Orica-GreenEDGE looking to catch a break at Tour de France after Daryl Impey ban, Simon Gerrans fall

THE Tour de France begins the first stage on French soil on Tuesday and Aussie team Orica-GreenEDGE will be asking, “What else can go wrong?”

LEEDS, ENGLAND - JULY 03: Australian National Road Champion Simon Gerrans (R) and his Orica-GreenEDGE teammates are greeted by supporters as they ride through Millenium Square enroute to the Team Presentation prior to the 2014 Le Tour de France on July 3, 2014 in Leeds, United Kingdom. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

AS the Tour de France riders begin the first stage on French soil on Tuesday the management of Australian team Orica-GreenEDGE will be asking, “What else can go wrong?”

Even before the disaster of Stage 1, when GreenEDGE’s number one rider Simon Gerrans was knocked off his bike at Harrogate by England’s Mark Cavendish with the finish line in sight, the team’s preparation was thrown into chaos.

Damn, that's one kit down for the #tdf. @simongerrans looking in a fair but if pain. Heal fast. pic.twitter.com/GdGFyv3Pa8

— Dave Everett (@ShoddyCycling) July 5, 2014

First South African Daryl Impey, who wore the yellow jersey for three days last year, was dropped after the team was informed that he had failed a drug test at his country’s national titles in February.

He has been suspended from the team until the outcome of an appeal.

GreenEDGE general manager Shayne Bannan said news of Impey’s test results had sent shock waves through the squad.

“Daryl is a very good rider, but more than that he’s a close friend of the guys. They really feel for him and hope the hearing goes well and he can put a good case that clears his name”.

Impey, who played such a big role in Gerrans winning the yellow jersey in Stage 4 last year that Gerrans handed it over to him in Stage 6, was replaced by young Englishman Simon Yates.

Then, less than a week before the start of the Tour, GreenEDGE’s brilliant young sprinter Michael Matthews injured his shoulder during a crash at training and was also ruled out. Bannan was forced to send an SOS to Canadian Christian Meier to replace Matthews.

That Matthews was the team’s only true sprinter made the performance of Gerrans on Sunday all the more astonishing. With just 200 metres left in the 190.5kms race he was going toe to toe with the best racers in the sport.

And then Cavendish, the local hero the entire nation was backing to win on the streets of his mother’s home town, went for extra space, crossed Gerrans’ line, lost control and brought them both crashing to ground.

GreenEDGE had gone into the Tour with high hopes for Sunday’s Stage 2, trusting Gerrans to negotiate the narrow twists and turns between York and Sheffield and not be worried by the steep climb before the finish that could negate the specialist sprinters.

Impey, they believed, was the man who could once again guide Gerrans through the rough and tumble of the peloton to a second yellow jersey.

With Impey out of the picture the gamble became greater, but in Yates they gained local knowledge which they hoped would be enough to compensate for his loss.

Orica-GreenEDGE had hopes British rider Simon Yates could offer some local knowledge.

What they couldn’t plan for was that Gerrans would go into Stage 2 battered and bruised after his confrontation with Cavendish less than 24 hours earlier.

That stage was followed by the last in England, from Cambridge to The Mall in London.

It was a sprinters’ stage that GreenEDGE never contemplated winning.

“That one was always for the big boys,” Bannan said.

Orica-GreenEDGE riders cycle throughout the streets of Leeds before the start of the Tour de France.

On Tuesday, the riders head from the Channel resort town of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage to Lille, a journey of 163.5 kms.

It is another sprinters’ stage, with narrow roads in areas that are prone to high winds, making the potential for spills.

“With crisis comes opportunity,” Bannan said.

Given that, on what’s happened so far, GreenEDGE should be specials.

Originally published as Orica-GreenEDGE looking to catch a break at Tour de France after Daryl Impey ban, Simon Gerrans fall