Barnes joins GreenEdge as Chief Medical Officer

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As GreenEdge ramps up its bid for a UCI ProTeam licence for the 2012 season, the project has announced that Dr Peter Barnes will be on board as the team's Chief Medical Officer.

Barnes brings many years of experience to the table, having worked on the medical staff on the Australian Olympic teams at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Games and worked closely with Cycling Australia, through its most successful period, as part of the Australian Institute of Sport medical team. The South Australian also spent 12-years (1997-2009) as the Chief Medical Officer for Port Adelaide Football Club in the AFL. He has also worked as Chief Medical Officer at the Tour Down Under.

"To maximise performance in these athletes with almost super-human physiology, complex nutritional and recovery demands, and extreme workloads, and to do this with ascientific, evidence based program will require a dedicated team of support staff," explained Dr Barnes.

"The most appealing part of working with a group of elite professional cyclists is the integration of medicine and sports science. It will be very rewarding to be part of this group."

Barnes has been working with Shayne Bannan, general manager of the GreenEdge project for the last two decades so the opportunity to join the bid, seemed like a natural progression.

"Throughout most of those years we have all talked about how great it would be to have an Australian team in the Professional Road cycling competition in Europe," Barnes said.

"Through his roles with Cycling Australia and the Australian Institute of Sport, Shayne, and before him Charlie Walsh, has worked tirelessly to develop the trust and respect of the international cycling world in the Australian way of doing things.

"So when he approached me about this role, with the team, and started talking about the other people involved I knew our dream was finally going to come true. It took no convincing for me to join them under the banner of GreenEdge."

Barnes has already been in talks with the UCI and anti-doping experts. Meantime, Bannan is showcasing GreenEdge at the Giro d'Italia.

"It's really about visibility," Bannan told Cyclingnews. "We're here we're with the bus and networking with various organisers... Having a look at other teams and how they operate so it will be good for a number of reasons, our strategic planning also."