Goss chasing more big results with GreenEdge

GreenEdge gains the biggest individual points haul of its rider signings to date with today's announcement that Matt Goss will join the project currently bidding for a ProTour licence.

Goss, 2011 Milan-San Remo winner and only the second Australian to claim one of cycling's monuments, joins GreenEdge from the disbanding HTC-Highroad where he has grown into a world class power sprinter. From his third placing at Gent-Wevelgem and win at Paris-Brussels in 2009 at the end of his time with Saxo Bank, to 2010 where he took out the GP Ouest France – Plouay, Stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 of the Tour of Denmark and the Philadelphia International all went a long way to proving Goss was worthy of the hype. 2011 has similarly been a boon on the back of the 24-year-old's win at La Primavera with overall victory at the Jayco International criterium series, second at the Australian road championship, runner-up on general classification to Cameron Meyer at the Tour Down Under, stage wins at the Tour of Oman and Paris-Nice, and the Tour of California along with a close second to Edvald Boasson Hagen on Stage 6 of the Tour de France.

Those results from the last two seasons adds up to a value of at least 326 points – the next best of the GreenEdge signings so far being Robbie McEwen (112) and Simon Gerrans (111). It also goes some of the way to explaining why Goss will be a team leader for GreenEdge - an opportunity he is clearly relishing.

"There's going to be more pressure as a team leader but I work well with pressure," the Tasmanian said in a team press release. "It's not as if I've come from riding down the back of the bunch to all of a sudden being the protected rider.

"The reason I joined HTC-Highroad two years ago was to get a little more leadership responsibility and it's slowly increased. It's been a gradual process and I'm ready to take on more of a leadership role."

GreenEdge General Manager Shyane Bannan is also confident Goss is up to the task.

"As a 17-year-old he spearheaded the Australian team to success at the junior track world championship," he explained. "Then at just 19 he was part of Australia's World Championship winning team pursuit quartet on the track. Both of these results show that he's a born leader who's not prone to succumbing to pressure."

With GreenEdge maintaining that the Classics will be one of their key focuses in the debut season, and Goss' results over the past few years, the 24-year-old is confident that another spring of success is achievable.

"I'd like to back up with another great Milan-San Remo and learn from Baden Cooke and Stuart O'Grady at the cobblestoned classics because they have so much experience in those races," he said. Goss' performance at Paris-Roubaix was hampered by a dose of the flu.

"We'll have the right team to achieve these goals.

"We've seen O'Grady working with Fabian Cancellara for the last couple of years and how successful that's been. Now with Stuey on our team and guys like Baden Cooke, Matt Wilson and Simon Gerrans these are all guys prepared to put it all on the line for each other. It's going to make it a great team to be a part of."