is bizarre how Sky seem to be at every early season race I chose, must be due to database settings, I am stunned to see them at Langkawi as well.
Countarach, rico, Tombola and BikeRoel: Glad to have you on board, BikeRoel I think I will keep my riders as they are. I think as I shorten the results it makes my team (in capitals) easy enough to pick out.
Valverde321: It was tempting to pick off riders from FlyV, but then I start playing about with the random scouted riders feature and I thought that might be cooler. Plus with the scouted ones I think you tend to get one or two who can develop fast into real stars.
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