A bit of blues seems appropriate to sum up our March. More in the farm shortly.https://t.co/ywqBmfRyOJ

— Valio - DeLaval (@Atlantius_PCM) December 12, 2017

If we have to find a highlight it is the fact that our sprint train as looking decent against PT competition on 3 out of 4 stages in South Africa.
Sure our sprinter at the back end only worked on one stage just as the only other rider not to outright disappoint was Paillot in the Corsica TT.

All in all a month with few highlights made by people not disappointing and a lot of chances that were not even attempted to be caught

It is a hard month to award this as no one have made a stand out result or even a strong breakaway attempt.
In stead it goes to a rider, who really tried setting up his leader despite him looking far from his best.

For starters we need April to be better than March and Lo Cicero is the key to that.
Thailand, Hungary and USA is the scenes he will need to use to make it happen.

Kulppi and the Cobblers will continue their tour with little expectations of success except for Paillot in the KBC TT.
Paillot will also be leading our stage chasing attempts in California.

On the other side of the world our stagiaires will be making their debut alongside some other young talent eager to learn. Hopefully they won't get too much of a taste for CT-racing...

All together this month is special in the fact that we will be racing in raced ranked right from C2 to a monument.
As in Langkawi we mainly hope to see the jersey in Roubaix and Amstel. Gautier have found room in his schedule to lead the band of youngsters in the latter.

Start		Race	Days	Cat.
1-Apr		Paris - Roubaix	2	M
1-Apr		Nakhon Ratchasima Trophy	2	C1
4-Apr		KBC De Panne Tour	4	C1
9-Apr		Tour of California	7	PTHC
18-Apr		Betonexpressz GP	2	C1
22-Apr		Tour de Langkawi	7	C2
30-Apr		Philadelphia International Championship	2	HC
30-Apr		Amstel Gold Race	2	PT

This flat classic in Thailand is where Lo Cicero needs to get his campaign back on track.


Having one of the pre-race favourites we took on our responsibility right from the start alongside the other sprinter-teams.


Somewhat surprisingly the finale turned into a frenzy of attacks but our guys did well to help keep things together for a sprint, while the peloton were torn to pieces further back.

We secured the sprint but unfortunately all the hard work put in by the boys left Ivano to fight for himself.


He found a good spot going into the sprint.


He decides to go out in the hard win already a km out.

Looking strong

And then completely cracking barely even making it into the. top 10

1	Damion Drapac	Minions	3h55'26
10	Ivano Lo Cicero	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
46	Sami Tiainen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1'29
57	Matti Manninen	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
134	Troels Vinther	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
144	Yoann Paillot	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
150	Samuel Pökälä	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
157	Gustav Höög	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
165	Joni Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.

Back where Kulppi had his big break-though riding in support of Boonen while loaned out to Evonik a couple of years ago.
This time around our main hope was getting seen - especially seeing that Olli's only top 50 on the cobbles so far this year was in Viano do Castelo whre Brynjolfsson took his brilliant win.

He didn't get on camera but a solid result to prove that he has the strength to more than he have shown so far this season.
Brynjolfsson and Ariesson finishing the race is nice to see as well!

Another chance for Kulppi to redeem himself as a future leader and not just a world class helper.

Right there on the first stage he blew his chance once again.


Stage 2 was better. He still was dropped far to early but at least this time around he fought his way back to the main peloton only to gt dropped again.
Points for effort though.

While he underperformed on th cobbled stages Olli came out of them with a good bit of energy and went in the break on stage 3.

With 20 km to go the break looked doomed but Olli and the others put in a massive effrot in the wind.
De Haes attacked and Kulppi followed.

The three were back together for the sprint, where the minion was the strongest, but still a very fine 2nd place from Kulppi.


For the final TT all our hopes were on Paillot but even Manninen proved that he will be a good asset for future prologues as he took provisional 3rd and ultimately 23rd on the stage.

Paillot had a brilliant day as well beating stage runner up by as much as 14 seconds.

	Best Rider	Place	Time
St. 1	Ahmad Arissol	32nd	+ 10'55
St. 2	Olli Kulppi	26th	+ 4'57
St. 3	Olli Kulppi	2nd	s.t.
St. 4	Yoann Paillot	WIN	- 14

1	Cedric Lebris	Goldcorp - Nordstrom Rack	12h47'12
32	Olli Kulppi	Valio - DeLaval	+ 18'44
76	Ahmad Arissol	Valio - DeLaval	+ 27'24
83	Jukka Vastaranta	Valio - DeLaval	+ 28'02
89	Kari Brynjolfsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 29'04
107	Yoann Paillot	Valio - DeLaval	+ 41'07
115	Matti Manninen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 48'40
118	Gustav Höög	Valio - DeLaval	+ 51'27

As a stage race with two ITT's our hopes lie on Paillot and breakaways.


Paillot made sure we got off to a good start by taking 2nd on the prologue with Faglum Karlsson pulling out amassive performance to take 8th place on the stage. Also worth a mention is Hasta on 20th place.


Vastaranta did well on stage 5 but apart from that the performance form the riders were dreadful.

Not a single breakaway is really horrific for a team with no leader at all.


On top of that all the climbing had taken the edge of Paillots form making him unable to follow up on his great prologue on the final stage.

	Best Rider	Place	Time
St. 1	Yoann Paillot	2nd	+ 1
	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	8th	+ 12
St. 2	Yoann Paillot	66th	s.t.
St. 3	Branislav Samoilev	52nd	+ 3'17
St. 4	Yoann Paillot	91st	s.t.
St. 5	Jukka Vastaranta	14th	+ 13'27
St. 6	Sakari Lehtinen	42nd	+ 9'17
St. 7	Yoann Paillot	6th	+ 25

1	Tom Jelte Slagter	Hugo Boss	22h27'12
57	Sakari Lehtinen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 42'34
71	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 48'35
77	Yoann Paillot	Valio - DeLaval	+ 50'06
82	Gökhan Hasta	Valio - DeLaval	+ 51'22
102	Jukka Vastaranta	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1h00'30
129	Branislav Samoilev	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1h14'10
132	Joonas Henttala	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1h14'59
153	Roope Nurmi	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1h40'57

Croatia14 wrote:
Congrats, awesome result.

We had high hopes that this flat classic would be the one where our sprint team got their things back together.


As usual we were part of the work right from the start having one of the biggest favourites.

However with 40 km to go the peloton cracks and for some reason Ivano is in the wrong end losing contact and never getting back to contest the sprint.


Manninen was up there but didn't find his way to the very front end of the sprint.

1	Matthew Goss	Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ	4h42'53
26	Matti Manninen	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
74	Troels Vinther	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
91	Jukka Vastaranta	Valio - DeLaval	+ 3'27
92	Gustav Höög	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
101	Joni Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
104	Ahmad Arissol	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
118	Ivano Lo Cicero	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
DNF	Sami Tiainen	Valio - DeLaval	-

The main reason for our trip to Malaysia was gathering experience for our youngsters.
With no strong riders even allowed to race here our only real hope for results was through breakaways.

The first we saw of any of our riders was when Arissol went in the break on stage 4

The break got into a good collaboration but with the peloton coming strong from behind Arissol he went solo.

It got close but he somwhow managed to hold on al the way to the finish line taking a historic first win for the Seychelles!

Somehow we managed to be one of the only teams missing the break on the decisive mountain stage, would have been nice to have seen Henttala or Karlsson in there.


Inspired by Arissols win as well as the intense fight to earn a full contract next season Vainionpää went in the break on stage 6

He have clearly discussed the tactics with Ahmad as Oskari also goes solo with 5 km to go.
Sadly his attempt was caught within the final km, but a great effort from the young Finn nonetheless!

On the final stage it was our young hope Joni Kanervas time to get in the break.

The break lasted all the way, but riding his first ever finale Kanerva wasn't quite sharp enough for a huge result.
His first career top 10 is not bad either though!

	Best Rider	Place	Time
St. 1	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	34th	+ 28
St. 2	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	97th	s.t.
St. 3	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	54th	+ 2'25
St. 4	Ahmad Arissol	WIN	s.t.
St. 5	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	45th	+ 4'47
St. 6	Oskari Vainionpää	22nd	s.t.
St. 7	Joni Kanerva	7th	s.t.

1	Rafael Valls	Repsol - Honda	21h45'46
33	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 7'50
74	Ahmad Arissol	Valio - DeLaval	+ 19'14
79	Joonas Henttala	Valio - DeLaval	+ 21'28
118	Hiski Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	+ 39'43
119	Joni Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	+ 39'44
132	Oskari Vainionpää	Valio - DeLaval	+ 41'42
159	Gustav Höög	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1h02'53
160	Raimondas Rumsas	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1h04'01

As this is a WT race we're just here for the fun of it but have nevertheless brought Gautier, who we hope will be there in the fun end of the peloton come Cauberg.


Faglum Karlsson saved the day by his precense in the early break (even though it took some time to establish it).

It would have been a huge surprise had the break made it but they did good making it last into the finale.


Gautier was in the right place when things started to crack, but theres a reason he's leading a PCT team rather than a PT team.

1	Peter Sagan	Moser - Sygic	6h08'34
28	Cyril Gautier	Valio - DeLaval	+ 2'55
44	Branislav Samoilev	Valio - DeLaval	+ 3'36
60	Sakari Lehtinen	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
73	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
80	Paavo Paajanen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 5'42
110	Jukka Vastaranta	Valio - DeLaval	+ 7'43
139	Essa Khalifa	Valio - DeLaval	+ 11'17
159	Roope Nurmi	Valio - DeLaval	+ 12'54

This was the last of three chances in April for Lo Cicero to start looking like Il Toro again.


Kulppi got the pressure of us by jumping in the break. Just as we love seeing him!


As the finale approaches Kulppi ups the tempo in the break and his companions have a hard time following his wheel.

So with 14 km to go he dumps them alltogether


Olli can't make it last but his attack took the pressure of us and Lo Cicero gets a spot at the back of Podium Ambition.

It's a tough final bit of the sprint here in Philly but Ivano put in a solid effort grabbing 8th place today boding well for the rest of the season.

1	Marko Kump	Isostar - Adriatic	3h48'06
8	Ivano Lo Cicero	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
41	Ahmad Arissol	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
65	Matti Manninen	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
77	Gustav Höög	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
103	Troels Vinther	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
110	Joni Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
125	Sami Tiainen	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
148	Olli Kulppi	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.

As always when it's time for a wrap-up it's also time for some Moohsic.https://t.co/byFgF5L2B9

— Valio - DeLaval (@Atlantius_PCM) December 30, 2017

It feels like we have gotten somewhat back on track this month.

Ivano still doesn't perform at quite the level we want him to, but with stage wins by both Paillot and Arissol, a stage 2nd by Kulppi and a couple of top 10's by our sprinter things are starting to look better. At least compared to last month.

For a team that has small cycling nations close to heart it means something special that Arissols win was the first ever for the Seychelles!

This is a much harder award to give out this month with a couple of wins.
However Paillot not only won a stage in KBC but also took a 2nd and 6th in California making him perform on a high level in all his TT-chances.

To honour Arissols great win we present you a cow from his home country, the Seychelles.

We have a very busy month ahead of us starting in Dunkerque where Kulppi & Co. will have another chance to not quite deliver as hoped.

A team of youngsters will be going to the Vuelta a Espana chasing publicity with Vastaranta and Hasta the biggest names in our lineup.

The reason for that is the local races with Scandinavian Race in Uppsala a highight as usual. Obviously Gautier will be leading us both in Sweden and in Tour of Norway.
Scandinavian Race is also our first win goal of the season. It's not likely it'll happen but with Gautier we should be looking at our best resut ever in the race.

Lo Cicero on the other hand will be under pressure to start delivering in Berlin and Olympias Tour.

Start		Race	Days	Cat.
1-May		5 Jours de Dunkerque	5	HC
11-May		Vuelta a Espana	21	GT
12-May		Scandinavia Open Road Race	2	PTHC
16-May		Berlin ProRace	2	HC
22-May		Olympia's Tour	6	C1
27-May		Tour of Norway	5	PTHC

knockout wrote:
Keep fighting. The season ain't over yet

We went here with low expectations for the cobbled stage and as a consequence the GC and with a hope that Manninen would test his legs on the flat stages.


The first we saw of the team was Kulppi and Arissol crashing. Ahmed even had to jump into our team car and watch the rest of the stage from there.

Olli fought his way back to the front group and with Vastaranta by his side he managed to hold on to the front group all the way to the line.

It would be an exaggeration to say he finished 4th in the sprint as everyone were too tired to sprint, but a 4th is good nonetheless.

Both Bryljolfsson and Kanerva tried getting in the break on stage 2

Sadly the were mainly noticed by crashing alongside among others our old friend Breschel. All of them managed to finish in the main bunch, but it did cost Kulppi a lot of positions in the extremely close GC.

On stage 3 we had Höög attempting to get in the break but in the end our staage highlight was not crashing and having our main riders on the right side of the lat split allowing them to climb a few GC spots.

Once again we missed the break on stage 4 and when the peloton cracked in a tough finale Olli missed the crack. At least Vastaranta was in place allowing him to gain a few spots in the GC.


For the final stage we managed to get Brynjolfsson in the break, while Kulppi once again was too hurt by his early crashes to be well placed when the peloton cracked making it another disappointing day as the break didn't make it either.

Vastaranta in 13th is good from him but seeing that he finished lasst among 9 riders with the same time it's hard not to be a bit disappointe it didn't amount to a top 10 for our fading legend.
At least Brynjolfsson proved consistent enough to sneak into th top 30 slightly compensating for the places lost by Olli on the last couple of stages.

	Best Rider	Place	Time
St. 1	Olli Kulppi	4th	s.t.
St. 2	Jukka Vastaranta	64th	s.t.
St. 3	Jukka Vastaranta	14th	+ 31
St. 4	Jukka Vastaranta	24th	s.t.
St. 5	Matti Manninen	13th	s.t.

1	Lukasz Wisniowski	Grieg - Eftel	20h20'23
13	Jukka Vastaranta	Valio - DeLaval	+ 51
28	Olli Kulppi	Valio - DeLaval	+ 6'28
29	Kari Brynjolfsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 7'28
39	Matti Manninen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 9'26
121	Samuel Pökälä	Valio - DeLaval	+ 26'49
143	Joni Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	+ 37'46
146	Gustav Höög	Valio - DeLaval	+ 38'42
DNF	Ahmad Arissol	Valio - DeLaval	St. 1

A new thing this season is the U23 classics. Since we have 5 U23-riders on contract we have beeen allowed to send them to the startlist in our own kit.


That is roughly the highlight in the cobbled classic using the roads of Ronde van Vlaanderen.

1	Saya Kuroeda	Meiji - JR East	6h27'19
51	Oskari Vainionpää	Valio - DeLaval	+ 14'34
123	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 24'54
154	Hiski Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	+ 29'31
156	Gustav Höög	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
166	Joni Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	+ 32'44
170	Raimondas Rumsas	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.

Staying in classic terrain but moving from cobbles to the hills around Liége.


Kanerva got in the break, but unfortunately we never got to know whether it was Joni or Hiski.

As scripted the break never really got dangerous and neither did we despite Faglum Karlssons best attempts.

1	Merhawi Kudus	Eritel - Sonatrach	6h17'46
30	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 4'41
84	Hiski Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	+ 8'37
102	Joni Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	+ 11'10
138	Oskari Vainionpää	Valio - DeLaval	+ 14'31
139	Gustav Höög	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
155	Raimondas Rumsas	Valio - DeLaval	+ 16'36

One of the most important races of the season being placed in one of our secondary countries.
This time around for the first time we even have a rider capable of challenging for a good result.

Largely the race went without any action until the end.
The positive meaning no major crashes and the negative meaning far to many riders on the road hitting the final time up the hill.


Cyril didn't get a good position for the sprint and struggled to find space.

With that in mind he did well to finish 9th even though it was a bit further down than we had hoped.

1	Toms Skujins	Evonik - ELKO	4h31'56
9	Cyril Gautier	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
45	Paavo Paajanen	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
57	Philip Lindau	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
83	Yoann Paillot	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
86	Ingvar Omarsson	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
88	Branislav Samoilev	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
132	Ahmad Arissol	Valio - DeLaval	+ 3'41
135	Samuel Pökälä	Valio - DeLaval	+ 4'28

One more flat classic means one more chance for Lo Cicero to get back on track.
Not that we have our hopes up considering how the season has gone so far...


The good thing about Ivano being less dominant this year is that we didn't have to put the whole team into reeling back the break this time,


We even avoided the crashes and made it to the finish with an intact train. Vinther pulling up the speed and Manninen doing final leadout.


Lo Cicero had a bit of ground to make up in the final km, but he did well despite spending much time in the wind after being dropped of by Manninen.


4 riders within a wheels distance. The fact that Ivano was 4th among these feels symptomatic for his season. Always on the wrong side of the margins.

1	Óscar Guerao	SPAR - Shimano - SCG	4h59'40
5	Ivano Lo Cicero	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
22	Matti Manninen	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
34	Troels Vinther	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
57	Ahmad Arissol	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
93	Olli Kulppi	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
103	Gustav Höög	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
133	Essa Khalifa	Valio - DeLaval	+ 3'03
166	Sami Tiainen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 7'05