Australian-owned team Orica-GreenEDGE have turned to little Colombian climber Esteban Chavez for their first tilt at the overall category on one of cycling's grand tours.
The promising 24-year-old has been named in a strong all round team for the Tour of Spain starting on Saturday and team director Neil Stephens confirmed he'd be supported in contesting the general classification which provides the race winner.
It's another progression for Orica-GreenEDGE who have so far limited themselves to pursuing individual stage wins on the grand tours with notable success.
Just 164cm tall and 54kg, Chavez has impressed in his first season with the team since overcoming serious injuries suffered in a 2012 crash and he won a mountain top finish on the Tour of Switzerland.
As an amateur, he won the 2011 Tour de l'Avenir in France, a race previously won by five future winners of the Tour de France.
"It's a bit of a test, a bit of a step up for the future of Esteban, and our team as such, to go into a major tour with thoughts of general classification," Stephens said.
"It is a big ask to say let's go off to the Tour of Spain and try to race in the general classification.
"But by the same token we will get to the end of the second week and we'll reassess.
"If it is working, great, but if it's not the year to be able to do that properly then we will just try to refocus on winning a stage win in the mountains in the last week."
"(Chavez) had a pretty serious injury last year and we were conscious of that and didn't want to put any great pressure on him.
"He has surpassed our goals and has kicked goals in all areas."
Joining Chavez on the team are Michael Matthews, who won two stages last year, and 2012 King of the Mountains Simon Clarke along with Adam Yates, Brett Lancaster, Cameron Meyer, Ivan Santaromita, Mitch Docker and Sam Bewley.
"This year we are going in with a multi-task team," Stephens said. "There have been times when we have just targeted stages with one or a couple of riders but this year the whole team is basically all opportunists.
"I think that anyone who looks at our line up for the Tour of Spain will see that there are some great standout stage winners there and we will be trying to give some attention to the general classification with Esteban Chaves too."
Share
