Two flats, a time trial and two hills: Tour of Norway in a nutshell. PTHC category with tough opposition, but we believe in Claeys and Janse van Rensburg. In Vantomme a bit less, but don't let him hear that.
On the first stage, leadout Avila was dropped, resulting in Vantomme missing support and only finishing eleventh. He rebounded on the second stage, finishing a very decent sixth.
The time trial had some mixed results. Kiflay's fourteenth place was good, but Janse van Rensburg only finished 26th and Claeys lost more four and a half minutes. To make matters worse, Claeys dropped early on the hilly stage and played no role, losing eight minutes with Kiflay losing even more. Out of embarrassment, we did not show our faces on the final stage. Out of all this, Selander was our best finisher in 70th. Not a good race.
We start the month of June with a cobblestone race in Poland. 242 kilometer with some rough roads, the favorite recipe for Zepuntke, Albert, Lindeman, Flaksis and Marcos. Not for Esmaeli, Hodeg and Major, but we force them to come. Of the latter trio, only Hodeg did not finish the race.
The race was tough, with many punctures for many contenders. Fortunately, our riders escaped due to our super strong tires. Albert and Zepuntke found themselves in the front group of 16 riders with 20 to go. As others tried to attack, we used Albert to chase and bring them back
The plan worked, eventually reducing the front group to eight with Zepuntke present. These eight went to a sprint, in which Stallaert was the strongest by quite a margin. Zepuntke finished in a very decent fifth place. Albert crosses the line as best of the rest in ninth, ahead of Bush and Vanbilsen. Lindeman led the next group, finishing 17th, with Flaksis at the tail end in 28th. Many points today.
#
Rider
Team
Time
1
Joeri Stallaert
Volvo acc. by Spotify
6h18'07
2
Pieter Vanspeybrouck
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
s.t.
3
Jerome Baugnies
Kulczyk - Alitalia
s.t.
5
Ruben Zepuntke
Minions
s.t.
9
Niels Albert
Minions
+ 2'06
17
Bert-Jan Lindeman
Minions
+ 5'15
28
Andzs Flaksis
Minions
s.t.
47
Leandro Marcos
Minions
+ 11'56
68
Jay Major
Minions
+ 20'13
101
Tareq Esmaeli
Minions
+ 45'27
DNF
Alvaro Hodeg
Minions
(4/5)
Cobblestone races are good points scoring opportunities.
As part of our mission to go global, we head to the Rwandan capital of Kigali for a one-day HC event. The city of Kigali does not have the best of streets, as is suggested by the profile. The cobblestone climb is tough, riding it up once is punishment enough but we have to do it sixteen times! By we, I mean Zepuntke foremost.
Marcos went into the break to increase his chances of survival. It worked as he finished the race unlike Hodeg and Major. He even turned out to be the strongest of the breakaway and would play a role in the finale.
Zepuntke meanwhile managed to ride along with the other favorites, though there came a point where he could no longer followed the attacks. He would finish 11th with Albert shortly behind in 14th, which is not bad. However, Marcos had the ride of his life as he managed to stick with the attackers for some time, and crossed the finish line in seventh place!
Denmark is a fairly flat country, but for their national tour they have found some hills. The main feature of the race will be the final time trial most likely. We once again bet on three horses like in Norway: Claeys, Janse van Rensburg and Vantomme. The former two need to step up their game
Vantomme also decided that Norway was a one-off, as he was a no-show on all three flat stages, with a best finish of 40th. The second stage was particularly rough for us, as only Janse van Rensburg finished in the front group. Claeys had already lost time and also lost more time on the hilly stage.
But out of all this, Janse van Rensburg stepped up and took over team leadership. He managed to finish in the front group on the hilly stage, and was ninth heading into the final time trial, which is his speciality. He finished tenth on the stage, decent with a strong field, and moved up to fifth overall! The only riders ahead of him were riders who beat him in the TT, and were expected to do so in all honesty, so Janse van Rensburg got the maximum out of this race!
#
Rider
Team
Time
1
Omar Fraile
Desigual
16h34'57
2
Luke Durbridge
cycleYorkshire
+ 17
3
Ion Izagirre
Iberia - Team Degenkolb
+ 18
5
Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg
Minions
+ 33
35
Laureano Rosas
Minions
+ 5'01
93
Bjorn Selander
Minions
+ 8'45
114
Dimitri Claeys
Minions
+ 10'24
122
Maxime Vantomme
Minions
+ 10'41
125
Edwin Avila
Minions
+ 11'07
138
Alvaro Hodeg
Minions
+ 12'06
165
Fulgencio Bru
Minions
+ 16'38
(4/5)
Profiles are not what they seem to be anymore.
All stages in South Africa are hilly, except for one. A team time trial throws a spanner in the works. It brings some interesting squad decision, Claeys is the leader but if we overpower the TTT squad he might lose time, but if we send no TTT squad as all we also lose. So we decided on a compromise: four puncheurs, four time trialists, so Claeys can be the fifth wheel. Janse van Rensburg will ride his home race with special attention, especially after his performance in Denmark.
On the regular stages, Claeys did not do anything wrong. He always finished amongst the other favorites, sixth on the first stage, 12th on the second and third stage, thirteenth on the fifth stage and twenty-seventh on the final stage, but never losing time other than bonus seconds. Haga also finished near the front in most stages, resulting in us having a decent run at the teams classification until the final stage, where we dropped to fourth.
The team time trial would be the decisive factor in terms of the GC. And it turns out our compromise would be just as bad as either other option. We finished in the lower midfield despite putting a lot of effort in the TTT's over the past season. If we had brought an extra rider there instead of say Marcos, Claeys could have gained some more places. He finished eighth in the GC, but even a five-second improvement would have seen him finished sixth. Haga ended up in 21st place, and Selander in 29th.
Sri Lanka's annual one-day classic held in Colombo. The profile is tough but is set to be one for the puncheurs, hence we bring Claeys. The race is PTHC rated so he has to compete against PT riders.
Over the last hill, some riders attacked, but the group was still quite large heading to the finish line with Claeys near the front.
He passed the finish line in thirteenth place, which is not that bad given the strength of the field, but from a rather good position he could have entered the top ten. Special mention for former loanee Eiking finishing one place ahead of him!
The catchup is almost completed, Monterrey TTT is our last event in June, and then we have a break to the end of July. The race is a team time trial in Mexico, and with only 14 teams participating we are guaranteed to score points. However, we won't accept finishing last with our good TTT squad, though Uran is missing from the setup.
Our dreams of the victory were quickly put to bed. As one of the last teams to pass the first checkpoint we already had a considerable deficit to the fastest teams, and were provisionally last with only the team starting after us falling behind.
We did improve on the second and third part to finish in tenth place. Our slow start can be explained by having two riders to fill the squad which are not as competent in the discipline as the others. We'll take tenth but see some room for improvement.
There has been no post-May update, so everything is put together for this June update. A lot of races for us which either went well or terrible, and it costs us a few positions in the rankings. We drop from eighth to eleventh, which means we are moving further away from the promotion fight, but are also clear of relegation worries at the moment. We don't have a lot of racedays in July, so we do not expect to mount a forwards challenge anytime soon either. Uran also dropped a place on the individual rankings, from sixth to seventh, and Claeys loses fourteen places to fiftieth. Bru and Hodeg still pointless.
After staying home for nearly a month, we are back in action! We head to Kenya for the mountain classic, which is no lie. We climb a mountain, descent it and then climb again. It is the second-a-last points-scoring race for Uran, so let's make the most of it!
On the final climbs, some favorites attacked but Uran remained calm. Despite the entire team being dropped already (everyone finished), he relied on the other teams to bring them back, which happened.
In a sprint in the final kilometer, Berhane came out on top. Uran fell just off the podium, in fourth behind Tenorio and Pluchkin. The result is not bad, especially considering the opposition, but sometimes you just hope for more.
The original profiles of the Tour of Beijing were quite hilly, close to mountainous actually, but the organizers assured us it would be 100% hill. Upon arrival we learned we were brought here under false pretenses, and Claeys would be no factor in this race. So we took matters into our own hands, went into the mountains and threw some dirt down the mountain, causing mudslides. This meant the organizers had to come up with a different route, one which was more suiting to Claeys
Unfortunately, Claeys did not get the memo as he had to maintain plausible deniability, and took the breakaway on the first stage It wasn't a success GC-wise, as he lost 1'37, but he did lead the mountains classification.
On the third stage he took to the break again, this time more successfully, finishing second behind Gautier, moving up to tenth in the GC and extending his lead in the KoM classification. On the final stage he did not get in trouble, and even gained a place on Slagter, but he had to share the mountains classification with Marczynski. For the other riders on the squad, only Esmaeli made an appearance in the break on the final stage, as four of our riders managed to finish in the bottom ten of the general classification.
#
Rider
Team
Time
1
Tomohiro Kinoshita
Rakuten Pro Cycling
17h58'20
2
Eduard Alexander Beltran
Swisslion Cycling Team
+ 23
3
Wilco Kelderman
Philips
+ 45
9
Dimitri Claeys
Minions
+ 2'13
96
Bjorn Selander
Minions
+ 22'34
144
Leandro Marcos
Minions
+ 37'44
146
Tareq Esmaeli
Minions
+ 38'30
184
Fulgencio Bru
Minions
+ 1h20'21
186
Alvaro Hodeg
Minions
+ 1h26'16
188
Andzs Flaksis
Minions
+ 1h29'38
191
Jay Major
Minions
+ 1h47'19
(3/5)
We'll promiss never to create mudslides again.
Nakhon Ratchasima Trophy ... bello Bob! Bello Kevin! Bello Stuart! Es mio a Nakhon ... oh banana, bananaaa, potato naaaaa, oh bananaaa, togari noh pocato-li kani malo mani kano chi ka-baba, ba-ba-nana.
Vantomme e Drapac ... oh gelato, GELATOOOOOO. BI DOO BI DOO, GELATO. Pola nola matoka.
65, wheeeeee. Blumok. Atttaaaaaaa ... Bapple, oh Bapple. Eh eh Kevin, babble. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Bapple. Yum. KING BOB!
#
Rider
Team
Time
1
John Degenkolb
Iberia - Team Degenkolb
4h31'03
2
Peter Kennaugh
Air France - KLM
s.t.
3
Caleb Ewan
Podium Ambition
s.t.
65
Damion Drapac
Minions
+ 1'19
66
Niels Albert
Minions
s.t.
71
Bert-Jan Lindeman
Minions
s.t.
95
Edwin Avila
Minions
s.t.
115
Jay Major
Minions
s.t.
123
Maxime Vantomme
Minions
s.t.
130
Alvaro Hodeg
Minions
s.t.
159
Tareq Esmaeli
Minions
s.t.
(0/5)
Next time get a Minion who speaks English to do these.
Another unpronouncable race, but this time we have a English-speaking Minion to make the report intelligible. It's a cobblestone race in Hungary, one where we should do well.
With many specialists we could play multiple cards. Marcos and Flaksis went into the second break, but the break turned out not to be the right move. Zepuntke and Albert rode along with the other favorites, the latter struggling at times.
The hill on the route is not Zepuntke's favorite terrain. He could only for a little while but had to drop off to the chasing group. He finished seventh, nearly five minutes down on the winner. Albert with thirteenth, and the other riders outside the points.
A ranking update in the middle of the month. We had almost no races in July and early August was also very sparse, yet we remain where we were: eleventh place. It's good to see we haven't dropped places but we need to be looking up. Uran has also kept his seventh position in the standings, while Claeys has gained 16 positions, from 50th to 34th.
Welcome to San Sebastian, in whatever geographical area you may think it is located, for a hilly classic with some mountaineous characteristics. Claeys is team leader but does not like mountains very much. All we can do is pray for the best.
Our prayers were answered, as the Belgian managed to ride with the favorites all day long. He even countered attacks on climbs which were above his normal operating range. We played with the numbers so he didn't know the actual altitude.
The plan stopped working on the final climb, but by then he had a decent gap over the peloton. He crossed the line in eighth place, 2'30 down on winner Kinoshita. Esmaeli was our next best finisher in 60th.
A race with mountains is something we look forward too. However, the Tour of Austria will be Uran's final race of the season except a ProTour wildcard time trial event. With Pluchkin on the startlist we expect to battle for second, which would be a welcome result in our fight to enter the rankings top ten.
The race opened with two mountain stages in which Pluchkin did not fail. Uran finished sixth and fourth, with the latter result being second if we discard the breakaway. He was now leading the non-Pluchkin general classification by a second over Amador. Over the next four stages they would finish in the same group, meaning the final-day time trial would need to decide.
Janse van Rensburg was one of the earlier starters as climbing is not his speciality. He posted the fastest time thus far and occupied the hot seat for the entire day. Amador failed to reach his time by eleven seconds, and Uran also finished behind the South African but by only eight seconds, meaning he had secured the second place in the GC. Pluchkin then spoiled the party by finishing three seconds faster, so we took both second on the stage and the GC. But the non-Pluchkin classifications is what we targeted, so we took the double on the final day!
Baltic Chain Tour has five stages, four of which are boring sprintfests, but the first is a cobbled time trial. We bring the cobble squad led by Zepuntke and our best time trialist Janse van Rensburg for the first stage, while Vantomme must target the latter four.
Zepuntke was one of the first starters and set the fastest time thus far. Only six riders managed to beat him, so he finished seventh. Marcos took 16th, Albert 18th, Lindeman 24th and Flaksis 28th. Janse van Rensburg only finished 74th. Due to this performance, we were leading the teams classification.
For the next four days, our only goal was to keep our riders in the front group and defend our GC positions. On the third stage we barely escaped, with a large group just getting back before the finish line. However, on the fourth stage many riders were caught off guard and dropped back. Only Zepuntke survived, with his GC position reduced to 15th due to bonus seconds. Vantomme did nothing to ease the pain.
#
Rider
Team
Time
1
Kris Boeckmans
Campari/Asahi development
17h32'43
2
Dan Holloway
McCormick Pro Cycling
+ 4
3
John Degenkolb
Iberia - Team Degenkolb
+ 5
15
Ruben Zepuntke
Minions
+ 46
46
Leandro Marcos
Minions
+ 1'48
47
Niels Albert
Minions
s.t.
51
Bert-Jan Lindeman
Minions
+ 1'50
79
Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg
Minions
+ 1'57
81
Maxime Vantomme
Minions
+ 1'58
113
Edwin Avila
Minions
+ 2'05
165
Andzs Flaksis
Minions
+ 23'51
(2/5)
The race should have ended after the first stage.
Norway | PTHC | 5 stages | Hill / Flat / Time trial | May 27 - 31
Edwin Avila
Fulgencio Bru
Dimitri Claeys
Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg
Metkel Kiflay
Bjorn Selander
Poland | C1 | Classic | Cobble | June 3
Tareq Esmaeli
Andzs Flaksis
Bert-Jan Lindeman
Jay Major
Ruben Zepuntke
Rwanda | HC | Classic | Cobble | June 5
Denmark | HC | 5 stages | Hill / Flat / Time trial | June 10 - 14
Laureano Rosas
Finland | C1 | Classic | Flat | June 26
Damion Drapac
Sri Lanka | PTHC | Classic | Hill | June 27
Borislav Ivanov
Mexico | C1 | Team time trial | Flat | June 30
Kenya | HC | Classic | Mountain | July 20
China | HC | 4 stages | Hill | July 26 - 29
France | PT | Classic | Time trial | July 29 - 30
Thailand | PTHC | Classic | Flat | August 2
Hungary | C1 | Classic | Cobble | August 4
Spain | HC | Classic | Hill | August 7
Austria | HC | 7 stages | Mountain / Time trial | August 7 - 13
/
Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania | C1 | 5 stages | Flat / Cobble / Time trial | August 17 - 21
