Lahcen Saber	Leader		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique
	Stepan Kurianov	Domestique		Yuriy Natarov	Domestique

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

	Eduard Alexander Beltran	Leader		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Matic Groselj	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique
	Stepan Kurianov	Domestique		Dusan Rajovic	Domestique

The race preview 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

The Swisslion team did not travel to Cyprus with a notion to defend the GC from last year. A different year, different race status, parcours and starlist made this a different race. But the goal was to repeat one of last year's achievements in scoring a stage win. This time with sprinter Kris Boeckmans targeting the opening two stages. Boeckmans came close in the opening stage. Matic Groselj put in him in a favourable position behind race favourite Ben Swift, who proved strongest as Boeckmans finished 3rd. On stage 2 the duo of Groselj and Boeckmans kicked it up a notch, with the young Slovenian leading Boeckmans away from the pack. A cat and mouse game between Boeckmans and Orken with under 1 km to go proved costly as Maksimov took advantage and Boeckmans finished 2nd. A dissapointing performance given his position.

Then it was on to the mountains and there is where the race really turned sour for Swisslion. Both Giogieri and Ablenado lost copious amounts of time on the mountain stage and continued the same trend on the hilly stage. Both finished outside the scoring positions. That meaning that the only scorer in the race was Kris Boeckmans. Despite not getting a stage victory, the Belgians consistent performance gave him 3rd place in the points classification which underlined his good performance in Cyprus.




Race goals:

Top 35 GC	Failure	Tyron Giogieri	58th
Top 35 GC	Failure	Aberlardo Ablenado	90th
Stage win(s)	Failure	Kris Boeckmans	3rd, 2nd (Stage 1, Stage 2)

Race score: 6/10


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

Nice to see that Boeckmans delivered somewhat for you recently with his performance in Cyprus but it seems to me that the last few results went even worse than the start of the season. Really hope you can turn it around soon!

Your feeling is not wrong. Apart from the Baltic Chain Tour the entire month of April has been below par. 32nd by Beltran in Wallonie was the final nail in the coffin.

That 32nd place in Wallonie was super tough to read. For most of the earlier disappointments i figured that the races just didnt suit Beltran too much. Like he raced mountainous classics in PTHC and then a place around 10th is perfectly fine even if he did better in the previous year which might have raised your expectations too much. But that 32nd place came in a hilly race that was won by Kwiatek which seemed like a direct insult to you. I felt pretty hurt by that as a fan of most of those mo/hi hybrids and Beltran in particular :'

I think riders like Beltran are now overrated. Most races that are dubbed as MO/HI are either mostly MO or have TTs that make them less favourable. MAL and Kwiatkowski are obviously 2 riders that can do it all vs Beltran who can't TT and has below average backups. That said it's hard to explain being so bad in just a hilly race, because so many worse riders finished much better.

I have obviously made mistakes, not sure where exactly, but it seems pretty impossible to find races for a rider like that. At least he should be somewhat cheaper come renewals and maybe someone will find a way to use him better.

	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

Race goals:

Top 10

Failure

Eduard Alexander Beltran

32nd

Race score: 1/10

The race report 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

Race goals:

Top 10

Failure

Kris Boeckmans

17th

Race score: 2/10


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

	Lahcen Saber	Leader		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique
	Stepan Kurianov	Domestique		Yuriy Natarov	Domestique

With one part of the flat classics team at Veenendaal, Swisslion sent a slightly altered lineup to Lisbon. The team was lead by Lahcen Saber. As one of the best sprinters on the startlist, Swisslion did their part early on to control the breakaway. As the race entered the hillier finale, leader Lahcen Saber lost contact with the main group. He eventually made it back to the front, but the dropping and getting back resumed for a while, until we got a clear group 1 and group 2 with 20 km to go. Saber was in group 2. Mestric was the man there to help Saber back to the front. But Travis Meyer took advantage of the situation to break away to win solo. With the other podium spots in danger Saber took it upon himself with a late attack. But it was never to be as the Morrocan couldn't do better than 5th on the day.




Race goals:

Top 5

Success

Lahcen Saber

5th

Race score: 6/10


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

Good to see Saber improving recently. Now to hope that Beltran gets inspired as well

Well, at least Saber finally produces some nice results - shame that this can't be said about mine as Kristoff is decent, but inconsistent, while Preidler is busy walking out on us than providing results. I think your chances to avoid relagation are significantly higher than mine.

Maybe Saber has realised he needs to improve if he wants to get paid, but Beltran is still sitting on that cool million from last season

Considering how great Beltran was last season, it's indeed not going great so far. Hopefully, Saber's run is a sign of more good things to come and you won't have too many worries with regards to the rankings

	Hugues Mottin	Free Role		Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	Free Role
	Izidor Penko	Free Role

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

Thanks for the kind words, but I think the next ranking update will show that this is season is a lost cause.

	Eduard Alexander Beltran	Leader		Matic Groselj	Domestique
	Izidor Penko	Domestique		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Dusan Rajovic	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique

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

	Eduard Alexander Beltran	Leader		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Matic Groselj	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique
	Stepan Kurianov	Domestique		Dusan Rajovic	Domestique

This was Swisslion's first invitation to the famous Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands. The team's main aim here was to give their young riders some experience on the top level in of the biggest races on the calendar. In addition they came with their hilly leader Eduard Beltran, who having a horrid season so far, was looking to recover some form after placing only 32nd a few days ago in GP Wallonie.
Heading into the final parts of the race it looked to be a repeat performance, but Beltran along with some other favourites was able to regain his position after missing the initial move. The Colombian then managed to stay at the front group of 9 riders until the Cauberg finish. There he simply ran out of energy to finish 8th in the end. An improved performance that will hopefully drum up some interest in a rider, who looks to be riding his last year at Swisslion.




Race goals:

Have fun

Success

Eduard Alexander Beltran

8th

Race score: N/A


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

@Croatia14 there must be a mistake. Dusan Rajovic should have much more points for cobblestone



@redordead good luck with your team I'm glad that someone has the same mission as I had.

Thanks for the kind words

I guess I sort of took your place in MG as far as developing Balkan riders But I'm gonna have to probably let a few go, as I drop back to CT