Team history
2014 season
2014 saw a change in leadership at Orica–AIS as the women's team's original directeur sportif Dave McPartland took up a role with the men's team Orica Greenedge, while former Tasmanian Institute of Sport head cycling coach Gene Bates took over McPartland's position. [3] Martin Barras maintains his dual role as the trade team Orica–AIS assistant DS since 2012, and Cycling Australia's woman's road coach. [4]
On 17 June, the team announced the signing of Katrin Garfoot for the remainder of the 2014 season. [5] On 16 October Chloe McConville, Sarah Roy and Lizzie Williams signed with the team for the 2015 season [6] with Amanda Spratt signing a contract extension. On 28 October Gracie Elvin signed a contract extension. On 4 November, Katrin Garfoot signed a contract extension. On 13 November Melissa Hoskins signed a contract extension. On 3 December, Macey Stewart and Alexandra Manly joined the team. On 13 November Carlee Taylor left the team to join Lotto–Belisol Ladies.
2015
The team opened its account at the Bay Classic Series where Gracie Elvin took victory in the second stage of the race. This was followed up by a double win in the Santos Womens Cup courtesy of Valentina Scandolara and Melissa Hoskins. [7]
Former road race world championship silver medallist Rachel Neylan joined Orica–AIS at the end of March. [8]
Loes Gunnewijk would have to prematurely retire from racing early after sustaining a broken shoulder from the year before, Gunnewijk would return to Orica–AIS in 2016 as a trainee director sportif. [9] [10] [11] In August 2015, it was announced that Johansson would leave the team at the end of the 2015 season and join Wiggle High5 on a two-year deal for the 2016 season. [12] Melissa Hoskins would move away from Orica–AIS to concentrate her efforts on the track in the lead up to the 2016 Rio Olympics. [13] Valentina Scandolara moved to Cylance looking to advance a more leadership role and hoping to secure an Olympic placement. [14]
2016
Three new signings were announced for 2016, from the disbanded Velocio-SRAM American Tayler Wiles and Australian Loren Rowney, and from Bigla Dutch Annemiek van Vleuten. [15] After Emma Johansson left as Orica–AIS team leader and Loes Gunnewijk retiring as road captain, Gracie Elvin and Amanda Spratt were given the opportunity to step up as team leaders. [16]
However Orica–AIS's roster aspirations didn't go to plan in 2016, Chloe McConville had planned to retire mid-way through 2016 but was forced to retire early due to a prolapsed disc back injury while on recon for the Tour of Flanders. [17] [18] Another casualty of the Classics season was Lizzie Williams when injury, depression and anxiety took its toll on Williams. [19] [20] In between road seasons, Macey Stewart participated in Track World and Oceania Championships, then onto working towards Rio 2016 left Stewart drained, and decided to spend more time with family. [21]
Midway through the 2016 season, Orica–AIS signed Jess Allen and Jenelle Crooks from Rochelle Gilmore's High5 Dream Team Australian development team. [22] [23]
For both the men's Orica–GreenEDGE and women's Orica–AIS teams, GreenEDGE Cycling's headline naming sponsor Orica two-year contract would be coming to an end at the end of 2016, but Orica decided to extend its sponsorship for one more year for 2017 to provide GreenEDGE extra time to search for new sponsors. [24] [25] On the same month as Orica publicly announcing in June 2016 its exit from GreenEDGE, GreenEDGE Cycling's owner's Gerry Ryan's co-owned business BikeExchange took place next to Orica as naming sponsors for the men's Orica–GreenEDGE squad on the eve of July's Tour de France while the women's team maintained the same team name since Orica sponsored the team. [26] Ahead of the 2017 season, GreenEDGE's sole longstanding bicycle supplier Scott Sports took up the task as naming sponsor alongside Orica for 2017 for three years, unifying both men's and women's teams under the same name for the first in GreenEDGE's history. [27] [28]
The roster of riders for 2017 remained largely the same as the 2016 season closing, but with Orica–AIS not keeping Tayler Wiles due to an uncertain 2017 budget for GreenEDGE as Orica prepares for its final year as sponsor. [29] Australian track racer Georgia Baker took Wiles' place in the 2017 team roster. [30]
2017
Orica–Scott dominated the Australian national championships, taking every green and gold jersey except for the under-23 criterium. Jessica Allen starting by claiming the elite criterium; then both Katrin Garfoot and Alexandra Manly winning both time trial and road race, elite and U23 titles respectively.
With Scott Sports taking more prominence as a naming sponsor, non-drivetrain components from Shimano subsidiary PRO such as seatposts and handlebars were replaced by Scott subsidiary Syncros. [31] [32] Also for 2017, Italian clothing brand Giordana replaces all apparel previously supplied from Swedish company Craft.
At the end of January, Loren Rowney officially announced her retirement from professional racing. [33] Orica–Scott would sign long time BePink team member Georgia Williams from New Zealand who had taken a pause from road racing to focus on the track at the Rio Olympics. [34]
After a few Women's World Tour podiums over two years with Elvin, Roy, and van Vleuten; Orica–Scott accomplished its breakthrough WWT win on Stage 4 at The Women's Tour with sprinter Sarah Roy. [35] Orica–Scott also achieved its milestone first one-day WWT win at La Course, and WWT general classification victory at the Boels Ladies Tour with Annemiek van Vleuten.
Although GreenEDGE had set up a Chinese-registered continental men's team, Mitchelton–Scott at the start of the year in order to attract a new naming sponsor in the Far East after Orica's five year commitment finished up at the end of 2017. [36] In September, a week before the road world championships, Cycling Australia confirmed it would withdraw support from both the Orica–Scott women's team and the Mitchelton–Scott U23 team at the end of 2017. In order to fill the funding gap, GreenEDGE owner Gerry Ryan will step in for CA and Orica for 2018, and continue supporting the women's team and U23 men's team even though the team had been unsuccessful in finding a replacement sponsor for Orica. [37] [38] By December, with the team unable to bring in a new title sponsor outside the Ryan family business, GreenEDGE announced their new team names and title sponsors for 2018 men's World Tour and UCI women's teams as Mitchelton–Scott. The U23 continental men's team that previously used the Mitchelton–Scott team name in 2017, announced its naming co-sponsors for 2018 with Ryan family businesses just ahead of the Australian national championships in January 2018, racing as Mitchelton–BikeExchange. [39] With Orica exiting sponsorship of the teams, the team jerseys' loses their blue colours, for 2018 the team adopts Scott Sports RC (Racing Concept) team colours of black and yellow as used by the Scott mountain bike teams.
At the Bergen road world championships, the team scored its first road rainbow jersey in either men's or women's team with Van Vleuten in the individual time trial, becoming the third Dutch woman to ever win the time trial gold medal. The closest the team had gotten to the rainbow jersey was in 2012 with Judith Arndt who earned it the year before at HTC–Highroad Women, she then retired from racing after the Limburg world championships with another ITT rainbow jersey. Katrin Garfoot earned two individual world championship medals in the same Bergen world championships with a bronze in the time trial and a silver at the road race, being only the second Australian to achieve such a feat since Anna Wilson. Both Orica–Scott and Boels–Dolmans claimed three each of all the individual elite women's medals available at the 2017 world championships.
On the eve of the world championship time trial, Orica–Scott announced its first signing for 2018 that Annemiek van Vleuten would extend her contract with the team for another two years. [40] During the world championship week, the team announced Belgian Jolien D'Hoore would join the team for 2018 after her three years at Wiggle High5. [41] At the start of October, Spanish team Movistar announced Rachel Neylan would be joining their new women's team as one of its experienced riders in the relatively young roster, after her three years at Orica. [42] Lucy Kennedy signs with Orica Scott, coming from Rochelle Gilmore's High5 Dream Team after strong performances in the domestic scene, and with the Australian Development Team in 2017 overseas in Europe. [43] Kat Garfoot confirmed that she would not renew her contract with the team, but she would still continue to work towards her home 2018 Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast, with GreenEDGE providing access to her familiar bikes. Garfoot citing not wanting to be separate from family while racing in Europe, and the team unable to support her racing in Australia. [44] Georgia Baker returns to domestic road racing with TIS Racing, and continues with Cycling Australia's track scholarship along with teammate Alex Manly. [45] [46]
The team starts 2018 with ten riders; Allen, Crooks, D'hoore, Kennedy, Manly, Spratt, Williams signing for one year. [47] Together with Van Vleuten, Gracie Elvin and Sarah Roy re-signed with GreenEDGE for two more years. [48] [49]
2018
In between 2017 and 2018 seasons, former directeur sportif Martin Barras was removed as the Cycling Australia's national women's road coach after the September's Bergen 2017 road world championships as a part of restructuring by Cycling Australia's new high performance director Simon Jones, his last race directing Orica–Scott was the women's Tour of Guangxi in October. Barras later taking up the role as Cycling New Zealand's high performance director. [50] Taking the place of Barras' DS role was former Wiggle High5 DS Martin Vestby. [51] [52]
Mitchelton–Scott started the year in its national championship campaigns in Australia and New Zealand, with Sarah Roy achieving her best Australian National Criterium Championships finish with GreenEDGE with a second place since previously winning the title in 2014 when signed with Poitou-Charentes.Futuroscope.86. Georgia Williams won the New Zealand time trial championships after multiple podiums in previous years' time trial and road race, Alexandra Manly followed up last year's U23 time trial win with another, while new signing Lucy Kennedy achieved a silver medal in the elite time trial classification. Georgia Williams followed up her time trial win the previous day by claiming the elite road race title in a solo breakaway, gaping the peloton by just under five minutes at the finish line. Alexandra repeated her 2017 nationals results by again winning the under-23 classification in the road race; in the elites, Amanda Spratt missed out on a podium, finishing fourth in a seven rider sprint. Mitchelton–Scott earned their first international win of the year with Amanda Spratt in a breakaway on stage 3 of the Tour Down Under putting a minute and a half into former teammate and GC leader Katrin Garfoot; claiming the GC, climber's jersey and the team's classification.
Four Mitchelton–Scott riders were named to be participating at the Cycling at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia in April; for Australia in the road race, Gracie Elvin and Sarah Roy, and on the track, Alex Manly. [53] Representing New Zealand as a part of their Commonwealth Games road race squad is Georgia Williams. [54] Alex Manly was part of the squad for the newly added team pursuit event to the women's Commonwealth Games programme, with a time in the finals that would have unseated defending world champions USA at the 2018 Apeldoorn world championships. Georgia Williams won New Zealand's second ever medal in the women's road race at a Commonwealth Games, a silver medal since the 1998 Commonwealth Games; Mitchelton–Scott teammate Sarah Roy finished fifth in the reduced bunch sprint. [55] [56]
The team claimed its first European race win with newly signed sprinter Jolien D'Hoore at the inaugural Three Days De Panne Koksijde. The team won its first WWT stage race in 2018 at Emakumeen Euskal Bira in May, eventually finishing with riders in first, second, and fourth in the general classification, with Amanda Spratt winning for her first ever top level UCI status race. In July, the Mitchelton–Scott women's team achieve the GreenEDGE organisation's first Grand Tour win at the 2018 Giro Rosa. Finishing the Giro with six stage wins of the ten stages by D'hoore, Spratt, and Van Vleuten; and every jersey the team were eligible for, the general classification pink jersey and points purple jersey with Van Vleuten, the mountains green jersey with Spratt. Spratt's stage six win, put an Australian in the maglia rosa, the first time since Shara Gillow on stage 2 in 2012, and her third place on GC is the first Australian final GC podium at the Giro since 1994 by Kathy Watt. [57] [58] After Van Vleuten claimed another Women's World Tour level stage race GC win at September's Boels Ladies Tour, Mitchelton–Scott has won three of six of the WWT stage races it had attended, and the only team with WWT stage race GC wins in 2018.
Ahead of the 2018 UCI Road World Championships, half of the team's ten members were selected to represent their country, for Australia, Lucy Kennedy, Sarah Roy, and Amanda Spratt, for New Zealand, Georgia Williams, and for the Netherlands, Annemiek van Vleuten. [59] [60] [61]
