The CT season opener took place on the hilly course of the Clasico San Cristobal in Cuba. Favouring a puncheur type rider, we saw the GCN debut for Gasore Hategeka, a former winner in 2016.

It was a break of 3 riders who would eventually break the elastic of the main group, building a lead of 7 minutes before the chase back from Eddie Stobart and Valio started.

Two laps to go of the finishing circuit to go, it down to 3 minutes for the lead group and the gap was on going down for the trio. By the 15km to go marker, it was all back together but the pace was set high by the big teams.




The first to show his colours was Ben Nasser, attacking hard with Di Maggio in tow. The next circuit was attack after attack with different favourites tried to break free in the bid for glory. Approaching the final climb though, it was who would quickest in the sprint... with Tommy Zaini taking the first victory of the year.

Cyril Gautier took a solid 2nd place ahead of Josh Edmondson. Gasore Hategeka came away with a 22nd place finish, disappointing losing touch with the top guys at the wrong moment.

1	Tommy Zaini	Compal-Merida	5h23'12
2	Cyril Gautier	Valio - DeLaval	+ 20
3	Joshua Edmondson	BNZ Cycling Team	s.t.
4	Cesare Di Maggio	ENI-MOL	s.t.
5	Hassen Ben Nasser	Campari - Super Dry	s.t.
...
22	Gasore Hategeka	GCN ProTeam	+ 1'44
28	Ahmed Youssef Belgasem	GCN ProTeam	+ 2'53
29	Michael Cuming	GCN ProTeam	s.t.
112	Geoffroy Ngandamba	GCN ProTeam	+ 10'58
141	Oumaru Minoungou	GCN ProTeam	+ 15'24
154	Ryan Gibbons	GCN ProTeam	+ 20'37
157	Steven Burke	GCN ProTeam	+ 21'11
168	Michael Thomson	GCN ProTeam	+ 25'23

jandal7 wrote:
GCN Race News Show, love it Awesome-looking HQ as always Disappointing from Hategeka, I really don't see how your team can recover from this, your January is ruined!

After the season opener in Cuba, the team headed to Venezuela for the Vuelta al Tachira, the first stage race of the year for the team. On the flatter stages, we had Chris Opie and Dan McLay making their debuts for GCN, and taking some Top 10 finishes in the meantime.

However, when the climbs started, it would be Thibault Pinot who came front and centre. Taking the victory on Stages 4, 6, 8 and 9 in dominating fashion and with it came the GC victory as well. It was a great start to 2018 for the Frenchman, who struggled in the bigger races last year.




January ended in Australia at the Great Ocean Road Classic, where we hoped that Jens Keukeleire would be in the mix at the end of a race for the Sprinters. Sadly though, he would be similar to Gasore in Cuba, struggling throughout and only managing to pick up a 22nd place finish, as Johannes Schinnagel (Oberfranken) took the win after a long day in the break.


February started in the Far East at the Tour de Langkawi, where an entire team was built around Pinot. After his domination in Tachira, we had high hopes. A 2nd place on Stage 3 and 4th place on stage 5 was enough to take home 2nd on GC behind a very strong Jaime Suaza (Compal).

Our European campaign began at the Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne and Gent-Wevelgem in Belgium. Pieter Jacobs led the team at both races, but we would see a surprise result at K-B-K first... in the form of Geoffroy Ngandamba! Despite being on domestique duties for Jacobs all race, he would sprint against some of the best in the division on the cobbles to take a very respectable podium place.

Onto Gent-Wevelgem and we would be mixing the best PCT cobblers, and sadly results would not go the same way as K-B-K. Pieter would struggle all day and the same for Ngandamba, with the former being best placed in 38th place.

A quick trip over to Ireland for the Ras Tailteann, where Jens Keukeleire would be our leader. Just like in the Great Ocean Road Classic, he would struggle to live up to expectations yet again. Top 10 on Stage 1 and Stage 3 was the best he came away with and there no real GC presence either. Disappointing race all round really. The biggest excitement was Thibault Pinot stretching his legs with a couple days off in the breakaway.




Back to Oceania for the Gisborne GP next, with a hills team built around Gasore Hategeka. The Rwandan would be part of all the moves over the course of the day, but when it came to the crunch, he sadly went missing and missed the winning move. Coming home + 2'39 behind winner Hassen Ben Nasser (Campari), he would be the best placed of the GCN team in 12th.

The month ended in Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Challenge, and the race started with a podium for Hategeka after a series of attacks in the closing kilometres of Stage 1. The Stage 2 ITT was a bit of write-off for the team and was more about limiting losses for Gasore and Thibault ahead of a mountainous stage 3.

However, the stage would not go to plan as Pinot would show signs of fatigue on the lower slopes of the final climb to the finish. As Leopold König (Valio) took the overall win, our Frenchman would come in + 3'04 and finish 9th on GC.