Matt Goss is his team's two-million dollar man - and he has begun to pay his way with a podium finish in stage two of the Tour de France. But he is under pressure to go two steps better and win Tuesday night.

"We are expecting Matt to win stage three," Orica-GreenEDGE director Matt White said after the 207km trip from Vise to Tournai in Belgium, which was predictably won by the world's best sprinter, Mark Cavendish of the British Sky team.

Watched by the King of Belgium, Goss finished third behind Germany's Andre Griepel (Lotto), a result that was both pleasing in the sense that it was the new Australian team's first significant impact in its Tour debut and slightly disappointing because he and his lead-out train all got a little lost in the hectic bunch finish.

Goss is almost certainly the highest-paid performer on the team with a contract worth about $2m a year - about double what Carlton's Chris Judd gets for being one of the three or four best footballers in the AFL - and is the man most likely to achieve the stage wins that are GreenEDGE's target.

They also hope he can win the sprinter's green jersey, which has already developed into a fiercely contested war. After leading the peloton through the intermediate sprints on each of the first two stages and with yesterday's placing, Goss is fourth in the green jersey rankings with 52 points, trailing Slovakian Peter Sagan, 78, Cavendish, 63, and yellow jersey holder Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland on 55.

There was a distinct Olympic flavour about the outcome, with Cavendish and Goss likely to start favourites for the road race in London later this month, having already quinellaed the world championship race last year.

Cavendish, who is now being referred to as Supermanx as a nod to his origins on the Isle of Man, has now won 21 stages of the Tour and is adding to his developing legend because he is doing it more or less alone this time as Sky concentrates on trying to get Brad Wiggins up in the general classification.

As newly-retired GreenEDGE star Robbie McEwen - himself a sprinting legend who won 12 stages of the tour in a stellar career - said, Cavendish's ability to handle the pressure and the doubts generated by his team's ambiguous ambitions is awesome.

But White claims he is beatable and Goss is the man to do it.

McEwen, whose role is to advise the team on tactics in the stages that are likely to produce bunch finishes, says Goss and his "train" are going well, but just need some fine-tuning.

"They got shut down a few times when they wanted to pass but that's a Tour sprint," McEwen said.

"They should be satisfied with third today and aim to do better."

Goss said he was still confident of making a major contribution.

"The team is working really well. We didn't quite get the result we wanted, but we're getting closer and closer," he said.

"It's been good to open the legs up in the intermediate sprints, but tomorrow will be tougher. If I can make it to the last climb I'll give it a crack."

Defending champion Cadel Evans, who is also on the Olympic road race team, briefly lost touch with the bunch because of mechanical issues but lost no time, remaining in eighth place, 10 seconds adrift of arch rival Wiggins.

Ron Reed
In Liege, Belgium

** Ron will provide regular updates from Le Tour for Olympics.com.au and be a key writer for the Australian Team A.S.P.I.R.E. magazine and Olympics.com.au in London. **