April has been a tough month for us mostly. We had several issues over the month, with crashes plastering our way. But then our highlight of the month, the goal race in Philadelphia, turned the mood around. Marko Kump executed some strong teamwork to control the break, to win the classic in dominant fashion.
May now directly fires out the next big goal race, the 5 Jours du Dunquerque. The next Top5 goal race with its hilly cobbles offers perfect opportunities for both Polanc and Kump. For the later it will be the last stage race of the season. Lateron the team will compete in the Berlin, where Kump will have one of his last leading opportunities. The PTHC race in Norway can go in either way. Brändle has to deliver here, and we have some further riders that could make this race an awesome one, but we could also leave with way too less points.
5 Jours de Dunkerque
1.-5.5.
HC
flat/hilly cobbles
Polanc/Kump
Top 5
Jan Polanc
Leader
Martin Laas
Domestique
Marko Kump
Leader
Ahmed Belgasem
Domestique
Roy Jans
Free Role
Jernej Svab
Domestique
Jerome Giaux
Domestique
Daniel Jaramillo
Domestique
Marko Kump is leading the team in one of the biggest potential up- and downs all season. Him and Polanc could create a dominant force with a to hilly cobbles dedicated supporting cast, that can also assemble a great sprint train. We are in the shout for 4 classifications: The GC, the young riders classification with Polanc, the points jersey with Kump and the Team classification. Stage 1 is one for Polanc, Stage 3 & 5 for Kump. Results are necessary in our second goal race.
Season Goal: Top 5
Goal: Top 3, Top 5, 2*Top 25, Stage Win, Points Classification, Youth Classification, Team Classification
Berlin ProRace
16.5.
HC
flat
Kump
Top10
Marko Kump
Leader
Ramunas Navardauskas
Train
Luis Mansilla
Train
Matthias Brändle
Domestique
Roy Jans
Train
Jernej Svab
Domestique
Jerome Giaux
Train
Martin Laas
Domestique
We are riding a sprint classic where we offer a fantastic team to power the last 20 kilometers. With Navardauskas, Jans and Brändle 3 of the best roleurs of the division can stretch their legs to bring the train of Giaux, Mansilla and Kump into the perfect position. Then it's all about execution for our slovenian star. For a great result he needs the race to be as hard as possible.
Goal: Top 10, 2*Top 30
Tour of Norway
27.-31.5.
PTHC
flat/hills/ITT
Brändle
Top 10
Matthias Brändle
Leader
Martin Laas
Domestique
Xavier Quevedo
Free Role
Jaka Bostner
Domestique
Stanislau Bazhkou
Free Role
Matej Mugerli
Domestique
Jerome Giaux
Sprinter
Daniel Jaramillo
Domestique
The tour of Norway is difficult to predict yet. We brought leaders for both a TT prone (Brändle) and a hilly prone (Quevedo) stage races. Maybe the truth lays somewhere in between (Bazhkou). We however are prepared to fight for some good points in any scenario, on top we hope for some breakaways as well.
Kump could be very dangerous in Dunkerque if we see a situation like last year and his sprints get executed right for bonifications in the next four stages - Polanc did well there last time as well iirc. And go Stan the Man in Norway
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Berlin Pro Race looks like the kind of races where you could do very well but won't because the AI might not treat your team beneficial. Dunkerque is looking well so far while I struggle to guess what might happen in Norway for your team. Good luck anyway
We fell a little in the team rankings. However, there is still quite some gap to the red zone, which we need to sustain over the next months.
Team Rankings
Team
Total
RD
PpRD
Proj
1
1
Newton Foundation
1497
59
25,37
3552
2
5
Berg Cycles
1443
57
25,32
3545
3
21
Team UBS
1314
54
24,33
3406
4
10
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
1284
70
18,34
2568
5
3
Fablok - Bank BGZ
1209
63
19,19
2687
6
2
Isostar - Adriatic
1178
62
19,00
2660
7
4
Grieg - Eftel
1146
50
22,92
3209
8
12
Generali - EDF
1105
72
15,35
2149
9
11
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
1099
70
15,70
2198
10
7
Podium Ambition
1096
60
18,27
2558
11
19
Eritel - Sonatrach
1012
58
17,45
2443
12
6
Orange Pro Cycling
988
57
17,33
2426
13
14
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
946
49
19,31
2703
14
17
Euskaltel
924
68
13,59
1903
15
15
Kraftwerk Man Machine
919
49
18,76
2626
16
8
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
885
49
18,06
2528
17
13
Ferrero - Samruk
877
56
15,66
2192
18
9
Netia - Vónin
857
57
15,04
2106
19
24
Meiji - JR East
854
49
17,43
2440
20
16
MOL - OMV Petrom
816
47
17,36
2430
21
22
Minions
781
61
12,80
1792
22
18
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
765
57
13,42
1879
23
20
Valio - DeLaval
664
60
11,07
1550
24
23
Haute Route - Mavic
536
58
9,24
1294
25
25
Team Ticos Air Costa Rica
443
45
9,84
1378
26
26
Compal-Merida
429
60
7,15
1001
In the individual rankings we have our slovenian star in the Top 10. Marko Kump, scoring over 500 points already, is carrying our team to success. While our supporting team is pretty much in line with predictions, all Polanc, Brändle and Quevedo suffered heavily this season; under crashes and unlucky racing.
Stage 1: The race had the probably most selective stage on day 1 already. But it started as it does so often, with team captain Polanc falling early. Luckily he made it back in the pack.
We took over responsibilities and chased the rather strong break hard, doing the majority of the work. Especially Jans doing an outstanding job, on which he also thinned out the group quite a bit.
Onto the final cobbled climb we pushed the pace harder, and catching the break just in time while positioning Kump at the front.
He closely missed out on the victory, but we managed to place two on the podium with Jans & Kump. What an opener!
1
Marcos Altur
Newton Foundation
4h34'12
2
Roy Jans
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
3
Marko Kump
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
Stage 2: We had a sprint stage on the stage 2. Kump tried to gain some bonusses to attack the race lead, but failed to do so starting his sprint slightly too late.
1
Peter Kennaugh
Orange Pro Cycling
4h00'12
2
Tomohiro Hayakawa
Meiji - JR East
s.t.
3
Theo Reinhardt
Team UBS
s.t.
7
Marko Kump
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
Stage 3: Again we contributed in the chase on this bumpy stage, seeking for points to rise in the GC.
We tried our best to control things with strength and depth, even when the big guns attacked it.
Sadly we couldn't bring Wisniowski back, who won the stage and grabbed the race lead. Kump, in the green jersey, could only finish 6th.
1
Lukasz Wisniowski
Grieg - Eftel
4h33'30
2
Dan Holloway
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
+ 31
3
Matthew Goss
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
s.t.
6
Marko Kump
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
Hence Wisniowski and also the surprisingly strong Holloway overtook both Jans & Kump in the GC.
Stage 4: Another bumpy stage to be very attentive in. And, alongside many other GC candidates, Polanc failed to catch a split. Our remaining GC duo did so however. Our sprintstar once again solid but not great in the sprint behind a lonesome surviving attacker, finishing 7th today again failing to catch bonusses and dropping a place in the points classification.
1
Alessandro Bazzana
Ferrero - Samruk
3h48'11
2
Matthew Goss
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
s.t.
3
Maxime Vantomme
Netia - Vónin
s.t.
7
Marko Kump
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
But instead he moved up one place overall together with Jans, as Altur finished over 2 minutes down in the group of Polanc, who also dropped around 10 spots in the GC.
Stage 5: On the final stage it was the last chance to steal bonis. And we even had a breakaway appearance, with Svab showing off his strength.
They got caught with 2.5 to go however. And more bad news, Polanc got caught out in a split again, loosing even more time. But Kump could fight for the bonis, coming around the last corner in 4th.
And the Arrow from Doljenska firde some shots on the final few meters, just overtaking Goss narrowly to the line for 3rd and with it the last bonus seconds..
1
Peter Kennaugh
Orange Pro Cycling
3h24'38
2
Maxime Vantomme
Netia - Vónin
s.t.
3
Marko Kump
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
This result makes him gain the decicive couple of seconds, with which Marko promotes to 2nd overall! What a race the team had with him!
1
Lukasz Wisniowski
Grieg - Eftel
20h20'23
2
Marko Kump
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 35
3
Dan Holloway
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
+ 39
4
Roy Jans
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
5
Tom Van Asbroeck
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
+ 51
6
Luke Rowe
Grieg - Eftel
s.t.
7
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
s.t.
8
Alexey Tsatevich
Newton Foundation
s.t.
9
Michael MOrkOv
Netia - Vónin
s.t.
10
Maxime Daniel
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
s.t.
22
Jérome Giaux
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 5'26
27
Jan Polanc
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
42
Ahmed Youssef Belgasem
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 9'43
45
Jernej Svab
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 10'04
Also 4 more riders in the points scoring ranks! On top we could finish high in various classification, including a start-finish victory in the team classification.
Points:
1
Peter Kennaugh
Orange Pro Cycling
25
76
2
Matthew Goss
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
14
64
3
Marko Kump
Isostar - Adriatic
16
60
U25:
1
Marcos Altur
Newton Foundation
20h23'08 (1)
2
Jan Polanc
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 3'43 (2)
3
Matti Manninen
Valio - DeLaval
+ 6'41 (3)
4
Jernej Svab
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 7'19 (4)
Teams:
1
Isostar - Adriatic
61h03'42 (1)
2
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
+ 3'08 (2)
3
Grieg - Eftel
+ 3'56 (3)
Season Goal: Top 5 --> achieved
Goal: Top 3, Top 5, 2*Top 25, Stage Win, Points Classification, Youth Classification, Team Classification --> achieved
Positive Surprise:Roy Jans - He was the key to our result. A major domestique on every stage, with the highlight on stage 1 where he caught a strong break on his own and still finished second. The big boom we all waited for of one of the strongest domestiques of the division.
Negative Surprise:Jan Polanc - Not the race of Polanc. It should be one of his best all season long, instead he faced his typical crash issues. Lateron, and only being the 3rd GC option at that point, he failed to pay enough attention to wind splits while most of our other riders did. On another day 26 points from this would be rageable, luckily for him the rest of the team was outstanding.
What an amazing race for you! Around 60 points more than us, and I felt we had a really great race.
Kump has really been superb so far this season. Rare to find a sprinter that can be used so good on both hills, cobbles and in the actual sprints. Should even be near the top of the rankings now, but I'm guessing he has also used most of his racedays?
Brilliant race for you. You really can't hope for more success in such a race (eventhough you still complained at times about the stages ). Congrats to the race and good luck in the rest of you relegation fight
Negative Surprise:Jan Polanc - Not the race of Polanc. It should be one of his best all season long, instead he faced his typical crash issues. Lateron, and only being the 3rd GC option at that point, he failed to pay enough attention to wind splits while most of our other riders did. On another day 26 points from this would be rageable, luckily for him the rest of the team was outstanding.
Maybe it's time to think about selling him.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
@tastasol: Well, it's nice to have such a good race alongside you,. though it's obviously a pain in the ass to almost share the same racing program with you, who constantly steals points from me. But I like to see you so strong with that awesome team.
Indeed the season is almost done for Kump, only a couple of 1-day races left :/ I really enjoy his run currently.
@knockout: It was though Kump could've been stronger on the bumpy stages and Polanc could've used to avoid falling and thus dropping down in the GC. But yes Thank you for the nice wishes, we're in a good position with this I guess.
@AbhishekLFC: that was the race where we needed to do that
@Shonak: Dream on Well seriously, nobody is unsellable. Well, some are. But still, it'd need an outstanding offer to buy Polanc.
A long day in the saddle of the meninlime. We neither managed to place somebody in the break, nor had anything to do with the chase. However, we had Kump for the sprint. Sadly no teammates tried to guide him into the final or to sneak away minor points, so he was all on his own there.
For some reason though he didn't position himself halfway close to the front, meaning that he had to come from a long way back. That was a task of impossibility for him, and while making up some ground he couldn't even manage to get into the Top 10.
There could have been so much more out of this, but we had to settle for 12th at the end.
1
Óscar Guerao
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
4h59'40
2
Peter Kennaugh
Orange Pro Cycling
s.t.
3
Roman Maksimov
Newton Foundation
s.t.
4
Erik Mohs
Fablok - Bank BGZ
s.t.
5
Ivano Lo Cicero
Valio - DeLaval
s.t.
6
Davide Appollonio
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
s.t.
7
Mark Cavendish
Kraftwerk Man Machine
s.t.
8
Tom Van Asbroeck
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
s.t.
9
Kenji Itami
Meiji - JR East
s.t.
10
Andrea Guardini
Fablok - Bank BGZ
s.t.
12
Marko Kump
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
18 Points is still far less than what we hoped for.
Goal: Top 10, 2*Top 30 --> failed
Points scored: 18 (Kump 18)
Manager's satisfaction rate: 2/10
Positive Surprise:Crashes - We had none. And that is actually a huge surprise.
Negative Surprise:Positioning - Neither our captain did well, nor did any domestique in supporting him or going for himself in that terms. Like this we could just give 7 youngsters next to Kump in these types of races...
On the next PTHC race the team could go either way. It is seen to be our best stage race in PTHC, as with Brändle and Bazhkou we have legitimate top options for a realistic scenario of riders with climbing abilities surviving and benefitting from the ITT.
Stage 1: A flat sprint stage, which means breakaway goals for us. Laas tried:
But at the end he couldn't succeed. Ahlstrand won the big sprint, ensuring that his name is stamped into the ground on his team's home race. Giaux missed his chance to contest for his own.
Stage 2: Another sprint stage. This time we didn't even try to break away or sprint. Coquard won for Festina.
Stage 3: The ITT. All eyes on our leader Brändle, who had a decent day. He didn't surprise, but finish 10th overall slightly lower than what we expected of him.
Sadly Bazhkou could not compete with the best, and finished way lower than anticipated in the 30s. Same for Mugerli however, who had a very nice day with that.
Stage 4: The all decisive hilly stage. And amazingly Quevedo took the stage up, attacking halfway into the race being far down the GC already.
The pace on the stage was quite high, so that he was reeled in though. But instead several opponents of our captain lost contact and fell off the front group. It was not too high to drop our main riders though, who held Brändle at the front.
Like this our Austrian captain could go onto the final kilometers, to then finish 11th in the bunch sprint won by Koretzky.
This even made him climb up to 2nd GC behind Coppel. Also Bazhkou & Mugerli moved up into the Top20.
Stage 5: A bumpy stage leaving room for difficulties. For us it was all about defense, to bring the GC position home. Even better would've been another Quevedo attack, but you can't have all.
A strong break without us went clear, and 3 riders survived. We haven't been part of it, but the winner Gautier has. We stayed save bringing an outstanding GC result home.
1
Jerome Coppel
Festina - Dexia
16h59'08
2
Matthias Brändle
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 1'23
3
Kazushige Kuboki
Meiji - JR East
+ 1'48
4
Jose Goncalves
Team UBS
s.t.
5
Dan Craven
Eritel - Sonatrach
+ 1'56
6
Yuri Trofimov
Tinkoff Sport Academy
+ 2'05
7
Rui Costa
Berg Cycles
+ 2'06
8
Janvier Hadi
Eritel - Sonatrach
+ 2'07
9
Mekseb Debesay
Eritel - Sonatrach
+ 2'08
10
Florian Morizot
RBC Pro Cycling
+ 2'13
14
Stanislau Bazhkou
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
17
Matej Mugerli
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 2'43
43
Jaka Bostner
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 3'54
44
Xavier Quevedo
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 3'57
Goal: Top 10, Top 25, 2*Top50, 2 breakaways --> achieved
Positive Surprise:Brändle - With this race he approved the steep price we paid for him. What a race he rode for us! Playing his strengths to perfection, Mathias took the big GC result in style.
Stunning result for you. Even though you say that you have used most of your best race days, you are also starting to get such a high amount of points that you can't be counted out of the promotion battle.
tastasol wrote:
Stunning result for you. Even though you say that you have used most of your best race days, you are also starting to get such a high amount of points that you can't be counted out of the promotion battle.
It was indeed. Yeah it would be nice to be in contention for a Top 10 result indeed. Hopefully the good performances in May lead us into the Top3 of the provisional ranking after May.
For the Lincoln GP we had again Jan Polanc leading the team. Without dual leadership all spotlight is on him.
From the beginning on we worked on controlling the pack. The team did a great job early on, keeping the group in touching distance.
Having the group in touching distance, Polanc then attacked on the third to last round right into the uphill cobbled section.
Marcos Altur, his nemesis for the white jerseys on cobbles so far, didn't let his rival go alone and joined him.
When the groups behind almost caught up with the couple, it was our man in lime to attack again. And what a move it was to rip a hole in between them:
From behind it was Wisniowski mostly that felt responsible for the chase, grabbing his heart with both hands and trying to chase him down. It was man vs. man on the final 5 kilometers.
Having a spare lead onto the final cobbled section Polanc gave it his all, streaming towards the finish line with our #zeroturnaround riding style. Within lapped riders he could barely hang on to his advantage, but at the end of the day he took the day in style.
1
Jan Polanc
Isostar - Adriatic
3h49'08
2
Lukasz Wisniowski
Grieg - Eftel
s.t.
3
Marcus Burghardt
Podium Ambition
+ 22
4
Arman Kamyshev
Orange Pro Cycling
+ 31
5
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
s.t.
6
Alexey Tsatevich
Newton Foundation
+ 1'00
7
Edward Theuns
Generali - EDF
+ 1'07
8
Marcos Altur
Newton Foundation
s.t.
9
Matti Breschel
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
s.t.
10
Maxime Daniel
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
+ 1'24
13
Jèrome Giaux
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 2'22
27
Roy Jans
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 3'39
Goal: Top 5, Top 15, 2*Top 30 --> achieved
Points scored: 160 (Polanc 140, Giaux 15, Jans 5)
Manager's satisfaction rate: 10/10
Positive Surprise:Jan Polanc - What a ride. We put so much confidence into him. He attacked on the hill, he got cought, he shaked his companions off, he resisted, he won in style. This is a special win for the Isostar project. He played it perfectly.
"It just feels so good because it was such an untypical way we went signing him as our biggest Free Agent in our first season and directly loaning him out. Winning now means so much for the team, as he has been the first of our huge projects on our plan to bring in the best Slovenian riders in one team."
Arguably the biggest win in the history of Isostar - Adriatic. We feel like having reached the absolute peak of the season. A historical moment for the team, as we at the end of the 5th of June lead the Team Standings for the first time in the history of the team. That it's in PCT already in our second year as a promoted team is the cherry on top of the cake.
Having a team of 4 Slovenian captains and being that successful is a great achievement for us. Especially thinking of how young the team is, and how we focussed on supporting national and regional cycling developments. More than ever we can say that the future looks bright for our young core, and we feel that the team could develop very comfortably.
Leading the standings of this point was something that only appeared in the wildest dreams of our managers. With the latest run we declare that we will try to not talk about the bad word with r at the beginning anymore. Instead, we'll look forward from day to day to try and keep us up as high as possible to fight for every single point.
The team is free to continue in the zero turnaround style, racing this fresh & young attacking racing. And, let's see, maybe even a Top 10 spot is possible at the end of the season. The main goal now however now is that our riders enjoy racing, and can grab every opportunity they can get in the difficult second season half to show the beautiful jersey at the front of the race.
5 Jours de Dunkerque 
Berlin ProRace 
Tour of Norway 
). Congrats to the race and good luck in the rest of you relegation fight 
Lincoln GP 
