Sitting in a plush hotel lobby in sunny southern Spain, Matt White is unusually calm. The head sports director of World Tour cycling team Mitchelton-Scott is ordinarily a frenetic ball of energy on race day, finalising logistics, plotting team tactics and counselling his riders on their duties for the stage ahead. But during the 2018 Vuelta a España, which began on Saturday, White appears downright relaxed. Indeed when he sits down for an interview with Guardian Australia, it is rugby, not cycling, that is at the forefront of his mind – having just watched Australia’s latest loss to the All Blacks.
This atypical serenity is partly because, after guiding Mitchelton-Scott through the gruelling Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, the 44-year-old Australian is taking a well-deserved break. He is in Spain to mentor another sports director, rather than being in the hot-seat himself. But it is also because, unlike many other teams at the Vuelta, Mitchelton-Scott’s season does not depend on a strong finale. “We are three wins away from this being our most successful season,” he says, having finished his dissection of the Wallabies. “And we still have two months left.”
There is every chance that the weeks ahead will bring more success. After a break-out Giro, where he won three stages and wore the pink jersey for 13 stages, Britain’s Simon Yates is among the favourites for the Tour of Spain. With Team Sky’s Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas absent, Richie Porte’s fitness uncertain and Vincenzo Nibali reportedly focusing on the world championships, Yates has a golden opportunity to seize his – and Mitchelton-Scott’s – first Grand Tour.
“It is an open Vuelta,” says White. “We want to win it.” Twenty-six-year-old Yates is in good form after a recent Tour de Pologne stage win, and came to Spain backed by a strong squad – including his twin brother Adam. “Simon has really stamped his name this year as one of the best riders in the world. He’s just one step away from arriving on the podium.”
White’s 2018 has not been entirely smooth-sailing, though. Mitchelton-Scott drew heavy criticism when they omitted prodigious young Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan from their Tour de France roster, despite having foreshadowed his debut at the race six months prior. Ewan complained on Twitter that “devastated is an understatement” and the non-selection seemingly hastened his decision to move elsewhere; the 24-year-old subsequently signed with Lotto–Soudal for 2019.
“I haven’t spoken to Caleb since I rang him and told him he wasn’t doing the Tour de France,” says White, when asked if bad blood lingered. “Our race calendars have not coincided. People try to make a big deal about it but at the end of the day this is professional sport, this is business. People make decisions about changing the roster, about tactics. You don’t see people complaining in football codes when they get left on the bench.”
Ewan was omitted to enable Mitchelton-Scott to focus on Adam Yates’ yellow jersey campaign in France, which ultimately faltered. “It’s hard to support for both general classification and sprints,” White explains. But his preferencing of an Englishman over a Sydneysider attracted the ire of some commentators, who claimed the Australian-registered team had lost its much-lauded “Australian DNA”.
White is visibly bothered by the suggestion. “No, I don’t think that is a fair criticism,” he replies. “If you look at the breakdown of the team: in 2012 we had 30 riders and 17 Australians, now we have 25 and 11. The difference now is that some of our leaders aren’t Australian. The Australian DNA has always been the same.” The sports director cites FC Barcelona. “They have Catalans in the team and they represent Catalonia, but Leo Messi is Argentinian. Does it matter? You are following us because of who we are and what we stand for, not because of how many Australians we have in the line-up. It is frustrating when you see how we’re judged.”
These, ultimately, are minor gripes. It is just seven years since Mitchelton-Scott began from scratch and, in that time, they have finished on the podium at two Grand Tours, claimed four of the five one-day monuments and won a handful of iconic week-long races. Having recently resigned the Yates brothers and with Esteban Chaves still under contract, White has a plethora of general classification options at his disposal, while young Australian talents Jack Haig, Robert Power and Lucas Hamilton wait in the wings. The Mitchelton-Scott women’s team, meanwhile, goes from strength to strength and this year won the iconic Giro Rosa.
“We are one of the best teams in the world,” White says. “We are competitive everywhere we go. We are knocking on the door of a Grand Tour victory, and I am confident that we can win one soon. If I walked away tomorrow I would be very proud – but there’s unfinished business.”
