Veteran Stuart O'Grady earlier today announced he will leave Team Leopard-Trek - headed by Andy Schleck and Frank Schleck - to join new Australian pro team GreenEdge.

38-year-old O'Grady joins Jack Bobridge and Cameron Meyer, and Travis Meyer as the first racers to commit to GreenEDGE, Australia's first UCI World Tour-licensed team planning to begin competing in 2012.

O'Grady has raced in the Tour de France 15 times and competed for Australia at five Olympics, peaking with a gold medal at Athens in 2004.

"I've spent quite a few years supporting the Schleck brothers (Frank and Andy) at the Tour de France and Fabian (Cancellara) in the classics and doing that job alongside Jens Voigt," O'Grady said in a statement.

"We've been like a family. It's been a privilege racing with those guys and leaving Leopard-Trek to join GreenEDGE has been the hardest decision of my career."

O'Grady said the lure of joining an Australian team was too strong to resist.

"I wasn't sure such a team would come around before I retired, but I'm glad it has,"  O'Grady stated.

"I've been racing for a long time and seen the evolution of Australian cycling from guys like Phil Anderson, Neil Stephens and Patrick Jonker to myself as part of the generation that followed and now we've got an impressive group of young riders coming through," O'Grady concluded.

Australian Cadel Evans from Leopard-Trek competitor BMC Racing Team won the 2011 Tour de France.