01/02 The Great Ocean Road Classic has ended in a win for Jacopo Guarnieri, who surprisingly beat Luka Mezgec and Jakub Mareczko in a mass sprint.

03/02 Bad news for Savio: Androni has announced to withdraw from the team at the end of the season. The numerous doping scandals and missing out on the 2016 Giro were rumoured to be the main reasons for the decision, but neither the team nor the sponsor has been willing to comment. Other teams announced better sponsorship news, including Quickstep.

05/02 The next continent to kick off the season was Asia, with the Dubai Tour. Stage wins in the first two stages were enough for Christophe Laporte to secure the GC. Only Africa is waiting for its season start, which will be at La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, which starts February 27.

08/02 The first 3 monuments of the year have already announced their wildcard teams. Milano-San Remo have invited Androni, Aqua Blue, Bardiani, Cofidis, Direct Energie, Nippo and Wilier, the Ronde van Vlaanderen had space for Aqua Blue, Cofidis, Direct Energie, Sport Vlaanderen, Vérandas Willems, Wanty and WB Veranclassic, Paris-Roubaix invited Cofidis, Delko, Direct Energie, Fortuneo, Nippo, Wanty and Wilier.

Time for our first ''normal'' race of the season, and it's in the US. In the Arizonan Valley of the Sun, the riders await a race that is rather flat. The GC should normally be decided in the time trial of stage 1. With Andzs Flaksis, we have one of the best time trialists in the US circuit, so a good result is definitely not impossible in the first race. For the sprints, John Murphy should also be a good bet for us, even though his shape is far from optimal at this point. On top of that, the sprinters field is incredibly strong with riders such as Von Hoff and Henderson.

The weather was nice at the start, and it would prove to be an interesting time trial. Our first rider to go was Joe, who was looking sharp.

And he set a provisional best time: 35'49'', three seconds faster than the earlier best time of Piper.

Next up was Andrei, our second best time trialist for today.

He already indicated feeling well-prepared for this race, and despite a disappointing intermediate time check, he set the new best time: 34'46'', crushing Williams's leading time.

Then it was time for Anzds, our leader for this race and stage.

He was doing quite well, but could not beat Andrei's time. He did get a provisional second place, 35'17''.

The first of the other competitors to set off was Curran (Axeon).

He failed to come even close though.

Oscar and Mac were next for our team, both setting the same time as Curran, losing around 45 seconds to Andrei.

Then it was time for top favourite Boucher.

Boucher set the fastest time at the intermediate check, way faster than anyone else had been there before, and set a new top time at the finish: 34'22''.

Many competitors were left to take away our podium, but only one turned out dangerous:

Tvetcov set a good intermediate time, but disappointed in the second half. He came in a provisional third, between Andrei and Andzs.

John was our last rider to go, and as expected he lost more than a minute and half. Not many chances for him in this stage though, and it's not why we brought him.

Final rider to go was Henderson.

And he crossed the line as well with a big time loss. That meant Boucher took the win, ahead of Andrei, who got us our first podium of the season.

A very good start for the race and the American season for us. With 2 flat stages, we might well hold this terrific GC placing. On top of that, the lead in the teams classification is very nice. Boucher was unbeatable unfortunately. Now it's time to not get carried away and focus on a good result tomorrow.

Time for the first sprinting stage today. With UHC bringing Henderson and McCabe, it's clear which team has the pressure of winning. With Von Hoff, the ADT trio of Poulhies, Tronet, Alaphilippe and our very own John Murphy, there are many competitors though. Soon after the start, both John and his lead-out Joe told me they were feeling good today, so a sprint train might be on the cards.

With a break of 8 escaping, we decided it would be best to leave the responsibility of the chase to Pauwels Sauzen who had to defend Boucher's lead, while at the same time riding for the sprint of Druyts and Stevens. We decided to place ourselves closer to the middle of the pack, as can be seen in this pic below.

In an uneventful stage, the first drama took place with a bit over 50km to go.

For us it was not much drama, but for other teams even more so. Brandon McNulty, GC 8th, and Hayden McCormick, GC 11th, went down. The Junior World Champion ITT was awaited by three teammates, but failed to make it back to the pack in time.

With 30km to go, we decided to head to the front of the pack. The chase was taken over by the sprint teams, but the break still had a very good lead.

With 10km to go, the lead was still at 2 minutes. However, only one rider was still leading, the other escapees were already far behind. With our GC therefore saved (Brkic, the only leader, is 2 minutes down in the GC), we decided to prepare for the sprint.

Oscar, Joe and Mac were all sent to the front to support John, who followed them.

With 5km to go, the lead had shrunk to a minute. Could a catch still be on?

No team seemed up for it, but Oscar took the lead in the pack. Joe and John were still following.

And the break was in sight! The fatigue of a hard day in the saddle was very visible up ahead.

Even more promising was the sight behind.

Only Wibatech was sort of able to create a train for its sprinter Janiszewski. All other sprinters needed to come from far.

This was the sign for Oscar to give it all. And with the break soon caught, the sprinters were on. Unfortunately, our luxury position was gone due to ONE's great work for Von Hoff.

Joe still looked good ahead of John, who would soon go himself.

It was one vs one for the sprinters now. John moved to the far side of the road, while Joe somehow kept up with the others for a while.

As expected Joe had to let go of the lead.

But then John found a set of new legs and set for a late sprint! But was it too late?

No! It was right on time. Victory #1 of the season already! And even better, Joe managed to hang on for third to make this a near perfect stage. Von Hoff came 2nd in the Holowesko sandwich. Andzs and Andrei easily stuck in the pack.

Wooohoooo!

The final stage is once again flat. Same favorites, same story. That story includes the good feeling of Joe and John again, which is great news for us obviously.

With the race being so short, we decided to get in front and stay there. Criteriums have a tendency of unpredicatbility and hard racing.

Today was not one of those days though. A break of 6 got away, without very dangerous riders in it. There was little organisation and soon the group broke apart.

With the catch being made easily with 10km to go, a big sprint could be expected. For us, that meant getting our stuff together.

Oscar, Joe and John would set up the train, while the others hid in the pack. Of course, waiting for the right timing was crucial.

Wibatech set up a very strong sprint train.

In fact, so strong, that they got a gap to the rest. Stepniak was in a seat and it would be very hard for us and ONE to get across.

Despite our best efforts, the gap still existed with 1k to go. On top of that, Stewart set up a fantastic lead-out for Von Hoff.

Once again, Joe followed Von Hoff, but John was blocked a bit by Oscar this time.

All of course still behind the Wibatech guys, who really did their best today.

And so Stepniak took the stage win. Rutkiewicz narrowly hung on for 2nd as Von Hoff nearly blasted past him to get 3rd.

John beat Joe for 5th, which turned out to be enough to take the points classication by one point! No GC riders lost time today, so our 2nd and 4th were secured too. The Teams Classification stayed with us too of course.

Of course today's stage was not as great as yesterday's, but to take the win in the points classification along with what we already had makes sure that we can look back very satisfied not only at this stage, but also at the race.

13/2 Atapuma has won the Trofeo Laigueglia. In a sprint à deux, he beat Italian talent Formolo. Kiserlovski came third, less than ten seconds down.

21/2 Bob Jungels won the Volta ao Algarve. After limiting his losses on the Alto do Malhao, he managed to ride the best time trial of the GC riders to take the overall win with a small margin over home rider Gonçalves. Lutsenko took third place.

21/2 Chris Froome emerged as the Ruta del Sol winner. Despite an underwhelming time trial, a win on the Alto de Hazallanas was enough to guarantee the win. Contador came 2nd, Gesink completed the podium. In a very stacked field, Nibali came 4th. Stars like Chaves and Aru did not even make the top 10.

21/2 The Tour of Oman saw Froome's main rival come out on top. A solo win on the Green Mountain has, as usual, turned out to be enough for the GC win. Adam Yates and Kanstantin Siutsou ended over a minute down in the GC. The sprints saw Cavendish and Kittel battle it out, with the Manx Missile taking a 2-1 victory.

22/2 The Ardennes Classics have announced their wildcards. All three races had space for Cofidis and CCC. The Amstel Gold Race also invited Direct Energie, Roompot, Caja Rural, Fortuneo and Gazprom. The Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège invited, along with the two previously mentioned teams, the 4 Belgian ProConti teams Sport Vlaanderen, Wanty, Verandas Willems and WB Veranclassic. The FW also invited Gazprom, while Direct Energie can prepare for La Doyenne.

26/2 The new WT addition Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was won by Sonny Colbrelli. In a sprint, he beat Viviani and Gatto. Gautier surprised with a 4th place.

27/2 One day later, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne was won by Mark Renshaw in a mass sprint, ahead of Jasper Stuyven and Samuel Dumoulin.

27/2 Another new addition to the WT is the Abu Dhabi Tour. This edition was won by Rudy Molard, who beat Gastauer and Miguel Angel Lopez.

28/2 And finally some sponsor news. Newly promoted team WB Veranclassic saw its sponsors pull out at the end of the season. It has quite a while to find a replacement fortunately. The same goes for Leopard, which has been in the sport for quite some years, but has decided it's time to say good bye.

28/2 For other teams, there was good news. Direct Energie and Wanty have both managed to renew their sponsor contracts.

In order to gain some experience on European soil and see how the racing is there, especially for our talents, the sponsors have granted us some funds to go to some European races. There will be three periods when we head to Europe. Each time we will travel with a fixed squad, otherwise things are getting too expensive for us. The first tour is in March. Since some races have smaller maximums squad sizes, some riders won't do all races in a Tour.