Orica target stage wins not yellow

Australians Orica-GreenEdge have a very clear plan for the Tour de France and it doesn't involve trying to get their hands on the yellow jersey.

Last year, team leader Simon Gerrans came into the race believing he had a great chance of taking the yellow jersey on one of the early stages but was caught up in a crash involving Mark Cavendish on the first stage and forced out of the race.

With the first stage this time around being a timetrial, Gerrans said it would likely prove too difficult for the team to get their hands on the leader's jersey and as they have no designs on overall victory, it will be stage wins occupying their thoughts for three weeks.

"As far as realistic goals, we've been pretty adamant we're chasing stage wins and GC (overall victory) is not even on our radar this year," said the 35-year-old Gerrans, a two-time stage winner who was in yellow for two days in 2013.

"I don't think we'll be looking too closely at that part of the classification each day. With the line up we have here, we're more suited to going for stage victories at this point."

Orica manager Matt White said he believes young British twins Simon and Adam Yates could one day have overall victory hopes but at just 22 years of age, they are not yet ready for that responsibility.

"The biggest thing for us is to leave an impact on the race, that would be our number one goal and as Simon says: stage wins. One stage would be pleasing, multiple stage wins even more so," said White.

"As far as GC it's not a goal and never has been a goal. As I said before, it would be pretty unprofessional of us to put pressure on the Yates boys, who we see as GC talents, in their first Tour de France that they're hoping to finish.

"They've shown throughout the year and since joining the team that they're very capable of achieving some great results against the best guys in the world, but that's for stage victories not GC."

Simon Yates took the start line last year at just four days notice and lasted for two weeks before his team withdrew him on the second rest day.

This year he is hoping to finish the race and expects to have a chance of a stage win in the mountains, by which time he believes he'll be so far out of contention that the overall contenders will let him get away in a break.

"These first nine days it's actually going to be pretty easy to lose some time. I'm not really suited to these flatlands over this part of the world," he said.

"It's going to be pretty hard to arrive after these stages in the same time as these GC guys. Even if I wanted to go for the overall, I'd be out of the running already.

"I think that gives me a much better opportunity to go for stage wins, so I can save my legs until we get there.

"I don't think I'm ready (for an overall tilt), I haven't even finished a Grand Tour yet. To be challenging for overall, it's a long way to go yet.

"Once we get to the finish in Paris and a few years down line, I can start talking about that.

"But mentally and physically I'm not ready."
Source: AFP