Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Cycling project faces recruiting poser

Australian cycling's continued run of unprecedented success only underscores the recruiting challenge that will face the fledgling GreenEDGE project.

Matthew Goss' historic win on the weekend in Milan-Sanremo and Cadel Evans' powerful performance in Tirreno Adriatico a few days earlier add further appeal to the tantalising prospect of an Australian-based team racing in the Tour de France.

GreenEDGE aims to become the first Australian-based enterprise to gain a top-level professional men's road licence, which would give their team entry to the Tour.
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But riders such as Evans and Goss might be out of reach for the new team, even if it gains ProTeam status, simply because they are too valuable to their current employers.

Evans is the star rider at BMC, is not out of contract at the end of this year and has already indicated he would not contemplate joining GreenEDGE.

Goss is coming out of contract, but he is now a top-tier rider and HTC-Highroad will offer him a whopping new deal to encourage him to stay.

"That's exactly my point - it's nice, the emotional suggestions and saying that riders would love to ride for an Australian team and I'm sure they would," said GreenEDGE general manager Shayne Bannan.

"But they have to base their decision on what's best for their future.

"At the moment we're a project, we're not an actual team, so we have a lot of work to do to put ourselves in the marketplace.

"It's a challenge, but a pretty exciting one."

GreenEDGE must satisfy strict criteria set by world governing body the UCI before they can gain a ProTeam licence.

Under UCI rules, they also cannot start negotiations with riders before August 1.

GreenEDGE achieved a small milestone on Tuesday when they announced Scott Sports would be their bike supplier.

They aim to have most of their technical supporters in place by the middle of next month.

Bannan said they would also decide by late June whether to confirm a naming rights sponsor.

Long-time Australian cycling supporter Gerry Ryan is underwriting GreenEDGE, meaning they do not have to secure a big sponsorship deal immediately.

Also on Tuesday, the latest international rankings reflected Australian riders' strong early-season form.

Australia is the No.1 ranked country, while Goss leads the rankings, Evans is at No.3 and Cameron Meyer is fifth.

"The results really since the start of the year have been pretty exceptional, by a number of Australians," Bannan said.

Bannan was Cycling Australia's national performance director before switching to GreenEDGE over summer.

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