SA Footy

O’Grady brings experience to GreenEDGE

Having ridden the Tour de France 15 times, with stints in the yellow jersey and two stage
wins, plus having competed at five Olympic Games, including a gold medal in 2004, Stuart
O’Grady is bringing his immense experience to the GreenEDGE Cycling team.

GreenEDGE is aiming to become Australia’s first UCI World Tour licensed team in 2012 and for the
38-year-old O’Grady it is a dream come true.

“To ride for an Australian team has been a dream of mine since I turned pro way back in 1995. I
wasn’t sure such a team would come around before I retired but I’m glad it has,” O’Grady said.
“I’ve been racing for a long time and seen the evolution of Australian cycling from guys like Phil
Anderson, Neil Stephens and Patrick Jonker to myself as part of the generation that followed and
now we’ve got an impressive group of young riders coming through.

“For a country where cycling is a relatively small sport the progress in such a short period of time
has been incredible.”

But for O’Grady joining GreenEDGE wasn’t an easy decision.

“I’ve spent quite a few years supporting the Schleck brothers (Frank and Andy) at the Tour de
France and Fabian (Cancellara) in the classics and doing that job alongside Jens Voigt we’ve been
like a family. It’s been a privilege racing with those guys and leaving Leopard-Trek to join
GreenEDGE has been the hardest decision of my career,” the South Australian said.

Last week the team announced that multiple track world champions Cameron Meyer and Jack
Bobridge, along with 2010 Australian road champion Travis Meyer, will form part of the team and
the guidance of O’Grady will serve the younger riders on the team well.

According to GreenEDGE Cycling General Manager, Shayne Bannan, having O’Grady on the team
will play a critical role in guiding the younger members of the team and building a squad for the big
one-day races.

“He can teach our guys stuff on the road that simply can’t be communicated from the team car
sitting behind the peloton,” Bannan said.

“And you don’t stay at the top end of any sport for as long as Stuart has without doing something
right. He won a silver medal at the Olympics in 1992 when Travis Meyer and Jack Bobridge were
only three-years-old so there’s a lot he can teach our younger guys.”

O’Grady also sees his experience as his major contribution to the team.

“There’ll be a lot of young guys on the squad and Shayne (Bannan) understands the need to have
someone to guide them,” O’Grady said who has played the role of captain on the road for the past
few seasons for his previous teams at the Tour de France, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

“There’s no point having the biggest and shiniest ship in the ocean if you don’t have a captain to
steer it and I’ve think I bring plenty of experience at steering the ship.”

Despite openly taking on the role of guiding the younger members of the team O’Grady hasn’t lost
his ambition to win.

“I’ve still got ambitions in the big one-day classics, particularly Paris-Roubaix. I know the notebook
Fabian Cancellara uses in Roubaix because we came up with it together. There’ll be plenty of races
the younger guys can go for but that’s my major personal goal,” he said.

O’Grady is the only Australian to have won Paris-Roubaix, the world’s most famous one-day race
across the cobblestones of northern France, which he took out in 2007.

Dutchy wrote:My first cycling event is getting pretty close on 28/8, 75 kms, here is the route - http://www.bikemap.net/route/1093612

pig_skin wrote:Dutchy ill be doing that too.. but im doing both loops 150km..

Dutchy wrote:My first cycling event is getting pretty close on 28/8, 75 kms, here is the route - http://www.bikemap.net/route/1093612

nice bike too dutchy what model specialized is it i ride a tarmac comp...

Dutchy wrote:

pig_skin wrote:Dutchy ill be doing that too.. but im doing both loops 150km..

Dutchy wrote:My first cycling event is getting pretty close on 28/8, 75 kms, here is the route - http://www.bikemap.net/route/1093612

nice bike too dutchy what model specialized is it i ride a tarmac comp...

The second loop looks a nightmare, all downhill early then a nasty climb at the end, not my cup of tea, rather climb first and then descend!

Mine is a Allez Sport, composite with carbon forks, dont know much else TBH, my cousin sold it to me when he upgraded to carbon.

Yours looks nice, presume full carbon?

mickey wrote:Any reason you chose specialized frame pig skin? Have looked at Avanti and Scott and leaning slightly to the Avanti Cadent 1.0 with shimano 105 components.