We haven't done well in time trials so far this season but we always hope that there will be a turnaround at some point. This race is the perfect opportunity for such a change. Not much to say in terms of tactics except that we hope for a good outing from the riders.

Another terrain where we're not very strong. We've been riding the wave of over-performances from Wyss in hilly races. Costa showed that he can mix it up in this division with his rides in Langkawi. We hope he can take that forward in races like this. Not very sure that the profile suits the rest of the team a lot. We're hoping to get lucky here at best.

Our only C2 goal race comes with as much uncertainty as any of our hilly races. Marcel Wyss leads the team along with Costa, but they aren't the most powerful punchers around. Romain Bardet is supposed add some climbing muscle to the team and may turn out to be our secret weapon. Kreder is selected to have a go at the first two flat stages, which should suit him.

At the start of the year, when we selected goals for the season, this was the race we were most unsure about. Right now, the way things have progressed, this race might turn out to be our best chance to accomplish a race goal!

The most important race for us this month and the one which can potentially get our campaign back on track. But this is perhaps the most unpredictable race of the entire CT season!

Every time Drucker rides, we expect big things. The course suits him very well and we expect him to be on the podium. The supporting cast is very strong, as we didn't want to leave any stone unturned in our quest to achieve a good result here.
But is it too strong in terms of sprinting perhaps?

We need a very good result here, maybe only a win will be enough. We hope that there are no breakaway surprises. That can spoil it completely for us.

Our second home race of the season and the only race on our calendar based out of The Netherlands. The race profile doesn't really suit us, but how could we not ride here?

Krieger leads our sprint setup with Kreder not riding. Bogdanovics is his lieutenant. Drucker rides as a part of the sprint train in the only race of the season where he doesn't have leadership duties. Grabovski and Van Zandbeek both ride in the hope of leading the team to a good time trial performance. We hope to get lucky with the TTs and pick up a decent placing in the final GC, although we are not getting our hopes up.

Croatia14 wrote:
I fancy a great Faso!

Van Zandbeek looked good for some time as an early start meant he spent quite some time inside the top 10. However, as soon as the favourites made their runs, his slide started and he ended up 16th. Still, not the worst result from him given his abilities.

Worse came when Grabovski failed to go faster and only managed 18th. Van Emden was never really in with a shot and failed to create an upset.

1	Andrew Tennant	cycleYorkshire	53'41
16	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	+ 1'50
18	Dmitri Grabovski	Philips - Continental	+ 1'53
36	Jos Van Emden	Philips - Continental	+ 3'07

Horrible outing for us! We expected a top 10 from Grabovski but he failed to deliver once again. We end with only minor points once again. Not the start we were hoping for in May.

The race started with Wyss, Van Zandbeek and Van Emden all repeatedly trying to get into the break. They didn't succeed as the pack chased them down, and the management was actually happy with that. Not sure what their plan was then!

We contributed to the early pace-making and then took over with around 50 km left, slowly but surely reeling in the breakaway.



Roux attacked with around 23 km to go and as the first of the favourites to do so. Wyss joined two others in chase.



The chasers didn't catch Roux and are reeled back in with 17 km to go. We dropped back a bit in the pack over the next kilometers as a couple of other teams led the chase for Roux. We managed to save our energy, only losing an inaattentive Costa to a late pack split.

Once again, in the last 5 kilometers, we made our presence at the front of the group. As the pack took the final right turn, Wyss took advantage of the tailwind and launched an acceleration in search of the win. Boily and Vichot countered, and so did Chaves a little belatedly.



Chaves couldn't catch the leading trio and it came down to a sprint in the final 500 meters for the win.



Despite being the early aggressor and leading out in the sprint, Wyss held on to claim a famous win for us, our first ever in a Classic!



Van Emden and Bardet finished in two more minor points scoring positions to add to the rewards from this great race.

1	Marcel Wyss	Philips - Continental	4h23'53
2	David Boily	World Cycling Centre	s.t.
3	Arthur Vichot	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
20	Jos Van Emden	Philips - Continental	+ 40
24	Romain Bardet	Philips - Continental	s.t.
27	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	s.t.
57	Enrico Battaglin	Philips - Continental	s.t.
67	Tom Leezer	Philips - Continental	s.t.
74	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	s.t.
83	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 3'49

Exactly what we needed this month. This race wasn't one where we were expecting a good result, and winning it was well beyond our wildest dreams. But Wyss delivered spectacularly! The whole team did a really impressive job in controlling the early break and then delivering our leader into an ideal attacking position. Costa disappointed once again, but maybe we can let that go just this once because of the overall success.

Another hilly race right off the back of our successful outing in Cacak. The team were in high spirits and we hoped that we could keep the momentum going.


And we were successful first up! After not sending a man in the day's break, we concentrated on getting a good result in the sprint with Kreder. We had no leadout here but Kreder managed to ride the wheels of his rivals and got himself into an excellent position as the trains formed. And he took the win with a superb sprint! Two in a row for us!




This stage turned out similar to the previous one. Kreder once again got himself into a good position in the final sprint preparations, only a couple of positions back from last time. He finished a couple of positions down too, taking 3rd place. This meant that he held on to both his leader's and points jerseys.




After a successful duo of flat stages, it was time for the hills. We avoided the break again and worked to put our leaders, Wyss and Costa into a good position.



Wyss was able to follow the first move of the day by Khripta and they pulled away to a small gap.



They eventually got caught by the pack but Wyss countered the next attack too and got away with Roux and Chaves. Kreder was dropped at time and effectively gave up his leader's jersey. Wyss could not keep up with the others and dropped back to be caught by a group consisting of Boily, Bratashcuk and Othman. And that's how it finished. Wyss took 6th place on the stage but moved up 4th in the GC behind stage winner Roux.


The higher climbs had us somewhat worried as to how well our punchers can adopt.

We put Ruijgh into the break and he delivered spectacularly, winning all but the last KOM sprint. He went from having no points to joint winner of the KOM classification just on this stage!



Behind him, as the attacks started inside the final 10 kilometers, Wyss held back for some time before he too joined in the fun. While Boily dropped the others in Wyss's group, the other three rode to the line together. Wyss finished 9th on the stage and dropped down to 6th in the GC. Bratashcuk and Chaves's rides on this stage moved them to the top of the standings ahead of Roux. Costa rode a decent stage to move up considerably in the GC. Ruijgh, too, was rewarded for his earlier efforts with a points-scoring GC finish.

1	Andrii Bratashcuk	Campari - Super Dry	16h26'43
6	Marcel Wyss	Philips - Continental	+ 2'00
16	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 6'01
24	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	+ 8'03
42	Michel Kreder	Philips - Continental	+ 10'05
46	Romain Bardet	Philips - Continental	+ 10'58
47	Albert Timmer	Philips - Continental	+ 11'47
54	Tom Leezer	Philips - Continental	+ 15'11
64	Enrico Battaglin	Philips - Continental	+ 18'04

We came into this race hoping to just achieve our season goal of a top 10 finish. We come away with two jerseys, a stage win and a 6th place in the GC, and a couple of minor placings to boot. Our hill squad has delivered beyond their limits in the last couple of races and this will be a huge boost in our promotion push.

Marcel Wyss and Michel Kreder were the stars of the race for us. Kreder ensured we were justified in bringing him here by holding the leader's jersey for a couple of stages. Wyss shows that cycling is much more than just stats as he continues to defy the bookies. Coming up to the half-way stage of the season, he has now arguably put himself as a rider of the season contender for us. Ruijgh pleasantly surprised us with the KOM win, having not gone into breaks enough so far this season. Add to that Costa's first point-scoring return from a hilly race, and we can safely say that this race was a success.