The belief that a Grand Tour victory is within Esteban Chaves' grasp was shared by his Orica-GreenEdge teammates following his second place overall in this year's Giro d'Italia.
Australian teammate Damien Howson, 23, and one of the Orica-GreenEdge riders who came to the fore in his budding role as a climber to help Chaves in the Giro, said the team is "ready to go" and help their Colombian leader make that one extra step up on the podium.
"The way Esteban puts it, it is just the start and the start for all us," Howson said before Sunday's 163km stage 21 of the Giro from Cuneo to Torino won by the German Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin). "There is a Grand Tour win for Orica-GreenEdge and for Esteban."
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By the time Sunday's stage was over, Howson and all the Orica-GreenEdge team were carrying Chaves-like smiles of satisfaction for their effort that resulted in Chaves finishing second overall at 52 seconds to the Giro winner, Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). In third place overall was Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) at 1:17.
However, the significance of Chaves' result was understood well before the final stage.
"He was second in the Giro, which was a massive credit to him," Howson said. "It's also a massive credit to the team that has worked really hard for the last three weeks. It takes some serious concentration, day-in, day-out; massive amounts of effort to [help Chaves] save as much energy as possible, for him to do the finishing touches and his best result."
Watch 2016 Giro d'Italia stage 21 highlights video
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