Tag: Orica-GreenEdge

World Championships 2015: Team Time Trial Preview

The 2015 World Championships get underway with the team time trial, and the showdown for the men’s world title this year should be a good one. The TTT is often a predictable discipline, but there is not one team that can claim to be the sole heavy favorite in Richmond.

The Route

The 38.8km course starts in Richmond’s rural suburbs in Henrico County, heading south into town along gently rolling roads. The teams will pass through Richmond but then continue south and reenter Henrico County, before making an about face on open country roads and heading back downtown for the finish.

None of the climbs along the Richmond team time trial route are particularly long or steep.

Things will get a bit technical as the riders make their way along more urban roads towards the line, but all told it’s a pretty straightforward TTT without any serious challenges.

The Contenders

It’s rare for there to be multiple candidates with a decent chance of winning a team time trial, but three teams stand out as potential contenders for the TTT title this year.

BMC Racing comes in as the defending champion. Tejay van Garderen and Peter Velits are missing from that 2014 squad, but the riders taking their places are no slouch. Specialists Taylor Phinney and Stefan Küng should do just fine. BMC has done an excellent job of defending the title throughout the season and should be in the mix again at worlds.

Etixx-QuickStep is the squad most likely to challenge BMC. Always strong in the discipline, EQS could only manage 3rd place in 2014. Replicating that performance shouldn’t be too hard given all the firepower they have (especially with Rigoberto Urán looking very sharp right now), but they want to reclaim the world title. I think the Belgian team has a very good chance, but I might give BMC a very slight edge: QuickStep’s TTT performances have not been quite up to the team’s typically elite standard all year long.

The team time trial is a huge target for Orica-GreenEdge, a squad with several decent chrono riders who always manage to work together to churn out an impressive group effort. Svein Tuft doesn’t have quite the same power that he used to have, however, and while I see GreenEdge as the third contender here, it’s a clear third behind a neck-and-neck BMC and EQS.

Of the rest of the teams vying for the championship title in Richmond, Movistar looks to be the most likely to surprise the three top favorites. The TTT is about a lot more than just putting as many elite ITT specialists into one time, which is why an always well-oiled OGE machine can punch above the weight its collective parts, but there is something to be said for having several very powerful engines all working towards the same goal. Led by Adriano Malori, Alex Dowsett, and Jonathan Castroviejo, Movistar has just that. A podium performance could be within the reach of the Spanish squad.

I see Tinkoff-Saxo, Astana, LottoNL-Jumbo, and Sky as the other potential outsiders, though it would be a huge surprise if any of them could come away with the overall win.

Usually, VH names a full Top 10 of contenders in previews for stage races and one-day events, but since naming 10 teams would cover more than a third of the Worlds TTT field, naming a Top 5 seems like a more fitting approach.

VeloHuman Top 5 Race Favorites

Winner: BMC Racing
Podium: Etixx-QuickStep, Orica-GreenEdge
Other Top Contenders: Movistar, Tinkoff-Saxo

VH will be in Richmond to provide plenty of worlds analysis, so stay tuned for coverage throughout the week, and be sure to follow @VeloHuman on Twitter for more.

Photo by Bill Dickinson (CC).

September 19, 2015
Giro d’Italia 2015: Stage 1 Preview

Stage 1 (TTT): San Lorenzo Mare › Sanremo – 17.6km

The 98th Giro d’Italia gets underway with a 17.6-kilometer team time trial. It’s a short, flat affair from Point A to Point B, but there are some tight corners along the way. Huge gaps are unlikely but the good TTT squads should be able to pick up a bit of time on the weaker teams here.

Most of the powerhouse names in time trialing are skipping the Giro this year, but the always strong Orica-GreenEdge TTT squad was never built off of one big name anyway. They get it done with consistent strength from top to bottom, good teamwork, and grade-A preparation. With most of the same riders that very nearly won the Tour de Romandie TTT, they will be the favorites to take Stage 1.

Team Sky beat them in Romandie but that team consisted of different riders; the black and blue squad will still have plenty of chrono firepower here, but will it be enough without Froome, Thomas, and Rowe? Motivated as they’ll be to put Porte into a good position for this race, expect a strong ride.

The GC aspirations of Joaquim Rodríguez have often been put at a serious disadvantage by Katusha’s poor team time trialing performances, but the Russian squad has found new life in this discipline thanks to chrono talents like Anton Vorobyev. They’ll be in the mix here. Etixx-QuickStep, on the other hand, has a reputation for TTT dominance, but the majority of their specialists aren’t making the trip to Italy.

Tinkoff-Saxo isn’t bringing too many big TT stars either, but a strong ride in support of Alberto Contador should be in the cards given the amount of general talent on the roster.

VeloHuman Stage 1 Favorites

1. Orica-GreenEdge | 2. Team Sky | 3. Katusha

Be sure to check back after the conclusion of Stage 1 for the preview of the next stage…

-Dane Cash

May 8, 2015
Orica-GreenEdge “Really Happy” with Progression of Keukeleire after Top 10s in Harelbeke and Roubaix

Ever since 2010, when he won the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, Nokere-Koerse, and Memorial Samyn races all in one brilliant March, Jens Keukeleire has (deservedly) received mentions as an outsider and potential Top 10 candidate in many prognosticators’ Classics previews. The cobbled, one-day races have never been the strongest area for Orica-GreenEdge, but in Keukeleire, they have been developing a rider with a potential to contend in those races, though at least through 2014, his performances at the very biggest cobblestone-oriented events had not yielded top results.

That changed this spring. Keukeleire nabbed his first Top 10 in a WorldTour one-day race at E3 Harelbeke in March, signaling strong form and a potential for more success in the races to come, and then he delivered on that promise in last Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix, making it into the velodrome with the winning group to ultimately finish the Hell of the North in 6th place. It wasn’t a victory, and it wasn’t a podium, but it was Keukeleire’s strongest performance at the WorldTour level yet, and it was the team’s best ever placing in either of the Monument-level cobbled races. For the Australian outfit, that was plenty reason to celebrate. When Keukeleire found his way to the team bus after the finish in Roubaix, it was hugs all around from the team staff.

“If you look at the race I did, I had a lot of bad luck, and to be honest, a couple of times I thought, ‘This is over, my race is over here.’ But I know from previous editions that you can never give up here, always keep fighting, and you never know where you end up, and look I’m still Top 10 so I’m really happy,” Keukeleire said after the race.

Getting to this point was a matter of constant development, from a starting point with a fair bit of youth and inexperience.

“I’ve just been noticing that every year we’re getting stronger and stronger in these Classics,” Keukeleire said. “Four years ago, with the start of the team, we were really young. A team which lacked a little bit in experience, but every year we’re getting more and more experience, and stronger as well, and you can notice it in the races, not only here but in the other races as well, we know better how to ride, which moments we have to be in the front, and I think that’s only positive for the future.”

Keukeleire’s positive outlook is shared by the team management. Orica-GreenEdge general manager Shayne Bannan had plenty of good things to say about the Top 10 performance by his team’s rising Classics contender.

“We’re really happy with Jens’s progression,” Bannan told VeloHuman. “To finish 6th in Paris-Roubaix, at his age, we know he’s developing into a potential Roubaix winner. Maybe two or three years away, but what he showed today was something pretty special, for him as an individual and for us as a team. Our best result prior to today was Langeveld in 7th two or three years ago. So to come here and finish 6th, but a 6th that was only a few lengths away from getting a podium, it’s something really special, so we’re proud of him.”

Keukeleire isn’t the only up-and-coming talent on the Australian team’s roster. The team has a stable of riders aged twenty-six and younger that are already capable of contending on a variety of terrains, whether that’s the cobbles, the short, steep climbs of the Ardennes, or the Alpine ascents of the Grand Tours.

“It’s critical to have a mixture of young talent and a mixture of very good experience. The combination is a quite lethal combination if done correctly. We’re excited by the young talent we’ve got coming through, including the Yateses [Simon and Adam], Esteban [Chaves], Magnus Cort, [Michael] Matthews, and so on and so on. So we’re really looking to the next couple of years. Looking forward first of all to the Ardennes, and the Giro and the Tour, but we’re excited about the next couple of years,” Bannan said.

The “very good experience” element comes into play thanks to a number of veteran riders on the squad whose presence is critical to the development of the young stars. Proven Paris-Roubaix Top 10 talent Mathew Hayman, for instance, can offer the sort of guidance that only comes with years of riding on the cobblestones. Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix left Hayman with a mixture of emotions after a crash took him out of contention — “Just a bit gutted for myself, it was a pretty silly crash,” he told VeloHuman — but the 36-year-old Australian acknowledged that Keukeleire’s Top 10 was a big result that might lead to more and more big results to come.

“He had a couple of punctures, thought his race was over at different points, and to have him there at the finish and to know that it’s possible, I’m sure that’s going to give him a big boost of confidence for next year. I’ve been in the same situation, once you’ve been in the top 10, you realize that these things can happen,” Hayman said.

April 18, 2015
World Championships 2014: Team Time Trial Preview

The Road World Championships get underway with the team time trial. If recent editions are any indication, the TTT should be a thrilling way to kick off a big week of cycling: the margin of victory for the men’s TTT in 2012 was only 3 seconds, and in 2013 things were even closer: Omega Pharma – Quick-Step beat out Orica-GreenEdge by just 1 second for the title.

The Route

The 2014 parcours is a bit more demanding than the profile faced by the TTT squads in 2013. 57.1 kilometers in length, it is mostly flat, but it does have a few bumps along the way. A string of ups and downs lead into the short but steep Alto Pieros at around the halfway point, and a high-speed downhill follows. With roughly 15 kilometers to go there is another uphill drag that starts at a low gradient and then kicks up a bit towards the end of the ascent crested with roughly 3 kilometers to go, after which comes a fast descent and then a flat finish.

Both the first and the final few kilometers are beset with twists, turns, and roundabouts, but most of the long journey in between is on wider roads without too many technicalities, which will allow the bigger engines to really get going in the middle of the route.

The Contenders

Last year’s two top finishers figure to feature prominently again. OPQS comes in as a slight favorite, though the team makeup has changed considerably since they last made a run at Worlds. Tony Martin still leads the way with a very talented Michal Kwiatkowski also returning. The impressive Kristof Vandewalle (now riding for Trek) is among those who won’t make a repeat bid for OPQS, but new additions like Niki Terpstra should help pick up the slack. Martin and Kwiatkowski will handle the scattered climbs and the technical stretches better than most time trial specialists in attendance, boosting the team’s chances. Orica-GreenEdge should put up a serious fight, however. Veteran Svein Tuft has continued to lead the OGE TTT squad to successes this year (they won the opening team time trial in the Giro d’Italia) and younger talents like Michael Hepburn and fast-rising Damien Howson make for a very solid group of specialists. They may not have any individual riders who currently qualify as stars in the time trial right now, but the team discipline is about more than raw power, and Orica-GreenEdge takes the TTT very seriously. They will have one of the most cohesive units on the course.

Trek should put in a strong challenge, with Fabian Cancellara, the aforementioned Kristof Vandewalle, and a sharp Jesse Sergent making the start. Their Vuelta performance was underwhelming, but Spartacus should be in much better form with the World Championship Road Race rapidly approaching.

BMC is without Taylor Phinney, but newcomer Rohan Dennis and a very strong Silvan Diller should complement Tejay van Garderen and company nicely. I think they’re more likely to deliver a performance along the lines of their Giro TTT (where they were 3rd) than their Vuelta TTT (where they only managed 9th).

Team Sky has underperformed in just about every major TTT they’ve undertaken in 2014, but the collection of talents they bring to Ponferrada can’t be ignored. With Bradley Wiggins leading and Geraint Thomas, Dario Cataldo, and an in-form Vasil Kiryienka also on the team, Sky will have a fighting chance at victory. They were 3rd in 2013, the only team within half a minute of the two leaders.

Movistar, with Ion Izagirre, Adriano Malori, and Alex Dowsett, should be in the mix. Astana hasn’t landed many big team time trial results in 2014, but they have a strong group of chrono specialists here. Giant-Shimano could surprise, with several very talented young time trialists in their unit, among them Tom Dumoulin, Chad Haga, and Tobias Ludviggson.

VeloHuman Top 3 Favorites

Winner: Omega Pharma – Quick-Step
Podium: Orica-GreenEdge, Trek Factory Racing

Be sure to follow @VeloHuman on Twitter for live race analysis, and stay tuned for previews of the ITT and Road Race World Championships.

-Dane Cash

Photo by Sean Rowe.

September 20, 2014
Giro d’Italia 2014: Stage 1 Preview

Stage 1 (TTT): Belfast > Belfast – 21.7 km

Welcome to the first of 21 stage previews for the 2014 Giro! In case you missed the overall race preview, you can find it here. As a quick note: I’ll be previewing every day of racing, all the way to Trieste, so you can check back every day for stage profiles and picks. There will also be plenty of live analysis on Twitter, so be sure to follow the new @VeloHuman for more.

The Giro d’Italia gets underway with Friday’s 21.7 kilometer team time trial. The stage begins and ends in Belfast. The profile is not particularly challenging, with a minor bump at the first time check as essentially the only topographic feature. There are a few twists and turns, but it should be a relatively straightforward affair. I don’t think the time gaps will be huge but some of the smaller, more climbing-oriented teams will have to fight to limit their losses.

As is becoming more and more frequent in these types of races, Orica-GreenEdge looks to be the strongest squad for the day. The Aussie squad takes a pretty focused approach to these contests, and it tends to pay off (it did at last year’s Tour de France). The likes of Luke Durbridge, Michael Hepburn, Brett Lancaster, Cameron Meyer, and Svein Tuft won’t let this one get away easily. The goal may be to put Italian rider Ivan Santaromita into the pink jersey on day one, and it’s hard to see anyone keeping OGE from achieving that goal.

Also bringing a squad of chrono specialists, BMC may have the best shot at surprising GreenEdge, though I think it’s an outside shot. Movistar, led by Jonathan Castroviejo and Adriano Malori, would be the third pick. I’d be very surprised to see any other team winning the day. Cadel Evans and Nairo Quintana stand to gain an early advantage over their rivals on GC.

Time trials rarely allow for victors to come from left field, so I am going to eschew picking an unexpected to squad to pull away with the surprise win because I just don’t think it’s going to happen. I do, however, think that Belkin will outperform expectations; Wilco Kelderman is a strong TTist and his support staff is mostly made up of riders who are also good against the clock. Sky, despite being in the rare position of not having a major GC candidate for this Grand Tour, should turn in a strong performance as well. Meanwhile, I suspect that OPQS will perform at a level significantly lower than we normally see from the team in this discipline, as they are missing most of their big engines: sans Tony Martin, Niki Terpstra, and Michal Kwiatkowski, the Belgian squad won’t be as strong against the clock as they usually are.

VeloHuman Stage Favorites

1. Orica-GreenEdge | 2. BMC | 3. Movistar

May 8, 2014