Orica Scott Talent

From humble beginnings picking at sprint stages and TTs, to taking on the world’s best in Grand Tours with young GC riders who were built, not bought, Orica-Scott has come a long way in a short time.

- Daniel Benson

When Orica-Scott, then Orica-GreenEdge, formed ahead of the 2012 season they were very much portrayed as an Australian team with an emphasis on winning one-day races, time trials and sprints.

The core of the team featured a glut of experienced Southern Hemisphere talent in the likes of Stuart O’Grady, Allan Davis, Baden Cooke, and, for a few months, Robbie McEwen, while the GC riders on the team were few and far between. Australia’s first ever WorldTour team had an identity but stage racing certainly was not part of it. On one hand, they won a Monument in their first year – Milan-San Remo. On the other, their best GC placings at the three Grand Tours were 121st at the Giro, 72nd at the Tour and 77th at the Vuelta.

In the five years since, Orica-Scott, under the stewardship of Matt White and his management team, have transformed their squad, morphing from one-day specialists to team time trial competitors and now, in 2017, one of the most exciting and dynamic stage-racing collectives in the sport. At the core are the Lancashireborn twins Simon and Adam Yates, who slipped through British Cycling and Sky’s fingers, and a Colombian climber, Esteban Chaves, whose career looked finished after a serious accident in 2013. It’s not an understatement to suggest that if all goes well all three riders could - and perhaps should - occupy podium positions at all three Grand Tours this season. They were one place – Adam Yates’s fourth in the Tour de France – away from doing it this year.

Whether luck, timing, unrivalled transfer acumen or a combination of many factors, Orica’s path has led them to the brink of Grand Tour success, and without losing the strengths that brought them their early victories.