After his stage win at the Tirreno-Adriatico Matt Goss was swift to heap praise on his teammates and revealed that he never felt any pressure from his team or the media.

“The pressure doesn’t generally come from the team or the media,” he said. “It comes from me. I thought today was a good opportunity but tomorrow was probably a better one. Still, when you have a team helping you, there will always be pressure at the finish to repay their work.”

Goss credits his teammates with following the pre-race plan to perfectly position him for the win.

“We had specific markers,” explained Goss. “We wanted to come to the front at 1.8 km before we went over an overpass. After the overpass, there was a right hand turn. It was the last corner at one kilometre to go. We knew if we weren’t in the top ten around that corner, we’d have no chance to win the race.”

ORICA-GreenEDGE had four riders in the top ten around the final corner.

“From there, it didn’t matter how fast you were or how many teammates you had to help,” explained Goss. “Everyone is sprinting at the point, and it is vital to be at the front. We were there, and it set me up for the win. Big thanks to the team, especially to Lancaster and Docker, for helping me out today. It was a complete team effort.”

Goss sees his stage win as only the beginning.

“We have a strong team here,” he said. “It’s not a team only suited to the sprints. We have guys that can go well in the time trial on the last day and guys that are targeting other stages later in the race. We got the win out of the way nice and early, and hopefully it sets the tone for the rest of the week.”