The new ICL team Aviva was able to stamp its mark on the second race they entered, the CT.2 Tour of Oman. Mark Christian, forever a domestique with a slim palmares, was the first Aviva rider to successfully enter the breakaway of the day in the brutal Oman heat. The trio held off the peloton by 49 seconds and Christian, the best sprinter in the group, won the stage and three jerseys at once! He would only just fail to hold onto the points and mountain jerseys, ending 2nd and 3rd in the classifications.
Wout Poels was predicted to finish in the top 5, but was up against three tough opponents. Nonetheless, he was the first to attack on the queen stage at the foot of the final mountain. Herklotz overtook him with ease, but Poels clawed his way back, dropping even Caruso, to finish 2nd on the day. He tested Herklotz on the final stage, but the German didn't crack, still, 2nd overall and in the mountains classification is a brilliant result.
Tour of Oman
2
Poels
0'14
37
Minguez
8'21
50
Christian
11'59
53
Bibby
12'14
62
Birch
14'53
71
Van der Sande
16'42
81
Simon
18'05
Such results don't come easy, as the Volta ao Algarve proved. Schorn showed another good performance, but the time trial was his weakness. Alex Dowsett was expected to finish inside the top 10 in the ITT and maybe even the final GC. But his time trial was a disappointment, he finished only 15th, and he had a terrible final day, losing nearly 6 minutes. Valgren Andersen was Aviva's best rider, he ended 17th, a solid result for the puncher.
Volta ao Algarve
17
Valgren
2'20
30
Schorn
3'02
37
Bertilsson
3'28
55
Dowsett
6'52
58
Van Winden
7'18
72
Lowsley-Willams
12'15
83
McCluskey
14'43
Our final race of the month was the Vuelta a Mallorca and qualifies as our best race yet. As a CT.1 race it attracted a fair share of strong WT teams as well as good CT riders. But Poels proved his class again with a 4th place on the queen stage and in the GC.
But maybe the greater achievement were the two stage wins by Daniel Schorn. He didn't contest for the completely flat first stage, but the slight incline in the finale of stage 2 was enough to snatch his first win with his new team in a photo finish.
The GC was still in play in the hilly final stage, the pace was high and Schorn managed exactly what we had hoped, he clung onto the top group which had boiled down to 30 riders, beating the only other sprinter in the group, CCC's Komisarak, to win his second stage. Schorn couldn't quite win the points classification, but he ends 16th in the GC despite the mountain stage, ahead of a rider like Taaramäe, an incredible performance.
The Polestar Cyan teams competed in 3 events. The main team competed in the two CT events in Iberia - Volta ao Algarve and Vuelta a Mallorca. The U23 team made the journey to the Pamyr mountains in Kyrgyzstan and the Tour of Bishkek for the U23 tour.
In Algarve the team was led by Fredrik Ludvigsson, Lars Petter Nordhaug and Gatis Smukulis. Things started pretty decently with Nordhaug finishing in Top 15 in Stage 1 with Finland RR NC Joonas Henttala being in the break. In Stage 2 it was the Latvian Smukuklis the one who was in the break racking up 6 KoM points in the process. Stage 3 and the ITT it was Freddie Ludvigsson's turn to shine, finishing 3rd in the stage and took the U25 lead. The final stage proved to be mixed bag for the team - while Nordhaug and Thomas Nybo Riis finished in the Top 15, Ludvigsson lost time and with it the podium spot and the white jersey finishing overall with the same time as the U25 winner Valerio Conti (who was second in the stage).
Over the Ballearic island of Mallorca the team sent their biggest guns - Tanel Kangert, Ilnur Zakarin and Steven Kruijswijk. The first stages saw Zakarin participating in breaks allowing him to win the KoM classification despite a massive drop in the final stage finishing 76 overall over 20' behind. Kangert on the other hand had quiet start, but on the final stage he maintined a pace with the front group allowing him to leapfrog to 2nd overall. Unfortunately for the Estonian, he was 4 seconds short for the overall vitctory with Joshua Edmondson taking the spoils.
Over to Eurasia and the second U23 competition - Tour of Bishkek in the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Russian hotshot Dmitry Gavrilov was the best placed rider overall with 30th some 9.5 minutes behind the overall winner Márton Farkas. Erkan Karlsson was in the break in the opening stage and collected 20 points in the Points Classification finishing 7th there and 6th in the KoM with 24 points.
Sondre Holst Enger has proven himself to be a great signing for the Statoil squad. Picking up another stage win in Tour de San Luis. On top of that, the overall points classification.
Shonak took us through February so quickly that I only have time for a short preview. March is going to be one of our busiest months with three one-day and three stage races. We kick off with the Classica Iberica (CT.2) and Stefan Denifl's first appearance for his new team. He's the back-up option behind Poels for the nasty final climb.
Team Iberica: Poels, Denifl, Simon, Van Winden, Christian, Birch, McCluskey
Next up is the prestigious Paris-Nice (CT.1), with Jakob Fuglsang finally getting his first action of the season together with his lieutenant Jonathan Monsalve. Denifl offers support on hilly stages.
Team P-N: Fuglsang, Denifl, Monsalve, Van der Sande, Lowsley-Williams, Bibby, Van Winden
The Austrian puncher is also called upon for the Istrian Spring Trophy (CT.1). Without Schorn it'll be up to him and Valgren to fight for any result on either of the hilly stages, which is unlikey considering the strong competition in Croatia.
Team Istria: Valgren, Dowsett, Denilf, Van der Sande, Bibby, Minguez, Birch
Then we have two one-races on the same day and unless a rider makes it into the early breakaway and that survives miraculously, we won't score in either of them. The CT.1 Dwars door Vlaanderen is perfectly suited for Stannard, but being part of the World Cup every star is turning up for the cobbled race. Meanwhile, we were only able to call up 5 riders for the København Byrundtur (CT.2) and the captain will be Tosh van der Sande. Without doubt the weakest Aviva line-up of the whole season.
Team Vlaanderen: Stannard, Valgren, Lowsley, Simon, Van Winden, Christian Team Kopenhagen: Van der Sande, Bertilsson, Minguez, Birch, McCluskey
First of all from Portugal. We have to add that Diego Ochoa because of sickness had to be replaced by Adrian Tekliński. (Real reason is that I made a mistake. I still don't know how I "made" Diego riding this race in a preview)
That was an amazing race for us! Komisarek was doing what he was supposed to do, Diego Ulissi with his first win this season and 3rd place in general classification. Those were fantastic news to hear! I have to proudly say that all pre-race objectives were done perfectly.
Team goals for this race: (Volta ao Algarve)
Top 5 in the final general classification
✔
Top 10 on every stage
✔
Personal goals:
Patryk Komisarek
Two top 10's
✔
Top 8 in final points classification
✔
Maciej Bodnar
Top 10 in the ITT stage
✔
Diego Ulissi
Top 3 on last stage
✔
Top 3 in final general classification
✔
Mateusz Nowaczek
Top 10 in final general classification
✔
Mallorca also was really good race for us. Patryk again did his job really well with 2nd and 4th place. Anacona was 3rd on stage and general classification. And I'm not saying anything about others noticable results. This time almost all pre-race objectives were done. Only Ever Rivera finished on 22nd place when we were hoping for the top 20. Yet it was really nice place.
Matthew Busche gave Team WWE their first ever stage win when he came across the line in Stage 3 of the National Capital Tour. He would go on to finish 2nd overall in the race just 30 seconds behind. Busche also took home the overall win the mountains classification. The team was 8th overall and is continuing to improve as the season goes on!
PCM.Daily NFL Fantasy Football Champion: 2012 PCM.Daily NHL Prediction Game Champion: 2013 PCM.Daily NFL Prediction Game Champion: 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2021
In the first of hopefully many updates of results our riders have achieved, we focus on one of our newly signed talents, Ukrainian Yuriy Ischenko.
Yuriy is a rider focusing on races like Liege - Bastogne - Liege and Fleche Wallone,
packing amazing power over shorter hills, with good accelerating abilities, a great will to fight and amazing stamina at his young age. It will certainly take some time for this guy to achieve his full potential, but recently we've seen some first signs Ischenko will be name to watch in the coming years.
Riding in the Volta ao Algarve, a race which is ranked above the level our development team usually races, Yuriy showed the 3 capabilities highlighted,
joining breakaways left and right, fighting for a shot at winning the KoM-competition, and succesfully so! After taking the jersey in the first stage, Yuriy had to gift it to Rapp after missing the initial breakaway, but still putting up a fight to join it later, Yuriy took it back rather convincingly during the final stage. Not bad going at all!
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
We didn't expect a lot from this race and we ended up with peanuts. Intxausti had one good stage, the ITT where he finished 9th. He ended up 22nd in the GC. Brambilla was 26th. Jeroen Meijers finished 5th in the KOM classification and 10th in the U25s. Oh and we got the Lanterne Rouge .
Fortunately, the team fared better in the Basque Country, as Bananito was one of the favourites and ended up with a stage win up Arrate as well as a three podium spots, including the final 3rd place in the GC. Bananito struggled on the third day and lost 3 minutes to later GC winner Bauke Mollema. This was a surprising underperformance in-between some solid showcasts, which included a 2nd place on stage 2, a 3rd place on stage 4 and an eventual win on stage 5. With a solid time trial in the end, Bananito saved his third place narrowly ahead of Roman Kreuziger from VisitUkraine. Mathieu Van der Poel scored as well some pointas 19th in the GC and 3rd in the U25 Classification, his own results clearly limited due to his service to his captain.
The background information was provided by a source inside the team who wishes to remain anonymous.
While working out the sponsorship deal, the British insurance company naturally asked how British the squad would be and wasn't happy to hear the answer "not very". But as manager Ripley explained how all the better riders were tied down by teams with bigger budgets, the the sponsor understood. After all, he wanted some success, some international name recognition, and that would be impossible to achieve with a purely British team. It was agreed that most domestiques should be British, the captains international riders.
Ripley started studying the free agents and stumbled upon Ian Stannard. Here was a decent British rider, more than a domestique, it would surely make the sponsor happy to hire Yogi even if he had no obligation to do so. But Ripley, being so inexperienced, didn't like what he saw: A specialist for cobblestones but surely too weak to ever make an impact. And not knowing the CT calendar he wondered if there was even a need for a cobblestone specialist. Ripley was very close to rejecting Stannard and when he grudgingly decided to place a bid, it was only the mininum wage.
He was contacted by the ICL and told another team had also declared interest and he'd have to make another bid. Ripley didn't like that one bit, would he really have to offer a wage well above the minimum for a rider he didn't much care for, just for the nationality? He decided it wouldn't matter anyway, he might as well make a new bid and lose to the other team either way – which, he was certain, was Wiggle, who very much care for hiring British riders and had more room in their budget...
...and that's how Stannard ended up riding for Aviva, for a manager who didn't really want him. But when Ripley saw what Stannard can do [see footnote], how well he compares to the CT competition, he changed his mind about this signing. Suddenly he went around bragging about how smart he'd been to catch Stannard. The rider only heard the latter, thankfully, and not what went on beforehand. Yogi was already saddened by the fact that Bunzl deemed him surplus after four solid years. But being made a captain of a new team renewed his motivation and he's hoping for his most successful season yet. A look at the competition in the CT should boost his confidence.
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
DH
FT
ST
RS
RC
Thomas
Wiggle
77.9
77
71
74
76
78
78
70
75
64
69
77
72
74
Cancellara
Credit Suisse
76,0
76
64
70
75
75
76
65
67
78
76
75
72
68
Stannard
Aviva
75.6
76
64
72
72
74
76
68
71
69
78
75
72
68
Turgot
An Post
74.6
74
60
64
64
68
76
72
72
65
70
70
66
65
Vandenbergh
Spidertech
74.6
72
61
70
68
66
76
61
66
59
72
72
71
65
Drucker
Veranclassic
73.4
69
59
69
64
68
75
73
74
73
64
72
64
66
Vanthourenhout
Veranclassic
73.7
72
63
68
70
71
75
67
69
71
70
71
70
70
Vermeersch
Veranclassic
73.4
71
64
67
66
66
75
67
68
72
67
70
66
66
His ex-team mate, Wiggle's great new signing Geraint Thomas, is certainly the top dog on cobbles in the lower division this season. But Stannard can just about keep up with an ageing Cancellara and has an advantage against most of the other rivals. Turgot and Drucker would be faster in a sprint and Veranclassic has the depth to play games with their opponents if they find themselves in a small group. Stannard's only real support comes from Mark Christian (COB 72 FLA 72 STA 71 HIL 69), which makes him vulnerable.
Stannard will be leading his new team in four cobbled one-day and stage races each. He'll also be an option for late attacks in other one-day races and has a free role in his home tour. However, his team has also asked him to slip into a supporting role for the two stage race captains and so he's attending two CT GTs. He has the assurance that he can hunt for a stage in the latter part of each race. The Kigali GP is the one-day goal race the team chose, the manager feels this is their best bet for a high finish in any one-day race this season (sadly, he forgot to add Valgren, who would have provided valuable support).
Attention! It's quite long! I didn't take look at the posted results yet!
March
Races
Clasica Iberica
03.02
We are staying in Spain for just one more day! First classic this year for CCC.
Our team for this race:
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
ST
RS
RC
Age
Diego Ulissi
76,9
66
75
78
72
74
58
67
78
72
69
74
29
Mateusz Nowaczek
75,9
71
67
76
69
67
69
69
72
75
69
71
27
Diego Ochoa
74,6
69
75
74
65
63
59
63
71
71
66
72
25
Daniele Dall'Oste
74,4
69
75
73
65
65
59
65
73
71
67
71
27
Konrad Tomaszewski
69,2
66
70
67
62
59
58
61
67
67
63
66
27
Kacper FrÄ…ckowiak
67,9
62
69
66
60
58
56
57
64
65
60
64
24
Tomasz Brzeziński
66,5
66
56
59
58
64
58
68
67
64
64
65
21
Team goals for this race:
Top 3
???
Three riders in the top 25
???
Personal goals:
Diego Ulissi
Top 3
???
Mateusz Nowaczek
Top 10
???
Diego Ochoa
Top 25
???
Daniele Dall'Oste
Top 25
???
Clasica di Tirreno - Adriatico
03.03
After great start of the season for Komisarek, he now has a chance to prove himself again. First flat one day race for us!
Our team for this race:
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
ST
RS
RC
Age
Patryk Komisarek
74,7
74
68
72
70
71
72
76
75
74
70
71
25
Paweł Poljański
74,4
72
66
74
68
69
68
68
72
74
68
71
28
Eugenio Alafaci
71,6
70
64
68
63
66
65
73
73
70
66
67
28
Adrian Tekliński
71,5
71
65
67
64
67
64
73
72
70
67
69
29
Konrad Tomaszewski
69,2
66
70
67
62
59
58
61
67
67
63
66
27
Kacper FrÄ…ckowiak
67,9
62
69
66
60
58
56
57
64
65
60
64
24
Tomasz Brzeziński
66,5
66
56
59
58
64
58
68
67
64
64
65
21
Team goals for this race:
Top 10
???
Personal goals:
Patryk Komisarek
Top 10
???
Roma Maxima
03.07
Another classic! This time in Italy. Great opportunity for our leaders to score some points in the rankings. After great february, why not follow with a great March?
Our team for this race:
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
ST
RS
RC
Age
Diego Ulissi
76,9
66
75
78
72
74
58
67
78
72
69
74
29
Mateusz Nowaczek
75,9
71
67
76
69
67
69
69
72
75
69
71
27
Ever Rivera
74,5
67
75
73
65
64
60
62
71
70
66
70
27
Konrad Tomaszewski
69,2
66
70
67
62
59
58
61
67
67
63
66
27
Konrad Kott
69,0
64
64
65
65
67
68
67
69
68
68
67
25
Kacper FrÄ…ckowiak
67,9
62
69
66
60
58
56
57
64
65
60
64
24
Tomasz Brzeziński
66,5
66
56
59
58
64
58
68
67
64
64
65
21
Team goals for this race:
Top 5
???
Two riders in the top 25
???
Personal goals:
Diego Ulissi
Top 5
???
Mateusz Nowaczek
Top 20
???
Ever Rivera
Top 30
???
Vuelta a Tachira
03.09 - 03.18
CCC is making a WT debut! Finally, after two years in the CT races, it's time to show the world, we also have great riders! Lachlan Morton is making his CCC debut in that race too. We don't have any specific objectives before this race. We know we didn't send our best riders, so we only hope that they will get some TV time via breakaway's or some "crazy" attacks on last kms on mountain stages. As this is our first ever WT race, all our riders have free role's, but Winner Anacona is our leader for the general classification.
Our team for this race:
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
ST
RS
RC
Age
Winner Anacona
75,5
69
77
75
67
65
58
61
73
70
68
72
30
Lachlan Morton
75,0
73
75
73
72
72
60
61
72
71
68
74
26
Ever Rivera
74,5
67
75
73
65
64
60
62
71
70
66
70
27
Paweł Poljański
74,4
72
66
74
68
69
68
68
72
74
68
71
28
Egor Silin
74,4
69
74
73
72
71
57
64
71
73
68
73
30
Konrad Tomaszewski
69,2
66
70
67
62
59
58
61
67
67
63
66
27
Konrad Kott
69,0
64
64
65
65
67
68
67
69
68
68
67
25
Paris - Nice
03.11 - 03.18
This race was always great time for our team. So this time we will bring team even better than ever! Ulissi will fight for another great GC result (at least we hope so), Juan Chamorro will make his CCC debut in this race, before starting in the Giro d'Italia. But we also have Nowaczek and Ochoa!
Our team for this race:
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
ST
RS
RC
Age
Diego Ulissi
76,9
66
75
78
72
74
58
67
78
72
69
74
29
Juan Chamorro
76,3
70
78
75
70
67
61
64
71
71
66
72
27
Mateusz Nowaczek
75,9
71
67
76
69
67
69
69
72
75
69
71
27
Diego Ochoa
74,6
69
75
74
65
63
59
63
71
71
66
72
25
Eugenio Alafaci
71,6
70
64
68
63
66
65
73
73
70
66
67
28
Kacper FrÄ…ckowiak
67,9
62
69
66
60
58
56
57
64
65
60
64
24
Tomasz Brzeziński
66,5
66
56
59
58
64
58
68
67
64
64
65
21
Team goals for this race:
Two riders in the top 8 of final general classification
Personal goals:
Juan Chamorro
Top 8 in final general classification
???
Top 3 on stage 5
???
Diego Ulissi
Top 5 in final general classification
???
Top 10 on four stages
???
Mateusz Nowaczek
Top 15 on three stages
???
Diego Ochoa
Top 25 in final general classification
???
Istrian Spring Trophy
03.20 - 03.23
To good team for this race? There is no something like that! This isn't our goal race, but we have high expectations. We would like to see Diego winning a stage, Komisarek doing some great top 10's or even something like top 3 and Nowaczek sneaking into final top 10 which is unlikely but not impossible.
Our team for this race:
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
ST
RS
RC
Age
Diego Ulissi
76,9
66
75
78
72
74
58
67
78
72
69
74
29
Mateusz Nowaczek
75,9
71
67
76
69
67
69
69
72
75
69
71
27
Patryk Komisarek
74,7
74
68
72
70
71
72
76
75
74
70
71
25
Paweł Poljański
74,4
72
66
74
68
69
68
68
72
74
68
71
28
Maciej Bodnar
73,8
73
65
68
75
75
69
67
68
69
69
74
33
Adrian Tekliński
71,5
71
65
67
64
67
64
73
72
70
67
69
29
Konrad Kott
69,0
64
64
65
65
67
68
67
69
68
68
67
25
Team goals for this race:
Three riders in the top 15 of final general classification
This early in the season it's hard to predict the first monument winner of the year. The past four editions have seen 4 different winners. Two from late breakaways, two from a mass sprint. We're prepared for both options, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck is our man to attack, Danny Van Poppel will handle the sprint. Domestiques will be Bouvry, Struyven, Broeckx, Biermans and Groen.
When it comes to the favourites, non of the previous winners are starting, including last year's winner Marcel Kittel. CarbonSports seems to go all in for Peter Sagan in his attempt to win the World Cup. Suntory also prefers Matthews over the faster Cavendish. Allianz does bring Greipel and his entire sprint train. Alitalia brings their top Sprinter Demare, Peugeot brings Bouhanni and Staoil has Guardini present. Lufthansa has Degenkolb, who takes the hills much better then most sprinters.
Since there was only one real sprint race this season, the Palm Classic, we have to say Danny Van Poppel is the big favourite here if it comes down to a sprint. But always watch out for a late attack, Kwiatkowski looks extremely dangerous here.
The month of March is going to be busy one for the CYAN teams and in Part 1 we'll review how the team fared in Classica Iberica, Classica Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice
Paris-Nice
The month started with Mr. Breakaway Gatis Smukulis again showcasing his break skills by joining a small group in front. However it was not meant to hold it for long as he was caught. Norwegian hopeful Fredrik Galta finished in 20th which on less than 3 minutes behind the winner Salvatore Puccio from Credit Suisse.
Results
Next in our schedule was Classica di Tirreno-Adriatico. The sprinter nature of the event didn't allow the team to do wonders, but 4 riders (Ahlstrand, Navardauskas, Smukulis and Zakarin) managed to stay with the main group as the second group arrive at 1'43.
Paris-Nice (CT.1)
After two one-day events the team headed to France and the staple Paris-Nice. Things started off promissing with Freddie Ludvigsson finishing 7th with Kangert and Köfkvist not far behind in Top 20. But then all the work Freddie done in the opening ITT was seemingly wasted after he, Thomas Nybo Riis and three Statoil riders were involved in a crash in Stage 3 resulting in 6'40 deficit in the stage, dropping Ludvigsson way down in the pecking order.
With Ludvigsson temprorarly out of the picture the weight was on the shoulders on Tanel Kangert, who finished 10th in Stage 4, followed by 8th in Stage 5 which in the end was enough to finish 5th in the overall standings. Ludvigsson, Riis and Fredrik Galta (who had dreadful first stages) had great second half with Galta finishing 3rd in Stage 7 with Ludvigsson finishing 5th in the same stage thus in the end he made a comeback to 34th in the overall and 3rd in the U25 standings. The efforts made by the entire team were rewarded with winning the teams' standings.
Team WWE showed up to Paris in solid form this year, dominating the sprint trains for much of the race. Adam Blythe showed his power when he secured a win on Stage 2. Blythe also took the overall race win in the Points Classification, marking Team WWE's first major win in any race. The team will now look forward to the upcoming months, where they hope to continue making a name for themselves and boost up the rankings. See our key results below!
PCM.Daily NFL Fantasy Football Champion: 2012 PCM.Daily NHL Prediction Game Champion: 2013 PCM.Daily NFL Prediction Game Champion: 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2021
Ollfardh wrote:
Not much of Degenkolb on the cobbles (not even in Gent-Wevelgem, that's a big mistake imho). Glad to see Vanbilsen put to good use though
Looks like I made some mistakes with Degenkolb in the planning. My hands were somewhat tied without another top sprinter...
Volta ao Algarve (CT.2)
Tour of Bishkek (U23)
Vuelta a Mallorca (CT.1)
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Vuelta a Tachira
Paris - Nice
Istrian Spring Trophy
