August was a month that could potential make or break our promotion season. Heading into the races, we sat just outside the Top 5 with less than 100 points on the projected PpRD between us in 7th and Carlsberg - Danske Bank.
*****
The month started in Colorado for the US Pro Cycling Challenge, where the mountains ruled out any GC challenge. Whilst we had Nabil Baz leading the team, he had nothing on the likes of Marc Christian Garby, David De la Cruz or Serghei Tvetcov.
The opening stage went without incident, but with no sprinter in the team we could really challenge at the finish. Geoffrey Soupe took the victory and the first leader's jersey on the race.
Stage two was the first taste of the mountains, we started them with Nabil feeling the affects of a crash. He would never really recover, and finish over 30'54" down on the winner on the day David De la Cruz. GC hopes gone, and it was looking like a zero point race...
Onto Stage 3, and Mitch Docker gave his team something to cheer about, before Yasmani Martinez moved into the leader's jersey on Stage 4, following a strong TT performance.
Stage 5 finally showed that we were taking part in this race, with Bassirou Konte heading out into the day's break and taking some KoM points in the process. Being caught just before the 5km to go mark, Serghei Tvetcov would take the win and the GC with 3 stages to go.
Back to normal business on Stage 6, where we disappeared among those in the peleton, and Francesco Gavazzi took the win. Serghei Tvetcov took the victory on the race's Queen Stage 7, and with a flat stage to end the race, wrapped up the GC win in the process.
Konte showing off the Côte d'Ivoire colours and going solo on Stage 5 in the USPCC
Fabio Taborre stole a march on the sprinter's team, attacking away in the day's break and holding out to take the victory. Maher Hasnaoui ended the race our highest GC rider, in 45th place at + 23'11" down.
We stayed in the Americas of the next race, where Alex Dowsett went up against the PCT peleton in the Grands Prix Cyclistes. Two stages in total, one in Quebec and the other in Montreal, we hoped that our British leader could show himself at the higher level.
Tomohiro Kinoshita took the first stage with a fine solo attack 2km to the finish, whilst Alex come home in the Top 10. Stage Two suited Dowsett much less, but he did well to finish 14th place, in the same time as stage winner Marko Kump. He would finish just outside the Top 10 on GC, in 11th place, with Tomohiro Kinoshita taking the overall win thanks to the bonus seconds earned.
Alex among the main race favourites at the end of Stage 2 in Montreal
The ended the month at hellish race that is Tatranska Klasika. 8 laps of mountain climbs that will leave only the strongest at the end. Nabil Baz was our man in the race of attrition and we could only wish him the best on the start line.
In the end, he would out-climb and out-ride a number of classy rider in the race, and he would cross the line in 12th place, just over 5'09" down on race winner Mikayil Krasnoperov.
*****
We started this review by saying that this month could make or break us... Sadly it could end up as the latter. Over the course of the month, we picked up a measly 36 points, with more than half of it coming in Grands Prix Cyclistes thanks to Alex.
It left us down in 9th place on 961 points, and staring at the possibility of another season in the CT (pending potential disbandments within the PCT division). The projected PpRD rankings saw us in 8th place (1201 points), but now it was more than 200 points to Carlsberg - Danske Bank in 5th.
September was a busy month for the La Poste, taking in 5 races across 3 continents. Starting at the Herald Sun Tour, we will then travel to Europe for the Acropolis Cup, Tour of Britain and the GP Yekaterinburg.
The month ends in Africa, at the Grand Prix de la Ville d'Oran, and we can only pray that we have a better month than in August.
One race missing from our last monthly review was the Tour de l'Avenir. We had two riders taking part in the race, Paul Junior Maroga and Clenne Morvan Moulingui, and following agreement with SportingNonsense and FroomeDog99 to create a team based around the pre-race favourite Merhawi Kudus.
*****
The race started with a short 3km prologue, where the main GC rivals didn't want to lose too much time on each other. Ignacio Jesus Prado took the victory and the first yellow jersey of the race, finishing the course in just under 4'00". Maroga would be the best of the La Poste riders, + 17" down on the stage winner, whilst Kudus was sitting just 10" down.
Stage 2 was a flat route, favouring the sprinter's of the peleton. With a majority of names within 20" of race leader Prado, a victory would be enough for yellow. Sondre Holst Enger was the quickest on the day, with Moulingui riding home along side team leader Kudus.
The first of two victories for Zabel on Stage 3
It was a more lumpy profile on Stage 3, but if the pace wasn't too high, there could be a chance for the sprinter's again. In fact that would be the case in the end, as Eric Zabel took a nice victory for the Kraftwerk/Wiesenhof mixed team. No major GC chances either, so we had Kudus sitting in a nice position ahead of the GC defining stages.
It was panic stations on Stage 4, as the wet weather and nervousness caused a large crash in the peleton with 16km remaining of the stage, with Kudus involved in the pile of bodies and bikes. Losing 3'02" to stage winner, and new GC leader, Matej Mohoric. More importantly, he would lose nearly 2 minutes to his main GC rival Silvio Herlotz.
The fight back would come straight away on the Stage 5, where the first summit finish of the race would favour our Eritrean climber. With just over 5km to go, he Kudus would make his attack and no one would be able to catch him! Taking back 1'25" on his GC rivals, he would put himself into prime position for the l'Avenir title.
The crash that almost took Kudus out of contention on Stage 4
Back to a flat route on Stage 6, as Zabel doubled up on his victory on Stage 3. No chances to the GC rankings, so ahead of the final 4 stages, there was just 18" separating Herklotz in Yellow, Yuriy Vasyliv and Kudus.
It was status quo on the first of those big stages, as the three favourites cancelled each other out over the final climb to finish within the same. Only bonus seconds for Herklotz and Kudus mean a chance in the time gaps, as Stefan Kung saw his change to take a fine win.
Merhawi Kudus taking the victory on Stage 5 - the point went the momentum shifted in l'Avenir.
Stage 8 was another high mountains profile, but the downhill to the finish could mean that gaps aren't as big as they could. Misfortune would end Vasyliv's attempting at winning the race, as he would puncture just before the Col de Portet d’Aspet. The stage would end with advantage Herklotz, as the German would drop Kudus on the descent and sprint to the victory in yellow.
The ITT on Stage 9 would be key ahead of the Queen Stage 10, and Kudus had the better level against the clock, but would it be good enough to take back 45"? Alexander Cataford would take the stage victory, showing his TT prowess to get the better of Vasyliv, who put his name back into the GC hat with a great ride.
Kudus would take yellow by 6" going into the last stage, bettering Herklotz by 51" and giving him the upperhand going into final Queen Stage.
Kudus on the top step of the podium after Stage 10
Torkil Yeyhe would take the victory on the Col du Tourmalet, but it would be the battle behind that would be the focus of the TV cameras.
With just over 1km to go on the climb, after countless attacks against each other, Kudus would finally break Herklotz's stronghold and with it, Merhawi secured the GC victory.
It was a fantastic achievement for the Kenya Airways rider, and it was a great to have our guys as part of it. Paul Junior Maroga would be the best placed La Poste rider, finishing in 49th place, over 1h21'05" down on our leader.
It seems like a long time since we revealed our new sponsors for the 2017 season. It was back before the June review that the news broke, and with the Tour of Britain now drawn to a close, the La Poste management felt the post-race after party was the perfect time to reveal our brand new jersey for next season to the public.
So here is the result! Designed and made by Mavic, the new jersey perfectly blends together professional racing with amateur sportives.
Not overly branded with the team's different sponsors, we wanted a kit that will stand out in the MG peleton but still look the part when worn at the Haute Route events around the world over the next 12 months.
Any National Champion designs are to follow after the end of the season, along with the all the other team accessories, so stay tuned to the La Poste HQ for all the latest news as it breaks.
SotD wrote:
Looks really really cool mate - Well done!
Thanks a lot - really happy with the jersey and early testing shows that it will stand out nicely in the peleton
Croatia14 wrote:
at first sight that jersey the looked kind of weird for me that blank, but the longer I look at it the more I like it!
It dos take some getting used to - I was worried at the lack of sponsors, but a big influence came from sportive style jerseys in real life and I wanted something that would be very similar. Also, big influence from Canyon-Sram as well Edited by the_hoyle on 10-04-2017 21:09
Two months left of the season, and promotion was looking more and more unlikely.
September was another one of the busy months, taking the team from Australia to Europe, before heading to Africa to finish the month.
We needed a big month to keep things interesting, however one small hiccup will mean another season in the CT division (subject to disbandments, of course).
*****
We began at the Herald Sun Tour, where we had Alexander Kreiger for the sprints, no one really for the GC, but plenty of guys for the breaks and held our best chance of getting a result.
Stage One went to Simon Geschke, who timed his sprint fantastically to take the opening stage, whilst Alexander come home in 9th place. Our German sprinter would improve on Stage 2, fighting hard for 4th place, but well behind stage winner Mohamed Harrif Salleh.
The ITT on Stage 3 ruled out any chances of a GC victory for the La Poste team,
and Kiril Yatsevich continued his dominance against the clock this year.Polychronis Tzortzakis was our best placed rider in 17th place.
Stage 4 saw Essaid Abelouache out in the day's break, making the initial moves to head up the road before fighting hard to take a valuable victory Down Under.
Abelouache's first victory of the month in Australia
The final stage turned back to the sprinters, as Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
took the victory and we saw Kreiger nowhere to be see not for the first time this season... Yatsevich took the GC victory, with Mathieu Drujon our best place rider + 1'23" down in 29th place.
One thing we didn't bank on though was our Gabonese NC, Cedric Thaouta! Heading off on his own (!) up the road, he pressed on hard and took a fantastic victory for the team, securing plenty of points in the process. As attacks happened behind him in the final laps, he was never in danger of being caught, giving him his biggest victory to date.
We went to the Tour of Britain in high spirits after our start to the month, hoping that Dowsett would be able to end his season on a high on home soil. The first stage went to local favourite Chris Froome with Alex and Gaeten Bille finishing in the same time on a uphill finish. Stage 2 was one for the sprinters, with Anthony Lavoine making it two from two for Arrinera. With no sprinters present for us, we were just happy not to lose time with our GC men.
Stage 3 though was when the race got a little interesting for the La Poste team. A short ITT lay ahead, and as Dowsett struggled to post a good time, Bille would storm to a fantastic 2nd place finish, and took the Yellow Jersey in the process. It was dreamworld for the team.
Gaeten time-trialling his way to Yellow on Stage 3 of the ToB
Another uphill sprint came on Stage 4, and as Sven Erik Bystrom took the victory, Gaeten did enough to hold onto Yellow for another day. However, Stage 5 would destroy any hopes of taking the Overall come the end of the race. As the PCT big hitters attacked off the front, our Belgian could only do what he could to try and hang on. However, finishing +5'23" down on stage winner Tomohiro Kinoshita, his time in Yellow was over.
From there, he just lost more and more time to the other rivals. Dowsett was even further back on GC, so we just had to hope there was enough in hand to take a Top 15 finish on GC. Marcio Portela took the stage win on Stage 6 after a long day in the break, before the La Poste guys decided that it wasn't race over in the UK.
Essaid Abelouache, already a stage winner this month in the Herald Sun Tour, found himself in another group up the road. Attacking on the final lap of the finishing circuit with Rene Mandri for company, the pair fought for the win at the end with our Moroccan NC taking another victory in September.
Essaid sprinting to a huge win on Stage 7
Onto the final stage in London, on what was meant to be a rare day for the sprinters. Sadly however, Johann Rabie had other ideas, as he stole a march up the road and held on to the finish. Tomohiro Kinoshita wrapped his GC victory in commanding fashion, whilst Gaeten did enough in the final stages to hold onto a 14th place finish.
The result dampened our hopes after a great month so far, and it was enough to confirm that automatic promotion was out of the question. If it hadn't though, the result in Grand Prix de la Ville d'Oran was certainly the final nail in the coffin. In a sprinter's classic, where you have someone who is technically a PCT sprinter, you would be almost distraught when he crosses the line in 119th place and shows no signs of even challenging for the victory. Well that is what we got from Alexander Kreiger, as Raúl Granjel Cabrera took the victory in Algeria.
*****
In the end, it was a month of contrasting fortunes. We took 175 points from our first 3 races in the month, and a big fat 0 from the last two... We needed to score in all of them to just a hope in hell. The racing in September left us in 7th place in the CT rankings on 1136pts, with just 5 days left to race in the season. The projected PpRD had us taking an ambitious 50 points from the final two races, and it wasn't mathematically possible to catch those above us.
Our regular season finsihed with two races, kicking off at the cobbled stage race, Tour du Faso, before finishing in Switzerland at the Zuri Metzgete. With no established cobbles rider in the team and our big named puncheurs maxed out in terms of RDs, there is a reason why the projected 50 pts from the PpRD s very ambitious.
And so we come to the final month of the regular season, and just two races were on the calendar for the La Poste riders. Manyof our bigger names had reached their maximum number of race days, so it would be up to our 'B' squads who would be racing the stages.
*****
We started the month in Africa, at the Tour du Faso,
were our lack of cobbles experience and expertise meant it would be a miracle to give us anything decent from the race. Cedric Thaouta found himself in the day's break on stage one, but was unable to do anything about the late attacks, as Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz took the victory very comfortably.
Stage 2 would also go in the way of the breakaway, as Jean Junor attacked with 5km to go, and hung on to better the peleton's sprinters. Yet again, we would have a man in the day's escape group, but Anass Ait El Abdia would be caught with 3km to go on the day. A nice sprint from Polychronis Tzortzakis
gave him a creditable podium finish on the stage.
Tzortzakis sprinting to a podium place in Faso
The final stage was always going to be one for the favourites, as the number of cobbled sections would cause some big splits. Essaid Abelouache found himself in a large early break, but that would get caught with still over 50km remaining in the stage. Geraint Thomas would go on the take the win, taking the GC victory in the process. Our best placed rider on GC would be Geoffroy Ngandamba, down in 49th place +10'28" down on the Podium Ambition rider.
Just the World Championships and then the National Championship lie ahead for the La Poste riders, as we look to replicate our success from last season at the Nationals at least. The Gabonese title will be the main aim, but keeping some of the others within the team would be nice to see as well.
With the regular season now finished, it gives a time for reflection on the activities of the last 10 months. There has been a lot of racing - some successful, some not so successful - however, we head into 2017 with an air of uncertainty surrounding the team's future.
After a hard 10 months of racing, we finished off sitting in 9th place on the final CT Standings. Given how our 2015 season panned out, we can only be optimistic about the team's progression heading into 2017. We had some great results out on the road this year and our final position is testament to that.
Promotion was always the challenge for 2016, and sadly our poor end to the year meant that it was a challenge too far. However, we have good company in the Top 10 of the CT Division, all of which stand a good chance of promotion depending on the MGUCI's decisions on disbandments and division reforms next year.
Looking at the Individual Rankings, there are some clear stand-outs to why we finished so high in the CT Standings - Alex Dowsett, Gaëtan Bille & Alexander Krieger. All were big name signings at the beginning of the year and they repaid us fantastically out on the road. The fact that Alex nearly scored as many points as we did on a whole last season (442 points) really says it all!
Add into that the likes of Cedric Thaouta and Essaid Abelouache who surprised us all with their performances, especially at the latter end of the season, it was great to see the team picking up points in many different types of races.
We cannot ignore some riders, of whom we expected more from this year. Either they were out of their depth (even in the CT division) or they are best suited to a domestique role on the team. Either way, the management team have some big decisions to make ahead of the off-season and subsequent renewals.
*****
So why, after so much progression and optimism, is there an air of uncertainty surrounding the La Poste team? Well simply put, it is down to what happens in the off-season and what division we will be riding in next season. Last season, a team which finished as low as 15th place (Lierse SK) was promoted to the PCT Division after the list of manager & team disbandments was announced.
However, this year, with discussions of Division Reforms and improved activity from managers higher up the divisions, it is more rare that a team in our position will gain promotion to the PCT...
So this is where we are left with a conundrum. If we do not promote via the disbandment route, we will have to finish in the Top 5 next season. It is as simple as that. We will have to focus on where the most points can be amassed (following a model similar to that of Ferrero, Podium Ambition and Kraftwerk. All saw success by creating a team of specialists in 2/3 areas rather a team which try and compete all terrains. Failure to do so could leave the team at risk from a sponsorship and therefore a financial standpoint.
And if we are promoted this season via the disbandment route? Well, we will have to strengthen hugely and hope we can compete at the higher level. Many big teams from the 2015 CT division struggled to gain a footing at the higher level, and as a result may not be existing come the end of the Nationals. Again, failure from that point of view will leave the team at the same risk as not promoting next season.
*****
Whatever the outcome, I'm sure we will face the challenge head on. It is what we had to do 12 months ago - rebuild, strengthen, learn from experiences - and it is what we will do again in 2017!
Croatia14 wrote:
If it's not this then surely the next year is yours. With a base around Dowsett I can't imagine you not promoting next season!
Dowsett will indeed be a base, but the new sponsors of Haute Route want some mountain goats on the team to dominate the climbs and the mountains. Will be interesting to see how that goes...
The end of the regular season can mean only one things... WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS!
This season the World's best riders from nations across the world headed to Poland and Krakow for a race that will favour the Cobbled Classics riders in the PT, PCT and CT peletons.
*****
The first race on the calendar was the B World Championships, where La Poste had a good number of riders present on the startline. Geoffroy Ngandamba, Clenne Morvan Moulingui & Paul Junior Maroga were all representing Gabon, whilst Mohamed Er Rafai rode in support of pre-race favourite Lahcen Saber.
The more the race went on, Geoffroy rode in a leadership role, showing his face towards of the peleton throughout. He, along with his Gabonese teammates, were present in every split and in the end did fantastically to take a deserving 4th place behind some much bigger names. Er Rafai took some team glory, as Saber took a solo victory to take home the Blue Rainbow Jersey.
Ngandamba just missing out on the podium in the B World Road Race
Elsewhere, we had Polychronis Tzortzakis and Gaëtan Bille taking part in the World TTT Championship for their respective countries, with neither rider really coming away with much success. Belgium, who had more of an eye on the Road Race, finished down in 14th place, whilst the Greeks finish joint last.
Tzortzakis would take part in the ITT for Greece riding strong to finish in 28th place, but on the same time as Frederik Frison in 15th.
The week in Poland ended with the World Road Race, where Er Rafai and his Moroccan team were rewarded for Saber's success in the 'B' race with a place in the 'A' race. Sadly out of their depths, they were helpless as Sam Bewley took the glory!
*****
The only thing left for 2016 are the National Championships. All of our riders will be present for the La Poste team in their respective National races. The Gabonese NC takes priority, along with the other African races. Any others will be an added bonus...
Post-World Championships, the La Poste Management sat down ahead of the 2017 season to discuss how the team will look come January. This season had been one of progression, and the main topic for discussion was on how we go about continuing this trend...
The addition of Haute Route as a sponsor puts the MG peleton's climbers on our team radar, with a number of different riders identified by our scouting team. There is no real restriction by a National focus, however, a rider from a Francophone country would be of benefit.
One of the big reasons for our success this season was Alex Dowsett, and plans are being put into place to bolster our Classics team to make sure he has the best support and back up on hand. A team built around him has always been the priority.
Elsewhere, we are not dictated by a third specialty, having struggled with the Cobbled Classics and not never really excelling in the Time Trials this year. Both would need considerable work, so I do not expect much activity in that areas come transfer season. Alexander Krieger was our main sprinter this season, but with his loan from Aegon - Lavazza coming to an end, we will need to look for someone to fill that role.
*****
Obviously, any new additions to the team will be dependent on what places will be available come the end of renewals. As we mentioned above, there are transfer targets in place, so there will be riders not being renewed come the end of the Nationals or will be put up for sale during the Transfer period.
At this moment in time, this is our current stance on the rider's outlook, however, that is always subject to change:
Any riders with a 'Yes' as their availability will either be released during renewals or, if they have some possible value, will be for sale during the transfer season.
Riders with a 'Possibly' tag are available to be sold during transfers at the right price, however their sale is not dependent on new arrivals coming into the team.
'For Loan' and 'No' explain themselves, so no need to go into details with those. The Loan status is purely for development of our young riders, so a higher division would be the aim for those riders. However, this is very much subject to which division the La Poste team will be part of next year.
It's the halfway point of the #MGNationals and so far the La Poste team have secured three National jerseys for 2017. Anass Ait El Abdia and Adel Barbari sprinted to victory in their respective Moroccan and Algerian races to take home the Road Race titles, whilst Bassirou Konte performed fantastically against the clock to take the TT title of the Cote d'Ivoire.
Our jersey designers have been working hard since the news was announced, and we are delighted to reveal their special jerseys today.
Adel Barbari - Algerian Road Race Champion
Spoiler
Baasirou Konte - Ivorian Time Trial Champion
Spoiler
Anass Ait El Abdia - Moroccan Road Race Champion
Spoiler
Simplicity in the design was key for our team, and we definitely have that in the results. In similarity to the main kit, the sponsors have been kept to a minimum, especially on the jersey but they do not take anything away from the look on a whole.
One thing is for certain - we will be bringing some colour to the peleton next season, especially when Konte will be riding in a TT. Fingers are crossed that the Gabonese Nationals go our way and we add another jersey to our roster...
US Pro Cycling Challenge, where the mountains ruled out any GC challenge. Whilst we had Nabil Baz leading the team, he had nothing on the likes of 
Grands Prix Cyclistes. Two stages in total, one in Quebec and the other in Montreal, we hoped that our British leader could show himself at the higher level.
Tatranska Klasika. 8 laps of mountain climbs that will leave only the strongest at the end. Nabil Baz was our man in the race of attrition and we could only wish him the best on the start line.
Herald Sun Tour, we will then travel to Europe for the 
Acropolis Cup, 
Tour of Britain and the 
GP Yekaterinburg.
Grand Prix de la Ville d'Oran, and we can only pray that we have a better month than in August.
Tour de l'Avenir. We had two riders taking part in the race, Paul Junior Maroga and Clenne Morvan Moulingui, and following agreement with SportingNonsense and FroomeDog99 to create a team based around the pre-race favourite 
- Well done!
Tour du Faso, before finishing in Switzerland at the 
Zuri Metzgete. With no established cobbles rider in the team and our big named puncheurs maxed out in terms of RDs, there is a reason why the projected 50 pts from the PpRD s very ambitious.
Gabon, whilst Mohamed Er Rafai rode in support of pre-race favourite 
Lahcen Saber.
Belgium, who had more of an eye on the Road Race, finished down in 14th place, whilst the 
Sam Bewley took the glory!
