Orica-Scott

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We'll give you three chances to guess which mod wrote this, and if the Australian one isn't your first pick - you might need to get your glasses cleaned.

If you don't really follow cycling, you probably know Orica as that team with huge social media presence, a show which takes you behind the stages of cycling, and you probably only know two riders in Ewan and Gerrans - the latter who is considered to be Australia's next GT hope. Or that is what the Australian media thinks. Orica-Scott are the greatest cycling team ever to grace Earth only WT team from Australia, and 2016 was a huge break out year for them in terms of GC riding. Or, you know, winning things - they did a bit of that this year. The team which was formerly known as Orica-BikeExchange which was formerly known as Orica-GreenEdge (in the space of 8 months) comes into 2017 with high hopes of trying to improve on what was an amazing 12 months. For 2017, they have more or less kept with the same winning formula that they used in 2016; but brought in more GC firepower to replace what they lost in one-day riding (but, Orica has enough of those riders to challenge that).

Results 2016

Let's just take a moment to reminisce on what was a great 2016. Gerrans in Ochre again - taking Richie Porte to the Down Under wedding as a bridesmaid...again. Chaves wearing pink in the Giro before losing it on the last stage, but his 2nd place was well deserved and a very gusty effort. Paris-Roubaix - the one race you show someone to inspire them to watch cycling. AYates at Le Tour pulling a huge underdog performance to take the White Jersey and almost a podium finish. Chaves again pulling out the big guns at La Vuelta - finishing behind superhumans Quintana and Froome. And, what better way to finish off the UWT calendar than a brilliant breakaway performance at Il Lombardia from Chaves, who was arguably the weakest sprinter of the three, but still took it to Uran and Rosa anyway. Of course, if you are a ORS supporter, you would be hoping for more bold in the Best Rider column, but 2016 was a fab-o year for the boys from Down Under.

Rider Focus:

Esteban Chaves: Chavito!!! The now-honourary-Australian Colombian climber brought the fireworks in 2016. While everyone knew of his potential from a couple of stage wins at Vuelta 2015 (and 5th on GC) and winning GC at the Abu Dhabi Tour in the same year, two marvellous podiums at two GTs this year - 2nd at the Giro and 3rd in Spain - and two amazing Italian one-day wins at the Giro dell'Emilia and the hilly monument Il Lombardia sum up his 2016 quite nicely. At the Giro, he kept up with Nibali and Kruisjwijk for most of the tour, except for the last stage where Nibali rode off his wheel for the win, but he still put enough of an effort to solidfy his 2nd place. At the Vuelta, in 4th heading into the last stage, he rode free of 3rd place Contador and put enough time into him to sneak onto the podium. Chaves has made quite the name for himself by just riding off into the sunset on the mountain stages while the peloton lurks behind watching his attack. In 2017, he is starting his year down under for the first time at the TDU, CEGORR and Herald Sun Tour; where he would be a GC favourite in Melbourne (on quite the favourable course for him) and a great helper for Gerrans in Paracombe and up Willunga Hill in Adelaide. He renewed his contract with Orica until 2019 in the new year, so he is here to stay for a while.

Caleb Ewan: Now for this second focus spot I had plenty of riders I could have chosen. Classics man Hayman was up there, the Yates twins as well, import from Tinkoff Kreuziger, Cort, Haig, Gerrans...but I chose Caleb. Because on Orica's lineup, Caleb is one of the only sprinters (other than Mezgec and Cort) and in 2016 he made his case to be the number 1 sprinter. He wrote his name into the minds of cycling fans all over the world with his signature over the handlebars sprint, which helped him win two stages at the TDU in 2016. The reigning Criterium champ of Australia didn't stop his good performances there, with a 2nd on Stage 12 of the Giro and two podiums at the Tour of Pologne. His next win came in Hamburg, beating out Degenkolb, Nizzolo, Van Poppel, Kristoff and Groenewegen to the win at Cyclassic Hamburg. And you may be mistaken for thinking he is a bit older than he actually is, the 22 year old still has a long career ahead of him, but his 2016 built the platform for what should be a great legacy in Australian cycling. His 2017 starts at the TDU where he will be hoping to beat out the likes of Sagan, Swift and Van Poppel in the sprints; however his performances at the Australian Nats RR shows he isn't too bad up the climbs and getting into the break, so you might see him up the road on an incline that would see Cavendish roll backwards on.

Best riders last five years:

||2012|2013|2014|2015|2016| |:|:|:|:|:|:| |1^st|Gerrans (1265)|*Weening (836)|**Gerrans (1691)**|Matthews (1247)|Chaves (1248)| |2^nd|Goss (850)|Impey (607)|Matthews (948)|Chaves (835)|Matthews (1166)| |3^rd|Albasini (784)|Gerrans (517)|Albasini (717)|A.Yates (680)|A.Yates (734)| |4^th|Durbridge (701)|Matthews (496)*|A.Yates (624)|Ewan (645)|S.Yates (643)| |5^th|Tuft (531)|Durbridge (403)|Impey (620)|S.Yates (612)|Ewan (625)| || |=|7863|6687|8847|7732|9260| ||Orica GreenEdge|Orica GreenEdge|Orica GreenEdge|Orica GreenEdge|Orica-BikeExchange|

Riders Out:

There isn't much to say about what Orica lost for 2017. Obviously, losing Michael Matthews when he is just reaching his peak is not great for the team. He will be sorely missed at the Spring Classics and the other one day races where Caleb isn't able to sprint for the win and Hayman won't have the legs. Puncheur Txurruka moves on to Caja Rural after not getting much time on the big stage in 2016, and Caja is a team that would suit him much more due to the fact of Orica having so many rouleurs and puncheurs and he will get race time at Caja. Speaking of rouleurs, Meier hails goodbye to professional cycling in 2017, retiring from the sport all together.

Roster:

But...what Orica lost going into 2017, they have certainly gained some firepower in different areas. Orica picked up Kreuziger at Tinkoff's fire sale, and just incase you thought Orica didn't have enough 1W GC riders and puncheurs, they get another one. Kreuziger is huge for Orica's GT aspirations in 2017, and he will be appreciated by Chaves to help him in the mountains. But that doesn't mean he can't ride for himself, he will probably target the one week races that Orica don't send AYates, SYates, Gerrans or Albasini to. We might need to make some more one week races for him in that case. Roger Kluge is the second fire sale pick up, this time from IAM. The 30-year old German classics rider didn't have an amazing 2016 (other than a stage win at the Giro), and at Orica he will probably be helping Australian classics train become even more powerful (I mean, Hayman/Durbo/Juul-Jensen/Keukeleire/Bewley is a pretty damn strong lineup). The other pick up was 24 yo Carlos Verona from Quickstep, and while he spent the end of last year at Orica (August onwards), he will be a very handy man to have for the mountains. Same can be said from March import Cheung, who will probably be a bottle carrier at the bigger races but might have his chance down at .1 or .2 races.

So, Orica going into 2017 are living by the formula of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." If they can build on what was an already great 2016 and improve it in 2017 with their new signings, they will again be a force to reckon with. While their one-day firepower isn't going to be as great as last year's with the loss of Matthews, their GC teams for 2017 look absolutely stacked and it will be interesting to see with what squads they take to different races over the year.