ORICA-GreenEDGE race at the 18th edition of the Gran Premio Miguel Indurain on Saturday, with the clear of objective of achieving a good result in the 192kilometre one day event.

 

Paris-Nice green jersey winner Michael Matthews is looking forward to getting back to racing two weeks after an unfortunate late crash in Milan-San Remo robbed the Australian of the opportunity to contest the sprint.

 

“I can’t wait to get back racing with the team,” said Matthews. “It will be a hard race but the team is really motivated and I hope we can do well.”

 

Asian road race and time trial champion Cheung King-Lok will make his debut for ORICA-GreenEDGE in his first professional race in Europe. The 25-year old from Hong Kong is excited to get started and hopes to make a smooth transition into European racing.

 

“I know it’s a huge difference between Europe and Asia,” said King-Lok. “I hope I can adapt to the rhythm of it as soon as possible.”

 

Sports director David McPartland was clear about the plan for Saturday but reiterated that it would be a difficult race.

 

“This will be our first appearance at GP Miguel Indurain and we are going in with the aim of being successful,” explained McPartland. “Our protected riders will be Michael (Matthews) and Adam (Yates) which gives us options for the different ways which the race may play out.

 

“We know we will have some strong competition from Movistar in their home race and other teams will be bringing strong line ups. We have a motivated squad with a good balance, hopefully we can be up there in the finale.”

 

Mcpartland continued by welcoming the latest addition to the ORICA-GreenEDGE line up.

 

“We welcome our new rider Cheung (King-Lok) to the team and we all hope he settles in well and enjoys his first race.”

 

Mathew (Hayman) is making his comeback from injury after a few weeks out recovering from a broken radius whilst Amets Txurruka gives the team some local experience. Damien Howson will provide important support over the climbs that come in the second half of the race with Chris Juul Jensen and Christian Meier completing the line up for ORICA-GreenEDGE.

 

The GP Miguel Indurain is part of the UCI Europe tour and is an HC category one event, passing through the Navarre region of Northern Spain, the race includes several challenging climbs. Last years edition was won by Angel Vicioso (Team-Katusha) and this year takes place on Saturday 2nd of March.

 

ORICA-GreenEDGE at Gran Premio Miguel Indurain (2 March):

Mathew Hayman (AUS, NSW, 37)

Damien Howson (AUS, SA, 23)

Chris Juul Jensen (DEN, 26)

Cheung King-Lok (CHN, 25)

Michael Matthews (AUS, ACT, 25)

Christian Meier (CAN, 31)

Amets Txurruka (ESP, 32)

Adam Yates (GBR, 23)