Lahcen Saber	Leader		Stepan Kurianov	Domestique
	Miha Poljanec	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique
	Matic Groselj	Domestique

	Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	Leader		Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Domestique
	Aberlardo Ablenado	Domestique		Hugues Mottin	Free Role
	Tyron Giogieri	Domestique		Yuriy Natarov	Domestique

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I guess there's more pressure on the other leaders to produce results than you would've been expecting at the start of the season. Guess you will be busy in March and this month will be a great indicator of where the team stands. Roma and Jelajah are great opportunities to get started on the right foot. Hope you get some good results under your belt going ahead

Recent results werent too kind to you - hopefully the next batch of races will deliver again

We need results and we need them big time!

If this season is anything to go by so far. Then we cannot rely on Beltran saving us this time around. So we need need the other guys to step up. Boeckmans looks like he's doing his absolute best, but we need others to do the same!

Especially a certain Moroccan that you're very familiar with



What gave it away, was it all the Failure texts in the HQ?

We're not quite doomed yet, so let's see how we do

Hate how badly the game is treating Saber this season! Hopefully, he starts getting those results soon.

That and the fact that those labels were completely justified

Hard to even use the word doomed when you have a rider capable of getting multiple huge results on every level available to you that can quickly return to his 2019 level of quality and its just February

How?

Will MAL go on strike?!

Will landslides this year make hill stages more difficult?

I'd do anything to get just a glimmer 2019 Beltran back

I dont think a single PT rider will make or break your season

If im not mistaken, Beltrans schedule so far consisted of high value mo/hi races in pthc that were obviously targetted by lots of big names. So basically high risk /high reward races that were very disappointing for you and a single proper hilly race in Gisborne that went pretty much okay although not spectacular for you. considering that the bread and butter races of his schedule propably are mostly hilly races in HC plus some hybrid races against weaker opponents (?) the disappointments so far are probably not so good indicators for the rest of the season

	Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	Leader		Izidor Penko	Domestique
	Aberlardo Ablenado	Domestique		Matic Groselj	Domestique
	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Domestique		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Hugues Mottin	Domestique		Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique

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	Lahcen Saber	Leader		Stepan Kurianov	Domestique
	Miha Poljanec	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique
	Matic Groselj	Domestique

Race goals:

Top 10

Failure

Lahcen Saber

44th

Race score: 1/10


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	Lahcen Saber	Leader		Stepan Kurianov	Domestique
	Gabriel Marin	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Dusan Rajovic	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Yuriy Natarov	Domestique

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Ouch.

Ouch indeed. It hurts quite a bit

But some better news are on the way

	Kris Boeckmans	Leader		Dusan Rajovic	Domestique
	Gabriel Marin	Domestique		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Izidor Penko	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique

Swisslion travelled to Barbados on the back of some very bad results. With that came a lot of pressure on team leader Kris Boeckmans and a cast of young riders there to support him. Only a 6 man squad was allowed to participate in the sprinters stage race, due to a number of other races overlapping. But all of that adversity didn't seem to matter to the experienced Belgian sprinter. He came into this race as one of the dark horses, but quickly got up and running on the opening stage. The sprinters split the field in final metres of the race and Boeckmans was able to hold the wheel and then jump past quite a few to finish on 3rd place.




Seemingly taking confidence from the 1st stage result, Boeckmans further improved on stage 2. Taking the wheel behind Ivano Lo Cicero who had a strong leadout with two teammates infront of him proved to be an inspired decision. The MOL led sprint train brought him well into the final kilometer from where Boeckmans was the strongest, to take an impressive stage win, as well as the lead in the overall. The following two stages didn't go as well as the previous. A 14th place finish on stage 3 and an 8th place finish on stage 4 meant Boeckmans dropped down to 3rd overall as well as 3rd in the points classification. Despite that the race was a huge success for Swisslion. The general manager, staff and riders all hope it will be a spring board to further success this season.




Race goals:

Top 10 GC

Success

Kris Boeckmans

3rd

Race score: 10/10


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Very nice to see Boeckmans deliver (again) after some disappointing results! I hope for you your other riders take an example and score some points as well, before the real Beltran show begins in the C1 and HC hills

Finally some relief for you. Great result by Boekmanns in a race where i didnt really expect you to get such a good outcome. Much needed success to get back on track. Congrats!

Boeckmans has been outstanding for us, I'm still surprised we were able to get him in free agency for a very decent wage



I always thought Kris had the capacity to upset some of the top guys in a race like that, but he did even better than I hoped

He's been a shining light in an otherwise dull season.

	Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	Leader		Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Domestique
	Aberlardo Ablenado	Domestique		Hugues Mottin	Free Role
	Tyron Giogieri	Domestique		Yuriy Natarov	Domestique

Swisslion decided to participate in the Jelajah SKL stage race for the 2nd year in a row. Last year it was a dissapointing race for the team, but they came back this year with a slightly different, but better thought-out plan. Said plan was mostly built around the timetrialing and climbing ability of Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy who would be the team's leader. It wasn't a very exciting race in terms of stage results or attacking riding. That simply isn't Yevgeni's style. But he minimised his losses on the two road stages and performed admirably in both of the TT stages. That all together yielded a very solid 7th place in the general classification. The downside to this race was the performance of Hugues Mottin who targeted the prologue and epilogue in search of a stage result, but failing mightily on both attempts.




Race goals:

Top 10 GC

Success

Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy

7th

Race score: 7/10


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	Eduard Alexander Beltran	Leader		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Aberlardo Ablenado	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique
	Tyron Giogieri	Domestique		Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique
	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Domestique		Yuriy Natarov	Domestique

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	Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	Leader		Izidor Penko	Domestique
	Aberlardo Ablenado	Domestique		Matic Groselj	Domestique
	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Domestique		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Hugues Mottin	Domestique		Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique

Vuelta al Pais Vasco is one of the most challenging stage races on the calendar and it showed right away on the stage 1 TTT. Swisslion were one of the contenders for a top 5 result, but a bad day saw them finish only 10th. The underperformance continued on stages 3 and 4. Both Nepomnyachsniy and Gilanipoor lost 3 minutes on stage 3 and Yevgeni did not capitalize on his timetrialing prowess on the following stage. With no breakaway attempts on stage 5 and consistently shipping time across all the stages, it looked to be a very underwhelming performance for Swisslion.

But all of that changed on the final stage. It proved to be a very selective stage with many riders suffering, but the Swisslion riders had saved their best day for last. With many riders dropping, Nepomnyachsniy, Gilanipoor and Ablenado were all still up the front at the final part of the stage. As the race blew up on the final climb to Arrate, both Nepomnyachsniy and Gilanipoor managed to limit their losses far better than most. As a result they finished 10th and 12th on GC respectively. Which proved to be fantastic results!




Race goals:

Top 15 GC	Success	Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	10th
Top 15 GC	Success	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	12th
Top 3 Stage/KOM	Failure	Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	10th (Stage 6)

Race score: 8/10


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