Orica GreenEDGE is an Australian professional road racing team. Founded in January 2011 in Adelaide, South Australia, home to the Tour Down Under, the team made its racing debut one year later. January 2012 was a successful month for the team, with Simon Gerrans winning the Australian National Road Race Championships, and Luke Durbridge winning the Australian National Time Trial Championship. The victories continued with Gerran’s overall win at the Tour Down Under, the team’s first World Tour victory, followed shortly after by his win at Milan-San Remo, the team’s first Classics win.
A constant factor in the success of Orica GreenEDGE has been the team’s Scott bikes. Supplying the team with bicycles since inception, team riders have provided invaluable feedback to the company for the development of current and future bikes. We featured the 2016 Scott Foil of IAM Cycling’s Aleksejs Saramotins earlier, but the bike seen before you is the superceded 2015 Foil. Arguably not as aerodynamic, this 2015 variant is ridden by Mathew Hayman, one of the most respected domestiques in the professional peloton. Click to read more about Mathew Hayman’s Scott Foil…
Shimano is the groupset supplier of Orica GreenEDGE. Like the other fourteen Shimano equipped teams in attendance at the 2016 Tour Down Under, all of the team’s bikes are fitted with Shimano’s race proven Dura-Ace Di2 electronic shifting system.
Power meters are virtually standard equipment on every professional bike nowadays, and SRM supplies the team with their venerable crank-based measurement system. Unfortunately, Mathew’s SRM head unit wasn’t installed when these photographs were taken, so we don’t know if he is using the superseded Version 7, or the latest Version 8.
Being an all Shimano team, it is no surprise to see Orica GreenEDGE riding the company’s wheelsets. While the team has the entire arsenal of Shimano wheels at their disposal, the overwhelming favorite among the riders was the C50 tubular model.
Another overwhelmingly popular item among WorldTour teams is Continental’s Competition tire, in the professional-only PRO LTD version – 25mm width. Tread compound and casing construction are identical to the consumer version, but inside is where the difference lies. Rather than a butyl inner tube, Continental lightens the PRO LTD up with a latex inner tube.
The superceded Scott Foil forgoes proprietary stems or complex cable routing systems inside the handlebars.
Shimano’s Pro Vibe series stem was a popular choice among Orica GreenEDGE riders. Green and gold finishing tape signifies the team’s roots, and in the case of Mathew Hayman, his country of origin.
While brake and derailleur cables are fully internalized on the older Foil, brakes are kept external, a feature appreciated by professional and home mechanics alike.
Mathew sits atop a Fizik Antares saddle, attached to the Foil’s aerodynamic carbon seatpost.
While the superceded Foil may lack the latest aerodynamic enhancements of the 2016 version, there are still plenty of innovative features such as the chainstays, whose design differs on each side of the bike.
Bottles are held in place by Elite’s Mio Sior cages, constructed from a durable fiberglass reinforced nylon compound to withstand the rigors of professional racing.
At 6’3″ tall, Matt Hayman is among the taller gentlemen in the professional peloton. Consequently, Matt has plenty of exposed seatpost and a sizable saddle to handlebar drop.
Mathew Hayman’s bike is easy to spot among the ensemble of Orica GreenEDGE Scott Foil team bikes!
The 2016 Tour Down Under has been run and won, with Simon Gerrans of Orica GreenEDGE taking overall victory. Mathew Hayman played an instrumental part in that win; watch for him at future races, cutting a swath at the head of the peloton.
Photos and article by Gravel Cyclist.
Jayson O’Mahoney is the Gravel Cyclist: A website about the Gravel Cycling Experience.
