Lahcen Saber	Leader		Ivan Siric	Domestique
	Miha Poljanec	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique
	Matic Groselj	Domestique		Izidor Penko	Domestique

Race goals:

Top 20

Failure

Lahcen Saber

26th

Race score: 4/10


The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team

	Lahcen Saber	Leader		Ivan Siric	Domestique
	Miha Poljanec	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Gabriel Marin	Domestique
	Matic Groselj	Domestique		Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique

Race goals:

Top 15

Failure

Lahcen Saber

26th

Race score: 2/10


The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team

	Yevgeniy Nepomnyachsniy	Free Role		Stepan Kurianov	Domestique
	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Free Role		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Matic Groselj	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique

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team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team

Pos	Last		Team	Total	RD	PpRD	Proj
1	1		Farfetch Pro Cycling	1432	50	28,64	5012
2	26		Repsol - Netflix	1181	45	26,24	4592
3	14		Mapei	1179	40	29,48	5159
4	16		Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	1142	75	15,23	2665
5	13		Valio - Viking Genetics	1086	63	17,24	3017
6	2		Bakkafrost	1027	54	19,02	3329
7	6		Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	1015	62	16,37	2865
8	11		Duolingo	994	50	19,88	3479
9	20		Andorra Cycling Project	922	53	17,4	3045
10	21		Polar	909	56	16,23	2840
11	4		Berg Cycles	871	56	15,55	2721
12	8		Minions	864	50	17,28	3024
13	10		Podium Ambition	855	66	12,95	2266
14	3		Xero Racing	829	48	17,27	3022
15	12		Desigual	759	53	14,32	2506
16	7		GCN Racing	694	57	12,18	2132
17	9		Swisslion Cycling Team	689	60	11,48	2009
18	18		MOL	624	52	12	2100
19	17		Campari Asahi Procycling	545	52	10,48	1834
20	23		DK - SVA Zalgiris	545	50	10,9	1908
21	15		Aramco DP	543	54	10,06	1761
22	19		Adastra N Hell Energy Cycling	528	50	10,56	1848
23	24		Fablok - Chocolate Jacques	495	31	15,97	2795
24	22		Azteca - NBCSN	400	49	8,16	1428
25	25		Kraftwerk Man Machine	400	34	11,76	2058
26	5		Nordstrom - CA Technologies	384	43	8,93	1563

In the second ranking update we see Swisslion drop down the table to 17th. But on closer inspection the situation is much worse. Swisslion rank 20th in projected points scored which puts us just above the relagation line. How has it come to this?

It all started with a subpar 26th place finish from Lahcen Saber in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, little did we know that it would be the best result the Morrocan produced during the cobble heavy period. Nepomnyachsniy had his debut in Hong Kong which turned out to be a disaster, with the Kazakh not making even the top 30. Gilanipoor provided a glimmer of hope with a stage win at the Volta a Portugal, but Beltran dashed those hopes with a 31st place finish at the Pro Hallstatt Classic, closing out a miserable month of February.

Unfortunately the month of March started in a similar way to February. Saber finished 41st in Geraardsbergen and 44th in Roma Maxima, a race he podiumed in the two the previous editions. Better fortune favoured our other sprinter Kris Boeckmans in Barbados. The experienced Belgian scored a stage win and finished 3rd in GC, adding some much needed points to Swisslion's cause. An upturn of results seemed to be on the cards with Nepomnyachsniy improving his form with a 7th place in Jelajah and 10th in Pais Vasco.

Alas that momentum was first halted in Juarez, where Saber finished just 11th in GC with no stage wins. Eddy Beltran momentarily snapped out of his funk with an impressive 2nd place finish in the Apex Mountain Classic. Then Saber proceeded with his poor results on the cobbles in Le Samyn. We closed out the month of March with Beltran finishing an underwhelming 7th in Strade Bianchi, Saber not doing much in the cobbled doubleheader of E3 and Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne and both Kris Boeckmans and Hugues Mottin not delivering the results in Uppsala.

With 60 race days, a third of the season completed the outlook looks grim. Our main leaders Beltran and Saber are not scoring points in the races well suited to them. Looking at the calendar and our upcoming races we are finding it hard to see races where we can score well in. As a result of that our supporting cast simply can't carry that level of underperformance.

It is going to be a long hard season regardless, but we sincerely hope our fortunes change and we find a way to retain our PCT status.

Kris Boeckmans		Swisslion Cycling Team	264
Eduard Alexander Beltran		Swisslion Cycling Team	161
Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy		Swisslion Cycling Team	86
Abolfazl Gilanipoor		Swisslion Cycling Team	78
Lahcen Saber		Swisslion Cycling Team	76
Aberlardo Ablenado		Swisslion Cycling Team	10
Tyron Giogieri		Swisslion Cycling Team	10
Hugues Mottin		Swisslion Cycling Team	2
Izidor Penko		Swisslion Cycling Team	1
Michael Christodoulos		Swisslion Cycling Team	1

Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Swisslion Cycling Team

	Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	Free Role		Hugues Mottin	Domestique
	Aberlardo Ablenado	Free Role		Izidor Penko	Domestique
	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Free Role		Matija Mestric	Domestique
	Miha Poljanec	Free Role		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique

Race goals:

Top 35 GC	Success	Aberlardo Ablenado	23rd
Top 35 GC	Success	Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	30th
Top 3 Stage	Failure	Hugues Mottin	5th (Stage 5)

Race score: 4/10


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team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team

	Kris Boeckmans	Sprinter		Tyron Giogieri	Free Role
	Gabriel Marin	Leadout		Hugues Mottin	Domestique
	Dusan Rajovic	Domestique		Izidor Penko	Domestique
	Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique		Yuriy Natarov	Domestique

The race preview is brought to you by Sijaj,
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	Lahcen Saber	Leader		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Dusan Rajovic	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique
	Matic Groselj	Domestique		Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique
	Stepan Kurianov	Domestique		Yuriy Natarov	Domestique

Coming off a bad end of the month in March the Swisslion boys made their way to the Baltic countries in Northern Europe. It was to be the last chance for Lahcen Saber to achieve a meaningful result in a stage race. With a strong startlist of sprinters at the race, Lahcen was mainly supported by flat riders like Kurianov, Groselj and Antonijevic. But before the sprinting commenced there was a short prologue with cobbles in Tallinn. Saber got himself off to a good start losing only 5'' to the winner, with loanee Stavrakakis and Groselj also producing a good time to take 2nd and 3rd place in the U25 classification. Stage 2 in St. Petersburg was a missed opportunity. Saber got his positioning all wrong in the final kilometres and could not participate in the sprint, finishing only 15th. Without any bonus seconds the Morrocan tumbled down the standings and there was an ominous feeling around the Swisslion camp of "here we go again". Swisslion did their part in chasing down the breakaway on stage 3 and were rewarded in the end. Saber learned from his previous mistake to finish 7th on the day. That put him back up to 9th in GC.




Stage 4 was raced in Stockholm, Sweden. Swisslion again committed riders towards catching the breakaway. The catch was made with 16 km to go, it was again Saber's job to navigate himself into a good sprinting position. Starting quite a ways back at first, he managed to work his way onto Gaviria's wheel on the left side of the road. It was down to power in the legs at that point, as the sprinters hit the wind 800 m from the finish line. It was a powerful sprint by Saber, for a while looking like it will be the Morrocan's 1st win of the season, but it came down to a bike throw in the end and Guarnieri was just a cm in front. The result elevated Saber to 3rd place in GC.




The final stage was held in Vilnius with a more undulating course than the previous days. Not as much work was done by Swisslion at the front with the focus on keeping Saber up front and upright heading into the stage's finale. In contrast to previous days the team did a very good job of bringing Saber to the front positions with 3 km to go. With the road turning uphill over the final 1.5 km Saber did an excellent job preserving his power and slowly moving forward as the road opened up. The Swisslion sprinter couldn't quite reach the absolute front in time as a very powerful Gaviria took the win and a better positioned Manninen held on to 2nd place. But the 3rd place finish meant Saber climbed up to 2nd place in GC. It was finally the result everyone was waiting for. As an extra bonus Stavrakakis and Groselj maintained their spots in the U25 classification. We caught up with the Morrocan after the race.




Saber: I'm just so, so happy to finally help this team! My season has been a nightmare and it has been something very hard to deal with, myself and the team. I hope we can all push forward from here on out. We have to keep fighting and we can't give up!


Race goals:

Top 10 GC

Success

Lahcen Saber

2nd

Race score: 10/10


The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team

Congrats! Finally a great result - hopefully a sign of more to come!

Thanks

Too bad Saber has already used most of his race days. Hopefully he still has one or two performances like this left in him.

At least he showed up - unlike one Georg Preidler

Beltran vs Preidler. Who will be worse?

Think that's a better GC result than Saber ever managed for us I think Better late than never!

I think he may have done some other things that he never did for you this season. Unfortunately just most of them on the other side of the spectrum

	Yevgeniy Nepomnyachsniy	Free Role		Stepan Kurianov	Domestique
	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Free Role		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Matic Groselj	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique

Race goals:

Top 35 GC	Success	Yevgeniy Nepomnyachsniy	18th
Top 35 GC	Success	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	31st
Stage win(s)/KOM	Failure	No one worth a mention

Race score: 5/10


The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team

	Kris Boeckmans	Sprinter		Aberlardo Ablenado	Free Role
	Dusan Rajovic	Leadout		Tyron Giogieri	Free Role
	Matic Groselj	Domestique		Matija Mestric	Domestique
	Goran Antonijevic	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique

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At least I did something right for a change by sending Preidler to Cyprus - shame that we won't see the battle of underachievers between Preidler and Beltran

But I've brought Kristoff to the party so he will duke it out with Boeckmans instead of his usual running mate in Saber

I think looking at the startlist I made the right decision keeping Beltran at home

Let's see if either Kristoff or Boeckmans show up this time.

	Kris Boeckmans	Sprinter		Tyron Giogieri	Free Role
	Gabriel Marin	Leadout		Hugues Mottin	Domestique
	Dusan Rajovic	Domestique		Izidor Penko	Domestique
	Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique		Yuriy Natarov	Domestique

Race goals:

Top 35 GC	Success	Tyron Giogieri	21st
Top 3 Stage	Failure	Kris Boeckmans	6th (Stage 1)

Race score: 5/10


The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team

	Eduard Alexander Beltran	Leader		Gabriel Marin	Domestique
	Tyron Giogieri	Domestique		Dusan Rajovic	Domestique
	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Izidor Penko	Domestique		Georgius Stavrakakis	Domestique

The race preview is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team

	Kris Boeckmans	Leader		Izidor Penko	Domestique
	Gabriel Marin	Domestique		Dusan Rajovic	Domestique
	Miha Poljanec	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique
	Matic Groselj	Domestique		Hugues Mottin	Domestique

The race preview is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team