GreenEdge to know its WorldTour destiny soon, Durbridge and Hepburn signed?

Australian hopefuls rumoured to have maximum-allowed thirty riders

Australian World Tour hopefuls GreenEdge will find out on the 1st November whether its bid to enter the sport at the top level is successful. On the aforementioned date, the UCI will release the list of the first fifteen teams from the maximum eighteen spots who’ll enjoy a WorldTour licence and automatic entry to races such at the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.

The team is without a corporate sponsor at present, but rather is bankrolled by long-time supporter of Australian cycling and businessman Gerry Ryan. There has been concerns about the lack of sponsorship in recent months as HTC-Highroad had to close its doors due to lack of funds and – Leopard Trek who started this year with a similar set up to GreenEdge – are in the process of amalgamating with Team RadioShack.

Team manager Shayne Bannan spoke to the Sydney Morning Herald about these concerns saying, ”It’s a fair comment if you were starting out in the cycling industry and wanted to develop into the World Tour.”

”But this project is in effect 20 years in the making. We’ve got a lot of experienced people. We’ve gone out and specifically hand-picked guys who are already in the industry and have been for a long time. So we believe we’ve put together a team that will be competitive in the World Tour in all aspects – on the bike and off the bike.”

The team has so far confirmed 27 recruited riders with three more expected to be made public. Aidis Kruopis (Landbowkrediet) has confirmed to media he’ll be joining the team although a formal announcement is yet to be made.

Velofutur today also reported that world under 23 time trial champion Luke Durbridge and bronze medalist Michael Hepburn are expected to turn professional with GreenEdge and the team is to make a formal announcement soon.

GreenEdge has stated its aim in the first season will be to target one day races and individual stages in stage races. It comes under scrutiny for lack of general classification riders on its roster, but has always said that it would take time to build that aspect.

”Grooming a GC rider is where we are going to be at,” said Bannan. “It’s going to take two to three years to develop one. It would be unfair to contract a GC rider before we are ready for it. We have to be able to add value to their career.”

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GreenEdge so far for 2012: