Holowesko – Citadel Racing Team p/b Hincapie Sportswear was founded back in 2012 as BMC - Hincapie Sportswear and joined the continental division as a development team for the BMC Racing Team. Since 2014, the team functions independently from the WorldTour team.

Since 2016, Holowesko has joined the team as main sponsor and will also continue this sponsoring for at least the 2017 season.

While the team has always been relatively successful in the UCI circuit and picked up some wins, such as a stage win in the Amgen Tour of California and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, it is without much doubt that the 2016 season was the most successful for the team. Robin Carpenter was the star amongst these riders, by picking up a stage win and leader’s jersey in the Tour of Utah but above all the overall GC win in the 2.1 Tour of Alberta, beating Bauke Mollema.

The upward trend that the team has had looks to be continued with new manager Selwink, who is aspiring to join the ProContinental division at the start of 2019 at the latest.

Database: PCMDaily 2017 Database V1.1 (slightly edited)
Difficulty: Hard (for now, may be due for change in the future)
Prize money: x1.0
Crash frequency: 120%
Random potentials: On

Robin Carpenter: In the last seasons he has been the top scorer for this team, and still being very young there’s no reason to believe he’s reached his peak yet. This season, reaching similar performances will be hard but not impossible.

Andzs Flaksis: An excellent time trialist who can also survive hills. In stage races with time trials he definitely has all it takes to be a good team leader for us.

John Murphy: Many fast guys are part of this team, but John is probably the fastest sprinter here. In his palmares we find stage wins in, among others, the Tour de Langkawi, another 2.HC race. On top of that he brings us WorldTour experience.

Taylor Eisenhart: This young talent is probably our best stage racer. He already got a top-10 in the Tour of Utah GC and rode for BMC as a trainee in 2016.

Joseph Lewis: Joseph is a great versatile rider. He can survive hills, ride time trials and also function good in a sprint. That way he’ll be helpful on any terrain, but maybe also ride for his own chances.

Tyler Magner: Another rider with professional experience, as a former Team Type 1 and UnitedHealthCare rider. Another good sprinter who will function as a lead-out if necessary.

Mac Brennan: A decent helper for the flat. He rides good time trials, but not good enough to lead. Nevertheless, his work should be valuable.

Ruben Companioni: From the exotic Cuba, Ruben is a good baroudeur. He’ll be very helpful on the flat, and can survive a slightly hilly terrain as well.

Andrei Krasilnikau: Another good Eastern European time trial specialist who can survive hills. He might even enjoy a protected status in some races.

Miguel Bryon: Miguel is our best sprinting talent. On top of that, he can survive hills quite well. Though he won’t ride too much for his own chances this season, it’s likely that he’ll grow further and get his own chances soon.

Brendan Rhim: Our climbing talent. Just like Miguel he’ll turn 22 in 2017, and he’ll show his powers on the sections of the road that are not flat. We feel that he can grow even further as well.

Our expectation for this race is obviously not incredibly high. Joe’s obviously not a bad time trial rider, but with world-class specialists like Rohan Dennis on the startlist, it would be a huge surprise to see an outsider even getting close to the podium, let alone the win. Let's just see then where we'll end up.

55 riders have made it to Hepburn Springs today. Joe will be the 43th rider to start. That obviously means that before his start, some good times will have been set already, by for example Damien Howson.

Time for Joe to set off for his time trial. At the intermediate he was already down at 40th place, and it seems the early season form is not yet brilliant.

But in the car behind, the signs were becoming hopeful. Joe was finding his rhythm better and better. As it turns out, he even made up time in the second section! At the intermediate check, he was 47 seconds down and was 40th (out of 43). At the finish line the gap to Howson, who was still in the lead, was only 39 seconds. A provisional 9th time was to everyone's satisfaction.

In the end, it was Durbridge who took a surprising victory with a time of 23'00''.

Rohan Dennis never got in his top shape and had to live with 3rd place. Joe's time was good enough for a satisfying 18th place in the end.

A great start to the season. Joe showed he can ride a good time trial early in the season. If the rest of the season is like this, things are looking great.

Once again victory seems unlikely for us. It's a very tough uphill course. Joe is not a bad climber again, but with Simon Gerrans, Michael Matthews, Richie Porte and many more on the startlist, a miracle is probably needed for us to get a win. We'll just see where we end up.

55 riders made it to the start today, and the many WorldTour shirts indicated it would be a hard race for us to win.

We therefore decided our best chance for a good result would be from an early break and hoping it would succeed. And so Joe broke away and got 3 riders with him. Sadly for us, many more riders believed in a successful break, so it was hard to get away.

Eventually, the attacks from the pack froze. A break of 5 riders was formed. Apart from Joe, who had managed to survive up front, there was Clarke (UnitedHealthCare), Harper (IsoWhey), Monk (Drapac) and Earle (Ukyo). A strong break it seems. If it were to survive, Earle's WT experience might be the decider.

Joe did not have an easy day up front. The gap with the pack grew, and that was because of a high pace set up front. Uphill, struggling was the only way to follow.

The pack let the gap increase, but not to more than 7 minutes. It was Sunweb and Orica making the pace. In the rain Matthews went down in a mass crash, and so the field behind Joe fell apart. Joe himself was also in trouble. At the climbs he was constantly in the back and had to make small sprints to hang on. From his communication with the car, it turned out that he was not very high on energy anymore, but that we'd just have to see how far his effort lasted.

With 70km to go Clarke pulled the group apart. Joe was dropped and never came back.

From there on Joe just took an easy ride to the finish. The win eventually went to Howard, who managed to surprise the other sprinters with an early launch. Clarke, member of the early break, was the one initiating that acceleration, and it was enough for second. Caleb Ewan came only third. Joe himself eventually came in as the very last.

A tough day today. We never really stood a chance of a good result, so let's just get on with the rest of the season.

22/01 Wildcards for the Tour de France have already been awarded. As in many of the past editions, Direct Energie, Cofidis and Fortuneo have received an invitation. Wanty Groupe Gobert will have its first ever start in La Grande Boucle.

23/01 The Tour Down Under has been won by Nairo Quintana. In a field, worthy of Tour de France, the podium was completed by Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali. An impressive solo win on Willunga Hill was not enough for Froome to take back the time lost in stage 2, which Quintana won. The 4 sprint stages were won by Cavendish (1,6) and home rider Caleb Ewan (3,4).

27/01 The European cycling season has started in late January. The first of the one-day races on Mallorca, the Trofeo Porreres, Felanitx, Ses Salines, Campos, ended in a mass sprint in which Mark Renshaw was the best.

30/01 America also saw its season opener with the Vuelta a San Juan, which hosts its first professional edition this year. On the Alto Colorado, Rudy Molard took a win, which was enough for the GC.

01/02 Several CT teams may end up in trouble. For 0711 Cycling, the freshly attracted main sponsor has recently announced it will only remain in cycling ofr just a year. The German team will need to find a new sponsor and has luckily been given lots of time for that. Silber Pro Cycling also received the news recently that Silber, which has been sponsor since 2014, will leave the Canadian setup. On the bright side, many teams have announced renewal, including WorldTour team BMC.

01/02 More WorldTour races have announced their wildcard invitations. The new WT addition Great Ocean Road Classic had invitations to spare for Aqua Blue, CCC, Roompot and Wilier. The second new addition, Strade Bianche, awarded its wildcards to the Italian teams: Androni, Bardiani, Nippo and Wilier. Paris-Nice saw the exact same wildcards as the Tour. The Tirreno-Adriatico, just like Strade Bianche, gave its wildcards to the Italian teams. The Abu-Dhabi Tour, which announced it would grant 4 wildcards, only found 2 teams willing: Delko and Soul Brasil.