Mid-way through his fourth season with Orica-GreenEdge, Simon Clarke sat down with the team to discuss where he sat within its plans for the future and came out of those talks deciding on a fresh start with a new team in 2016. Cannondale-Garmin was Clarke's team of choice with team CEO Jonathan Vaughters personally reaching out to the 29-year-old and offering an exciting proposal he couldn't turn down as he explained to Cyclingnews.
"I got a call from Jonathan Vaughters and he pitched an idea for me to come to the team and one, help the Ardennes group and be a part of that, and two, to act in a mentoring role with Cannondale having the youngest average age of the pro peloton," Clarke said of the reasoning behind his decision to join the American team.
"He felt like the needed someone new to help guide the young guys and also kind of help as a road captain as well. That really interests me to be able to have potentially some freedom in the Ardennes and one-day races, then on the stage stages be a bit more of a road captain and help the young guys develop as much as possible. There's some great talent in Cannondale and I believe with some good development they can become great bike riders."
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Clarke's primary objective for the 2015 season was the Giro d'Italia, his decision to swap the Tour de France for the Italian grand tour paying dividends in the first week as Orica-GreenEdge won the opening team time trial and Clarke's second placed finish on stage 4 saw him slip into the leader's maglia rosa jersey.
"It was amazing, it's every kids dream to be the centre of attention for a whole day of the race and it's only something that one leader experiences per day. It was definitely a moment I won't forget," he said of wearing the maglia rosa.
"It was my first Giro so it was pretty special and to be able to wear the leader's jersey on first attempt, win a team time trial and come second on a stage was I suppose was a dream first Giro. Looking back at the team effort, all the other teams in the race during that week were looking at us and thinking 'how can we beat these guys, they seem to be in the jersey everyday and whilst in the jersey they're either winning stages or running places everyday.'"
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