Orica-GreenEDGE was the major favourites for this year's edition of the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic but the biggest Australian team could only manage 4th in the overall standing with Matthew Goss. After coming away empty-handed from the final race of the series, sports director Matt Wilson is, however, satisfied with the form of his riders ahead of the Australian national championships and the Tour Down Under.

As the major Australian team, Orica-GreenEDGE found itself under huge pressure to dominate the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic whose four fast criteriums traditionally kick off the Australian cycling summer. With a roster consisting of sprinters Matthew Goss, Leigh Howard and Mitchell Docker and time trialists Michael Hepburn and Luke Durbridge, the team had by far the most horsepower in the national event.

With wins for both Goss and Durbridge, the team had already played an important role in the series when they lined up for today's final race in the series but the overall battle had not panned out in the way the team had hoped. Although Durbridge and Goss were both sitting in the top 4 within shooting distance of Zakkari Dempster's overall lead, the results had to go their way for them to clinch the overall win.

That certainly didn't happen for the Australian team in the final race in Williamstown which was won by young talent Caleb Ewan who will turn professional with the team in 2015 after riding as a stagiaire at the end of this season. In the inevitable bunch sprint, that was always expected on the fast course, Goss could only manage 5th, with lead-out man Howard finishing 7th. As a consequence, the Australian sprinter finished outside the overall podium in 4th.

The team had got the final race off to a bad start as Durbridge had been unable to take to the start line.

“Durbo woke up with a sore throat today,” sports director Matt Wilson said. “So we prioritised his Nationals preparation and decided to rest him today. It wasn’t really a day for him today anyway, but we missed his extra horsepower in controlling the race and leading out. It meant we used up our other guys early on and that only left Howard and Gossy for the final.”

The race was a pretty controlled affair where the bunch sprint was never in doubt. However, a big crash threatened to take out a number of the overall contenders but Orica-GreenEDGE escaped the carnage unscathed.

“There were a few breakaway attempts today,” Wilson said. “But none of them were too dangerous, so our guys just tried to control and keep things together for a bunch sprint for Gossy. Fortunately the guys were all well positioned at the front when the crash happened, so none of them were caught up in that.”

The sprinters were surprised by Ewan who attacked going into the final corner with 300m to go. The field never got back to the 19-year-old super talent who won a race in the series for the third year in a row.

“Howard got into position and led out Gossy in the final, but it wasn’t the ideal lead out given that there was only one rider left,” explained Wilson. “Caleb (Ewan) was clear of the bunch at that point, so he was hard to beat from that position.”

Despite missing out on the overall win, Wilson was satisfied with the outcome of the four days of racing, mainly because it has been the perfect preparation for the Australian national championships and the Tour Down Under.

“We didn’t get the result we were aiming for today, but we’re very happy with the week in general,” he added. “We came here with the aim of winning at least one stage, so we doubled our expectations. Taking out the team classification wasn’t on our radar, but we’re happy to walk away with that. It’s a bonus at the end of a successful week of racing.

“Most importantly, we are where we want to be one week out from the Nationals, which is a major goal for us,” he added. “All of our guys are obviously in great form, they’ve worked hard over the off-season and they’re exactly where we would hope they’d be ahead of the Australian summer of racing, which includes two huge objectives for our season- the Nationals and Tour Down Under.”

The Australian national championships kick off with the time trial on Wednesday, with the criterium and road race scheduled for Thursday and Sunday respectively.