ORICA-GreenEDGE will line up at the Tour of Norway, starting this Tuesday, on the hunt for stage wins in their first appearance at the event since 2012.

In their last start, the Australian outfit walked away with a stage win courtesy of Aidis Kruopis and second overall with Simon Clarke.

This year, stage ambitions will take priority with neo-pro sprinter Caleb Ewan and the strong lead out of Adam Blythe and Mitch Docker.

“We have a strong team from the finals, especially the harder finals so that’s where we are going to focus our efforts in the beginning,” sport director Matt Wilson said.

“Caleb is in good condition and he is the guy that can win multiple stages here.

“Mitch Docker hasn’t had a lot of races with Caleb yet but is another guy that we really see working with him a lot in the future, so Mitch and Adam Blythe are a core little group for Caleb.

“Add the experience of Mat Hayman and a strong fast guy like Jens Keukeleire, and I think we have a really good team for those finals.”

The five-day Tour brings a pretty balanced program, stages three and four looking to be the most difficult on paper.

“Looking at past results it’s going to be one of those really aggressive short stage races,” Wilson said. “There is no really big deciding general classification day. There is a pretty decent climb they go over one day but that’s about it and it’s often decided by just a handful of seconds.

“We are going to focus on the stages and try to have GC in the back of our minds. If it works out, it works out, but we are not going in with it being a top priority.

“Ivan Santaromita and Jens Keukeleire, depending on what condition they are in, or even Caleb in really top form could potentially do something. It depends on how the race unfolds and obviously how good our guys are going. Quite a few of our riders are coming off the Classics and a long break so it’s hard to tell.”

ORICA-GreenEDGE at the Tour of Norway (20-24 May):

Adam Blythe
Mitch Docker
Caleb Ewan
Mathew Hayman
Jens Keukeleire
Ivan Santaromita