A short spinters stage, a short time trial and a mountain stage. Ideal route for Úran it seems, who is a former winner of the Corsica International. He finished fourth last year in a race he should have arguably won, so he is out for revenge this year. Also, one of the few opportunities Manarelli has for a decent sprint.
We began with a fifth place for Manarelli on the opening stage. On the short time trial, Úran started well but his final part was horrendous, leaving a final result of 27th at nearly half a minute. He was beaten by Janse van Rensburg (12th @ 17s), Martinez (14th @ 18s) and Haga (21st @ 25s). This was not an ideal scenario going into the final stage, where we had hoped to start with an advantage over the other contenders.
So he did what he had to do, he attacked. Earlier Novak pulled his teammate Kudus to the front, Henao chased and behind them it as Shikai together with Úran. In the final kilometer the groups melted together. In this situation everyone except Henao could take the GC victory as it was a matter of seconds and bonus seconds would likely be the deciding factor. Shikai was the strongest and crossed the line first ahead of Úran, which unfortunately meant he was one second ahead in the GC. While the two of them appeared to have clear gap to the others, they were given the same time which allowed Novak to steal the win by another two seconds, and Kudus falling short of the podium by four seconds. A slightly better time trial, a better sprint or a less corrupt jury: three ways Úran would have won. But he didn't.
#
Rider
Team
Time
1
Jakub Novak
Repsol - Netflix
6h10'45
2
Chen Shikai
Meiji - JR East
+ 2
3
Rigoberto Úran
Minions
+ 3
21
Chad Haga
Minions
+ 3'48
36
Yasmani Martinez
Minions
+ 6'39
41
Farzad Khodayari
Minions
+ 6'57
59
Cayetano Sarmiento
Minions
+ 8'41
88
Chris Barton
Minions
+ 19'38
90
Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg
Minions
+ 20'03
136
Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
Minions
+ 31'36
(4/5)
Leaving with a good result but also a sour taste.
One stage only: a time trial. However, there's a catch: most of the course is cobbled, with some legendary sections from Paris - Roubaix. Since it's the first time this race is held there's no prior knowledge whether pure time trialist, cobblestone specialist or a combination of both is to be considered as favourite. With only three starters allowed, we wanted to bring one for every category, but unfortunately we don't have a rider with both skillsets. Hence Barton and Janse van Rensburg participate amongst the time trialist, and Zepuntke from the cobblestone squad.
To our surprise the time trial specialists clocked worse split times along the way. Barton would finish 31st and Janse van Rensburg even two places lower. Their times were comparable to those of other time trialists.
Zepuntke did considerably better. He clocked the joint fasted time on the opening split, one which consists of mostly cobblestone. At the second split he lost nine seconds to his rival Kasperkiewicz, but was still second overall. He lost another second at the next split and four at the finish, hence Kasperkiewicz won by fifteen seconds. His time was good enough for second place though, beating third-place Blythe by 50 seconds!
Scandinavia consists of multiple countries but for some reason this race is only held in Sweden. A hilly prologue followed by two hilly stages against PT opposition, so this will be tough. Quevedo will give everything for a result though.
The opening prologue provided the first indication of strenght, with Quevedo already losing 38 seconds and the rest of the team far, far away. Janse van Rensburg and Martinez sought retribution by getting in the breakaway on stage two, with the latter taking valuable points in the KoM classification. Quevedo tried a bold early attack with three others, but the attempt backfired and he lost more time, dropping far down in the GC.
We didn't give up though. Martinez got into the break again, and got just enough points to fence off Denifl and the other members for the virtual KoM lead. At the end of the stage, the jersey was his, and since it was the final stage, he could take it home with him. Special mention to Selander, from Norwegian ancestry, as our best GC finisher in 46th.
A sprinters classic. Drapac is here but looking at the profile it is not as flat as he would like it to be. Zepuntke rides his home race but without cobblestones on the course he will likely just wave at the crowds.
We received word Eiking tried to make it into the breakaway before the broadcast began, but the peloton was very quick to reel his group back in. The actual break of the day didn't contain any of us.
Whilst everyone finished in the peleton, no one had the energy left to sprint, making Zepuntke our best finisher in 108th. Drapac 115th, while we might be hoping for a top ten in a sprinters race.
The Netherlands is known for being quite flat and this race is a reflection of that. There are no notable obstacles on these six stages, with three mass starts, two individual time trials and a team time trial. We bet on two horses here: Janse van Rensburg with the team time trial squad for the GC, and Drapac with his train for the sprints.
Stages two, three and five were the chances for the Australian. On his first attempt he was blocked in the middle of the sprint but still finished in sixth place. The next stage he finished just outside the points in ninth, and on stage five he gave up halfway and finished 27th. Not the greatest of results on profiles where he should do well.
Luckily the other part of the squad had a better race. Janse van Rensburg finished the opening prologue in eight, and Haga also clocked a top twenty result. In the team time trial we finished fifth despite missing an important link in Úran. The epilogue went far worse though, with Janse van Rensburg dropping to twelfth in the GC, even being beaten by our own Barton. Haga was dropped from the peloton on the previous stage and his time loss meant he did not finish inside the points.
A leftover from April, but given the importance of this race we'll still drill out a full-fledged report. Not only is this a goal race (top 10), our biggest fan in the whole universe lives in Veenendaal and he is the reason why this race is renamed back to its old name Veenendaal - Veenendaal instead of Dutch Food Valley Classic. We do not want to disappoint him so we send our best possible sprinters squad led by Drapac. A clash with Philadelphia International Classic, which we won't be racing this year, means not all top sprinters are here.
Mister breakaway De Haes gave our fan something to cheer for when the race passed his house. Unfortunately for him and us the breakaway wouldn't surprise the peloton and were caught in due time.
The final was very chaotic with an un-Veenendaal-Veenendaal-like solo victory from Hermans, who escaped on the last ascent of Paardenveld. Drapac finished eighteenth in the bunch sprint, hence nineteenth on the stage. This is a great disappointment. Not only did we fail our goal, we didn't perform hen our biggest fan was watching us. We have apologized for this race and hope we can do better in the future.
#
Rider
Team
Time
1
Ben Hermans
Generali - EDF
4h25'08
2
John Degenkolb
Iberia - Team Degenkolb
+ 30
3
Jacopo Guarnieri
Delvaux
s.t.
19
Damion Drapac
Minions
s.t.
48
Kenny De Haes
Minions
s.t.
118
Bert-Jan Lindeman
Minions
+ 5'48
129
Laureano Rosas
Minions
s.t.
133
Jay Major
Minions
s.t.
136
Edwin Avila
Minions
s.t.
159
Shaquille Sinclair
Minions
+ 7'25
166
Nico Schinker
Minions
s.t.
(1/5)
One banana as consolation prize to our biggest fan.
A race for puncheurs, sprinters and time trialist is not really our cup of tea anymore, especially when the race is rated PTHC. Let's make the best of it anyway. Quevedo for the hills, Manarelli for the sprints and a lot of other guys for a breakaway
The first two stages were sprinter stages, and Manarelli couldn't even crack a top 25. Quevedo lost a lot of time in the time trial to say goodbye to any decent GC classification, and we haven't appeared in any breakaway yet. Quevedo rode a decent fourth and decisive hilly stage though, propelling him to a decent 25th place in the GC.
Local boy Eiking appeared in the breakaway on stage four and took some points for the KoM classification. After not appearing for them on the final stage, he finished eight in the classification, though he would've been fourth had he scored two more points.
A Grand Tour is a race reserved for the twenty ProTour teams and two wildcards. The organisation of the Vuelta a España decided to offer one of those wildcards to us, which we gladly accepted. Úran was available to race here due to no clashing mountain races for which we can score points, and with a decent amount of TT's and mountains we hope he can challenge for a good classification. He'll have Khodayari and Sarmiento as mountain support. Major and Sinclair use this race for development, while the last three available spots went to three riders who have been with our team for a long time as reward, provided they had no clashing race they needed to attend. These spots went to breakaway-king De Haes, Cuban champion Marcos and Sheikh's son Esmaeli.
On the first stage Marcos went into the breakaway, picking up bonus seconds to take 7th place in the GC. He went into the breakaway again on the next stage, rising to 6th. After another break on stage 5, he took the KoM jersey on stage 8. He defended his jersey on the next stage, which he also nearly won solo, only being caught inside the final two kilometers. After losing the jersey in the mountains, he retook it for one day after picking up points on stage fifteen. In the end he would finish 14th due to the high amount of points available on the latter stages. Khodayari also appeared in the breakaway on two consecutive stages: eleven and twelve.
We came here for Úran though. He finished sixth on the first time trial, which brought him up to 4th in the GC. Over the next days he slid down to seventh, where he would remain for the rest of the race. A slight disappointment was the second time trial where he only managed 14th. His best stage result was a fifth place on stage 18. De Haes, Major and Sinclair all DNF'd on stage 13. The other five riders all finished the race.
There hasn't been a ranking update in quite some time, mostly due to some confusion regarding cancelled races and such. We know Cheshire Cycling Tour is not included in this update since it was postponed to June, and Etoile de Besseges' third stage was cancelled leaving total uncertainty about whether the race will be finished, reraced or removed. Anyway, just enjoy the rankings, because we are seventh! Yes, seventh! We are having a great season, mainly thanks to Úran, who is fourth in the individual rankings, and the cobble squad. However, realisticly, we have more racedays than those around us and we wouldn't be surprised if we dropped a bit the coming month. Relegation looks out of the question though, and that is most important now. And maybe, if we're lucky and the points keep coming, we can look at promotion to PT!
Postponed from May to June, but still raced nevertheless: Cheshire Cycling Tour. Two cobble stages and three sprinters stages. Hence we bring Drapac and the seven cobblers, lead by Zepuntke.
On the second stage, Drapac was well positioned but only finish 14th. On the next stage he finished ninth, just outside the points. He did manage to score two points on the fourth stage by finishing in seventh.
GC wise it was't Zepuntke's best race, finishing 11th and 12th on the cobble stages for 10th in the GC. He also lost the youth classification by 16 seconds to Per. Albert ended up 11th in the GC, with Marcos and Moulingui also in the top 25. The latter also took third place in the youth classification. With this good depth we also managed to win the teams classification, but in the end the race could have been better.
We didn't put a rider in the breakaway, instead Lindeman became one of the main chasers in the peloton. At one points there was a small pursuit group with seven riders, including Marcos, Moulingui and Zepuntke . This pursuit was short-lasted though.
Zepuntke and Albert were on the good side of the next split, but couldn't follow the attacks of the likes of Vanspeybrouck. The Belgian would go on to win the race, with Zepuntke in seventh and Albert in eight place.
A banana if you manage to pronounce this race correctly. Another cobble race, one of the final of this season, so one of the last chances for Zepuntke to score.
Moulingui went into the breakaway, hoping to mirror his performance in an other PTHC race, Omloop het Nieuwsblad. Unfortunately the peloton took this into account and chased viciously after the breakaway, catching it at 70 kilometers to go.
Some riders attacked, but Zepuntke couldn't follow. Then he also struggled to maintain the pace of his group. He would finish in 15th place. No doubt we wanted a better result, but admittedly in PTHC there are a lot of strong riders. Albert finished 25th, and Flaksis took some minor points in 44th place.
Post Danmark Rundt, or the Tour of Denmark in plain English terms. Flat stages which aren't really flat due to the weird Danish landscape, an actual hilly stage and a time trial to finish things off. The difference in profiles means we have three different horses to bet on: Drapac, Quevedo and Janse van Rensburg.
Lets start on the positive notes. Drapac finished fifth on the fourth stage, where Eiking picked up some KoM points. He finished sixth in the final KoM classification to add a few more ranking points to our tally. And that's about it. Prepare for rage time.
Stage one: Drapac finished 18th which is below his standards, but Janse van Rensburg and Quevedo were dropped and lost 5 minutes to put an early end to a good GC classification. Stage two: Drapac finished thirteenth which is not too bad but outside the points and I like to complain. Stage three: Quevedo did not attack to gain back the lost time, relinquishing team leadership to Selander who had a somewhat decent GC position. Stage four: finally a breakaway appearance, but Eiking couldn't follow the pace halfway through the stage, and Selander couldn't follow the pace in the peloton to throw away his GC position as well. Stage five: Janse van Rensburg was so bad that I'm glad TV cameras didn't pick up his ride. In the GC, "wait, this guy is in our team" Schinker somehow managed to become our best placed rider in 80th. Quevedo finished 127th, only one second ahead of "I have to rest ten minutes after riding over a speedbump" Drapac, which is a sackable offence in itself and makes me wish Fattancourt was back on the team, because he at least scored points. All in all I hope we can learn from this experience so this never happens again, and nuke Denmark so this race will be gone from the calendar.
#
Rider
Team
Time
1
Matthias Brändle
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
14h51'33
2
Marlen Zmorka
Team Reddit
+ 3
3
Mikhail Ignatiev
Fablok - Bank BGZ
+ 12
80
Nico Schinker
Minions
+ 7'09
87
Bjorn Selander
Minions
+ 7'28
103
Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg
Minions
+ 8'45
116
Bert-Jan Lindeman
Minions
+ 10'02
127
Xavier Quevedo
Minions
+ 11'27
128
Damion Drapac
Minions
+ 11'28
139
Odd Christian Eiking
Minions
+ 12'05
165
Edwin Avila
Minions
+ 22'24
-
(-3/5)
We demand bananas back from Quevedo, Selander and Janse van Rensburg.
The IJsselmeer is a lake in The Netherlands. Formerly it was a sea but then the Dutch became the masters of water and built one huge dyke to seperate it from the North Sea. Now you can ride around it, which is exactly what we'll be doing today. The organizers picked a date on which there was virtually guaranteed to be a lot of wind. Let's hope Drapac is alert when the splits happen.
De Haes placed himself in the breakaway. He's a strong ride who has won from the breakaway on multiple occasions, but this time it was not to be. He and his two partners in crime where caught at only fifteen kilometers to go.
By that time Drapac was already dropped from the lead group. We did not have enough riders to get him back. Holloway won with a late attack, whereas Drapac was in the third à fourth large group to reach the finish. He did sprint to second place there, only beaten by Lavonie.
Portugal | PTHC | Classic | Flat | April 26
Edwin Avila
Damion Drapac
Odd Christian Eiking
Bert-Jan Lindeman
Jay Major
Xavier Quevedo
Nico Schinker
Shaquille Sinclair
France | C1 | 3 stages | Mountain / Time trial | April 28 - 30
Chris Barton
Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg
Farzad Khodayari
Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
Yasmani Martinez
Great Britain | HC | 5 stages | Cobble / Flat | May 1 - 5
Niels Albert
Andzs Flaksis
Clenne Morvan Moulingui
Ruben Zepuntke
Spain | PT | 21 stages | Grand Tour | May 11 - 31
Tareq Esmaeli
Sweden | PTHC | 3 stages | Hill / Time trial | May 12 - 14
Laureano Rosas
Poland | PTHC | Classic | Cobble | June 3
Rwanda | HC | Classic | Cobble | June 5
Denmark | HC | 5 stages | Hill / Time trial / Flat | June 10 - 14
Mexico | C1 | Classic | Team time trial | June 30
