Tour de France 2013: The Teams 4 - Orica GreenEdge

The Australian outfit are bringing six of the team that made Oricas debut on the Tour last year and three newcomers. There will be a specialised sprint team to help their team leader but this year they have added options for the intermediate stages that aren't flat to give them other options.

Matt Goss the Australian sprinter will once again be trying to out sprint his former team mate and the man he used to help lead out Mark Cavendish. However, despite two stage wins in the Giro he has yet to win one in the Tour. Last year 2 second places, 3 thirds and one fourth in the bunch sprint helped him to edge ahead of Cav to take 3rd in the Green Jersey competition, but last year the Manxman was having to make his own way in the sprints and this year he has full support. The Orica leadout train along with that of Argos Shimano and OPQS will all be evident no doubt in all of the big bunch finishes.

Veteren Australian Stuart O'Grady will be equalling a record when he takes the start line. This will be his 17th start in the Tour an unbroken record going back to his 1997 debut. He is tying with George Hincapie who had three of his results retrospectively wiped after he admitted doping. O'Grady though is a former top sprinter, coming second in the Green Jersey on three occasions but only picking up 2 stage wins in his career. In 2007 he showed that he has evolved as a rider when he won Paris-Roubaix. He does not have the full out speed that he once had, but he will play an important part in the lead out as well as being the experienced head that is the road captain for this team.

Aussie Cameron Meyer is coming to the Tour off some good recent form, he was 5th in the Amgen Tour of California and 10th in the Tour du Suisse. In 2011 he was the winner of the Tour Down Under. He is a outside potential for a top ten in the GC, especially now that he is focussing on the road and not mixing it with the track. This will be his Tour debut though he has appeared in 3 Giros and one Vuelta in the last few years.

South African Daryl Impey was the winner of the 2009 Tour of Turkey. He had been signed in 2011 for the Australian team Pegasus but when they failed to secure a UCI licence he eventually found his way to Orica-GreenEdge. He made his Grand Tour debut in last year's Giro d'Italia before going on to complete the Tour. He will be wearing the South African national jersey during the time trials having secured that title earlier this year.

Like most Australians Brett Lancaster had a successful track career before converting to the road. He made his Grand Tour debut back in 2003 in the Giro and competed there four times before getting the call up for the Tour in 2007. This will be his sixth Tour. In 2005 he won the shortest ever prologue of the Giro taking just 1'20" to cover the 1150m thus pulling on the Maglia Rosa. He'll be looking to make an impression in the time trails when his engine is not being used to deliver Goss to the line.

Svein Tuft from Canada is another time-trialist on this team. He is lining up for his second Grand Tour of the season and his first Tour de France. Apart from 2007 he has been the National Time Trial champion of Canada since 2004. In the Tour de San Luis back in January he secured the first stage win of the season for Orica-GreenEdge in the stage 4 time trial. In 2008 he was second in the World Time Trial event.

Simon Gerrans is a puncheur so some of the many medium mountain stages may well suit his style in this year's Tour. He has won stages in all three Grand Tours which is something that a non-Sprinter who isn't really a time trialist nor big climber should be immensely proud of, so he can often pick the right days to get into the breaks. He won Milan-San Remo last year and this year finished 3rd in the Amstel Gold Race and 10th in Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Last year he sported the national colours all the way around France as Orica-GreenEdge made their debut on this stage. But he'll be looking to get up the road when he has that freedom.

Swiss rider Michael Albasini last year won the Volta a Catalunya which was a cold and wet race which saw 33 abandonments on stage three including Andy Schleck (RLT), Bradley Wiggins (SKY) and Teejay van Garderen (BMC). He has taken the first two stages and held unto his lead all the way to the line.

Simon Clarke won the mountains classification in last year's Vuelta (see picture) in what was his first Grand Tour. He will follow that up with an appearance in this years Tour. The 26 year old is likely to be one of the riders that Orica-GreenEdge are prepared to let go hunting up the road for mountain points along the route and see if he can repeat his performance from that Vuelta.

Orica-Greenedge are coming to this Tour not only trying to support Goss for his attempt on the Green Jersey but also with options on other stages most likely through Clarke. It could be an interesting Tour for them. Yet no place for Austrialian double national champion Luke Dudridge.

Giro d'Italia Stage 3 Sorrento - Marina di Ascea

The time time trial on the island of Ischia was dominated by Team Sky. They even in the early part of the route sat up slightly to let Danny Pate get back on their train, to reach the intermediate time check in what was the second fastest time, as only Moviestar managed to be faster at that point. In the end Sky were 9 seconds faster than Moviestar, but one of the shock results was one of the innvited teams Vini Fantani who at only 22 seconds down  beat all but four of the pro-world tour teams.

So first time Giro rider Salvator Puccio from Sky slipped on the Maglia Rosa yesterday with the Tour de France champion in 2nd, but 14 seconds ahead of Vincenzo Nibali (AST) and 25 ahead of Giro champion Ryder Hesjedal (GRS).

Today sees the first point to point road stage, without circuits as the 23 teams head south from the southern end of the Bay of Naples at Sorrento, largely hugging the coast towards Marina di Ascea. However, there are two climbs on today's route. The category two San Mauro Cilento 69km from the finish and the category three Sella di Catona 19.8km from the finish.

It is probably a good thing for the sprinters that the climbs are in that order, it means there is a chance that they might be there for the finish. When the last 5km drop 200m to get to the sea level finish on the coast it is going to be fast and furious at the finale of today. So if the sprinters can get over the two climbs with the peleton today could well be another day for them to shine. But although Puccio is the surprised Maglia Rosa don't expect to see Team Sky going out to defend it, they have bigger battles to fight further down the road in the high mountain passes. They are liable to leave the hauling back of the break away to the sprinters' teams.

With Mark Cavendish (OPQ) and Matthew Goss (OGE) the best placed of the big name sprinters both at 28 seconds, even with the 18 second time bonus for winning they can only expect to rise to 11th in the GC all other things being equal.

Giro d'Italia Stage 2 Ischia to Forio

So stage one yesterday eventually came down to a sprint after Cannondale's Australia rider Cameron Wurf, who has been the lone survivor of a seven man breakaway. Wurf took part in the 2004 Olympics but on the rowing lake in the lightweight double skull. However it wasn't the total mass sprint finish that everyone was expecting after the work largely of Omega Pharma-Quickstep to bring it all under control with just over two laps of the 8km smaller circuit to complete.

After a while Sky took over the pace setting not for a sprinter but to keep Bradley Wiggins safe near the front, then it was the turn of Orega-GreenEDGE to take it up inside the final 10km, with Cannondale and Radioshack-Leopard also in close attendance. But with 5km to go Omega Phrama-Quickstep for so long at the head of the peleton had disappeared from proceedings.

Inside the final three km and Cannondale had taken up the pace, but then there was a crash near the frong from which only 13 riders rode clear unscathed or delayed. Orega-GreenEDGE with three men in the group including their sprinter Matthew Goss, Omega Pharma-Quick had one rider, Gert Steegmans, there to help Mark Cavendish, but there was also Cannondale's sprinter Elia Viviani, Radioshack's Giacomo Nizzolo,. Moviestar's Francisco Ventoso and two young spinters FDJ's Nacer Bouhanni and BMC's Brit Adam Blythe.

Into the final km it was Orega-GreenEDGE who were attempting to open it up for Goss, but Steegmans suffered a mechanical just as that point as the three Orega-GreenEDGE riders and Viviani gained daylight.  He came back unto fifth wheel with Bouhanni and Blythe had a little bit of shoulder banging as they both tried to stay in Cav's wheel. Then Radioshack's Danilo Hondo brought Nizzolo up alongside so Cavendish went wide to the left, only for Hondo to peel off almost into Cavendish's way. Goss and Viviani were heading straightest to the line, while Bouhanni was on Cav's wheel. But the engine was ignited in the Manx Missile and he crossed the line for his eleventh stage win in the Giro and to pull on the Maglia Rosa for a third time. He was followed by Viviani then Bouhanni.

Cav taking the line and the Maglia Rosa in Napoli

After racing around the streets of Napoli (Naples) today the Giro tomorrow heads out past the Bay of Naples to the volcanic island to Ischia in the Tyrrherian Sea, the largest of the Phlegrean islands.

The island is small but big enough to run a 17.4km team time trial. It is only a short time trial but in the team time trial you are only as good as your fifth best man, so any crashes or a deterioration in the weather for the later starters can be a disaster.

However, Sky are one of the best drilled team when it comes to TTT, but so are Omega Pharma-Quickstep indeed don't forget last year in TTT that Cavendish often took pride in doing good stints on the front especially toward the end, so it is possible with his 8 second lead thanks to the time bonuses that Cavendish might still be in pink when the team pack up to leave the island after the day's racing.