Orica-BikeExchange owner Gerry Ryan declares Tour of Spain triumphs as best ever
TEAM owner Gerry Ryan has declared the Vuelta a Espana as Orica-BikeExchange’s best ever Grand Tour and dubbed Sunday as arguably its finest hour after winning three races in three countries.
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TEAM owner Gerry Ryan has declared the Vuelta a Espana as Orica-BikeExchange’s best ever Grand Tour and dubbed Sunday as arguably its finest hour after winning three races in three countries.
Danish rider Magnus Cort put the finishing touches to the Australian team’s Tour of Spain by winning the final Stage 21 into Madrid on Sunday as Esteban Chaves finished third overall.
It was Chaves’ second podium finish in a Grand Tour this year after he was second overall in the Giro d’Italia in May.
On the same day, OBE’s young sprinter Caleb Ewan won the final stage of the Tour of Britain in London and Katrin Garfoot won the time trial at the women’s Chrono Champenois in France.
“It was a big day all round, three wins yesterday it was probably our best day ever as a team,” Ryan said.
“It’s been building, assemble the right people and you get the right result.”
At the Vuelta a Espana which was won by Nairo Quintana from Chris Froome, it wasn’t so much the results Orica-BikeExchange produced but the way the team rode with an all-or-nothing aggressive approach.
Nowhere was this better displayed than on the penultimate Stage 20 when Chaves had to make up 1min 11secs on Alberto Contador to jump from fourth and onto the podium.
The team hatched a plan to put Damien Howson in a breakaway then the rest of the team would attack the peloton mid-stage, allowing Chaves to escape and join Howson where they would ride away to put time into their rivals while Simon Yates created chaos back in the pack.
It worked and by day’s end Chaves was third and Yates was sixth overall. Earlier in the Vuelta Yates won Stage 6 and Cort also won Stage 18.
“You look at where we’ve come from, it’s been gradually building,” Ryan said.
“Magnus Cort we identified his talent a few years back and Chaves — the whole team in terms of the culture, they would die for each other.
“Damo’s effort (Damien Howson on Stage 20), I’ve never seen someone dig so deep, he was gone, he was lucky to stay on the bike.
“Once again it’s in the plan in terms of how Shayne (Bannan), Whitey (Matt White) and Neil (Stephens) put the team together, we picked the right people, developed the right culture, have been patient and stuck to the game plan and certainly that showed.”
Suddenly OBE has gone from a team of opportunists at Grand Tours to genuine GC contenders and next year has multiple options with Chaves and both Yates brothers Simon and Adam.
“The recruitment this year we set out to bring some climbers in to assist them and it will be a different team next year again because these younger blokes are going to step up,” Ryan said.
“And the depth of some of the climbers we’ve brought in is going to be very exciting.
“We’ve gone from a Classics and stage winning team to a genuine GC team.
“We’ve got a different mix of people, yes we lost Michael Matthews but we look at Magnus Cort.
“I know we got a bit of criticism for not signing Michael up but we’ve got budget restrictions as well and we felt that we had someone coming up behind him.
“Onwards and upwards from here.”
reece.homfray@news.com.au
Originally published as Orica-BikeExchange owner Gerry Ryan declares Tour of Spain triumphs as best ever
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