Peter McDonald is the inspiration for every non-GreenEDGE team rider at this weekend's Australian road cycling championships. The new Australian professional team will be a monolithic presence in the men's and women's road races on the tough circuit at Buninyong, near Ballarat.
The GreenEDGE men have a super-sized squad of 16 riders - effectively two normal-size road teams - in Sunday's 163.2km event. Their GreenEDGE-AIS female counterparts gave a sneak preview of their intentions ahead of the 102km women's race on Saturday when they dominated the national criterium title on Thursday night.
GreenEDGE have made it clear for several weeks that the first major team objective is to win the national road champion jerseys, especially in the men's race. But then there's the story of McDonald.
He was a hard-working, low profile rider in the domestic Drapac-Porsche team who found himself in the right break during the 2009 nationals road race. As usual, the field was stacked with top-level professional cycling talent and McDonald's big problem was he had esteemed company at the finish.
Columbia-Highroad team-mates Michael Rogers and Adam Hansen were McDonald's rivals in the break and the general consensus was that one of that duo, probably Rogers, would win. But McDonald somehow outsprinted the pair for the most remarkable result since the nationals were revamped in 1999.
Columbia-Highroad team manager Allan Peiper famously had a quiet word with Rogers and Hansen post-race and he warns something similar could happen again. 'There is a chance that someone like a Peter McDonald could pop up and take the crown,' said Peiper.
'They (Rogers and Hansen) messed it up, as it were, but it's a difficult situation to turn back the clock and say you should have done this or you should have done that.'As a team director at Garmin, Peiper is now on the other side of the fence heading into Sunday's race.
Garmin riders Heinrich Haussler and Nathan Haas have the credentials to win, but they are the Davids against the GreenEDGE Goliath. 'For guys who are low on (team) numbers, it's going to be difficult to control,' Peiper said.
'They're going to have to play it by ear a little bit. 'They (GreenEDGE) are in a strong position and obviously anything can happen. 'If it comes down to a sprint, with five riders or 20 riders, someone might just pop up.'
Officially, collusion is not allowed in the national titles, but inevitably riders outside GreenEDGE will make pre-race deals or form unofficial alliances as the men's and women's races unfold. GreenEDGE men's team director Matt White is acutely aware that while his riders are the favourites, they must be watchful and disciplined.
'It gets a little more complex when you have 16 guys on the start line, White said. 'But if everyone sticks to the plan, it becomes quite simple. 'It's managing 16 egos and managing the team's one goal.'
Adding to the potential for problems is that radio communication between riders and team managers is no longer allowed. So the team meeting the night before will be critical and White said the simpler the plan, the better.
White was a director at Garmin when team member Travis Meyer won in 2010 and Jack Bobridge made a stunning solo attack to take out last year's event. Meyer, his older brother Cameron and Bobridge are all now with GreenEDGE. So are Matt Goss (second last year) and Simon Gerrans (third), while team leader Stuart O'Grady also has focussed on being ready for Sunday.
Gerrans, O'Grady and perhaps Cam Meyer or Leigh Howard are the top GreenEDGE chances. White said they will have 'five or six' riders who can win the title. But there will be no 'protected' rider - a top contender with three or four team-mates who will look after him throughout the race.
The hilly nature of the 10km Buninyong circuit makes that impossible. Instead, GreenEDGE will probably try to emulate Garmin's tactics of the last two years - set a high early tempo, make sure someone with good form is in an early break and see what happens. 'If you have someone in the early break, it totally takes the pressure off the guys behind,' White said.
The other key for GreenEDGE is managing rider egos. So far, a feature of the team has been a strong team spirit and this will undergo a stern test in the weekend's high-pressure racing. I don't have to put too much pressure on the guys. They know how valuable that jersey is,' White said.
'But as long as they know the value is on one of us wearing it and not them individually, then we're in a good situation on Sunday.'