Summary: After a hard spring classics season that came out with 2 runner up places and a defense of his Liege Bastogne Liege title, Dan Martin is in Italy for the 2014 Giro d'Italia, where he leads Garmin - Sharp.

Early on, after the stop in Martin's home nation of Ireland. Purito showed his domination over Valverde and Nibali. But on several occasions Dan has been right there with them, most notably his duel with them on Stage 8. After 2 weeks he sits securely in 4th overall, still lacking a stage win. But his previous recovery problems have been noted, and with the monstrous final week still to come, it could go either week for the Irishman and his team.

Summary: Act 8: Resurrection is the flavor of May. It all began with the Tour Down Under (Santos, Part I-VI) before moving through some other early season races (El Toro - Blanca). Tirreno-Adriatico marked the first big test of his return (Coastal, Part I-IV). Teaming up with Wilco they tackled the best of Italy and the result? Well you'll have to read the story to find out.

Most recently it was time for the Flanders Classics. Tough competition, tough roads and tough weather. E3 was first (Four, Part I) and he finished... Gent-Wevelgem was second (Four, Part II) and he finished... Ronde van Vlaandern was third (Four, Part III) and he finished... Lastly the story reaches a major milestone... Scene number 200!! Paris-Roubaix takes center stage and an epic battle ensues on the roads of Northern France (#200).

Summary: In a world where Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen are retired, the people need a new hero to look up to. Matthias Vleminckx looks like the prime suspect to fill these shoes.

After a thriller of a World Championship, the 26 year old hard rider from Oost-Vlaanderen will wear the rainbow stripes for a whole year.

Matthias Vleminckx is into his 6th season as a professional cyclist and he already has a chance at breaking some records. In an exceptional tale of an exceptional rider, things are certainly looking up for the World Champion!

Summary: The Team are currently battling it out in Malaysia at the Tour De Langkawi not only against the other riders but against the dreaded computer Angry. After eight stages the team are holding 2nd and 3rd on the GC. Prior to this they had a reasonable performance in Oman where Serebryakov triumphed on stage 2 and El Fares finished a creditable 7th Overall. Langkawi will then bring February to an end and then we go on to Taiwan, Croatia, France and New Zealand when we enter March in what will be the teams shortest racing Month.

Summary: After the story was selected as NSoTM two months ago and finished second in SoTM last month, the story made quite big progress. Ardennes (and classic season generally) are now finished with some great results for us such as surprising Cancellara's win on AGR after an early attack and constantly having more than one guy in Top 10 in both FW (two of them) and LBL (three of them). We're currently in the middle of Romandie, where we're trying to keep the great form before Giro with some great results from both Kiserlovski and almighty Spartacus.

The story, however, is currently on a short pause due to lack of free time and motivation, but it will be back soon! Be sure in that!

Summary: Simphiwe Kanelo's story is not that of a regular cyclist. Born and raised in a poor family in South Africa, he had to fight his way up from the very bottom. Working night shifts to free up as much time as possible for training, results were hard to come by. He was gradually improving, until one day, he was signed by MTN. That's how it all began.

After steady results with a few wins in his first two seasons as pro, he joined Lotto for the 2014 season. In his first race with the team, the Tropicale Amissa Bongo, he dominated like never before, taking the GC, the points jersey and the white jersey, as well as four stages. After that, he continued on to South Africa, for the nationals, where he managed to grab both jerseys, due to being one of the only big names there. In the followin Tour of Oman he showed his worth as domestique, helping Gallopin on to the overall podium.

Summary: My name is Alan Greencastle. Just over a month ago I was unemployed, but then I won the lottery and decided to start a cycling team with three veterans left unemployed after the Euskaltel-collaps and a bunch of youngster also without jobs. In collaboration with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) we have started a journey that through 2014 hopefully will get us all a job for 2015 as well even though this team will disband at the end of the year.

The youngsters will all get to ride their chances in their "home races" while the veterans will mainly be working as capitains de routes and trainers. This is the story of a DS and his riders all hoping to make it in pro cycling.

Atlantius wrote:
A regular head-to-head for new story here. Gonna be exiting

The Team are currently battling it out in Malaysia at the Tour De Langkawi not only against the other riders but against the dreaded computer Angry

SSJ2Luigi wrote:
I like that the emoticons are fully written