Skujins is the one Evonik rider where we dont have to talk about his role a lot because he is our leader whenever he is on the startlist.

His focus for the season is on one day races and he will race seven of them this season and all feature hilly terrains of varying difficulty. For the first time since joining Evonik - ELKO this includes Classique du Grand Duche as we decided that he should not use his race days in the clashing Tirreno - Adriatico.

His schedule also includes some obvious hilly stage races like Pais Vasco, Scandinavia or Balkans International which should be no surprise to see him attending. A bigger surprise might be that he attends Volta a Portugal where he will compete against top puncheurs like Bobridge and several strong stage racers from both PT and PCT.

A noticable change from the last few seasons is that he won't ride in Tasmania but that hasnt been amongst his favourite races in the last few seasons. In 2016 he lost his chances to score well with a crash and in 2017 he finished on a disappointing 46th place. Perhaps the other races will suit him better.

The schedule of Michael Van Stayen is probably our leader with the most interesting schedule reveal as a rider like him has opportunities in a lot of races.

As our best sprinter he will lead us in typical sprint races in Qatar, Moscow, Riga, or Lisbon and will also be our sprint leader for the two flat stages in Praha.
His abilities on the hills will be used in Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallone and in Scandinavia to support Skujins and perhaps get a result himself too.

His schedule is completed by lots of races where he can combine his sprint strength with his ability to ride over hills and we hope that he can get results in races like Tirreno-Adriatico, Ronde van Nederlands or maybe even in Tasmania. And of course he will try to repeat his Milan San Remo victory.

cio93 wrote:
Why did I even worry about which GT MvS would go to?

Water is wet, Evonik doesnt sign time triallists and Greg Van Avermaet leads all non-clashing cobble races - some things dont have to be mentioned.

The rest of his schedule is probably more interesting. Greg Van Avermaet is still a good hilly sprinter capable of stage wins when leading in weaker startlists - although obviously not quite as good as Van Stayen as he proved during the last two seasons. He also is a solid puncheur who can do well in hilly classics as he also proved at times last year so the question is: How did we plan his season outside of the cobbled season:

This might be surprising to some guys but his 43 race days were enough to participate in 17 races throughout the season and he will not lead in a single other race all season long:

He will be one of the key domestiques for Toms Skujins in four hilly classics: Classique du Grand-Duche, Amstel Gold Race, Liege - Bastogne - Liege and Giro di Lombardia. The aim is to help Toms Skujins onto the podium with the hope that Van Avermaet can score top 30 results himself too.

He will also be the most important helper for Michael Van Stayen in six races. He already proved last season in Milano - San Remo, Lisbon Classic and GP Moscow that he can be a force as a 2nd man in this kind of classics and he will participate in those races again as well as the hope that he can do similar things in Ronde van Nederland and Riga - Jurmala too. He also will take a more standard leadout role for the two flat stages in Praha.

As our best climber, Andris Vosekalns will race the majority of the season as our fourth leader. He had enough race days to ride three Grand Tours but we decided to only send him to two GTs because we expect more strong riders to go for two Grand Tours which hopefully results in bigger opportunities in shorter races. Paris-Nice and Tour de Suisse and the PTHC Pro Hallstadt Classic are the shorter races where he will have undisputed leader roles.

He also races the PTHC race Volta a Portugal where Evonik starts with Toms Skujins as our leader and Vosekalns as one of his key domestiques but if the hilly stages provide smaller gaps than expected then he might move into a more GC focussed role himself.

His participation in the season opening Badaling International and Giro di Lombardia will be strictly limited to a support role.

knockout wrote:


I'm very curious about your opinion. Would you have done the same thing or would you have done sth else with him?

Fan favourite, manager's darling and Evoniks only rider capable of riding against the clock. His calendar basically includes every time trial with less than ten kilometres on our schedule and a couple of flat races where he will be an important domestique for Michael Van Stayen. He will also slide into our cobbles squad for Paris-Roubaix, Ronde Van Vlaanderen and Tour of Northern Europe where we hope that his strength on the flat roads will be a valuable asset in the first of half of these races.