jandal7 wrote:

Don't quote me on this, but Santos suck.

Ollfardh wrote:

Sprinters are delicate creatures. Getting out of bed on the wrong side might already be enough to not even partake in the day's mass sprint. Schorn showed this in his home tour last month, where he finished outside the top 20 in most mass sprints, and he doubled down in the Tour de Pologne, where he failed to make the top 40 twice. Valgren, on the other hand, rode smartly in the uphill finale of stage 5, finishing a credible 7th. He wasn't quite as good a day later as 18th, but he only dropped one place in the GC - 8th in a strong field of riders is a very good result. Minguez had a good day in the breakaway, collecting a lot of KoM points. Mark Christian's breakaway on the final stage was even more successful, the group just held off the peloton and Christian finished a strong runner-up behind Vegeta's Golas.

Tour de Pologne	8	Valgren	2'50
	42	Schorn	14'12
	45	Bibby	15'03
	57	Bertilsson	19'52
	58	Simon	20'19
	59	Minguez	20'58
	79	Christian	28'10

We didn't expect anything from our home race RideLondon–Surrey Classic. With Schorn in Poland, we only had Tosh van der Sande for the expected mass sprint in very British wet conditions. Our best hope of getting noticed was joining the break of the day, but that's not our speciality and we failed once again. However, after the group had been caught Van Winden dared a solo attack, while brief and unsuccessful, we loved seeing him ahead.


Then Teklehaimanot broke away and was only caught inside the final kilometre. The peloton largely had Stannard to thank for that, it was unclear if he was just working for Van der Sande or trying to attack himself. While the work didn't pay off for Yogi, Van der Sande found a good rear wheel and sprinted to a strong 6th place, his best result in the Aviva jersey so far and in fact, his best result in a one-day race in his whole career.

Only once this season Poels remained passive in a race and finished only 15th, in the Clasica Iberia in early March. He animated every other race with a successful attack and the Tour do Rio was no exception. He accelerated on the tough final climb, joined by Puccio, who clearly had the better legs on the day and rode to a solo victory. Poels was eventually, but only, caught by Moser and ended 3rd. Valgren was part of a chasing group but ran out of steam, unable to launch his sprint he finished 19th.

Our next stop was the Baltic Chain Tour. With a lot of strong WT competition a good result for Stannard was doubtful. But he rode a good prologue, he was 7th, 8 seconds down on the eventual overall winner GVK. The later pavé stage proved less decisive than Stannard had hoped, but he finished in the top group and with that in the top 10, which is all we could've asked for. We also had Schorn for the sprint stages. His results of late had been a little underwhelming and he was only 10th on the tougher stage 2, which suited him so well. Instead, out of nowhere he won stage 3, even beating Andrew Fenn.

The USA Pro Cycling Challenge was the biggest disappointment all season, our luck was bound to run out at some point. Fuglsang's opening time trial already was sub par, but it only got worse from there. He was so far behind in the GC that he was able to join the early breakaway on the final stage, which he finished as 4th, but in the GC he ends only 23rd. However, Monsalve at least delivered his best performance so far and finished 5 positions ahead of his captain. Lowsley-Williams also represented out team in two breakaways.

The small cobbled sectors in the Criterium Hainleite were never going to have much of an impact, but that WWE's climber Atapuma won the race is a surprise nonetheless. Our captains Valgren and Stanard made it into the group of 17 riders that would decide the race and they finished 8th and 12th. The biggest surprise for Aviva was McCluskey's excellent 25th place, he was the only rider in our squad who hadn't been able to pick up a single prestige point and he's delighted he changed that.

The Post Danmark Rundt started with a bang, Schorn was able to win the opening stage and slipped into the leader's jersey for a day. It's his 7th win of the season. Stage 5 was the individual time trial we had been dreading – would poor Dowsett disappoint yet again? The answer, finally, was no, he was 6th on the day, a result matching his abilities. He went on to finish 12th in the GC, Schorn wasn't far behind as 15th. Bertilsson did surprisingly well on the final stage, finishing 2nd, well ahead of Van der Sande and Schorn.

Summary: We expected August to be our weakest month in terms of prestige points per race day. But actually, there were many fine results, including two more stages for Schorn and great rides from Valgren, Poels, Van der Sande, Stannard and even Dowsett, who had his best race so far. Only the poor showing of Fulgsang in the USA was a major disappointment.

Everyone at PostNL are very happy to announce the first ever riders to our new Benelux team through the scouting system. The BGS group have been working hard to scout riders and sign riders and we are please to have these young talents on board for the 2019 ICL season.

Florian Diederich - Puncheur
Steven Nass - Puncheur
Marc Herder - Sprinter
Johnny Donleben - Puncheur



We are very excited about the future development of these riders and wish them success for next year and we hope for a prolonged stay at the PostNL team. We will no longer be looking towards talents in the near future and will carry on short list riders to join the 2019 roster.

At the eve of the 20th stage of this year's Vuelta a Espana, Jesus Herrada sits in 2nd, 8 seconds behind his friend and once-captain, Alberto Contador Velasco. Behind him is the Shark, Vincenzo Nibali of Messina, trailing at further 19 seconds. If the spanish journalists wanted a mentor-apprentice story, they certainly got their fill with a 3-way battle all the way to Madrid between Herrada and Contador, and shifty alliances and broken truces.


Amidst the onslaught and stranglehold of stage wins by Contador's new german outfit CarbonSports, Herrada came in storms blazing, winning the opening prologue. After a few days in red, the Spaniard had to relinquish to Nibali, just to claw it back from Contador on stage 14 with a stunning display of strength and his perhaps best mountain raid of the year, including the stage 18 of this year's Tour de France. Over the past three weeks, Herrada has played well to his strengths and looked to dose his efforts to strike in the right moments. However, not everything was perfect; unwanted time losses, late reactions, missing out on bonus seconds. Jesus made life more difficult for him than necessary whilst Contador was off storming for stage wins and Nibali raced smart and unforgiving.


Herrada could well join an illustrious list of Vuelta winners including Contador himself, Purito and Chris Froome. With recent wins of Rodriguez and Contador, Liberty Seguros won the past two editions. Now only 8 seconds stand between Herrada and an unlikely hattrick of grandeur, that would turn him into a fan favourite of the spanish masses over night, and brand him the new sight for spanish GT ambitions for years to come.


At Liberty Seguros headquarter, the doubts are omnipresent though. With just 27 seconds separating the three contenders and a 40km time trial awaiting them, anyone of the three can match the other's best on the right day and cause an upheaval. Herrada may well slide down to third. In any case, the big goal ahead of this race seems secured: The 10th GT podium for the team in its 5 years of existence, a record. And the impressive streak of all podium finishes in all 4 recent editions is also about to remain. Either way, Jesus Herrada has certainly convinced his last critics after his impressive 3rd place at the Tour de France earlier this year. Now, he only has to beat the two best stage racers of recent years in a thrilling time trial of 40 kilometers to join their ranks as a Grand Tour winner. He must remain calm, focused, trust his strength.



Far easier said than done. This is a long road for someone with Jesus' dreams.

At least, next to the dominance of CarbonSports at the Vuelta, the prominence of the Shark and the exciting battle between the relegation candidates, there was also news coming from the sponsor Liberty Seguros. Impressed with this year's performances, Liberty Seguros has agreed to another year of sponsorship. Whether Herrada ends up on the top step or not, the team has plenty to celebrate come the end of the race.

The end of our first ICL season is drawing near. Our final focus race is the final CT Grand Tour of the year, the Vuelta a Colombia. Hence we are bringing both our captains, Fuglsang and Poels, and hope to see them both finish in the top 10. Fuglsang might even make the top 5 if his form has improved since the USA Pro Challenge. The opening stage is the only TTT our team is competing in all season, not really our speciality. Dowsett and Stannard are riding in support of our stage racers and will help limit the time loss in the TTT. Monsalve and Bibby also make the trip, they are the only support in the mountains.

	AVG	FL	M	HI	TT	PR	CB	SP	AC	DH	FT	ST	RS	RC
Fuglsang	77.3	71	77	77	73	73	63	61	72	74	72	73	72	74
Poels	76.7	68	76	76	70	69	61	61	75	69	77	74	71	74
Stannard	75.6	76	64	72	72	74	76	68	71	69	78	75	72	68
Dowsett	74.7	73	64	71	76	76	64	67	71	69	67	75	70	70
Monsalve	73.9	69	76	72	66	65	59	66	72	69	70	70	66	70
Bibby	72.1	69	72	73	67	67	66	69	70	70	69	69	66	66
Van Winden	72,0	73	63	71	70	70	70	69	70	66	73	70	70	70

We finish the season with the Japan Cup. Valgren, Denifl and Stannard probably won't stand a chance against the many strong competitors, even landing one man in the top 20 looks nigh impossible. We told our guys to try late attacks which the peloton might not respond to, given how weak they are, and hope for a lucky break (probably only a big crash would help). We have to mention Van der Sande as well, considering he just won the GP Montreal, unexpectedly.

	AVG	FL	M	HI	TT	PR	CB	SP	AC	DH	FT	ST	RS	RC
Stannard	75.6	76	64	72	72	74	76	68	71	69	78	75	72	68
Valgren	75.6	73	68	75	71	71	71	71	72	71	73	76	69	71
Denifl	74.1	69	71	75	68	67	62	67	69	66	73	72	66	71
Van der Sande	73.4	72	66	70	66	68	66	74	76	74	68	73	70	71
Bertilsson	72.6	74	65	70	66	67	70	73	73	74	71	72	70	70
Christian	71.6	72	62	69	67	68	72	70	73	71	69	71	68	69
McCluskey	68.9	69	64	67	66	69	68	67	68	74	68	71	69	69

We were unsure what to expect of the Cigar City Classic, would the cobbled sectors make a difference? The answer was mostly yes, the cobblestones certainly helped create the split with 20 km to go, initiated by Stannard and Cancellara, who pulled about 10 more riders along, including Bertilsson and McCluskey. The latter soon had to drop back but still finished an excellent 19th, Christian also scored more points as 22nd. Cancellara and Stannard eventually also ran out of steam and had to settle for 8th and 9th. Our best rider was Bertilsson as 7th, his highlight of the season.

Bertilsson scored another excellent result in Praha-Karlovy-Praha, and it was another great team result, too. For the win it was an exciting sprint between Rowe, Pelucchi and Schorn, they finished in that order, a good podium for our fast Austrian. His lead-out men also sprinted to good results, Bertilsson was 9th, Van der Sande 10th and Birch 15th.

Sadly, we didn't leave much of a mark on the Tour of Britain. The competition was fierce and the heavy hitters attacked each other on all the hilly stages, Valgren and Schorn were no match for them. They finished 14th and 22nd in the GC, though, which is more than reasonable. We're also happy about Dowsett's ITT and that Jordi Simon represented our jersey in a breakaway. It was Schorn's last race of the season, he won 7 stages, was on the podium in Prague and the GC of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque, where he also won the points jersey. Danke, Daniel!

Amir Kolahdozhagh is the surprising winner of the Qinghai Lake Cycle Cup. In the exposed highlands in windy conditions he managed to catch up to a group of four riders which had already pulled away, containing the top favourites Caruso and Herklotz as well as Rabottini and our Poels. Rabottini faltered just before the peak of the final climb, the other four would battle for victory. Poels is a great rider but a terrible sprinter and finished 4th. Another good result for our top scorer, another slight disappointment for Monsalve, who was predicted to make it into the top 10 but once again came up short as 14th.

Quebec, the first of the two Canadian GPs, was pretty disappointing. Valgren, our best hope, could only finish 16th, the race maybe wasn't selective enough, with 87 riders arriving 24 seconds behind the winning duo Ciolek and Ulissi. Stannard couldn't score as 34th and Denifl had a terrible race, he was 137th, the last riders from our team to cross the finish line, even McCluskey beat him.

The disappointment was followed just two days later by a brilliant success – Tosh van der Sande somehow managed to win the GP Montreal! Our most surprising win of the season. The early breakaway was very close to upsetting the peloton and was only caught inside the final kilometre. Van der Sande was positioned brilliantly and waited for the perfect moment to launch his sprint and overtake everybody to take the biggest win in his career. What a fantastic result for him and our team. Valgren added a good 12th place.

After a consistent ride, perhaps the most consistent he's been in his time with Lufthansa over the past two years, Richie Porte produced our best ever result in a GT, 5th place! He started off with a disappointing Prologue but made up for it with two 2nd places in the other two ITTs and a number of top 10 placings in the mountain stages. This result was a throwback to his performance in the Vuelta a Colombia last season, when he won the important ITT to claim a narrow victory. This wasn't a win but a 5th place finish in this field was satisfying, especially after the disappointment of the Tour. Heiner Parra claimed 2nd in the KOM standings to bring some cheer to the squad. He held the jersey for three stages but narrowly missed out, by a margin of just 2 points, in the end. Good backup performances by the previously mentioned Parra, Frank and Svendsen, meant we finished a commendable 6th in the Teams standings. Svendsen, in fact, got home in 6th place in the U25 standings. Without a top line sprinter, we barely figured on the flat stages.

The GC itself, was extremely close, with just 6 seconds between the top two and 39 seconds between the top three!

1	Jesús Herrada	Liberty Seguros	77h06'17
5	Richie Porte	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 9'22
28	Matthias Frank	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 43'20
39	Oskar Svendsen	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 59'56
44	Heiner Parra	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 1h06'05
51	Gianluca Brambilla	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 1h14'41
119	Phil Bauhaus	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 2h31'43
126	Martin Jansen	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 2h37'45
149	Jürgen Reuter	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 4h14'25

Nino Honigh showed that he would be a rider to watch on the cobbles in the future, taking 14th in this race. He was our only finisher!

1	Peter Geissler	CarbonSports Cycling - Lightweight	4h26'52
14	Nino Honigh	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 4'09

Van Avermaet looked out of sorts from the early stages and could only manage 44th place as our leader and best placed finisher.

1	Jelle Vanendert	Grupo Argos - Quala	20h56'9
44	Greg Van Avermaet	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 8'59
70	Johannes Windischbauer	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 16'20
87	Nino Honigh	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 21'58
117	Denis Kathmann	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 45'01
121	Klaus Gießner	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 54'20
125	Emil Ritter	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 1h05'28

Arndt lost his first race but Degenkolb made it all the way to the semi-final where he finished third and ended up tied for 5th in the tournament.

1	André Greipel	Allianz - BMW Cycling Team	5'32"
5	John Degenkolb	Lufthansa Racing Team
17	Nikias Arndt	Lufthansa Racing Team

Van Avermaet was back on his favourite terrain but he missed the decisive moves and although he finished 10th, he was a long way back! Vermote with a top 25 result here.

1	Peter Sagan	CarbonSports Cycling - Lightweight	5h54'32
10	Greg Van Avermaet	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 6'09
25	Julien Vermote	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 11'02
79	Klaus Gießner	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 22'09
96	Nino Honigh	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 24'22
117	Lutz Berg	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 29'23
128	Emil Ritter	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 33'37

Just Svendsen and the kids. 59th place as our best result as a consequence!

1	Tony Martin	Vittel - Havas Communications	2h55'34
59	Oskar Svendsen	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 8'52
71	Julian Runge	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 10'15
83	Johannes Windischbauer	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 12'58
85	Carl Ilsanker	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 14'11
88	Martin Springer	Lufthansa Racing Team	+ 15'08