ORICA-GreenEDGE believed they had a realistic shot at a top ten finish on the Isla d’Ischia team time trial at the Giro d’Italia on Sunday.

While the team time trial discipline is typically a strength of the Australian outfit, the stage two Giro d’Italia course featured undulating roads, one steep climb and constant turns, favouring a team of climbers rather than time trial specialists as witnessed by the good showings of teams such as Astana and Lampre-Merida. As the penultimate team to leave the start house, ORICA-GreenEDGE slotted into ninth in Forio after applying a new strategy for the stage.

“We tried out some new tactics today,” explained Sport Director Neil Stephens on the team website. “With the experimenting, I would say it’s a good result. I expected us to finish somewhere between fifth and tenth. We were in that range. We’ll look at the positives and negatives today [Sunday] and determine where we can improve.”

The technical course featured challenges throughout the 17.4 km route, with more hills in the first half of the stage. Stephens asked the team to use up three riders during this part of the effort, saving six riders for the second half of the race.

“We came up with a different idea today and full credit to the guys for accepting the plan,” Stephens continued. “They didn’t really want to experiment with a Giro stage, but we did it and it was good. We learn from trying out something new.”

Brett Lancaster, Jens Mouris and Svein Tuft traded pulls during their first eight kilometres. Work completed, the trio fell off pace in the second half of the race, leaving Luke Durbridge, Pieter Weening, Christian Meier, Jens Keukeleire, Matt Goss and Leigh Howard to take the team home.

“The idea was that we would use up our big powerhouses early and keep some of the other guys fresh for the last part of the course,” said Stephens. “This would work on some courses, and on others, it might not. We were searching for a way to try to get the most out of our stronger guys. All our riders are on good form, but there’s a bit of a difference in power when it comes to efforts like this.”

ORICA-GreenEDGE crossed the line in 22:33, 28” down on stage winners Team Sky.