Adopted Aussie Esteban Chaves on cusp of delivering Orica-GreenEDGE its proudest moment

WIN or lose when the Giro d’Italia finishes, adopted Aussie Esteban Chaves has provided OGE with its proudest moment - and a pretty special one for his own country, Colombia.

Colombian and Orica-GreenEDGE rider Esteban Chaves celebrates on the podium.

WIN or lose when the Giro d’Italia finishes on Sunday night (Australian time), adopted Aussie Esteban Chaves has provided Australia’s pro cycling team Orica-GreenEDGE with its proudest moment - and a pretty special one for his own country, Colombia.

“To be wearing the leader’s jersey with two days to go in a Grand Tour - and with the best chance of winning it - has to be the best day in our five years, I think,” the team’s owner, Melbourne businessman and sports fanatic Gerry Ryan, said after Chaves seized the Magna Rosa with his second epic mountain ride in a week.

Chaves, 26, led veteran Italian champion Vincenzo Nibali, a previous winner of both the Giro and the Tour de France, by the slender margin of 44 seconds going into the deciding 20th stage overnight, a short but extremely daunting 134km slog from Guillestre in France to Saint Anna di Vinadio back on the Italian side of the Alps.

It involved three big climbs, including the 2715m Col de la Bonette, which was expected to work in Chaves’ favour as he has grown up and continues to live in Bogota, which is 2600m.

But with Nibali, of Astana, winning Friday’s stage comfortably by 51 seconds from Spaniard Mikel Nieve (Sky) with Chaves two seconds adrift, the final showdown promised to be something special. Tonight’s last stage into Turin is flat and will not change the placings.

That’s why the mood at the team bus was extremely upbeat but not yet jubilant - among the Australians, that is. But a group of Colombians who have followed their new hero faithfully for three weeks were disinclined to keep a lid on it, producing a large bottle of something strong and fizzy and swigging from it as they waited for him return from the formalities.

The team’s sports director, or head coach, Matt White kept reminding everyone there was still one very difficult day to come while Ryan, who has tipped many millions of dollars in the project over a relatively short time, couldn’t keep pace with the messages of congratulations swamping his phone.

It was 2am in Australia “but there are a lot of people still up,” he grinned.

It is OGE’s first attempt to win one of the three big Grand Tours overall, as distinct from aiming for stage wins. Chaves is its first rider capable of doing so.

Colombian and Orica-GreenEDGE rider Esteban Chaves celebrates on the podium.

It took nearly an hour for Chaves to get back to the bus, wearing his newly-acquired pink accoutrement - plush another splash of pink on his cheek where one of his countrywomen had planted a big kiss.

The biggest day of his career had begun with a pep talk to his teammates on the way to the start, assuring them he was going to bust his gut to try to make an inroad into the three minutes he trailed race leader Steven Kruijswijk of Holland.

“I am living the dream,” he told them.

Ahead was the 27m Colle della’Agnello, an incredibly challenging assignment as it wound its way up to the snow and ice banks at the summit, through tens of thousands of spectators and hundreds of recreational cyclists - a truly spectacular sight.

With the invaluable assistance of his hard-working Spanish teammate Ruben Plaza - as had been the case the previous Saturday when Chaves won the Queen stage over six big climbs in the Dolomite mountains - he was able to settle into a fight to the finish with Nibali while Kruiswijik lost ground in a crash.

With his trademark grin firmly in place, Chaves said: “It’s a dream - absolutely incredible.

“The team were fantastic yet again today and I have to thank them and everyone at GreenEDGE because this is for all of us.

“Today was a truly difficult stage but we executed the race plan to perfection.

“It’s not easy to follow Nibali downhill. He is crazy to do that but I must be crazy to follow him.

“I tried to follow him when he attacked late in the stage and managed to keep my rhythm and stay close enough at the finish.

“If I bring the jersey home, it will be great. If I don’t, I will have done everything I could.”

Asked how he was feeling before the most important day’s racing of his career, he grinned again and said: “Nervous - I can’t wait.”

In that respect, he had plenty of company.

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