While we're still racing in Tachira, we figuerd we could look ahead to February already. Here are the three races we will be riding in next month
//Benelux Challenge
Nick Kinney Bjorn Selander Jakob Rathe Mike Friedman John Murphy Maxime Le Montagner Mark Griffith Shaquille Sinclair
This races contains cobbles, which mean Rathe will be here. Kinney and Selander will target the hills, wheras Griffith is looking for a top 10 in the prologue.
Geraardsbergen-Bosberg
Nick Kinney Bjorn Selander Jakob Rathe Tareq Esmaeli Mike Friedman John Murphy Maxime Le Montagner Shaquille Sinclair
A race no one but Rathe is looking forward to. Poor Sinclair, making his new Jamaican jersey all dirty. Even covered in dirt he'll be the Hottest thing on Wheels.
GP Sallanches
Nick Kinney Bjorn Selander Timothy Duggan Mauro Santambrogio Sebastian Salas Jakob Rathe Tareq Esmaeli Maxime Le Montagner
The only race in February not containing any cobbles. The amazing trio of Kinney, Selander and Duggan is aiming at a decent result here.
Kinney was brought here as leader. He started with a decent prologue, followed by a great third place in the second stage, moving him up to 7th in the GC. Despite a little setback on stage 4, he recovered well and went on to finish 7th in the GC.
Mixed
Stage 4 contained cobbles, feared by the most of us. However, we kept the pace high all day long, which resulte in some good classifications. Rathe and Le Montagner finished 7th and 9th respectively, with the latter even grabbing the youth jersey. Kinney finished 14th but despite all our hard work, he lost time to some other favourites. Therefore this stage had mixed feelings.
Bad
Maxime Le Montanger led the youth classification after stage with a comfortable lead. This couldn't go wrong, right? Well, it did. He crashed on stage 5 and lost both his jersey and his good GC classification. And it cost us a lot of valuable points.
We showed ourselves. Selander found himself in the break on stages 1, 2 and 5. On stage 5, he even managed to ride towards third place! Kinney went into the break on stage 8, with no success. Stage 9 was for Montenegro, who was still in the lead with 5 kilometers to go and went on to finish in 11th. Lastly, it was our leader Martinez, 17th in the GC at that time, to attack on stage 10. He went on to finish third in stage and moved up towards 6th in the GC. Lots of points here.
Mixed
The question that haunted us throughout the race was: was it wise for us to race here? We knew beforehand the startlist would be strong, and sending Martinez was going to be a huge gamble. We and SanCor were the only teams from CT to dare and race here. Before the final stage we would've said it was a mistake. Martinez disappointed us with a not so good GC position, and the only points so far came of Selander's 'lucky' third place. The final stage turned things around, we scores a lot of points from that stage alone. We might've better spend our racedays on the Tour of the Middle East or something, but we're lucky this race brought us decent points.
Bad
Well, there is something we might've done better. We send all three of our hilly leaders here, but only Selander scores points. Kinney was disappointing, Duggan hasn't been seen at all. 10 waisted racedays for those two chaps.
Shaquille Sinclair is still the hottest thing on wheels. These girls can't beat him
Mixed
Rathe attacked mid-stage, and managed to hang on to the group of favourites. Unfortunately he was eventually dropped, but held on to 12th place.
Bad
Kinney came here as our co-leader with Rathe, but we haven't seen him since the start. The cobbles were too tough on him, and the rest of our team. The Minions will destroy every cobblestone on the planet, so this won't happen again.
We didn't buy Santambrogio for these kinds of hilly classics, be he proves to be a great allround rider by taking a suprise 9th place, ahead of Kinney, of whom we thought the course would be too mountanious!
Mixed
Frenchman Le Montagner has the perfect name for this race, until we realized he is actually more of a sprinter. Some Minion didn't do his homework...
Bad
Selander was dropped pretty quickly, making his efforts uselss.
Two stage races on our menu in March. One race in Argentina and th eother one in Italy. Both include mountain stages and time trials, Martinez will ride both.
Tour de San Luis
Yasmani Martinez Nick Kinney Chad Haga Taylor Tolleson Fabio Montenegro Timothy Duggan Mark Griffith Shaquille Sinclair
A time trial and a mountatin finish down south in Argentina. Martinez is one of the biggest favourites here. Kinney will have his eye set on the hilly stages. Tolleson will attempt the sprints.
Giro del Trentino
Yasmani Martinez Chad Haga Fabio Montenegro Mauro Santambrogio Sebastian Salas Alex Howes Tareq Esmaeli Mark Griffith
Later that month, we will be participating in the Giro del Trentino. A team time trial and 3 mountain stages. Martinez will lead, with Haga, Montenegro and Salas as support. Santambrogio will ride his home race.
We expected the most from Martinez, but inthe end it was Griffith who took our best stage result. He rode a kinda disappointing time trial in the Tour of Benelux, but he revanched himself here by finishing 6th! Martinez had finished 6th on the hilly stag the day before as well!
Mixed
Yasmani Martinez. He was arguably the best rider on paper. He was third in the GC with the TT still to come, but he didn't ride a good TT, staying in 3rd place. He dropped to 4th place after stage 6, and kept that place until the end. We wanted the win and nothing less. 4th is not bad, but we wished for more.
Bad
Why did we bring Kinney here? He didn't show himself in the hilly stages, but instead places a full retard attack in the final kilometers in the final stages that was doomed to fail. He still has to learn hisspot in the team.
Despite his know hatred for mountains, Mark Griffith finished the race. Kudos.
Mixed
Esmaeli (in his Qatari-NC) and Santambrogio both went into the break at some point. Both failed, but at least we showed our colours.
Bad
Something was wrong with Martinez. First, he was dropped in the team time trial. He couldn't impress in the mountain stages, with an 14th place being his highest. His 9th place in the GC was not what we had hoped for.
The fourth month of the year already, and still no victory for us so far. Is there a possibility we can score our first succes in April?
Zimnyanya GP
Taylor Tolleson Mauro Santambrogio Jakob Rathe Tareq Esmaeli Mike Friedman John Murphy Maxime Le Montagner Shaquille Sinclair
A flat classic in Belarus. Tolleson will lead us, but we don't expect a victory here. We hope a late attack by him or Santambrogio can cause some havoc, else a top-20 will do for us.
Philadelphia International Championship
Taylor Tolleson Mauro Santambrogio Jakob Rathe Tareq Esmaeli Mike Friedman John Murphy Maxime Le Montagner Shaquille Sinclair
The exact same squad will race in Philadelphia 2 weeks later. The profile is quite similar but we expect an even stronger startlist here. The break might be our best option, and that's why we brought our 2 national champions to show off their jerseys: Esmaeli and Sinclair.
With a strong sprinters field, we didn't expect a major result here. Santambrogio was our best finisher in 13th. Tolleson was 18th, Murphy 20th, Friedman 21st and Sinclair 27th. That's some valuable points in a race which isn't really made for us.
Mixed
Esmaeli showed the brown and white of his Qatari NC in the break, making a "collectors item" according to the reporters. He was the first to be caught again though.
Bad
For reasons unknown we decided to set up a sprint train with 5 kilometers to go. A mere kilometer later and it was off the front and in the busy midfield, meaning we couldn't bring our sprinter(s) to the leading batch of sprinters.
The fifth month already! The season is going pretty fast, but still without a top spot for us. There's definately a chance this month though. May the bananas be with us!
Rund um den Eschborn-Frankfurt
Taylor Tolleson Mauro Santambrogio Jakob Rathe Tareq Esmaeli Mike Friedman John Murphy Maxime Le Montagner Shaquille Sinclair
Not here though. We expect Tolleson to lead us on paper, but Santambrogio will propably be our best finisher, like every flat classic this season so far.
Tour of Scotland
Yasmani Martinez Nick Kinney Taylor Tolleson Bjorn Selander Sebastian Salas Alex Howes John Murphy Maxime Le Montagner
The inaugural six-day Tour of Scotland cointains a mountain stage, which means Martinez is here to win it, or the GC. Kinney and Selander will contend the hilly stage, and Tolleson will be lucky witha top 10 in a flat stage.
The bright light in Scotland came from our new acquisition Nick Kinney, finishing 7th on the hilly stage. Unfortunately he wasn't strong enough to play a role in the GC.
Bad
Some Minion-hooligans couldn't control themselves and threw bananas on the road, causing Martinez, Selander and a few others. The MBI (Minion Bureau of Investigation) is starting an investigation, with the main suspects being Steve and Phil, who were both fired from our team last season.
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Benelux Challenge
Nick Kinney
Maxime Le Montagner
Shaquille Sinclair
Tareq Esmaeli
Mauro Santambrogio
Sebastian Salas
Tour de San Luis
Yasmani Martinez
Fabio Montenegro
Zimnyanya GP
Rund um den Eschborn-Frankfurt
Tour of Scotland
GP Herning
Circulo de Juarez
Tour of Iceland
