The Eire Tour returns after a one year hiatus, and it is one of our goal races, we aim for a stage win here and Rowe is our man which we hope can deliver our ambitions here...

The Team:
Matt Rowe
Bernhard Eisel
Marco Corti
Juan Jose Haedo
Thomas Murray
Yu Takenouchi
Clinton Avery
Shengjun Wu

We are here because we are forced to be here... Tvetcov is our leader but our expectations are very low...

The Team:
Serghei Tvetcov
Vladimir Karpets
Steven Lampier
Simon Richardson
Michael Woods
Adam Semple
Wang-yip Tang
Russell Hampton

Thanks to the number of teams competing, we are guaranteed to earn points in Luxembourg. With Dennis and Stannard, we hope to finish as high as possible...

The Team:
Ian Stannard
Rohan Dennis

This is the first real chance that Eisel has to lead our team, we hope he can manage a top 10 but we also want some TV time in the break as well.

The Team:
Bernhard Eisel
Matt Rowe
Roberto Ferrari
Steven Lampier
Yu Takenouchi
Matthew Brammeier
Wang-yip Tang
Chun Hing Chan

Another chance for Eisel to impress, we may not be too competitive but an appearance in the break of the day wont hurt...

The Team:
Bernhard Eisel
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke
Steven Lampier
Yu Takenouchi
Wang-yip Tang
Curtis Dearden
Russell Hampton
Chun Hing Chan

We come to this race as defending champions and our goal was a top 5 for the race. Granted, with a higher level of opposition present, we may struggle to complete our target, but being active is our main goal...

The Team:
Vladimir Karpets
Ignas Konovalovas
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke
Simon Richardson
Matthew Brammeier
Alex Meenhorst
Adam Semple
Russell Hampton

Our goal before the race was to get a stage win and to the surprise of many, Rowe delivered it on stage 3, and almost repeated that feat a few days later. Rowe's consistent finishes in the first part of the race allowed him to pick up enough bonuses so that he could finish a respectable 5th in the GC, much better than previously hoped.

This was never a race that we would have expected to do well in and true to form Tvetcov could only manage 43rd in a stellar field... Lets move on!

We came to the race with Stannard and Dennis, both pretty capable time trial-lists in their own rights managed to team up and finish 3rd overall, quite unexpected for many so we are quite happy that we overcame the odds in getting a respectable result...

Other than joining the early break, we were quite invisible in the race here, Eisel clearly not in form for these key races so we are quite disappointed. Lampier managed the best result of 32nd.

Eisel managed to stay with the group of big favourites but could not match the attackers who contested the win in what was a race he came into as defending champion. In the bunch sprint he managed a 14th place finish, not the top 10 we had originally hoped for but we did well enough.

A rather anonymous stage race for us here, Konovalovas ended up being overwhelmed by the competition and the TTT meant we had no real chance of a good GC... 16th place was our best stage result so its going to be hard to look back at this race...

In some great competition we were not expected to show as much of ourselves in such a hard race. However, Tvetcov and co (notably Karpets, Stannard and Rowe) managed top 10 placings in the stages and Tvetcov managed a superb 10th in the GC, something he was not expected to do before the race. It was a result that the team needed, especially when we are coming in to what will be one of the busiest months of our year...

Our goal before the race was to get a stage win and to the surprise of many, Rowe delivered it on stage 3

We were here, I swear! This race was sooo bad, I dont think I can talk about this race at all, no break aways, no nothing... Lets move on!

This race really started well for us but one bad stage ruined the fun. Dennis finished highest in 11th place but it could have been so much better... Still Stannard took a stage win in the prologue which was good to see.

This race is a sprinters semi-classic, although it was won by a breakaway rider Michael Vink, Rowe didn't fare too well so like Dunkerque, we tried to move on from this race as quickly as possible...

Looking at the results, we can really say that this is a race to forget. The race was battered with crosswinds, something which destroyed the team's chances on two separate stages. Rowe and Stannard failed to shine and Dennis only managed the team's only top 10, which was 3rd on stage 1.

This month mostly sucked, I know it and this race was no different as we were invisible the whole race, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger I guess...

DaveTwoBob wrote:
Hey there Ryant, I have been keeping an eye on the Yorkshire team and sadly there has not been too much to write about so understand if you have not been inspired to update.

Looks like a regroup for next season, hopefully you can hang on to your better riders.

You might have my team for company if my application succeeds

This was a poor race for the team and Rowe struggled badly. Leadout man Ferrari provided the team's only top 10 result...

We came to Lincoln with a team we felt could do well in the race but like last year, we hopelessly failed in one of our home races... Avery came home in 17th over 9 mins down on the winner as our best rider.

Nothing much happened in our point of view, the team was quite invisible in the race...

The team finished 8th in the race but we were disappointed and felt we could've done a bit better on the day to achieve a top 5.

In a similar course to last year's, Stannard attempted to achieve a better result but he could only achieve 15th place, we had higher hopes for Kono in the difficult terrain but he did much worse, finishing in 28th place, disappointing really...

Another home race where we have done nothing in terms of action or results, it seems that we have no luck performing at home nowadays and we have shown some poor form for quite a while now...

Eisel finished 10th here in quite unconvincing fashion but he played to his strengths and waited in the bunch for the final sprint. Sure most of the favourites had already moved away in the search for higher placings but 10th place for us in that sort of race is nothing to be sniffed at...

A sprinters race with a long TT on the end suited Stannard's attributes, he stayed safe during the first 4 days and managed 3rd place in the TT to take 3rd overall. We did however, struggle in the other stages, being without Rowe in the sprints but it was a great result for the team.

No break, no fun it seems as it was another day to forget in terms of exposure. Not one jersey was at the fore and in truth it was particularly disappointing to see, not what the sponsors had envisaged.

Being one of the more prestigious races of the year we sent a strong contingent to fight on our behalf in the aim of collecting as many points as possible. Tvetcov was consistent throughout and Kono stole a win in a break on stage 7. In the overall, Tvetcov finished in 8th place, not bad for such a stacked field...

The PCT Grand Tour brought lofty expectations for the team as we tried to put our mark on the season with a good result. In all honesty, we performed admirably, Tvetcov secured a commendable 6th GC (which could have been better with more consistency) and other team members, primarily Richardson and Corti produced some fine performances when needed. The only thing missing was a stage win, which Tvetcov narrowly missed on Mt. Washington, but the race was certainly a highlight of the season.

Being our home race, it was something we had targeted for a while and we brought the best we could in Rowe and Kono. Disappointingly, few breaks were joined but Kono fought well on the tougher stages to limit his losses and came home in 12th, but otherwise we didnt have much to cheer for...

Finally to cap off the month, we raced in the Netherlands in the Rheden GP, being a cobbled race, we didnt have too much hope but it came down to a sprint and Eisel played his cards right to grab a 7th place, not bad!

Name	FL	MO	HL	TT	STA	RES	REC	CB	SP	ACC	FIG	DO	PRO	NAT
Tvetcov	71	77	75	74	72	71	76	58	72	73	73	64	75
Rowe	72	50	62	67	80	58	79	67	80	70	61	66	67
JTL	67	68	76	61	73	68	70	53	63	74	73	65	61
Corti	72	61	63	62	74	64	77	59	78	76	66	63	62
Robert	67	57	60	79	66	70	68	57	55	55	74	70	79
Stannard	75	53	55	79	69	70	67	66	57	72	69	61	79
Lampier	68	70	73	66	70	72	71	71	70	71	70	66	66
Takenouchi	73	58	64	61	72	70	68	74	65	70	67	68	61
Murray	69	52	64	62	70	68	70	59	75	77	61	66	62
Brammeier	72	52	63	71	70	66	67	61	74	77	72	56	71
Woods	68	73	70	64	71	72	68	54	58	61	54	68	65
Richardson	66	73	72	61	69	66	69	62	57	60	59	71	61
Semple	65	67	71	62	67	68	64	52	68	73	77	66	62
Wu	73	60	67	59	72	72	67	56	66	70	75	63	59
Chan	66	62	70	64	69	67	64	53	56	61	72	51	64

While we're at it, its time to disclose our goals, they are ambitious for sure, but we feel with a little luck we can secure at least a few of our goals...

Win Tour of Scotland
Top 5 USA Pro Cycling Challenge
Top 10 Lincoln GP
Win Windhoek ITT
Top 5 Team Standings

Team:
Matt Rowe
Marco Corti
Ian Stannard
Yu Takenouchi
Thomas Murray
Matthew Brammeier
Adam Semple
Shengjun Wu

Our season starts with one race in January, its not an easy race despite its profile, as crosswinds have determined the race in previous additions. Rowe would like to start his account early with a good result and will have plenty of support to achieve his and the team's ambitions ahead of the season opener.

As we feared, crosswinds affected our race greatly and Rowe consequently suffered greatly. We had two riders in the lead group and Wu finished as our best rider in 28th.

Our team doing some good work early on...

Team:
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke
Marco Corti
Stelly Robert
Ian Stannard
Steven Lampier
Yu Takenouchi
Simon Richardson
Chun Hing Chan

We have sent a team of stage hunters to this race yet again as we have no one to challenge for the overall. Hopefully Takenouchi will reprise his success in 2014 and for us to feature in breaks or else this may be a long race for us...

Team:
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke
Marco Corti
Ian Stannard
Steven Lampier
Yu Takenouchi
Thomas Murray
Shengjun Wu

We understand that cobbles races are unlikely to be our speciality this season but hopefully Takenouchi can spring a surprise and finish in the top 10. Otherwise a break appearance would be welcome in such a low profile race.

Team:
Serghei Tvetcov
Matt Rowe
Stelly Robert
Matthew Brammeier
Michael Woods
Simon Richardson
Adam Semple
Chun Hing Chan

We come to the 'CT Grand Tour' with great expectations. Tvetcov should do well in the overall but may suffer against better climbers, but we'll still take a top 3. Rowe still has an opportunity for stage wins here and Robert for success in the time trials, so we have a good chance to score big here.

Team:
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke
Marco Corti
Ian Stannard
Steven Lampier
Yu Takenouchi
Thomas Murray
Shengjun Wu

This is the inaugural edition of the San Marino Hill Classic and JTL should be a nice outsider for a decent result. Theres no doubt there are better riders around in the CT division with the edition of the likes of Dowsett but JTL has a history of doing well in these sorts of races and we hold out hope for a positive result, and maybe a break away appearance.