We start September in America, but not at the Tour of America - at the Philadelphia International Championships. A flat race around the downtown of Philly, we would be hoping that Mohs would be on top form in the sprint.

Disappointingly, there would be a late break that decide the race, with Roger Kluge being the strongest on the line. Erik would have to settle for 8th place in the race, finishing 3rd out of the bunch sprint behind.

From the States to Europe and the Euskal Bizkleta. A stage race that gets hillier as it goes on, we were banking on Pavel Potocki and Geremie Nzeke to provide us with some glory in the Basque region.

The opening stages went without any dramas, and we went into the final stage with all on the line. As Chaves attacked on the final climb to the line on Stage 4, Pavel was able to go after him and claim a great 2nd place on GC behind the Colombian.


Next up was the Ronde van Het Ijsselmeer, and a chance at redemption for Mohs. Without all of his usual leadout riders, due to the clash with the Tour of America, it was clear that something was missing in the last few kilometers. The lead-out formed, positioned Mohs well, but then were looking at themselves, as Mohs tagged onto the back of another sprinter in the last kilometer.

Dan Holloway would be the man to dominate as always, as Mohs took the last place on the podium with a good 3rd place.


The team continued it's journey East, as we tackled the climb of Transfagarasan GP. For Thibault it would be his first race since Bulgaria, so there was a hope that he wouldn't be riding with heavy legs.

He would go well to follow the initial moves, and as the attacks intensified, he would only eventually lose touch on Eastman and Intxausti with 300m to go. Settling for 4th place, he would have some disappointment, but he had been bettered by stronger riders on the day.

Russia to end the month and the rolling hills of GP Yekaterinburg. A disappointing race for the team, with Hategeka rolling in in 13th place and way down on the leaders in the final sprint.


No rankings update just yet... that will come after our Tour of America special

Week 1 began with a Prologue around the streets of Edmonton, and what a bang to start with! Only 3.2km long, the day would favour anyone who could get the power down hard and amazingly, Charles Anguilet would be that man. Taking the first Yellow Jersey of the race, he would be our race leader into Stage 2. The scenes on the team bus afterwards was amazing!

Stage 2 was for the sprinters, and Dan McLay would come home a very creditable 9th place, but due to bonus seconds, Charle's time in yellow would be shortlived. Stage 3 was another day for the fast men, and another Top 10 from Dan would be his reward for some fine riding.


Dan would miss out on a Top 10 on stage 4, before the Stage 5 TT gave us nothing to shout about. That all changed on Stage 6, as the mountains came into view. A day in teh break for Charles gave us some fantastic TV time, but when we came to the sharp end of the stage, it would be Gasore Hategeka who would blow us away!

Outsprinting Nico Roche, he would give us our 2nd victory of the race and we are only 6 stages in! It was a great ride and this was nearly followed up on Stage 7 by Jacobs, but he was sadly caught with 400m to go by the peleton's sprinters.


Week 2 was where the GC riders really began to show their strength, and something we had not match for. Vinhas was climbing well, but it was nothing compared to the likes of Berhane, Shikai or Nerz. He had taken a nice Top 5 finish on Stage 11, but he was now sitting 13th on GC, more than 12 minutes down on the others.

This time gap would only grow after the 2nd TT of the race, but we had another close day before the TT with the sprint Stage 12. Dan McLay getting his best result so far with a 4th place finish. The 2nd week would end as good as the first for our Rwandan rider though, as Gasore found himself contesting the sprint for the stage and managing to pick up a 4th place against some great riders.


Week 3, and let's start off as we mean to go on! Three riders on the attack on Stage 15, and Michael Cuming being rewarded for his hard riding with a 2nd place on the Queen Stage. Stage 16 and suddenly being more than 21 minutes down on the GC meant Vinhas could have some freedom.


He was part of the attacks on Stage 15, and his attacking on Stage 16 would give him the same result as Cuming. 2nd place on a difficult mountain stage, and a load of time back on the GC men. Our Portuguese man would double up on 2nd places, being in the break again on Stage 17, but this time behind Paolo Scarponi. Close but no cigar, but to have three 2nd place finishes in a row for the team was outstanding.


A day in the break with no result to show for it would be our Stage 18, before a Vinhas day out would reward him with another great result and this time at Top 5 finish on another mountain stage. 17th on the MTT Stage 20 would confirm his 14th place on GC for the race, and as Dan McLay sprinted to 6th on the final stage, we brought to the end a great first appearance in a GT for the GCN boys.

No Pinot, No Mohs, No Problem! Our boys had done us very proud!


And so... the Ranking update, and the first one since the end of July. Over the whole period we would top the points scoring, with a total of 529 points. 201 points would come from the Tour of America, but we would also score in every race we would enter. The only race without points was the Milano-Torino and we did race it!

The points haul put us up into 3rd in the Rankings, on 1978 points, with just one month of racing remaining. Promotion is all but confirmed now! We had a 500 point gap to 6th place so we needed a disaster to miss out now.

The riders rankings would have Thibault still sat in 4th place, now moving onto 533 points for the season. Given we had goals of 5th on Team and 10th on Individual rankings, looks like those are a massive tick now!

The big month for the GCN boys starts in Belgium with the Heistse Pijl. A day for the sprinters? A Day for the Cobbles riders? It could be anyone's guess really, but we came here with Mohs and Jacobs to cover all bases.

After Pieter had made some decisive breaks on the cobble climbs, we thought it would be a day for him, but as all came together, Erik would be the man to go for the win. He would have to settle for 4th on the line in the end, but what an effort by him to get in that position. And unexpected result to say the least as well.


Australia next and sadly the Herald Sun Tour would not match our performance last season or even the performance in Belgium. Sandor Szalontay leading the sprints has been nothing all season, and Thibault in the break on Stage 2 was the best we could shout about. That would be until Stage 5, when a day in the break for Oumaru Minoungou soon turned into a stage winning move. Forgetting any competition on the KoM climbs and Sprints during the day, he would get the better of his counterparts for a fine win Down Under.

After his ride on the Heistse Pijl, we were confident of his performance in Poland at the Course de Solidarnosc. Sadly it would be Mohs of many other races that would turn up. 15th on Stage 1, 6th on Stage 2 and 11th onStage 3. Could you be any more inconsistent?


Final stage would be Erik's best result of the race, finishing 3rd and picking up some bonus seconds in the process. Enough bonus seconds to raise him to 10th on GC. Still very disappointing from our German sprinter...

And so, the final race of the year! The team jets off for the final time, with Zurich and Zuri Metzgete our final destination. We pretty much knew that promotion was now confirmed, but we wanted to finish off strongly in the race.

As the day's break went and was pulled back, the only panic was a split in the peleton with Thibault and Pavel caught on the wrong side. All would come back together and leading on to the last lap, Thibault would be in a 2nd group of favourites on the road. Unable to contest the win, he would cross the line in 13th place, bring to a close our 2019 season.


Ladies and Gentleman, in 2020 GCN will be a ProContinental Team. Finishing the 2019 season in 3rd place on the CT Rankings, totalling up 1996 points in the process. We will be going up with Azteca - NBCSN, who topped the league ahead of Euskaltel - Elior. In 4th place, we find Netia - Vonin, who just got the better of NENT Racing p/b Hootsuite. Congrats to all on your achievements this season, and we look forward to racing with you again next season.

In the Individual Rankings, Thiabult remained in 4th place, scoring a total of 542 points in 2019. Dan Holloway took the Individual Title, ahead of the Azteca pair of Ryan Eastman and Johan Esteban Chaves.

AbhishekLFC wrote:
A great season for the team and the deserved promotion at the end of it. All the best in the PCT. Curious to see how you rebuild for that.

redordead wrote:
Great work recaping the entire season in your HQ

It's gonna be fascinating to see how you construct the team. I look forward to racing against you once again