His Tour de France hasn’t worked out as he had hoped and his GreenEdge team is still looking for its first stage win, but Matt Goss hasn’t given up hope that he can hit the line first in this race.
The Australian sprinter has two opportunities; the first is today’s stage to Brive la Gaillarde, with the second being Sunday’s final stage to the Champs Elysees. The team doesn’t have a strong contender for tomorrow’s time trial.
Goss got close on stage five when he finished second into Saint Quentin behind Andre Greipel, and was also third on stages two and six. Since then, though, he has been further back, with his sole top 80 placing being seventh on stage twelve.
The latter is part of the reason why he has been quiet; he was battling with Peter Sagan for the green jersey and was deemed to have switched the Slovakian with a leftwards flick in the gallop to the line for sixth. He was dropped down a place but, more significantly, also handed a thirty point penalty which made it impossible for him to win the Maillot Vert.
“The couple of days after the green jersey (penalty) I wasn't really stoked and I wasn't in much of a mood,” Goss told Cycling Central, explaining a loss of morale. “But the last two days, I've been feeling probably the best of the Tour. So I feel like I'm strong, ready to go, and looking forward to the last few days.”
Today’s stage has been marked by a large break but inside the final hour of racing, it looks like things could well come back together. If it does, he said that the team knows what to do; the same will apply on Sunday.
“The guys have everything well-drilled, well-nailed, so we just have to do everything we've been doing,” he said. “Everyone is going to be a little bit more tired, so that maybe suits me a little bit better.”
The GreenEdge team was set up prior to the start of the season and pinpointed stage wins as its main priority for its first Tour campaign. It hasn’t delivered thus far, and is under pressure to pull off a victory.