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After a season where he finished sixth in Gent Wevelgem, twelfth in the Vattenfall Cyclassics and fifteenth in Paris-Roubaix, the 25 year old Mitch Docker has secured a contract with a potential WorldTour team for 2012.
The Australian will join his country’s new GreenEdge squad, and is psyched by the thoughts of having a bigger race programme and the opportunities that will bring.
“I’m looking forward to doing the Classics and the build-up to those races with events like Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico, which is racing I haven’t had in the past,” he explained. “It will be interesting to see how that extra race preparation helps my performance.
“But it won’t be easy to make our team for the Classics. This year I was fifteenth at Paris-Roubaix but that doesn’t mean I’m a certainty to ride it next year. Having this sort of selection pressure is good. One of the things that make just about any sporting team successful is that it’s hard just to make the team. We’ll have that at GreenEDGE. It will be hard to make the cut.
“The important thing is that being selected on the team isn’t necessarily based on if I’m winning or not but the role I’m playing in the team and how that contributes to GreenEDGE winning.”
Docker, who began a three year stint with Skil-Shimano in 2009, is very motivated by the thoughts of a new start and also by racing alongside a lot of well known Australian riders.
“I’m looking forward to riding with guys like Matt Goss and Simon Clarke, who I rode with and grew up with in the juniors, as well as the guys I’ve always looked up to like Robbie McEwen and Stuart O’Grady,” he said.
“It will also be good to work with the staff, who understand the Australian mentality and to be able to speak Aussie slang at the dinner table.”
He doesn’t forget what his time with Skil Shimano has brought him, though, making it clear that he enjoyed his time there. He also stressed that he felt that it was very good for his development. “My time at Skil has been great,” he stated. “They gave me so many opportunities and as a young rider they never rushed my development, which will help my career long-term.”
The team has confirmed over twenty riders thus far, amongst them Sunday’s world championship runner-up Goss, plus McEwen, O’Grady, Clarke, Svein Tuft, Jack Bobridge, Cameron Meyer, Michael Albasini, Pieter Weening and Baden Cooke.
It is widely expected to secure a ProTeam licence for 2012 and to ride the Tour de France.
GreenEdge signings to date for 2012:
Jack Bobridge, Cameron Meyer, Travis Meyer, Matt Wilson (Garmin-Cervélo)
Michael Albasini, Matt Goss, Leigh Howard (HTC Highroad)
Stuart O'Grady (Leopard-Trek)
Pieter Weening, Sebastian Langeveld (Rabobank)
Simon Gerrans (Sky Procycling)
Allan Davis, Simon Clarke, Tomas Vaitkus (Astana)
Robbie McEwen, Fumiyuki Beppu (RadioShack)
Svein Tuft (SpiderTech powered by C10)
Jens Mouris (Vacansoleil-DCM)
Baden Cooke (Saxo Bank-SunGard)
Daniel Teklehaymanot (neo-pro)
Wesley Sulzberger (FDJ)
Jens Keukeleire (Cofidis)
Mitch Docker (Skil-Shimano)
Also see: VeloNation interview with Mitch Docker from Spring Classics