The Orica GreenEDGE rider Esteban Chaves had experienced a difficult start in 2013. But this year, he had good results. He finished fourth at the Tour de Langkawi and 7th at the Amgen Tour of California. His best performance was a 3rd place overall at the Tour of Beijing with the jersey of best young rider.

"I was impressed by Esteban the whole year," the general manager Shane Bannan told Cyclingnews. "When you consider that last year he rode one race, this year was all about giving him experience and watching him develop physically. He won a stage at Tour of California and at the Tour de Suisse, his Vuelta a España experience was fairly consistent, he had a few bad days, and his performance at the Worlds was very good. As was his Tour of Beijing to finish off the season."

"I'd say that we have an athlete there that we can really develop into a GC rider. I am convinced about that. Three week racing is something special. You develop into a three week rider, so he's a development in progress."

"With Esteban, we were in no man land as we didn't know how good he was after having a year off the bike," White said. "He couldn't even shake your hand properly. He's rehab is still ongoing and people don't realise, to have a year out of racing and to have the operations that he had, to win this year was very impressive", the sporting director Matt White added.