GreenEDGE have announced a three-year sponsorship deal with Orica, a mining company and supplier of commercial explosives, with the Australian WorldTour team now to be known as Orica-GreenEDGE.
The team, previously funded by Gerry Ryan, an Australian businessman and owner of Jayco campervans, has enjoyed a fine start to life, with Simon Gerrans winning the Tour Down Under, the squad’s first WorldTour race, while the former Team Sky rider went on to win Milan-San Remo.
“We have had a dream start to our sporting goals, winning big races and putting GreenEDGE on the map in professional cycling,” said Ryan. “This relationship with Orica, and our existing partners, will continue to make GreenEDGE grow – for the athletes, for our fantastic fans and for cycling in general. It’s a significant milestone for us.”
The Orica logo will feature prominently on the team kit at the Giro d’Italia, which starts on Sunday, while a redesigned “visual identity” will be unveiled ahead of the Tour de France.
Matt Goss will lead the team in search of stage wins at the Giro, with Fumiyuki Beppu, Jack Bobridge, Daryl Impey, Jens Keukeleire, Brett Lancaster, Christian Meier, Svein Tuft and Tomas Vaitkus also named in the nine-man line-up.
“We’re solely focused on stage wins,” said directeur sportif Matt White. “We’ve said that from the beginning. We definitely don’t have anyone for the general classification. Most of our riders will have a chance for individual stage wins, and Matt Goss is our leader for the sprints.”
Orica-GreenEDGE have also shown considerable prowess against the clock this season, claiming team time trial victory at Tirreno-Adriatico. White added: “I expect the team to be competitive during the early stages,” White continued. “We have a strong team for the stage four team time trial in Verona.
“A dream scenario would be to put Goss in the pink leader’s jersey during the first week – either right before or right after the team time trial. There are a few teams with the same goal as us. If we’re on the mark very early in Denmark, I’ll be happy.”
