GreenEDGE Cycling, The team that looks to give Australia its first ever ProTeam, made its first big steps toward the world's biggest stage with its announcement of its bike sponsor for 2012 and beyond, SCOTT Sports.
SCOTT had hoped to make the leap to the World Tour this season with Pegasus Sports, but the team's collapse saw the hitherto extremely successful bike company out of the sport's biggest events for 2011. That doesn't look to be the case for the company that supplied the bikes for HTC-Columbia for the 2010 season and ended up with six stage wins courtesy Mark Cavendish in the Tour de France.
SCOTT will provide not only the men's elite ProTeam squad with bikes, but also its women's professional and men's Continental teams. The teams will utilize SCOTT's road and time trial helmets as well.
GreenEDGE General Manager, Shayne Bannan, was pleased to announce the sponsorship agreement and said, that "the main priority in striking a deal with a bike manufacturer was to ensure the team was getting the best equipment that would give the riders an edge on their competitors. Some of the stages in a race like the Tour de France can last up to seven hours, and every little bit of energy that can be saved by having the best equipment can make the difference between first and second place."
SCOTT Sports vice president, Pascal Ducrot, was likewise pleased about the partnership between Australia's soon to be top team and SCOTT.
"Joining forces with a new generation and international team like GreenEDGE is very exciting for us. Shayne Bannan has a long and very successful history in cycling as the Australian national team coach. His knowledge, paired with a solid financial foundation, will allow them to build a very dynamic and successful team, and Shayne's vision of pushing technology as well as his demand for the best hi-tech equipment is the challenge we need in order to keep our leading position."
Bannan's intense desire to eke out any legal edge available through his equipment is evident in the team release. Bannan praises the company for its work ahead of last year's Tour de France on their aero road bike, and feels certain that there is more to come.
"The level of research and development done by a bike manufacturer is important to stay ahead of the game and SCOTT has shown they do this better than anyone else. Most bike manufacturers do wind tunnel testing on their time trial bikes, where aerodynamics is critical, but to maximize efficiency and create a new generation of aero road racing bikes in the lead up to last year's Tour de France, SCOTT conducted extensive testing within the Drag2Zero facilities in the Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix wind tunnel."
Bannan happily concludes: "To have this sort of commitment to being the best from our partners is invaluable in our pursuit of gaining an edge on our rivals."
The fledgling team has stated that they have the financial might to vie for some of the sport's biggest talents heading into 2012. Bannan has made it clear that one of his biggest signing goals is Saturday's Milano-Sanremo winner, Matthew Goss.
"It's a competitive market, and we are prepared," said Bannan in a recent conversation with the Sydney Morning Herald. "We are serious contenders, and we are prepared to get the riders at market value. That's what the game is."
Beyond just Goss, however, Bannan has listed a major goal of the team as populating his roster with at least 75% Australians. It doesn't take long to go through the UCI World Rankings to find a plethora of top Australian talents spread out through the world's best teams, names like: Richie Porte (Saxo Bank), Matt Goss, Mark Renshaw (HTC-Highroad), Cameron Meyer, Travis Meyer, Jack Bobridge (Garmin-Cervelo), Robbie McEwen (RadioShack), and Stuart O'Grady (Leopard Trek) will all certainly be in play as the team moves forward.