In the GC, Jai Hindley was 2nd, Michael Storer 5th and Lucas Hamilton 7th; you’d think all are next to certainties to ride WT in a couple of years time.
Hindley and Hamilton will be 21 this year and Storer will be 20.
Spot on Barry. These three and another two from the Herald Sun have WT ability. Its a matter of how many Orica sign. And expect Sky to try to sign one of these riders. Nothing like riders in a race choosing talent.
Confirmed Chaves will ride the TDF. So sponsors got their way. Will be interesting to see if Chaves gets his preferred team. This will be controversial but I prefer Gerrans rides the Giro and the Vuelta to support the Yates brothers.
Do you have a reference for Esty doing TDF yaco?
Do you have a reference for Esty doing TDF yaco?
How good is your spanish?
http://www.revistamundociclistico.com/ruta/22538-pedalazos-de-colombia-y-el-mundo.html
Some of the team is in South Africa for a training camp - Howson, Haig, Kluge, Verona, Ewan among others - Think there’s around 12 to 14 riders.
Understand that Ewan,Kluge, Mezgec, Verona, Kreuziger and Haig are doing the Abu Dhabi tour - Sprint field will be stacked so good competition for Ewan - Of course one stage has a big climb which decides GC - Good luck beating Quintana up the climb.
Will throw this out there - Would prefer Gerrans rides the Giro and Vuelta for two reasons - One is his recent history of falling off his bike and second reckon Hayman will be a better road captain.
Orica team for One Day races in Spain on 11 and 12 Feb the Murcia and the Almeria
Juul-Jensen
Hayman
Cort
Keukeliere
Mezgec
Bewley
This is a big part of the Classics Squad - One day suits sprinters and one day climbers - Cort for the sprint day and pray for the climbers day.
Impey smashes the SA ITT by nearly 2 minutes.
Cort wins again at the Clasica de Almeria
Valverde won at Murcia on Saturday with a 65km solo breakaway - Juul Jensen rode well to get 7th.
Magnus Cort will attract lots of attention from other teams - My guess is he will stay at Orica - Hope he gets more opportunities in the classics in 2017.
Big week of racing with Tour of Oman, Ruta Del Sol and the Agarve - No Orica whose next race is the Tour of Dhabi.
Interesting that Porte has spent the last two weeks training in Tasmania - Returns to Europe this week to ride The Provence a three day stage race in France and Paris-Nice next month.
Apparently the Mitchelton/Orica CT team is really the Australian Academy cycling team with some Asian riders thrown into the mix - Four of the Korda team will ride for this time - My guess is Hamilton,Hindley,Storer and Lyons.
Orica Scott to announce their GT plans next week.
Kristoff wins stage 1 of the Tour of Oman in a sprint finish and Hermans wins stage 2 in a tough of finalt.
Stage 1 of Andalucia and Algarve tonight will attract my attention.
The Orica boys are all over the place at the moment - 9 or 10 in a training camp in South Africa, Edmondson and Gerrans in Australia, Chaves in Columbia, Kreuziger somewhere in Italy.
GT announcement will be interesting - My understanding is it will be two yates at the Giro, Chaves and A.Yates at the TDF and Chaves and S.Yates at the Vuelta - Chaves target is the TDF, A.Yates the Giro and S.Yates the Vuelta. Of course you can never be sure with Orica who play their cards close to their chest.
The Orica boys are all over the place at the moment - 9 or 10 in a training camp in South Africa, Edmondson and Gerrans in Australia, Chaves in Columbia, Kreuziger somewhere in Italy.Northern Italy. Lake Garda today. Halfway between Brescia and Verona, and between Venezia and Milano. Perhaps he'll be riding the MSR?
Yeah Kreuziger has travelled around for training Italy, Spain and Czechoslovakia.
Orica team for Tour of Dubai
Kreuziger
Ewan
Mezgec
Kluge
Edmondson
Haig
Power
Verona
Probably Verona and Edmondson to be the grunt riders - Ewan for the sprints and Kreuziger for GC - Quintana tries and he wins the GC.
Dan Martin outsprints Roglic to win Stage 2 of the Tour of Algarve, while Pinot comes over the top of Contador to win stage 2 of Andalucia - Both were mountain top finishes - And Soren Kragh Andersen outsprints Rui Costa and Hermans in stage 3 of the Tour of Oman.
Orica Scott’s Jens Keukeliere hit by a car while training in Spain. May have a broken collarbone which would hinder his early autumn classics.
Greenedge have also signed the key AIS GC / climbing riders that rode in the TDU and Herald Sun Tour to their conti team.
Sam Jenner, Jai Hindley, Michael Storer, Lucas Hamilton
Good guess by me getting the key drivers in the Mitchelton CT team.
Kristoff wins stage 4 of Oman, with the decisive 5th stage up Green Mountain today.
Just about to watch Stage 3 of Andalucia and the Algarve - TT day which will shake up GC.
Contador to ride Abu Dhabi tour which is shaping as the strongest race so far of 2017.
No major injuries to Keukeliere. Will be riding again in a couple of days.
A relief for Keukeliere - Not the time for a classics rider to be injured.
Campaenerts wins the TT at Andalucia - Valverde 2nd one second behind - Valverde leads GC by one second from Valverde and Pinot six seconds - Last two stages are flat - Contador is like Cavendish when he doesn’t win - Far out excuses - Contador claimed a dog ran across his path during the TT.
Castroviejo and T. Martin 1/2 in the TT at Algarve, while D.Martin did a poor TT and is now 1m and 36 behind Roglic - Last stage is tough and could shake up GC.
Campaenerts wins the TT at Andalucia - Valverde 2nd one second behind - Valverde leads GC by one second from Valverde and Pinot six seconds - Last two stages are flat - Contador is like Cavendish when he doesn't win - Far out excuses - Contador claimed a dog ran across his path during the TT.
Doesn’t look like the dogs affected him much or at all.
And Coquard as expected wins the sprint stage 4 of Andalucia, while Greipel wins a photo finish from Degenkolb in stage 4 of Andalucia, while Hermans wins up Green Mountain from Aru, to win stage 5 of Oman and probably the GC.
So Kreuziger, Haig and Verona make their season debut at Abu Dhabi, while Edmondson and Tuft do the same at Het Niewsblaad - Only Plaza yet to have a confirmed season debut for 2017.