This may be the most important year in the career of Matt Goss, where success or failure will determine the type of role he can expect to command in the coming seasons. Having joined Orica-GreenEDGE two years ago as the coming man, the talented Australian sprinter seemed on the cusp of stardom, but the hoped for success just hasn’t materialised. Now in the final year of his current contract with Orica, he needs some strong results to show he can continue to be viewed as one of the lead riders on a team. He is only 27 so his best years should still be ahead of him, and a stronger 2014 will ensure he gets the opportunities to make the most of his race winning talents. However if the results fail to improve he will likely see more limited role in the future, back to being a lead-out man who is sometimes given a chance to ride for himself. It’s not that Goss has been poor with Orica, while he only has two stage wins, both were good ones. Goss won a stage in the 2012 Giro and one in the 2013 Tirreno-Adriatico, where he beat a host of top riders. Aside from the two wins Goss has had a number of strong results, he had five podium finishes during the 2012 Tour de France, losing out to Mark Cavendish, Andre Greipel and Peter Sagan, and he also has three other podium finishes in the Giro in 2012 and 2013 combined. However both Goss and the team must have expected a greater return when he joined, and looking at his performances prior to that it’s easy to see why.
Goss was part of the hugely successful HTC-Highroad sprint unit during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, while Cavendish was the undoubted star, there were plenty of opportunities to go around. In 2010 Goss won one stage and was 2nd in another in the Giro, won the GP Ouest France-Plouay (a one-day Classic) as well as winning races in Philadelphia and Denmark. Things went even better in 2011, with stage wins in Paris-Nice and the Santos Tour Down Under (where he finished 2nd overall), and stage wins in both the Amgen Tour of California and Tour of Oman, all of which came against decent competition. However most impressive of all was his victory in Milan-San Remo, a Monument often known as the sprinters’ classic (though that is no longer true). That victory in Milan-San Remo may point to the problems that have plagued his career since, and to the potential solution. A very long race with a difficult run-in, it would sometimes be won from a bunch sprint as Cavendish did in 2009, when a group of around 50 riders approached the line together (hence the sprinters’ classic moniker). However that wasn’t the case in 2011, when the race broke up in the run-in. A select group of eight riders survived to contest the finish and Goss was the fastest among them, he made it over the hills and to the finish when other sprinters couldn’t. While with Orica-GreenEDGE, Goss has largely competed as a pure sprinter and it just hasn’t quite suited him. When up against the elite sprinters in peak form, he just doesn’t have the speed to take the wins, he is fast enough to be in the mix but not get the wins in that company. Yet the best win of his career came because he could outlast the other sprinters, he could survive long enough to be in a more select group, a group of climbers and all-rounders, where he became the fastest finisher. In fairness to Orica they tried to use that tactic in 2013 but Goss had various health issues and just couldn’t find the form to make it work.
So the plan in 2014 is to change up his training, alter his race schedule and manage the workload; then see what a fresher Matt Harley Goss can do. Matt White has suggested trying to emulate Peter Sagan a little, to pick the races that suit Goss and try and get him to the finish with a chance to contest for victory. It’s not that they expect Goss to suddenly win 20+ races in a season, there is only one Peter Sagan after all, but they see some stylistic similarities and hope that by being more selective with his racing program he can pick up some more marquee results. Some may look at the lack of results from the last two seasons and under-rate him, but I remember the way he raced with HTC and certainly won’t be writing him off. You can follow Matt Goss on twitter by clicking here Follow @mattgoss1986
Related articles
- Back to basics for Goss in 2014 (cyclingnews.com)
- Goss, Matthews and Gerrans headline for Orica-GreenEdge at the Santos Tour Down Under (velonation.com)
- Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic 2014 Preview (cyclingmole.com)
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