Funny Facts:
- Festina has never managed to get a better result from the Giro d’Italia than 5th. Markus Fothen managed that in 2013 and Carlos Castaño managed it in 2011.
- Riccardo Ricco was on his marry way to get his name on that list, when he was safely positioned in 5th on the 18th stage. He crashed and had to abandon the race, and added another race to his season of nothing due to crashes.
- Markus Fothen had an even worse Giro d’Italia in 2012 where he was first caught out by a wind split, before crashing twice – the latter to force abandonment. Clearly the Giro d’Italia has been mean to us in the history of time.
- Despite having never done better than 5th we do have a previous Giro d’Italia winner on the team – Riccardo Ricco. He won the race in 2012, after having podiumed in 2008 and 2010.
- Former rider, Alberto Contador also had a rough time with the Giro d’Italia in 2010, where he – against all odds – failed miserably to take 10th in the GC, while dubbed to be a serious podium contender.
- We have a total of 4 stagewins (Steve Morabito in 2010, 2x Diego Ulissi in 2011 and David Boily in 2014).
Coming into the race we had some mixed ambitions. Having one of the best sprinters in the race, while also one of the outside candidates for the podium we wanted a bit of both. From Riccardo Ricco (a former winner) we wanted to be somewhere between 5th and 7th looking at the competition, and we also would prefer him to chase a stagewin, while Tzortzakis should try to get a stagewin somewhere also.
The race started out quite slow with Metinvest taking full control of the race, but we were soon in a very good position, and could look back on a first 14 days having both Maglia Rosa, two stagewins and a points jersey.
As the race progressed it seemed increasingly likely that Ricco could infact take a podium spot from the race, but the gods wanted it otherwise, as Ricco had a major setback on the 20th stage losing as much as 6 minutes on his main rivals, dropping to a heartaching 4th in the GC, while also Georgos Tzorzakis, Enrico Gasparotto and Bryan Coquard had to leave the race before the final stage in Milan.
Looking back on the race we cannot be unhappy, however. We are very happy with our overall result of the race, and a 4th place including 2 stagewins was not something we could have hoped for before the race started.
Results:
1
Andy Schleck
Vesuvio - Accumalux
82h55'30
2
Angel Madrazo
Quickstep
+ 46
3
Damiano Cunego
Meiji - JR East
+ 4'10
4
Riccardo Ricco
Festina-Canal+
+ 6'43
5
Rasmus Guldhammer
Aker - MOT
+ 10'29
6
Janez Brajkovic
ONCE-Eroski
+ 12'06
7
Peter Velits
Becherovka - Petrof
+ 15'20
8
Thomas Faiers
Pokerstars.com
+ 17'03
9
Stefan Denifl
VolksWagen - Andritz
+ 18'13
10
Domenico Pozzovivo
Oz Cycling Project
+ 22'38
70
Piter Campero
Festina-Canal+
+ 1h42'00
82
Clement Koretzky
Festina-Canal+
+ 1h59'04
120
Laurent Pichon
Festina-Canal+
+ 3h33'58
123
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
Festina-Canal+
+ 3h41'37
Points:
With a decent GC prospect and a strong sprinter we had an ambition of getting a pointshaul in the region of 500-600, but in a GC you never really know, as things are difficult to control. We can, however, conclude that we came out of the race as "winners", as we got significantly more points than anticipated!
roturn wrote:
Nice overviews in general here.
Like the fun facts at the beginning a lot.
Regarding the point issue, I am not at home for a couple of days and can`t check from here. Pretty sure we find the mistake anywhere.
Thanks a lot mate... There's no rush at all. I just couldn't get the figures to add up. If they are corrected in the final rankings (if I have calulated things properly) then it's absolutely fine by me.
I also have about 25 points in difference from the first 10 races, but that is so close that you guys shouldn't be bothered checking things for me. Maybe if I lose the PT title by 24 points
Funny Facts:
- Festina has won Amstel Gold Race one time. Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez won the race in 2008
- Only two times in the history of the race have we not been in the top 10. In 2012 and 2013, where Diego Ulissi only managed to get 11th and 12th.
- After Samuel Sanchez’ win in 2008 4th, however is our best ever result. That result was also Samuel Sanchez – in 2009.
- Last year Riccardo Ricco was 7th. This season he is back, but so is Spilak!
Startlist:
31. Simon Spilak
32. Tsgabu Grmay
33. Martin Hacecký
34. Charalampas Kastrantas
35. Clement Koretzky
36. Laurent Pichon
37. Riccardo Ricco
38. Guillaume van Keirsbulck
The first race of the ardennes week is always very chaotic and frantic. As we had both Spilak and Ricco attending the race our ambitions was high. We wanted to have a top 5 or two guys in the top 10 with the setup we had. Also we aimed to set our claws into the backs of Vesuvio and Becherovka - The two top fighters for the overall PT crown.
Simon Spilak had a great race getting a 2nd place. And as also Riccardo Ricco did 12th while Hacecký and Koretzky also filled up in the top 25 the race was a huge success for us.
Results:
1
Simone Ponzi
Good Energy
6h14'42
2
Simon Spilak
Festina-Canal+
+ 14
3
Ben Gastauer
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 28
4
Peter Sagan
Becherovka - Petrof
s.t.
5
Jan Bakelants
Bouygues Telecom
s.t.
6
Yuri Trofimov
Tinkoff Bank - Tinkoff Insurance
s.t.
7
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Aker - MOT
+ 1'25
8
Dimitri Claeys
VolksWagen - Andritz
+ 1'53
9
Arthur Vichot
Orange - KLM Cycling
+ 2'11
10
Toms Skujins
Red Bull - Huawei
s.t.
12
Riccardo Ricco
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
19
Martin Hacecký
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
25
Clement Koretzky
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
70
Tsgabu Grmay
Festina-Canal+
+ 6'45
95
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
114
Laurent Pichon
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
156
Charalampas Kastrantas
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
Points:
We aim for 200+ points in all of the ardennes races, so we were happy to produce well above that.
Funny Facts:
- Festina has never won the Fleche Wallone, although one of the current riders has. Riccardo Ricco won the race in 2010 so it is very surprising that he isn't riding!
- The Fleche Wallone has historically been a very very difficult race for Festina. Only 2 times in 8 attempts have a Festina-rider actually managed to get inside the top 10. Luckily we have a fresh result from the race, when Riccardo Ricco managed to get 5th here last season.
- Simon Spilak podiumed the race in 2011, and was also in the top 10 in 2012, so looking at the preconditions the team should be well equipped for the 2015 edition.
Startlist:
31. Simon Spilak
32. Piter Campero
33. Markus Eibegger
34. Charalampas Kastrantas
35. Clement Koretzky
36. Laurent Pichon
37. Guillaume van Keirsbulck
38. Yuriy Vasyliv
After a surprisingly good performance in Amstel Gold Race, the team setup was well weakened to this race, as Riccardo Ricco was not signed up for the race. "After a hard Giro it is important that we don't drain him entirely" the manager said when reporters questioned the decision. "He is back for Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and then he has a nice break before entering the Deutschland Tour in the break of the season".
Simon Spilak once again was on his toes as the race was ridden extremely hard. We decided to put Kastrantas in the early break to enable our team to save their energy for later. The pack broke up on several occassions and we did our best to keep Spilak in the front. At the crucial moment of the race Spilak attacked with Amstel winner Ponzi and Tejay van Garderen, and ended up sprinting the Mur de Huy for 2nd place. Another great performance.
Results:
1
Simone Ponzi
Good Energy
6h14'42
2
Simon Spilak
Festina-Canal+
+ 14
3
Yuri Trofimov
Tinkoff Bank - Tinkoff Insurance
+ 18
4
Peter Sagan
Becherovka - Petrof
+ 43
5
Toms Skujins
Red Bull - Huawei
+ 1'22
6
Ben Gastauer
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
7
Tejay Van Garderen
Movistar - US Postal
+ 1'27
8
Francesco Ginanni
Pokerstars.com
s.t.
9
Stefan Schumacher
Swisscom - UBS
s.t.
10
Michael Van Stayen
Venchi
s.t.
46
Clement Koretzky
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
50
Laurent Pichon
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
79
Yuriy Vasyliv
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
110
Markus Eibegger
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
125
Charalampas Kastrantas
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
162
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
167
Piter Campero
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
Points:
Just like in Amstel Gold Race the ambition was to have 200+ points, and yet again the goal was achieved. Simon Spilak did well, while Koretzky and Pichon seems to lack a bit more to be competitive at this level.
Funny Facts:
- Festina has never won the Liege – Bastogne – Liege, although one of the current riders has. Riccardo Ricco won the race in 2009.
- Franck Schleck is the master of Liege – Bastogne – Liege, as he won the race three consequitive years in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
- Festina are pretty happy with LBL, and only once in the course of the history the team has not managed to get inside the top 10. That was in 2011 where Samuel Sanchez came 14th. The team has not been able to get a top 5 result from the race since 2009, though when Samuel Sanchez took 4th. This season Simon Spilak wants to change that – Although his all time best result here is 8th, in 2011.
Startlist:
31. Simon Spilak
32. Robert Bush
33. Markus Eibegger
34. Martin Hacecký
35. Charalampas Kastrantas
36. Clement Koretzky
37. Laurent Pichon
38. Riccardo Ricco
Going into the monument of the season - Liege-Bastogne-Liege we aim to yet again make an impact. Simon Spilak is here as the teams captain, but having Riccardo Ricco, Clement Koretzky and Laurent Pichon as his main helpers things might change. We want to get another great result here, and with some luck Simon Spilak can keep fighting for the top spots. A top 5 here is the minimum we are looking for, but more importantly, we aim to do better than Vesuvio and Becherovka, whom are both ahead of us in the overall ranking. With a strong result here, the top 3 might be extremely close before Strada Appia Antica and Tour de Suisse were the three teams are likely to score an equal amount of points also.
Simon Spilak was, yet again, in phenomenal shape and picked the right moment to attack. This time it quickly formed a 7 man group, where the riders were left behind one by one, ending with only 4 riders really contesting the final sprint. Here Spilak was once again beaten - with ease - by the best rider in the world right now, Simone Ponzi. We are happy to take another 2nd place though, and as also Ricco, Koretzky and Pichon was in the small group fighting for 7th and downwards we came out with a brilliant result. Even scoring very close to what Good Energy did, in all races.
Results:
1
Simone Ponzi
Good Energy
5h58'25
2
Simon Spilak
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
3
Jan Bakelants
Bouygues Telecom
s.t.
4
Yuri Trofimov
Tinkoff Bank - Tinkoff Insurance
s.t.
5
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Aker - MOT
+ 1'13
6
Toms Skujins
Red Bull - Huawei
+ 1'55
7
Jack Bobridge
Oz Cycling Project
+ 3'48
8
Tejay Van Garderen
Movistar - US Postal
s.t.
9
Cyril Gautier
Ayubowan!
+ 4'00
10
Stefan Schumacher
Swisscom - UBS
s.t.
19
Laurent Pichon
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
21
Riccardo Ricco
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
26
Clement Koretzky
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
59
Markus Eibegger
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
66
Charalampas Kastrantas
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
154
Martin Hacecký
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
175
Robert Bush
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
Points:
Having gotten two consequetive 2nd places from Simon Spilak, we really wanted him to do well again, and while we were close to our 200 points pr. ardennes-race in Fleche Wallone, we were well above this time around!
Funny Facts:
- The Vuelta has always meant a great deal to Festina. The team have had Spanish leaders from the early days with Samuel Sanchez, over Carlos Castaño and finally ending in 2013 with Alberto Contador.
- Despite having never won the race Festina is one of the teams with a proud history of the Vuelta, getting 2nd and 3rd in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
- The worst ever Vuelta a España was in 2011 where Alberto Contador was aiming for the win. He crashed twice in the race and had to settle for 17th, one spot behind his lieutenaint, Angel Madrazo – who went to win the race in 2012. Ahead of… Alberto Contador.
- Even though this race has been a high priority race for atleast 4 seasons, Festina has never managed to win a single stage of the race. This season we aim for less glory in the GC and hopefully get a stagewin instead.
After a strong line of races counting 5 in a row: Giro d'Italia, Tour of California, Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, we are going back to solid ground for once. The Vuelta lineup is everything but strong. We aim to make the flat stages be used for Tzortzakis, who finally won his first ever stage in this years edition of the Giro d'Italia. He then went on to win another and getting further two top 5s on flat stages. He even wore the points jersey for a long period of time during the race, until he had to abandon the day before Milano.
We don't expect him to win stages, but we hope he can mingle with the aid from Gasparotto who did superbly to keep him out of the wind in Italy. In terms of GC hopes, our young talent Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier is having a go at his first ever Grand Tour as leader. We have little ambition of him doing a top result, but we hope that he can place himself somewhere in the region of 10-15 in the GC, and possibly get 2nd or 3rd in the U25 competition. He will be helped by Campero and Grmay, while we have a few riders free to try whatever they want - Clement Koretzky is probably our best bid at something odd to happen.
We hope that we can put a few guys in the break on stages not suited for Tzortzakis, but we are aware that we are not likely to score many points here.
What happened:
We called the race pretty well... Lecuisinier to end somewhere between 10-15 was the ambition, so to end 13th was pretty much to our level of ambitions. 2nd in the U25 competition was also to the expected level, although it hurt us that Tim Wellens overtook Lecuisinier by a fluke breakaway to end 12th in the GC, and taking the Young Riders competition. Clement Koretzky was our best bet for a stagewin, and he came closest, taking 3rd on a breakaway stage. Georgos Tzortzakis did not have the strength to give us anything decent, unfortunately, so our overall result was a bit below par.
Results:
1
Aleksandr Pluchkin
Metinvest-Dacia
78h21'14
2
Justo Tenorio
Bacardi Limited
+ 3'44
3
Robert Gesink
Project 1t4i
+ 5'35
4
Thomas Dekker
Orange - KLM Cycling
+ 6'18
5
David Abal
Buff - Polska
+ 7'37
6
Andrei Amador
Swisscom - UBS
+ 8'16
7
Damiano Cunego
Meiji - JR East
+ 8'23
8
Rasmus Guldhammer
Aker - MOT
+ 15'02
9
Timofey Kritskiy
Tinkoff Bank - Tinkoff Insurance
+ 18'24
10
Domenico Pozzovivo
Oz Cycling Project
+ 21'37
13
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
Festina-Canal+
+ 31'16
63
Tsgabu Grmay
Festina-Canal+
+ 1h56'12
64
Piter Campero
Festina-Canal+
+ 1h56'23
90
Clement Koretzky
Festina-Canal+
+ 2h21'13
130
Yoann Paillot
Festina-Canal+
+ 3h46'26
146
Georgos Tzortzakis
Festina-Canal+
+ 4h21'26
150
Enrico Gasparotto
Festina-Canal+
+ 4h42'37
Points:
We have an ambition of scoring as close to 500 points as we can. We know that cracking 500 points is an overambition, so we are looking for a realistic bet of somewhere in the region of 350-450 points. To get that we need Tzortzakis to do well, and also get Lecuisinier fairly close to the top 10 GC, while get lucky to win a stage at some point.
Because Tzortzakis did less that anticipated, and the fact that we did not really try anything on the bumpy stages we got a fair bit below what we expected from the race.
SportingNonsense wrote:
I like all the 'Funny Facts' team history. I wanted to do something like that for my team, but the season has been too fast for me
Thanks. It took quite some time to scan through every single result from the period I have played the game
I already did them in the off season though, and because of studies I have had way more vacation than normally
jt1109 wrote:
Good luck in the veulta looking forward to seeing Tzortzakis once more always stuck with me as one of my favourite riders since his loan spell
Thanks mate. Yeah he is a personal favorite of me aswell. Too bad he is so old though, as I would have really loved to train him into a top sprinter
Funny Facts:
- When the riders set out to ride the race it will be for the 3rd time only. Sam Bewley, Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen has made the podium on both previous occasions.
- In 2013 Geert Steurs managed to get a respectable 8th from the race, while last season we didn’t have a single rider in the top 30. This season Tom David aims for a top 20.
Startlist:
201. Tom David
202. Mathieau Bernaudeau
203. Robert Bush
204. Markus Eibegger
205. Martin Hacecký
206. Charalampas Kastrantas
207. Guillaume van Keirsbulck
208. Yuriy Vasyliv
History tells us, that we can't really expect anything to happen from these cobbled races. The competition is too difficult, and our riders don't want to attack from well out.
As usually the pattern repeated itself, with our best rider battleing to get somewhere close to the top 30, while the two others cobblers tried to stick with the top 50.
Points:
Normally our ambitions would be somewhere in the region of 100 points from these races, but we have had to let history speak, so our ambitions would rather be somewhere in the region of 60-80.
Funny Facts:
- Festina has never won the Tour of Switzerland, but it has been a priority race ever since the team was named Festina.
- The best ever result was Markus Fothen 2nd in 2012, while we have never since been close to a similar achievement. This season will change that as this race is our main objective.
- No riders has ever won the race twice, while both Schlecks have in fact won the race.
- We have a total of 3 (Markus Zberg in 2009, Jurgen van Loocke in 2010 and Óscar Guerao in 2014) stagewins in the history of the race.
- When Óscar Guerao won the first stage of Tour de Suisse it would be the last ever win from him in the Festina-jersey.
Startlist:
1. Simon Spilak
2. Piter Campero
3. Jerome Coppel
4. Tom David
5. Tsgabu Grmay
6. Martin Hacecký
7. Charalampas Kastrantas
8. Clement Koretzky
The ambition before the race was clear: Win! We had never before achieved a "Win Goal", and with Simon Spilak getting numerous 2nd places throughout the season, our hopes was a little diminished before the race started. The team was highly motivated though, and from the gunshot we hit the front. Jerome Coppel won the first timetrial, and took the leaders jersey, ahead of Taylor Phinney - Our main rival for the overall win. But Spilak also rode a very nice TT, losing less than a minut to Phinney.
On the first mountainstage, Spilak looked strong, but it was Jose Alarcon who took the stage ahead of a very strong Taylor Phinney who then added to his lead. Stage 5 was the most important stage of the entire race. If Phinney would be strongest on the mountain TT, then the overall win would be seriously jepordized, but Spilak took his second stagewin of the season putting no less than 1'26" on Phinney, securing the leaders jersey. When Spilak was also the strongest of the GC contenders on the hilly stage 6, we began to believe that things could actually work this time, but with two remaining mountainstages we were not allowed to let our guards down. And we didn't! On stage 8 a breakaway was allowed too much leeway, but Spilak was yet again the strongest, so we decided to keep the elastic tight on the final stage, and Spilak did not dissapoint, taking the final stage, along with the overall win, and the points jersey! Doubling the amount of stagewins in the race history along the way was a nice bonus.
Martin Hacecký put in a huge effort for Simon Spilak, also managing to gain a good result himself. His best ever top GC result - 14th!
Results:
1
Simon Spilak
Festina-Canal+
33h40'09
2
Taylor Phinney
Venchi
+ 3'13
3
Angel Madrazo
Quickstep
+ 6'01
4
Jose Alarcon
Red Bull - Huawei
+ 6'26
5
Daniel Martin
Aker - MOT
+ 6'57
6
Justo Tenorio
Bacardi Limited
+ 8'45
7
Thomas Dekker
Orange - KLM Cycling
+ 9'04
8
Konstantin Siutsou
Pendleton's
+ 13'14
9
Stefan Denifl
VolksWagen - Andritz
+ 13'28
10
Paolo Scarponi
Good Energy
+ 15'48
14
Martin Hacecký
Festina-Canal+
+ 20'38
62
Piter Campero
Festina-Canal+
+ 48'47
67
Tsgabu Grmay
Festina-Canal+
+ 49'49
98
Charalampas Kastrantas
Festina-Canal+
+ 1h02'15
101
Jerome Coppel
Festina-Canal+
+ 1h04'04
106
Clement Koretzky
Festina-Canal+
+ 1h05'40
143
Tom David
Festina-Canal+
+ 1h44'57
Points:
The ambition was clear. This had to be the best race of the season. Obviously the Giro was very good, but as the race days are not comparable, we saw Tour of California as our benchmark, and having 550 points from that race, the goal was to get 600 points here. That was a very ambitious goal, but we achieved it.
Funny Facts:
- Festina has never won the Criterium du Dauphine Libere, but Simon Spilak has in fact won the race twice. He also came 2nd in both 2013 and 2014. He is not in the startlist for the 2015 version however.
- Ever since 2009 Festina has been doing well in this race. Best in 2014 where Spilak was 2nd, but also in 2013 the race went well with Alberto Contador taking 3rd. Worst in the period was in 2012 where Alberto Contador had to settle for 8th.
- We have a total of 4 stagewins (Allan Davis in 2008, Brian Vandborg and Carlos Castaño in 2009 and Simon Spilak in 2014.) Spilak also won the mountains jersey in 2014
The Dauphine never really kicked off for us. We had a dreadful race, where only the final GC result from Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier was worth anything. And yet 15th is not really good enough.
Results:
1
Rein Taaramäe
Bouygues Telecom
27h55'24
2
Andy Schleck
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 58
3
Robert Gesink
Project 1t4i
+ 4'06
4
Jaime Suaza
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 4'07
5
Vincenzo Nibali
Swisscom - UBS
+ 5'30
6
Nicolas Roche
Pokerstars.com
+ 5'54
7
Timofey Kritskiy
Tinkoff Bank - Tinkoff Insurance
+ 6'44
8
Domenico Pozzovivo
Oz Cycling Project
+ 7'34
9
Tim Wellens
Bouygues Telecom
+ 8'26
10
Romain Sicard
Orange - KLM Cycling
+ 8'42
15
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
Festina-Canal+
+ 14'55
37
Yuriy Vasyliv
Festina-Canal+
+ 26'41
43
Markus Eibegger
Festina-Canal+
+ 31'45
60
Laurent Pichon
Festina-Canal+
+ 46'06
76
Yoann Paillot
Festina-Canal+
+ 1h04'07
129
Enrico Gasparotto
Festina-Canal+
+ 1h41'49
Points:
The level of ambitions were not high here, yet we had a hope that we could bag something like 150-200 points. We did not manage to get anything like that, unfortunately - So we have to claw the difference back in Andorra. Which is atleast 36 points. That will be difficult!
Funny Facts:
- Last season Simon Spilak gave us the best ever Tour de France result, when he got 3rd in the GC aswell as taking a stagewin on the way.
- In 2012 Markus Fothen crashed and got himself injured in the race. He was looking good to fight for a top 5, but ended up having to settle for a stagewin and an 18th place in the GC.
- Looking past Spilaks podium last season we have never actually managed to ride a good Tour de France. Most notable was in 2011 where Alberto Contador acknowledged that he could not fight for podium, but instead won the KOM jersey
- In other aspects 2013 was a very interesting race for us. We had no ambitions for the first time ever, but Óscar Guerao went on to win 4 stages including the Champs Elysees stage.
- We have a total of 7 stagewins (Thor Hushovd in 2008, Markus Fothen in 2012, 4x Óscar Guerao in 2013 and Simon Spilak in 2014)
Startlist:
131. Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
132. Bryan Coquard
133. Laurent Pichon
134. Yoann Paillot
135. Martin Hacecký
136. Charalampas Kastrantas
137. Robert Bush
138. Tom David
Welcome to the presentation of our 2015 Tour de France roster. Never before have the Festina-Canal+ team been so young in all aspects of the race, and we are likely to face the consequenses of that. Having a total of 7 unmaxed riders in our team it is going to be a heavy contest to battle the best riders in the game. Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier is our GC leader, but he have struggled to really perform this season. The best result for him was 8th in Tour of California, while he was 13th in the Vuelta a España and the Criterium du Dauphine. Not bad results, but not something that we can use for much either. To help him achieve the best possible results are Martin Hacecký who did well all season. Coming from a 12th overall in the Tour de Suisse we hope to see him ride aggressively. Martin Hacecký is the only maxed out rider!
In the sprints we have the french talent Bryan Coquard, and to help him position himself well we have Tom David and Robert Bush. Both are allowed leeway to attempt breakaways also. Laurent Pichon and Charalampas Kastrantas is here to attempt to go for breakaways in the hilly terrain, while especially Pichon has previously done extremely poor in his timing of the attacks. Finally we have the young TT'er Yoann Paillot present aswell, who will be aiming to go for a decent TT result or two, aswell as going for breakaways.
The average age of our team is just 24,9 and this should be a race worth massive experience for our youngsters.
What happened:
Just like we anticipated, the race was a tough task for us. Our riders was simply not strong enough to pose a serious threat on any terrain, thus making it seem like a rather dull race for us. We did, however, have a bit of succes early on, when Paillot and Lecuisinier were in the fight for the Young riders jersey.
In the end Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier did another decent Grand Tour GC picking up 13th overall, and 2nd in the U25 competition. We are very confident that he will be able to fight for top 10s next season, when he is fully maxed for us.
Results:
1
Aleksandr Pluchkin
Metinvest-Dacia
80h30'01
2
Rein Taaramäe
Bouygues Telecom
+ 4'30
3
Andrei Amador
Swisscom - UBS
+ 4'41
4
Jose Alarcon
Red Bull - Huawei
+ 8'13
5
Romain Sicard
Orange - KLM Cycling
+ 9'08
6
Daniel Martin
Aker - MOT
+ 10'37
7
Joseph Dombrowski
Pendleton's
+ 12'34
8
Rigoberto Úran
Bacardi Limited
+ 15'11
9
Peter Velits
Becherovka - Petrof
+ 17'53
10
Yonathan Monsalve
VolksWagen - Andritz
+ 19'27
13
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
Festina-Canal+
+ 26'34
42
Martin Hacecký
Festina-Canal+
+ 1h08'29
88
Charalampas Kastrantas
Festina-Canal+
+ 1h59'51
103
Laurent Pichon
Festina-Canal+
+ 2h43'54
124
Yoann Paillot
Festina-Canal+
+ 3h21'59
137
Tom David
Festina-Canal+
+ 4h11'15
157
Robert Bush
Festina-Canal+
+ 4h42'13
Points:
The ambition here is low, but we really hope to be aggressive, and score some decent points from that. We know that we can't calculate anything in terms of luck and timing, so we have to settle for something where we hope Lecuisinier is in top 15, Hacecký hopefully in top 50 and Coquard doing a few top 10s in the sprint finishes. We do have an ambition to do slightly better than in the Vuelta though - Mainly because the points are higher. So we except atleast 300 points.
What happened:
The ambition of getting more than 300 points was achieved, but only just. We didn't get any good stageresults, so we had to rely on the points scored early on by Tom David, Yoann Paillot and those scored by Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier through the race. He was 2nd in the U25 competition all the way, which secured a total of 88 points from him alone. The 13th in the GC also gave a good amount.
Funny Facts:
- The Deutschland Tour has been relaunched for this years edition, with no mountains, and no timetrials. Festina has never won the race.
- Last season Vadim Ratiy failed miserably to fight for the top 10, ending up 26th in the GC.
- Looking past 2014 and 2012 (when the race was a CT race), we have managed to get a top 6 result for 4 consequitive editions – With 3 different riders: Jaroslav Popovych in 2009, Carlos Castaño in 2010, Carlos Castaño again in 2011 and Markus Fothen in 2013.
- Markus Fothens 3rd place in 2013 is the best ever result for the team, but not for Markus Fothen. He won the race in 2008 and 2011 aswell as getting 2nd in 2009.
- We have a total of 2 stagewins in the race (Iban Mayo in 2010 and Carlos Castaño in 2011).
- When Riccardo Ricco will lead the team here in 2015 it will be his debut to the race, according to our intel.
Startlist:
1. Riccardo Ricco
2. Robert Bush
3. Markus Eibegger
4. Enrico Gasparotto
5. Charalampas Kastrantas
6. Clement Koretzky
7. Georgos Tzortzakis
8. Guillaume van Keirsbulck
Ambitions were moderate to high in this race, coming after the Tour de France, where we were invisible. Having Riccardo Ricco as the leader, we always aimed for a top 10 GC, and with Koretzky as his helper we hoped for somewhere around 6-8th in the GC, with also Koretzky doing top 25. We managed that in style, when Ricco got 3rd and Koretzky 22nd.
We had some ambitions towards getting a stagewin also, hence having Tzortzakis here was always a bit of a gamble with "big" points being on offer in Moscow. He failed to deliver, and despite getting some top 10s, we were not happy with the decision to let him ride here. He needed to get a few top 3s to have satisfied the sponsors requests.
Results:
1
Simone Ponzi
Good Energy
33h36'01
2
Francesco Ginanni
Pokerstars.com
+ 24
3
Riccardo Ricco
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
4
Tejay Van Garderen
Movistar - US Postal
+ 26
5
Ben Gastauer
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 35
6
Alexey Lutsenko
Pendleton's
+ 46
7
Chris Froome
Quickstep
+ 56
8
Toms Skujins
Red Bull - Huawei
+ 1'00
9
Andrea Palini
Good Energy
+ 1'13
10
Jelle Vanendert
Project 1t4i
+ 1'23
22
Clement Koretzky
Festina-Canal+
+ 2'56
51
Markus Eibegger
Festina-Canal+
+ 5'54
67
Georgos Tzortzakis
Festina-Canal+
+ 8'16
78
Charalampas Kastrantas
Festina-Canal+
+ 8'58
96
Enrico Gasparotto
Festina-Canal+
+ 10'28
104
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
Festina-Canal+
+ 11'18
174
Robert Bush
Festina-Canal+
+ 24'20
Points:
Prior to the race we had 175-250 points as the benchmark, and we managed to bag close to the high end because of Ricco's great GC.
