This was the first race in our history last season and it is the first race again this season.

We had an uneventful start with all riders satisfied to sit in the pack and let others try to be a part of the breakaway action. Our on-loan rider Meiler trying to get into the break for Campari was a pleasing site. He could not get a gap though.

A three rider break was allowed to form on a very windy day. They managed to pull out to a 7 minute lead at the most but the peloton sped up soon after, mostly with Valio leading the way in the peloton. For a while, 13 riders, incuding some race favourites, got away from the peloton but they were reeled back in. The break was finally caught with 15 km to go.

It was a quiet day so far for our riders. After a couple of attempts, four riders got away and they were chased by a 25 man group behind, including Dieteren. Unfortunately, he did not have any teammates up with him at this point. There were 5 km left to go.

Dieteren kept himself in the group when the four attackers were caught. Till about 700 meters to go, he was still in Top 10 contention.



However, as the group climbed to the finish, Dieteren ran out of energy and fell a few spots to end up 17th at the line, narrowly missing out on our targeted Top 15 placing in this race.



Tommy Zaini won the race for Compal - Merida.

1	Tommy Zaini	Compal-Merida	5h23'12
17	Jan Dieteren	Philips - Continental	+ 1'07
38	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 3'38
47	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	+ 3'56
63	Patrick Müller	Philips - Continental	s.t.
116	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips - Continental	+ 10'58
122	Lennard Hofstede	Philips - Continental	+ 12'37
164	Riccardo Minali	Philips - Continental	+ 23'18
171	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Continental	+ 27'50

A bit of a deja vu moment for us as we narrowly missed out on our expected finishing position, just like last season. That time Wyss had finished 11th when we had gone into the race hoping for a Top 10 finish. Dieteren did well to keep himself in a good position but his lack of a finishing punch cost us a couple of positions in the end. A decent start but we hope we can challenge for higher placings in the upcoming races.

Lahcen Saber was making his debut for the team and leading us too. Te Brake and Krieger were given the task to be his chief lieutenants in this short, flat classic.

Lotto Petrus joined the early break which eventually grew in size to six riders.



They are never allowed to really strecth their legs and with 38 km to go, they are caught by the peloton again. The teams of the stronger sprinters were pulling the pack along at high speeds, not allowing anyone else to get away again.

The fast pace and the crosswinds led to riders being dropped and Kreiger could not hang on to the group any longer, meaning he wouldn't able to help Saber at the finish.

Four riders got away from the pack with just over 4 km remaining, in a move which looked have dangerous repercussions. The peloton did respond and brought them back with under 2 km to go. Ji tried to get away again but his move was foiled too.

The recent attacks led to some confusion at the front of the pack, with almost all sprinters having lost their leadouts by this time. Going past the Flamme Rouge, Saber found himself in third position, with a few meters' gap to those behind. It was a very good position to be in, but would the wind slow him down before the finish?



With 700 meters to go, there was a point where Saber looked to be gaining on the front pair of Mohs and Van Asbroeck but having taken the wide line through the final corner, he lost some speed and fell behind again.



We couldn't fault him for trying as Saber kept going on the home straight, and was still 3rd with 200 meters to go. The problem was that those behind him were now faster, as he started to tire just a little.



Eric Mohs held on to take the win ahead of Van Asbroeck. Unfortunately, Saber didn't have the legs to hold on to 3rd, as he was pipped on the line by Ewan and Roelandts, and had to settle for 5th.

1	Erik Mohs	Fablok - Bank BGZ	1h28'27
5	Lahcen Saber	Philips - Continental	s.t.
45	Remco Te Brake	Philips - Continental	s.t.
56	David Per	Philips - Continental	s.t.
134	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	+ 4'16
152	Wout Poels	Philips - Continental	s.t.
155	Lotto Petrus	Philips - Continental	s.t.
158	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	s.t.
184	Ha Jeon Jung	Philips - Continental	s.t.

If someone would've told us that we'd be 5th in this race, given the strength of the sprinter field, we would've have gladly taken it. We're still very happy with Saber's debut performance, and a Top 5 in this race, with this startlist, is a great achievement. Losing two positions inside the final 50 meters does sting a bit, but we would like to look at only the positives for now. Not the best race for Te Brake or Krieger, and we hope they step up to support Saber in later events. This is still a good start to the season for us, following on from a slightly below par race in San Cristobal.

We were hoping for a Top 5 finish in this race initially, but after the startlist was revealed, we upped our hopes to a podium finish. Quite a few debutantes were starting for us, including Sergio Henao, who was expected to deliver the goods.

We took it easy in the early parts of the race, not sending anyone into the break, but then took up the chasing to not allow them a huge gap. Poels continued to help with the chasing as the final third approached.



Soon enough, the pack was on it's way up the final climb to the finish and the pack was reduced to just 24 riders with 20 km to go. Henao and Pantano were the only riders in the front group for us. Soon it was a lone break out ahead as the others were dropped and caught. Henao looked comfortable as he sat in third position in the group behind the break.



After the break was caught, Henao took advantage of the pack slowing down and attacked with 8 km to go, with Kudus and Nazaret in tow.



The latter was soon dropped. With 4 km to go, the lead pair was being chased by two others, Denifl and Berhane, with a gap of 30 seconds between the two groups. Having dropped Berhane in the mean time, and with just a kilometer left, Denifl made contact with the front group containing Henao, who immediately launched another attack, sensing the possible danger.



Once he got the gap, there was no looking back for Henao as took the deserved win after a hard day's work in the saddle.



What a way for our premier Colombian climber to start for us! Pantano finished 15th to pick up some more points. Just six finishers for us on this hard summit finish!

1	Sergio Luis Henao Montoya	Philips - Continental	6h52'09
2	Stefan Denifl	SPAR - Shimano - SCG	+ 13
3	Merhawi Kudus	Repsol - Netflix	+ 15
15	Jarlinson Pantano Gómez	Philips - Continental	+ 7'52
33	Christoph Mai	Philips - Continental	+ 11'45
47	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	+ 12'46
55	Wout Poels	Philips - Continental	+ 14'16
116	Lennard Hofstede	Philips - Continental	s.t.

A great ride for Henao, to cap off a good team effort all through the race. The team did well to keep Henao in contention. While he did become isolated at the end, Henao did not look back to count his losses but instead stayed aggressive throughout and picked up the win.

This result ensures a very good start to our first season in the PCT. To compare with last season in CT, we had a Podium, a Top 15 and a Top 20 in January. This time, we have a Win, a Top 5 and a Top 20, so I'd say that is definitely an improvement. In reality, January was just a warm-up for everyone and business really picks up in February with seven races lined up for us. We hope we can keep the momentum going.

Yellow Jersey wrote:
Great Win! Took the best out of a great chance to win!

After his debut success in Pico Basile, Henao is back leading the team. Pantano once again tags along for what should be the decisive final stage. Dieteren has been drafted in to provide support on the hilly third stage. We are hoping that the penultimate stage is not too selective and that Henao can use his climbing prowess up the final climb to the finish. Te Brake will look to pick up some high positions in the first couple of flat stages.

Rui Costa will line up for the first time in our colours but we won't be able to provide him a full team in support. The reason for that is this race is the first of a triple header and we don't have enough riders to field full squads in any of them. The aim from this race is also to get depth points with Navardauskas and Jaoa along with hopefully a Top 10 or better from Rui. A couple of the sprint stages might be conducive for Navardauskas and the sprinter startlist might not be very strong either.

The second part of our February triple clash. Saber leads for the first time on the cobbles. If the race goes like last year, he should be a good bet to achieve our expected finish. David Per is back on his element for the first time this season, and we're hoping for some more of the magic he delivered last year. The rest of the team is mainly a makeshift unit, just going to show how weak we are on the cobbles this season.

We don't expect a lot from this race and will probably categorize this the first of a few race selection mistakes. Once again, we will line up with only 6 riders. Krieger and Te Brake will share leadership and they'll pretty much be on their own in the sprints. Van Zandbeek and Petrus will help on the flats but they're not really capable of setting up a train.

Henao leads the team in this race with the full mountain support backing him up. However, two TTs and a hill stage does not exactly play to his strengths. We are expecting him to lose most ground in the TT on Stage 5, but the hill stage could also be unfavourable. As such, our expectations from this race are muted.

Another race where we had something else in mind when we picked it, but had to change things up due to planning changes elsewhere. Navardauskas and Dieteren will jointly lead the team. Without a premier puncher, we don't expect to finish high up in the classification and would again be happy to get some depth scoring.

Henao leads but despite decent support, his hill capabilities would lead us to believe that this race will not suit him too much. As such, we're not expecting big things from this race and anything better than our expectation will be a bonus.