Tuft, Hepburn, Durbridge discuss performing, winning as a team
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Team Orica GreenEdge in perfect formation.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Svein Tuft drives the Orica-GreenEdge train(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Michael Matthews inherited the maglia rosa from his Orica-GreenEdge teammate(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Svein Tuft leads the Orica-GreenEdge train(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) in yellow.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The Orica-GreenEdge team is one of the most successful at the team time trial, and the Australian squad have continued to pour a lot of effort into the discipline to capture that elusive world title. The team have enjoyed enormous success in the discipline at the Grand Tour level, and have been on the podium each year since the UCI re-introduced the event to the world championships in 2012, but have not yet emerged as victors.
Svein Tuft has been one of the key members of the Orica team time trial train, and was in the squad when it won in the Tour de France in 2013 and in the Giro d'Italia last year. He explained to Cyclingnews how important preparation has been to the team's success.
"The energy we put in over the years has paid off because now we have a core group of guys...that we can send to an important stage race or the World Championships and know they've been drilled," Tuft said. "There's a fear mixed with team time trial for a lot of guys because it's an event you're thrown into and [you are] expected to perform in something you don't practice very much. That's quite frightening for some. We've spent so much time riding together, we know everyone's strengths and how they perform on race day."
Michael Hepburn and Luke Durbridge came up through Cycling Australia's successful track program, and both have won world championships in the track team pursuit. Hepburn says, "the team time trial is very similar to the track team pursuit, just a longer effort. ... A lot of successful team time trial riders have a history on the track. Knowing the pacing, the length of turns - it makes a big difference."
Durbridge enjoys the team time trial not only because it incorporates his strength, which is time trialing, but because "when you win, you win as a team".
