redordead wrote:
Looks like it was a tough month with some bad luck. Although both Kelderman and Marquez did well on their terrains, which should bode well going forward

(Already raced)Saber did well in this race last season, and we were hoping for more of the same from him. We were also hoping that the Saber-Havik double cobbles punch would work out well for us. With this race clashing with the De Panne Tour, we were hoping to take advantage of a possibly weaker startlist.

Despite a good performance from the team in this race last season, we've decided not to send Kelderman for this race, keeping in mind the usually strong puncher startlist and the time we expect to lose in the TTs. As such, Palini gets the leadership role, and we're taking a number of wildcard riders, in search of the odd breakaway victory, or a shot at the KOM jersey.

Marquez's first shot at leading a pure climbing stage race for the team. He will have almost the full climbing support in the form of Bardet, Poels and Inkelaar. Havik is a part of the squad to target the two flat stages.

Another first. The first classic for Kelderman to lead as a member of our team. We're taking along the strongest possible support squad, to help Kelderman possibly get close to his podium finish last season.

Not the strongest squad will represent us here, as Wippert and Te Brake share sprinting leadership, while Van Zandbeek and Ligthart will aim for the TTs.

A rare solo leadership opportunity for Havik this season. We've decided to keep Saber away from this race, expecting a tough startlist. A mixed bag of riders will line up here, trying to upset the rhythm of the race, by trying to utilize their varied strengths.

The Saber-Havik 1-2 punch returns to try their luck in this race. We don't have a strong cobbles support team this time, so it'll be up to our leaders to be attentive. Bovenhuis, should however be an asset in a race like this.

Tamijo wrote:
Not the best season start for the team, hope to see you bounce back soon, still a lot of racing left.

We went into this race with a hope of good results, given last year's precedent. Van Zandbeek joined the early break.



The breakaway was caught on the ninth cobbled sector. A six man group would get away near the final 10 kilometers. Saber was in the chase group, with seven others, while Havik was in the next group on the road. Saber's group would catch up to the leaders with 6 km to go, before Bush would attack again. After a couple of unsuccessful attacks, Vanbilsen would attack and get away, and also catch up to Bush. The former would take the win ahead of the latter. Saber would win the sprint from the reduced bunch to finish an excellent 3rd.



Havik finished 15th and Bovenhuis 23rd.

1	Kenneth Vanbilsen	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	4h56'14
3	Lahcen Saber	Philips	+ 22
15	Yoeri Havik	Philips	+ 1'22
23	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 2'53
54	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips	+ 6'37
58	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 7'34
77	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	+ 11'35
88	Thomas Boudat	Philips	+ 13'13
105	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 19'53

A great result for the team, to start an important month. Saber continues his good performance in this race with another podium finish. Excellent support from Havik and Bovenhuis throughout to pick up some important points.

No Kelderman for this race, no minimal expectations. We were hoping for the odd surprise result in what we expected to be a packed startlist.

Nothing to write home about for the team in the first four stages. On Stage 5, Le Gac, Allegaert and Palini joined the break. Allegaert would be dropped on the first climb of the day. The rest of the break would stick together till an attack from five riders, including Palini, with 2.5 km to go. Palini would be caught. The front five would sprint for the line, with Palini taking 2nd place on the stage, after Vakoc got a gap to take the win..



No action of note for us on the final, with Le Gac, Palini and Grossschartner taking minor points in the GC.

1	Robert Gesink	Generali	17h20'11
52	Olivier Le Gac	Philips	+ 17'27
74	Andrea Palini	Philips	+ 21'00
85	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	+ 24'01
142	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	+ 42'21
161	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips	+ 59'00
175	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 1h19'34
183	Pim Ligthart	Philips	+ 1h35'20

As expected, we come away from this race with some points, but a little disappointment at having finished so far down in the GC.

On Stage 2, Marquez finished 7th, winning the sprint from the second group on the road.



Stage 4 saw Havik produce his best sprint of the season to finish an excellent 2nd.



Marquez did well on Stage 5 to move up to 9th in the GC. He would lose one position on the last stage, and finish 10th in the GC. Bardet picks up some points for his Top 50 finish.

1	Aleksandr Pluchkin	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	26h55'05
10	Florentino Marquez	Philips	+ 7'12
47	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 22'34
86	Wout Poels	Philips	+ 40'13
100	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 54'12
155	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	+ 1h53'52
156	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	+ 1h54'21
158	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 1h55'48
165	Yoeri Havik	Philips	+ 2h10'07

Given the startlist, Marquez did quite well to get into the Top 10 and meet our expectations from this race. We were expecting Bardet to be a little bit higher in the final standings.

We had high hopes for last year's podium finisher and former winner Kelderman to be able to do something similar again. This was his first classics appearance for us.

Kelderman was left to his own devices quite early as Palini was the last teammate to be dropped with around 50 km left. A lot of attacks were initiated in the closing stages but Kelderman stayed in touch throughout and found himself in the lead with 5 km remaining. He missed the decisive attack with 4 km remaining and finished with the second group. He finished 7th.



Palini ended the race in 30th place.

A good result for Kelderman in terms of a PTHC race, but we were hoping for more, especially given our poor start to the season. Nonetheless, not a lot to complain about from this race, just a little bit more luck was required in the important moments.

Wippert and Te Brake were our leaders for the sprints, while Van Zandbeek and Ligthart were our main hope in the TTs.

Stage 3 saw Wippert finish 6th in the sprint.



The ITT on Stage 4 produced topsy turvy results as far as we were concerned, with Poels over-performing massively to post the 16th best time. Both Ligthart and Van Zandbeek disappointed.

Wippert produced a good sprint to finish 4th on Stage 5.



Ligthart lost time to fall out of a point scoring GC position.

1	Jerome Coppel	Carrefour - ESPN	9h17'23
19	Wout Poels	Philips	+ 2'17
34	Pim Ligthart	Philips	+ 3'34
47	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips	+ 4'04
109	Remco Te Brake	Philips	+ 6'57
112	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	+ 7'07
116	Wouter Wippert	Philips	+ 7'30
125	Thomas Boudat	Philips	+ 9'03
133	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 24'48

A mixed bag of a race where we achieved our GC target but let go of additional points at the end.

We left Saber home for this race, expecting it to be a strong startlist. The decision turned out to be the right one, as the cobbles was too tough for similarly strong Havik to contend with. He could 40th place as our best finisher.

1	Sam Bewley	Moser - Sygic	5h56'00
40	Yoeri Havik	Philips	+ 11'18
45	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 12'44
96	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 27'03
117	Rok Korosec	Philips	+ 46'22

A throwaway race, but there's too many of these for us at the moment!

A cobbled race where we had a lot more hope coming in. Both Saber and Havik were on the startlist.

Korosec and Allegaert joined the early break but only Allegaert survived after the first set of cobbles.



Saber attacked with just over 50 km to go, prompting Allegaert to drop back from the break and help our leader.



However, it turned out to be a futile exercise as they were caught. This seemed to be all the energy Saber had, as both him and Havik, and Bovenhuis and Allegaert, all were dropped. Havik at 36th was our best result.

1	Joeri Stallaert	Volvo acc. by Spotify	4h55'15
36	Yoeri Havik	Philips	+ 8'12
41	Lahcen Saber	Philips	s.t.
50	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	s.t.
87	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 17'00
126	Rok Korosec	Philips	+ 45'41

Our first zero pointer of the season. Our cobbles team fell apart at the first sign of challenging roads, which does not bode well for the rest of the season.

With the expectation of a tough startlist, we have decided not to take Marquez to this race, giving Bardet the opportunity a rare leadership opportunity this season. Te Brake is our designated sprinter for the two sprint stages. Ligthart and Van Zandbeek will try their luck in the two TTs. Our main aim for this race is to try for the KOM jersey and to get surprise results from the break.

All hands on deck to support Kelderman for this race. Only his third outing, it has become abundantly clear from the early on-goings that Kelderman is perhaps our best hope to drag ourselves out of the mire we're in. Both TTs in this race should favour riders who are good going uphill, and we're hoping it helps Kelderman. Van Zandbeek will start as a possible TT hope.

The only hilly classic where Kelderman does not start for us all season. A chance for Palini or Le Gac, or perhaps both to resurrect their season with an over-performance which we very much are hoping for. Realistically, we are expecting a Top 20 run from one or both of them.

A race where we participated last season, but it was then in PTHC. Saber finished 20th that time, but we hope the division drop can see him improve drastically. We are also banking on the clash with Veenendaal to further weaken the startlist and help our cause. Saber has an almost full flat team in support, with most, Saber included, quite capable on the undulations which this race will throw up. We hope for a good Saber show here.

We started the race with a decent 19th place from Ligthart on Stage 1. Te Brake won the bunch sprint on Stage 2 but it was only for 6th place as a five man breakaway survived!



Bardet finished in a respectable 18th on Stage 3, despite losing time. He would lose more than 15 minutes on the next stage! Te Brake finished 11th on Stage 5.

Bardet joined a large break on Stage 6.



He could not pick up any KOM points but his early intent meant he finished 14th on the day to move into the Top 50 in the GC, where he would end up after a unimpressive last stage for us.

1	Aleksandr Pluchkin	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	23h19'26
48	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 22'25
78	Wout Poels	Philips	+ 33'48
116	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 54'40
149	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips	+ 1h28'23
151	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	+ 1h31'19
155	Remco Te Brake	Philips	+ 1h35'05
159	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 1h46'29

We expected more from the riders, especially when it came to being involved in breaks, and in the other standings, besides the GC. Top 50 and about half a dozen points is a poor return from this race.

No highlights to report...

1	Aleksandr Pluchkin	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	5h01'14
28	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	+ 10'27
92	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	+ 16'39
100	Andrea Palini	Philips	+ 17'46
106	Olivier Le Gac	Philips	+ 18'07
129	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	+ 20'35
143	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips	+ 22'27
145	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 22'53
174	Thomas Boudat	Philips	+ 31'36

We underestimated the strength of the opposition and the difficulty of the climbs in this race. This meant Kelderman was seriously hamstrung in his attempt to lead the team. Another no show with literally nothing to report from any stage. We came here looking for a Top 3 but return with a Top 30!

Palini and maybe Le Gac had the chance to lead in this race but Inkelaar in the break is the only time our jersey was visible.



Grossschartner in 38th was our best result.

1	Dimitri Claeys	Minions	5h32'28
38	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	+ 1'42
51	Olivier Le Gac	Philips	+ 2'50
56	Andrea Palini	Philips	s.t.
77	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	s.t.
114	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 3'58
144	Thomas Boudat	Philips	+ 5'05
171	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	s.t.
177	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	+ 6'24

A missed opportunity for us in the hills. This is a race where Kelderman should've been leading for sure. But then, everything is easier in hindsight. Palini and Le Gac yet again come up short, not even getting close to the point-scoring positions.

We had higher hopes for this race, with Saber in attendance and were secretly hoping for a better showing than just a Top 10.

We were not a part of the pace-making for most of the stage. Disappointingly, Havik was dropped from the lead group quite early. Six riders got away with 15 km to go, and they would keep their lead and fight for the win. Bellis would take the win in the end.

Saber managed 5th in the bunch sprint, which meant 11th overall.

1	Jonathan Bellis	cycleYorkshire	5h31'20
11	Lahcen Saber	Philips	s.t.
47	Wouter Wippert	Philips	+ 3'50
75	Yoeri Havik	Philips	s.t.
80	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	s.t.
105	Rok Korosec	Philips	s.t.
110	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	s.t.
139	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	s.t.
147	Thomas Boudat	Philips	s.t.

Saber did what he had in the bunch sprint, but it was disappointing once again to have missed the winning move. A 5th place would've done us a lot more good than 11th. Once again, none of the secondary sprinters could get anywhere near the front of the pack.

A lot of hopes ride on Saber to produce a repeat of his excellent 6th place last season. Havik rides as well to provide the second line of offense. Bovenhuis is an able helper on the cobbles while Te Brake and Korosec start to help their leaders on the flat stages.

All eyes on Kelderman as our team leader tries to bring his and our season back on track. The first stage ITT isn't his strong suit, but we're hoping it's short length negates that. After that, the two hilly stages should, ideally, be Kelderman's strong point. The full hills support tags along for the ride.

A completely flat route which should Saber well. He has done well in bunch sprints so far and we hope he can keep up that form. The full sprint support will be present to help in his quest.

Marquez is back on the slopes after a considerable gap since his last race. We We hope he can recapture his form from Colombia and perhaps over-perform to some extent and get a Top 10. We are expecting a strong field to show for this race. Marquez will have the help of our climbing support in this race.

Our home race has not been a happy hunting ground in the past and that is not expected to change this season. Our TTT line-up is not strong which might leave Ligthart and Van Zandbeek with too much catching up to do in the ITTs. Havik and Wippert have a chance of leading our sprints in their home race.

The clash with Olympia means that Saber has a weakened sprint support to help hi in this race. Nevertheless, we still expect him to push for a high finish. Hopefully the climbing in the early part of this race will not have too much an effect on our team's legs.

We were hoping for a couple of high stage placings from Saber, along with a Top 10 GC placing in this race.

Saber was isolated early on Stage 1 but held his own pace to finish a decent 15th on a hard cobbled route. Bovenhuis did well to claw back some places towards the end, to finish 27th.

Saber managed a best of 8th place in the three sprint finishes that, although Stage 4 was won by the break. Surprsingly, Korosec was the ebst sprint support in two out of those three stages.

Saber finished in the larger peloton behind the breakaway survivors, which pulled his GC placing up to 10th. Bovenhuis finished in 27th, while Havik and Allegaert finished among the points as well. Allegaert finished 4th in the U25 classification.

1	Danny Summerhill	Andorra Cycling Project	23h20'14
10	Lahcen Saber	Philips	+ 7'58
27	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 13'42
41	Yoeri Havik	Philips	+ 16'55
46	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 19'30
107	Remco Te Brake	Philips	+ 52'41
122	Rok Korosec	Philips	+ 1h05'06

A satisfactory race in terms of the GC, but not so good in the individual stages. Havik continues to disappoint both in the cobbles and as a sprint support for Saber.

Big hopes rested on Kelderman's shoulders once again.

Kelderman did well on Stage 1, losing just 28 seconds to stage winner Dennis, and gaining time on most of his GC rivals. Palini too, was just 10 seconds slower.

Kelderman finished in with the leading group on Stage 2 but finished last among said group. He did move up to 13th in the GC as a result.

The peloton finished more than 2 minutes behind the 12 man break, meaning that Kelderman dropped to 19th in the GC!

1	Vegard Stake Laengen	Grieg - Maersk	10h24'50
19	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	+ 1'43
67	Andrea Palini	Philips	+ 4'10
74	Rok Korosec	Philips	+ 4'20
76	Olivier Le Gac	Philips	+ 4'24
89	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	+ 5'46
105	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	+ 7'03
144	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 15'04
150	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 16'18

Another extremely disappointing outing for Kelderman as our poor luck with hilly stage races cotinue. Nothing much to add except that we hope our luck changes for the better soon.

Saber started the sprint from too far back and could only manage 11th, meaning we missed our target for this race as well.

1	Fabio Silvestre	Berg Cycles	4h41'32
11	Lahcen Saber	Philips	s.t.
51	Wouter Wippert	Philips	+ 1'39
112	Yoeri Havik	Philips	+ 2'26
113	Remco Te Brake	Philips	s.t.
118	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	s.t.
149	Rok Korosec	Philips	s.t.
155	Thomas Boudat	Philips	s.t.
160	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	s.t.

Left on his own, and with a scramble towards the finish Saber was left with too much to do and couldn't get a Top 10 placing as we had hoped.

This was a race that suited Marquez very and we had earmarked as his top target at the start of the season.

On Stage 1, Bardet led his team leader up the sloped in the final kilometers, and into a good position. Marquez missed the winning move but finished 5th. Bardet did well too, finishing 15th, with some loss of time.


Bovenhuis joined the break on Stage 2 and picked up some KOM points.

Two from the break survived but Marquez retained his GC place.

Marquez attacked woith 9 km to go on Stage 3 and stretched it out to 43 seconds with 6 km remaining.

He would be caught 3 km to go. He had no energy left when the stage-winning move arrived, and lost a minute, and a GC position. Bardet was still doing well to be 13th in the GC.


Stage 5 turned into a difficult day for us as Marquez would lose nearly 4 minutes and Bardet a further minutes more, for them both to fall in the GC to 10th and 19th in the GC, respectively.

1	Daniel Martin	Campari/Asahi development	21h17'23
10	Florentino Marquez	Philips	+ 5'18
19	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 9'25
82	Wout Poels	Philips	+ 40'58
83	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	+ 41'27
108	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 1h01'30
154	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	+ 2h04'37
158	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	+ 2h11'56
163	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 2h34'22

While we met our pre-race expectation of a Top 10 finish, it was disappointing to drop four places for Marquez in the GC, and six places for Bardet in the same. Just our luck for this season I guess.

A bad start on Stage 1 as Ligthart and Van Zandbeek lost 40 and 44 secodsn respectively.

Boudat joined the break on Stage 2 and won the first two intermediate sprints.

Wippert made up half a dozen places in the final 200 meters to claim 3rd.


Stage 3 was less eventful and Wippert managed 7th in the sprint.

The TTT on Stage 4 turned out worse than expected as we finished 11th among the 14 teams. Ligthart and Van Zandbeek lost a lot of places in the GC.

Boudat once again joined the break, and won two intermediate sprints.

Boudat had enough left to sprint himself at the finish, ending up 8th, while Wippert claimed another 3rd place.

Ligthart finally had a good TT, finishing 10th on Stage 6, to move up to 30th in the GC.

Van Zandbeek managed 20th on the day.

1	Luke Durbridge	cycleYorkshire	14h31'55
30	Pim Ligthart	Philips	+ 1'34
35	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips	+ 1'43
58	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	+ 3'21
61	Thomas Boudat	Philips	+ 3'41
64	Wouter Wippert	Philips	+ 3'56
74	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 4'14
85	Olivier Le Gac	Philips	+ 4'57
93	Yoeri Havik	Philips	+ 5'25

Wippert was our rider of the race, with two podiums and a 5th place in the Points Standings. Boudat did well too. Our TT team was very disappointing especially in the ITTs.

We missed the winning move and Saber could only manage 10th from the split group in which he ended up.

1	Jonathan Bellis	cycleYorkshire	6h35'34
10	Lahcen Saber	Philips	s.t.
32	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	s.t.
40	Rok Korosec	Philips	s.t.
49	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	s.t.
53	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	s.t.
117	Remco Te Brake	Philips	+ 6'30
120	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	s.t.
123	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	s.t.

We met our expectation but that was before we saw the startlist, and in the end we come away disappointed once again.

A tough sprinter field is expected for this race, and thus we would be happy with a repeat of last year's performance where Saber finished 14th.

A hilly race without Kelderman and flat stages without Saber means that we have very limited expectations from this race. We are hopeful that Wippert can carry over some of his recent sprint form to this race.

Kelderman returns as leader in what should be a race very well suited to him. The only cause for concern is probably the team time trial on Stage 4 but there should be enough time gaps on the hills to neutralize this.

The sprint field for this race is expected to be strong but we still believe that Saber is among the Top 10 sprinters of the PCT division. We are hoping that he can live up to the expectations and hopefully surpass it.

A tough sprinter field is expected for this race, and thus we would be happy with a repeat of last year's performance where Saber finished 14th.

Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:


You got your wish!

Sprint fields are so deep in all the sprinters races.

No one joined the break as the team raced with a single focus of delivering Saber into a good position at the finish. We were able to do so, but Saber just didn't have the finishing kick to push for a front row finish. He ended up 14th, a repeat of last season, which was a satisfactory result.

1	Jacopo Guarnieri	Delvaux	4h47'45
14	Lahcen Saber	Philips	s.t.
65	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	+ 1'22
67	Yoeri Havik	Philips	s.t.
74	Rok Korosec	Philips	s.t.
128	Remco Te Brake	Philips	s.t.
139	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	s.t.
145	Thomas Boudat	Philips	s.t.
183	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	s.t.

Coming in with moderate expectations, this was a job well done by the team. we couldn't realistically hope for much more from a startlist like this.

Wippert finished 7th on Stage 1. Our GC hopes were dashed as both Palinin and Le Gac failed to stay in touch on the hilly Stage 3, and both Van Zandbeek and Ligthart lost too much time to make up in the ITT.

1	Omar Fraile	Desigual	16h34'57
61	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips	+ 6'54
65	Rok Korosec	Philips	s.t.
67	Andrea Palini	Philips	+ 7'07
109	Wouter Wippert	Philips	+ 9'53
121	Olivier Le Gac	Philips	+ 10'36
130	Yoeri Havik	Philips	+ 11'35
149	Pim Ligthart	Philips	+ 12'52
159	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 14'12

We came into this race expecting nothing and go away with next to nothing.

Kelderman started the race in the best possible way, winning Stage 1 from a reduced bunch sprint.

He followed it up with a 9th place on Stage 2, which saw him slip to 2nd in the GC.

On the flat Stage 3, inexplicably, Kelderman was on the wrong side of a late split, which saw him lose 40 seconds to the leaders, and drop down to 13th in the GC.

The team did well on the Stage 4 TTT, which pushed Kelderman back up to 8th in the GC, but 1'40" off the best time.

Stage 5 had the break survive, and no gaps among the GC candidates, despite Kelderman's efforts to attack late.

Stage 6 ended in a reduced bunch sprint, which included Kelderman, who moved up one position to finish 7th in the GC.

1	Jonathan Bellis	cycleYorkshire	24h58'58
7	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	+ 1'40
26	Andrea Palini	Philips	+ 11'32
38	Olivier Le Gac	Philips	+ 14'34
69	Wout Poels	Philips	+ 19'22
85	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	+ 23'44
134	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips	+ 41'26
136	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	+ 41'56
154	Pim Ligthart	Philips	+ 52'29

A stage win, Kelderman 7th in the GC and 4th in the Points, and some minor GC points from Palini make this a decent result, but those 40 seconds lost on Stage 3 leave something to be desired. Not losing that time could've put Kelderman on the podium, or into 4th place at the minimum!

Ina similar vein to Riga-Jurmala, the team delivered Saber to a good position in the closing stretch, and this time Saber got a better chance to spread his legs at the finish. He finished 5th, just behind the first row, who basically blocked off from gaining more ground!

1	Jonas Ahlstrand	Volvo acc. by Spotify	4h47'56
5	Lahcen Saber	Philips	s.t.
78	Remco Te Brake	Philips	+ 1'27
79	Yoeri Havik	Philips	s.t.
81	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips	s.t.
164	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 4'09
169	Thomas Boudat	Philips	s.t.
171	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	s.t.
189	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	s.t.

A very good result for us, with Saber continuing his good sprinting. This time there were no late attacks, so we didn't lose any points unnecessarily.

Our first of two C2 races of the season, is one where we did well last season. Pantano finished 3rd, and we will be hoping for a similar result this around. However, Bardet doesn't really have the climbing prowess of Pantano, so it will be harder for him to get a repeat. We are hoping the clash with Bulgaria will some of the stronger climbers to that race. This is also the race where our Stagiare Paret-Peintre will ride for the first time, so we're excited about that.

We won this race last season, one of two race victories for Henao in our colours. This time around, it is Marquez who'll lead our charge in this race. Expectations are not as high as last time around, but we're still hoping for a good result. The full mountain squad is here in support.

Another Kelderman race, more big expectations! Our marquee signing of the season has not lived up to his potential in stage races so far, and we're hoping that form will turn around in this race. The full puncher squad is here in support along with Wippert, for the one flat stage. It is very important that we start scoring big points in races like these. We hope we reach our expected result, and maybe improve on it.

Our second C2 race of the season will also be ridden month. The only race on our calendar which is mainly for development purposes, unless Van Zandbeek and Ligthart don't lose too much time on the flat stages and can make some of it up in the race-ending TT.