In July 2010, businessman Gerry Ryan was at the Tour de France. Observing the national flags etched on team cars as they whizzed past, the multi-millionaire was troubled by the absence of an Australian standard. Ryan turned to friend and former national champion John Trevorrow: “Surely we should be able to put our own team together.”
Eight years later, the team conceived with that comment has made sporting history. On Sunday Mitchelton-Scott became the first Australian-registered team to win a Grand Tour, with Britain’s Simon Yates winning the Vuelta a España in Madrid. This achievement ranks alongside Cadel Evans’ 2011 Tour de France yellow jersey triumph as one of the most significant moments in Australian cycling.
Grand Tour success was at once unexpected and agonisingly delayed. When Mitchelton-Scott first raced in 2012, the team lacked a general classification contender. This was by design – team management had concluded during recruitment that they lacked the funds and roster to acquire and then support a serious challenger at one of the three Grand Tours. The plan was to begin with stage and one-day race targets and slowly grow jersey-winning prospects of their own.
But when Colombian rider Esteban Chaves finished fifth at the 2015 Vuelta, Ryan came to appreciate that his long-term aspirations were suddenly within grasp – well ahead of schedule. Chaves’s emergence coincided with the rise of Yates and his twin brother Adam, giving Mitchelton-Scott general classification options in spades.
Then came the agony. Chaves took the illustrious Giro pink jersey in 2016 with two stages remaining, only to lose it the following day to ultimate winner Vincenzo Nibali. In May Simon Yates enjoyed two weeks in the Giro leader’s jersey, earning three stage wins in the process before cracking with just three days remaining. Twice Mitchelton-Scott had seemed destined for a Grand Tour victory; twice it eluded them.
The third time would prove the charm. In Málaga at the beginning of the Vuelta, the team exuded an air of calm. When Yates took an early advantage over his rivals with an attack on stage four, he admitted “it wasn’t the plan, I got carried away”. The boy from Bury seized the red jersey on stage nine, before relinquishing it several days later in what appeared to be a tactical move. Sure enough it took him just two days to regain the lead, winning solo atop Alto Les Praeres.
A minor time loss on stage 17 notwithstanding, Simon Yates’s victory had never seemed in doubt. With brother Adam and Australian prodigy Jack Haig flanking Yates, Mitchelton-Scott replicated the Team Sky armada that has long dominated the Grand Tour circuit. In the last kilometres of Saturday’s stage 20, the team’s first victory at this rarefied level was ordained. Nearest opponent Alejandro Valverde grimaced, faltered and was swiftly out of sight – the consequence of a few seconds’ pain confirming the result of a three week race. With Sunday’s final stage little more than a ceremonial procession around Madrid, it was that moment in the mountains of Andorra that saw Ryan’s 2010 vision reach its zenith.
In cycling, success is always fleeting. Even a Grand Tour win is no guarantee of future prosperity. Since the departure of chemicals manufacturer Orica at the end of 2017, Mitchelton-Scott has lacked an external co-naming rights sponsor; Mitchelton Wines is a Ryan family company. While the team operates on a smaller budget than rivals Sky or BMC Racing, it still spends upwards of A$25 million per year. Ryan remains steadfastly committed to the team, but his generosity is not endless.
Fortunately, Mitchelton-Scott are well-placed for more wins. At 26 the Yates brothers are only now reaching their prime; Simon Yates won the Tour de France young rider’s jersey just last year. This gives the duo a physical advantage over ageing rivals Froome, Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte, all on the wrong side of 30.
Waiting behind the twins and Chaves, currently recovering from glandular fever, is a talented climbing duo. Haig and Lucas Hamilton have both been feted since emerging from the junior ranks in Australia. While general classification success may be some years off for Hamilton, Haig has enjoyed a break-out 2018 – both in his own-right and as Simon Yates’s right-hand man.
Last year I spoke with more than a dozen past and present Mitchelton-Scott associates – from physiotherapists to riders to Ryan – to better understand the team’s rapid rise. Across hours of interviews, one comment stood out.
“If or when we win a Grand Tour, I would sit back and be very proud of everyone in the organisation,” the team’s general manager Shayne Bannan reflected. “Of course it would be enjoyable at the time. But it will then be a matter of getting on with the job and looking for the next victory.”
They may have made Australian sporting history on Sunday, but for Ryan and company this is just the beginning. Mitchelton-Scott are not going anywhere. “Sport,” Bannan mused, “has no finish line.”
