The format for the Tour of East Java is very simple. A flat stage on day one, a mountain stage on day two. Drapac leads us on day one, Uran on day two and hopefully also in the overall classification. If we leave this race without points we'll apply for early relegation.
The first stage indeed went to the sprinters. Despite a strong field, Drapac found himself in a nice position going into the final kilometer. A fifth place was looking very likely until he found an extra gear, and got very close to the win in the end. The photo finish decided he finished in third place, which is an awesome result nevertheless.
Uran was a bit underwhelming to be fair, riding in a white jersey with the Colombian flag due to a laundry error. While he was in the front group coming towards the finish line, he only finished in 14th place. In a PTHC field, that still brings a lot of points, but this was a rare opportunity to score big.
Fresh from Indonesia, the climbers are back on the road in Equatorial Guinea. Clasique Pico Basile is on the menu today, a C1 classic around the Pico Basile climb. Uran is looking for redemption after a somewhat underwhelming performance last time out.
We didn't feel like chasing so we put a rider in the break, that rider being Ivanov. His first attempt was solo, which is not what you want so he got himself caught. Then a bigger group attacked and he was part of it, but they would be caught at the foot of the final climb as well.
Martinez played a major role in bringing back some attacks, and would finish in a respectable fifteenth place. Unfortunately, Tenorio and Martin managed to escape. Uran, still wearing this ugly white jersey, responded a bit too late but managed to finish best of the rest to take the final spot on the podium. A very good result and some redemption for last race.
#
Rider
Team
Time
1
Justo Tenorio
Desigual
7h38'56
2
Daniel Martin
Campari/Asahi development
+ 45
3
Rigoberto Uran
Minions
+ 1'52
15
Yasmani Martinez
Minions
+ 7'06
34
Chad Haga
Minions
+ 10'13
42
Borislav Ivanov
Minions
+ 11'31
85
Chris Barton
Minions
+ 23'31
100
Tareq Esmaeli
Minions
+ 37'33
107
Metkel Kiflay
Minions
+ 52'25
DNF
Andzs Flaksis
Minions
(4/5)
Four bananas for third place doesn't make much sense does it.
The first month has flown by. After a few races we are twelfth in the standings, one place above where we finished last year. Of course, this is only an early indication and a lot of racing is yet to be done, but we feel like our start could have been better. Uran the highest scorer and also in the top ten overall. Martinez and Drapac also with some points on the board due to their performances in Pico Basile and East Java. A lot of riders who haven't scored yet but also haven't raced yet.
Our first of four PT wildcard races this season. Since we think we have a decent TTT-setup, and it will be important during the Volta a Catalunya later this month, we wanted to get some practise in. This team time trial takes our riders from Copenhagen, Denmark to Malmo, Sweden. We bring our seven best time trialists, some of which national champions, and Hodeg for experience.
Like in Uran's past few races, his national jersey is not what we designed, since our laundry machine is still malfunctioning. To make matters worse the virus has spread to other jerseys as well. Only Martinez could reuse his jersey from last year, the others rode with white jerseys and small flags.
As for the TTT itself, we finished in a midfield position, thirteenth to be precise. We finished just 49 seconds down on winners Team Tinkoff, with parts of the WC winning Russian squad in it, so not a bad result at all. Bring on Catalunya!
The first cobblestone race of the season and it's a familiar one: Omloop het Nieuwsblad. Why does that ring a bell? Well. last year a certain Clenne Morvan Moulingui finished third in this PTHC race from the breakaway. Unfortunately, he was a loanee and is no longer part of the squad. Can we pull off another breakaway miracle, or does Zepuntke outsmart the other favorites?
We didn't put anyone in the break, which was the right call since it was caught. Zepuntke got himself into the group of favorites with 40 kilometers to go, with only fourteen competitors remaining. Despite some attacks, the group stayed together reasonably well, until Bewley attacked with four kilometers to go.
Zepuntke, in second position at the time, did not have a response but against the King of the Cobbles that's not expected. While he was in the prime position heading into the sprint for second, he went a bit too early and imploded towards the end, but still held on to a decent tenth place.
Two days after Omloop follows Gent - Wevelgem. Same squad, same type of race, same goal, different opponents. Zepuntke is one of the favorites for the top step of the podium.
Major, who forgot his colourful Bahamian jersey, appeared in the breakaway. He was one of the last standing but the peloton caught them, at which point the biggest favorite, Summerhill, punctured.
We had three riders in the front group at the time, Lindeman, Marcos and Zepuntke. However, the former two didn't increase the pace, doing the sportmanship thing to allow Summerhill to return. The American would go on to win the race with a late attack, while Zepuntke was once again one of the worst sprinters in the group behind. At least we had four riders in the top twenty-five, but none of them in a particularly high position.
Home race, win goal. Tour of the Middle East is a race with two flat, one hilly and one mountain stage. Vantomme for the sprints, Uran for the climbs and the GC. Last year he finished third behind Kudus and Pluchkin, the latter appearing again.
The less said about Vantomme, the better, as he finished 13th and 28th on the flat stages, with Avila outperforming him on the latter. On the hilly stage three, the other Colombian found himself battling amongst the front in a stage which was quite tough. Pluchkin escaped and won, but Uran in his not so Colombian jersey finished fourth at only 13 seconds.
Then onto the decisive stage, where for some reason nearly everyone waited until the final kilometer. De La Cruz was in the lead but Pluchkin did Pluchkin things by sprinting up the mountain, taking the stage and overall win. Uran finished in second place ahead of Martin, but due to the latter's bonus seconds on stage three he finished just ahead in the GC. Another third place in this race, another goal failed. But still, a good result given the opposition.
#
Rider
Team
Time
1
Aleksandr Pluchkin
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
17h50'34
2
Daniel Martin
Campari/Asahi development
+ 33
3
Rigoberto Uran
Minions
+ 41
44
Borislav Ivanov
Minions
+ 12'19
56
Chad Haga
Minions
+ 14'42
74
Yasmani Martinez
Minions
+ 19'27
89
Chris Barton
Minions
+ 23'32
90
Tareq Esmaeli
Minions
s.t.
143
Edwin Avila
Minions
+ 1h13'39
DNF
Maxime Vantomme
Minions
(4/5)
Only point of criticism is not achieving our win goal.
A three-day spriners event in Ireland. Let's avoid the leprechauns and their pots of gold, and guide Vantomme to three stage victories and all the jerseys.
Stage one was a disappointment, with the Belgian only finishing in twelfth place. On the second stage, he performed even worse by finishing 20th, but at least we had some camera time with Marcos in the break.
We decided for a different tactic on the final stage, giving Drapac a chance. He finished 23rd, so no improvement. Albert appeared in the breakaway for a few bonus seconds, meaning him and Marcos finished ahead of the sprinters in the GC.
The organizers of this Luxembourgian race awarded us a wildcard because we had a Luxembourgian rider in our team, Schinker. We did not renew his contract, but apparently we still got the wildcard.
This will be the official debut for Claeys, in a race where he can't score point. No pressure! Since it is a ProTour race, the opposition was strong.
Claeys missed the decisive move of the race, meaning he could only challenge for fourth. In an uphill sprint he finished in eighth place. Unfortunately he wasn't even the best PCT rider, as Vakoc finished sixth.
Volta a Catalunya is our spiritual successor of Tour of Vancouver, which was relegated to C2HC status. The race contains a team time trial and some mountain stages. Uran leads the squad with the full mountain and time trial support, as possibly our best roster of the season. Ready to score big!
Bringing no sprinter or puncheur means the first two stages were quiet, but we were focussed on the third stage: the team time trial. We started on fire, setting the fastest time on sector one. A slightly slower second sector meant we lost the lead to Desigual and biggest rival Tenorio, but we recovered towards the finish line to win our first stage of the season and our first team time trial event ever! As Kiflay was the first to cross the line, he inherited the leader's jersey.
Uran was now in the prime position to win the race. The fourth stage was a mountain stage, but he struggled towards to finish line to finish seventh at 17 seconds from stage winner Roglic. Schelling took the leader's jersey by bonus seconds, and Tenorio moved ahead as well. The final stage ended in more disappointment. He tried to follow early attacks but this cost him towards the end of the climb, finishing in a shocking 19th place at over two minutes from Tenorio. With our great TTT it meant he only dropped to fifth in the GC, but surely this should have been at least a podium.
#
Rider
Team
Time
1
Justo Tenorio
Desigual
22h56'16
2
Patrick Schelling
Team UBS
+ 1'38
3
Ki Ho Choi
ENI - MOL
+ 1'58
5
Rigoberto Uran
Minions
+ 2'31
22
Yasmani Martinez
Minions
+ 8'14
23
Chad Haga
Minions
+ 8'18
24
Borislav Ivanov
Minions
+ 8'26
50
Metkel Kiflay
Minions
+ 13'51
77
Chris Barton
Minions
+ 18'47
80
Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg
Minions
+ 19'17
144
Laureano Rosas
Minions
+ 46'06
(3/5)
First win of the season but it all went downhill from there.
On the other side of the world, we have a race for the puncheurs and sprinters. Tour of Southland brings three flat and two hilly stages. Claeys is the team leader in his first official race for the team, and the profiles suit him very much. Drapac gets a rare chance to lead in the sprints.
Stage one was flat and went to a mass sprint. Drapac found himself on the right train and finished fifth in a very close sprint. Unfortunately, splits ruined another sprint for him on the third stage, and a bad position meant he finished outside the top ten on the final stage.
Claeys had the second and fourth stage to look forward to. On the final hill on stage two, he attacked and looked on his way to victory. Di Maggio managed to catch and outsprint him, but with a second place and valuable time gained he was in a good position in the GC. As for the fourth stage, he finished in the front group in only eighth place, but Di Maggio was dropped which meant Claeys inherited the leader's jersey, which he wouldn't give away on the final stage. We won our first stage race of the season, with a new signing for the previously dreaded hilly terrain!
A yearly fixture on our calendar as the race moves up categories as we move up divisions: Barbados Cycling Festival. The recipe is simple: four stages, each going to a corner of the island and all likely to end in a sprint. Vantomme is not amongst the favorites because the ProTour teams did not send pity squads, but we hope to get away with some positive results.
The short answer is no: 27th, 20th, 20th and 23rd. 30th in the GC as second-best rider without bonus seconds, as the top ten got a lot of bonusses each day. We could not provide a photo of him because the finish camera would cut out before he crosses the line.
Is there nothing positive to mention from this race? Well, Rosas got into the breakaway on the final stage. His adventure got him three bonus seconds at the intermediate sprints, and thus a better GC position than Vantomme: 22nd. Some points to take home at least.
KBC De Panne Tour is a bit for everyone who doesn't like climbing. Two very tough cobblestone stages, a sprinters stage and a short time trial. We bring the cobble squad, the non-climbing time trial squad and a sprinter: Zepuntke, Janse van Rensburg and Drapac share leader's duties.
The first stage was immediately the queen stage. Albert and Marcos were send forward so we could survive maximum carnage. Carnage it was. Albert was the strongest rider in the break together with Ferreira. Together with Vanspeybrouck, Nolf and Summerhill they rode to the finish line in the front group, Albert finishing fifth. The gaps behind were enourmous. Zepuntke finished 16th at 20 minutes in the group of favorites together with Lindeman. Flaksis survived the time limit as well. This meant Drapac, Kiflay and Janse van Rensburg were eliminated, and Albert has become team leader.
The next two stages, Marcos was in the break again. With all sprinters eliminated, the third flat stage went to the breakaway in which he finished fourth. Albert's time trial was not good, the worst of the top five, but the gap on stage one was large enough to keep his GC spot. Zepuntke and Lindeman finishing 17th and 18th, Marcos 22nd, Flaksis 25th. Very good results in a very difficult race.
Another Belgian cobblestone race early in the season: Le Samyn. Let's hope for a little less carnage and a good result for Zepuntke, or a lot of carnage with a good result for anyone.
We tried to send Esmaeli into the break for reasons unknown as he was unlikely to survive the first cobblestone section. The Sheikh was definitely not involved in this decision, no pressure from him to give his son some camera time.
The order failed, as he would be caught even before the first cobblestone section. Zepuntke managed to stay with the big group, though he finished last in the sprint there. 16th place is a disappointing result. Albert 23rd and Lindeman 26th in the next group.
Uran's home race (and Avila's and Hodeg's): Vuelta a Colombia. A race with a mountainious character, combined with two flat stages. We set a top five goal here, which looks achieveable.
The start was good, as Avila finished sixth on the first stage. Stage two went to the breakaway, and Uran lost a few second to some other favorites, but nothing major lost yet. The third stage did go to the favorites, where Uran finished fifth at 1'28 from Pluchkin, having the same position in the GC at +1'57. Just within the margins of our goal.
Avila finished just outside the points on the stage four sprint. Ivanov got himself into the break on stage five, and was only overtaken by Pluchkin in the final kilometer, finishing fourth on the stage. Uran on the other hand only finished eleventh, losing his fifth place to Martin. There was no action amongst the favorites on the final stage, not even an attempt by Uran to gain a place and succeed our goal. Disappointing.
Indonesia | PTHC | 2 stages | Mountain / Flat | January 28 - 29
Chris Barton
Damion Drapac
Tareq Esmaeli
Alvaro Hodeg
Borislav Ivanov
Yasmani Martinez
Equatorial Guinea | C1 | Classic | Mountain | January 31
Andzs Flaksis
Metkel Kiflay
/
Denmark/Sweden | PT | Classic | Team time trial | February 3
Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg
Laureano Rosas
/
Oman/Qatar/UAE | HC | 4 stages | Mountain / Flat | February 5 - 8
Maxime Vantomme
Bert-Jan Lindeman
Jay Major
Ruben Zepuntke
Ireland | C1 | 3 stages | Flat | February 10 - 12
Luxembourg | PT | Classic | Hill | February 15
Spain | C1 | 6 stages | Mountain / Team time trial | February 18 - 23
New Zealand | C1 | 5 stages | Hill / Flat | February 24 - 28
Barbados | PTHC | 4 stages | Flat | March 1 - 4
