Eduard Alexander Beltran	Leader		Izidor Penko	Domestique
	Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	Domestique		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Tyron Giogieri	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Gabriel Marin	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique

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

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

After having raced here in 2018, Swisslion came back to the race with the 2018 winner Hugues Mottin as their man to deliver a big result. Mottin started well on day 1 and was holding a good time on the first time check, but his legs eventually betrayed him. Going hard on the first section was a mistake as he lost a lot of time until the end to finish only 15th, 1'31'' down on the leading time.
The Frenchman was in better condition on day 2, looking to make up some time after a disappointing performance the day before. He was again fast in the first section, this time carrying that speed a lot further. He slowed a bit in the last section, but still came in fast enough to take the hot seat. The improved performance eventually lead him to 7th place on the day and 10th overall. Leaving him and the team to rue the missed chance at a great result, due to a poor day 1. Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy also had a below average day 1 and only managed to finish 17th overall.




Race goals:

Top 10	Success	Hugues Mottin	10th
Top 15	Failure	Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	17th

Race score: 6/10


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

Mottin finally somewhat showing up is good news! Nepo, though...

Scandinavia is pretty much a "must win" for Beltran; the prologue should really favor him over the pure puncheurs, and the two other stages have loads of climbing as well. Fingers crossed!

I just hope he does well because it's a goal race. I could use a bit of spending money next season in CT

	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

Race goals:

Have fun

Failure

Eduard Alexander Beltran

24th

Race score: N/A


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

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

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

	Eduard Alexander Beltran	Leader		Izidor Penko	Domestique
	Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	Domestique		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Tyron Giogieri	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique
	Gabriel Marin	Domestique		Ivan Siric	Domestique

Race goals:

Top 5 GC

Failure

Eduard Alexander Beltran

11th

Race score: 2/10


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

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

Race goals:

Top 15

Failure

Lahcen Saber

21st

Race score: 3/10


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

After a quieter month of May the calendar brings some important races and another high profile wildcard appearance. The month starts in Japan. This is the team's first appearance at the race, having only visited Japan once before. For the 2nd year we will participate in the Hanko Classic, where we had a good result last year. Grand Prix Cyclistes has moved to HC and might prove to be an important race. After that is the Tour de Suisse, the longest PT stage race outside the Grand Tours. It will be another opportunity for our youngsters to get valuable experience. Clasique Pico Basile is a new race for us and our first C2 race of the year. To end the month the team will split between another C2 race in Cuba and the sprinter showdown in Berlin.




Our sprinters will have a quick turnaround from as they head from Berlin to Iceland for another sprint classic. After that we have another unique moment in our team's history. We will particapate in the biggest race there is, the Tour de France. This will be our first Grand Tour and we're delighted we were granted this wildcard from the MGUCI. The Tour de France overlaps with all the other races in the month. We didn't have a good time in the Middle East last year, but we will come back with some different goals this time. The rest of the month features our 2nd ITT event Celtic Chrono and Sakartvelo Trophy which concludes our C2 racing program. The month of July finishes in Kenya for the mountain classic.


You can expect more installments like this as the season progresses and the race calendar becomes revealed. This is part 3 of 4.


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

Will be nice racing against you in Basile, as except for the cobbles I don't think we've met a lot so far. I hope the coming months start providing you a decent amount of points so you can keep the relegation battle going. Best of luck!

	Kris Boeckmans	Sprinter		Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	Free Role
	Gabriel Marin	Domestique		Hugues Mottin	Free Role
	Dusan Rajovic	Domestique		Miha Poljanec	Free Role
	Stepan Kurianov	Domestique		Izidor Penko	Free Role

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

	Yevgeniy Nepomnyachsniy	Leader		Stepan Kurianov	Domestique
	Aberlardo Ablenado	Free Role		Ivan Siric	Domestique
	Hugues Mottin	Free Role		Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Yuriy Natatov	Domestique

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

	Lahcen Saber	Co-Leader		Dusan Rajovic	Domestique
	Kris Boeckmans	Co-Leader		Matic Groselj	Domestique
	Gabriel Marin	Domestique		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Miha Poljanec	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique

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

	Kris Boeckmans	Sprinter		Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	Free Role
	Gabriel Marin	Domestique		Hugues Mottin	Free Role
	Dusan Rajovic	Domestique		Miha Poljanec	Free Role
	Stepan Kurianov	Domestique		Izidor Penko	Free Role

For the 2nd year in a row Swisslion travelled to the north of Europe for the PTHC race Tour of Norway. Last year it was a race where the team joined a lot of breakaways. This year they particularly targeted the opening two flat stages with sprinter Kris Boeckmans. Stage 1 was a very difficult stage on a bumpy course, with many notable riders losing time and their GC hopes. Boeckmans was well positioned, but simply lacked the power in the sprint. Stage 2 was a lot calmer and Boeckmans again found a good position. Timing his sprint well he finished the stage in 2nd place.

Stage 3 was the 30 km time-trial. Hugues Mottin who was a non GC factor finished 10th on the stage, while Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy who managed to stay out of trouble on the opening stages put in a respectable time to land in 19th in GC. He proceeded to lose time to the leaders on stage 4, but gained time on the TT specialists. He finished a credible 16th by the end of the race, with Miha Poljanec just catching the top 50 spot. Kris Boeckmans added a alittle more scoring by finishing 4th in the points classification due to his consistent sprinting over the first two stages.




Race goals:

Top 35 GC	Success	Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	16th
Top 3 Stage	Success	Kris Boeckmans	2nd (Stage 2)

Race score: 8/10


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

	Eduard Alexander Beltran	Leader		Dusan Rajovic	Domestique
	Tyron Giogieri	Domestique		Matic Groselj	Domestique
	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Domestique		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Miha Poljanec	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique

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

	Lahcen Saber	Co-Leader		Dusan Rajovic	Domestique
	Kris Boeckmans	Co-Leader		Matic Groselj	Domestique
	Gabriel Marin	Domestique		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Miha Poljanec	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique

Race goals:

Top 10	Success	Kris Boeckmans	8th
Top 10	Failure	Lahcen Saber	17th

Race score: 4/10


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

	Yevgeniy Nepomnyachsniy	Leader		Stepan Kurianov	Domestique
	Aberlardo Ablenado	Free Role		Ivan Siric	Domestique
	Hugues Mottin	Free Role		Georgios Stavrakakis	Domestique
	Matija Mestric	Domestique		Yuriy Natatov	Domestique

Race goals:

Top 10 GC	Failure	Yevgeniy Nepomnyachsniy	17th
Top 20 GC	Failure	Aberlardo Ablenado	30th

Race score: 2/10


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

	Izidor Penko	Free Role		Michael Christodoulos	Free Role
	Dusan Rajovic	Free Role		Goran Antonijevic	Free Role
	Matija Mestric	Free Role		Ivan Siric	Free Role
	Matic Groselj	Free Role		Georgios Stavrakakis	Free Role

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

	Eduard Alexander Beltran	Leader		Dusan Rajovic	Domestique
	Tyron Giogieri	Domestique		Matic Groselj	Domestique
	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Domestique		Michael Christodoulos	Domestique
	Miha Poljanec	Domestique		Goran Antonijevic	Domestique

A key HC race on the Swisslion race calendar, Grands Prix Cyclistes hasn't been raced by the team since 2018 and the lineup this year didn't feature any holdovers from that time. A race filled with circuits of short hills was the terrain for Eduard Alexander Beltran to lead the team. Stage one inexplicably went to the breakaway as despite a lot of hard from Swisslion, a lot more of the other teams did not put in the necessary effort to control the race. As a result, a group of 6 riders led the race from start to finish and stole the victory from the favourites. Beltran finished the stage in the 2nd group in only 13th position.




You would think the teams would learn from the mishaps of stage 1. Well, no. A group of 10 riders were in the breakaway this time and allowed to build up a gap of over 4 minutes. With very little teams willing to put significant effort in the chase, Swisslion pushed all the chips on the table. Every available rider was working their hardest to cut the gap. First down to 2 minutes, splitting the peloton in the process. In the final 10 km of the race Beltran took the pacing making into his own hands. Withering down the advantage to a single minute and also repelling attacks from the other favourites. He managed to finish in 12th place on the stage. With the gap to the breakaway reduced and the leaders falling behind, the winner was decided from the group of favourites. On a mere technicality of a countdown, due to everyone being on same time, Beltran finished 2nd in GC. In the end a disappointing result for the rider who proved he was strongest and for the team that put in the most effort to make this race a success for everyone else.




Race goals:

Top 3 GC

Success

Eduard Alexander Beltran

2nd

Race score: 8/10


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

Told you that Beltran will deliver - I am pretty sure you will stay in PCT, which will be unlikely for me though.