iker321 wrote:
In the Photo of Jersey is Czech flag.

@Kiserlovski01. @sutty68 I hope he can perform well without the pressure of the Grand Tours

@Tamijo Thanks!
@VoetsT, @Croatia14 Glad you like the team so far

@sutty68 Without any doubt!

Tomorrow, I'll start with the racing. First race will be the Australian Road Nationals

First race for our team, in Australian roads with the Australian Road Championship.
Our only rider in the race is Heinrich Haussler, who will try to win by second time in three years this race, and the right to wear the Australian jersey. Main favourite is Michael Matthews, but he only has one team-mate today, so unless Orica wants to control the race for Gerrans or Ewan, a breakaway win might be very likely.



As expected, Orica was the only one to chase a 7-men breakaway, with no big names, with a little help from Hamilton, Matthews’ team-mate. In the penultime climb, the escapees were caught in the exact moment that Haussler was dropped from the group. He is not in good shape in this moment of the season and neither he was having a good day



He was able to rejoin the leading group in the descent. He sticked to Matthews’ wheel and despite a good attack of Richie Porte, Haussler was able to keep his place in the group. In the moment of the sprint, nothing stopped Michael Matthews from winning his first Australian Championship.



Thanks to sprint of Matthews’ wheel, Haussler was able to finish in second place. An unexpected result when he was dropped from the group with 20 km to the end

First World Tour race of the season in Australia, with Tour Down Under. No sponsor objetive, but that doesn’t mean that we are here just by obligation.



Phil Bauhaus is here to win a sprint, while Valerio Conti will try to sneak into the top10 of the race. Bauhaus’ main rivals in the sprint will be Fernando Gaviria, Arnaud Demare and Giacomo Nizzolo.

Big riders like Chris Froome, Dan Martin, Michal Kwiatkowski, Philippe Gilbert, four times TDU winner Simon Gerrans, Diego Ulissi, Ion Izagirre, Tony Gallopin, Oliver Naesen and Julian Alaphilippe will be starting their seasons here.

Our squad is the following one. Also this seven will ride Cadel Evans Race, a week later, and Herald Sun Tour, so they will have lot of time to discover Australian roads

sutty68 wrote:
So close for Haussler

The first stage will end in Lyndoch, in an almost sured sprint finish. A breakaway of 8 riders was in front of the bunch during the stage. It looked a boring day until a crash happened inside the last 30 km, involving 3-times Tour de France winner Chris Froome and some of his team-mates



Stephen Cummings was forced to abandon due that crash. Despite Cannondale’s effort (they had 6 out 7 member of their team in Froome’s group) they would never see the main group again.

Incredibly, despite several teams efforts, the breakaway would go onto winning the stage. The lucky man was Michael Hepburn (Orica-Scott), who won ahead of Jos van Emden (LottoNL-Jumbo)



Phil Bauhaus could finish in seventh place, but he will wear the U25 jersey in the following as the leader of that classification. Froome’s group, with included Bettiol, Kwiatkowski, Ulissi, Keukeleire and Roas, lost around 2 minutes, putting them out of GC contention