@knockout - Thanks

@tsmoha - Thought you might approve! I know GB and I are very happy for your support for your former man and help bringing him up - hope you're proud

@Croatia - I'm not sure I'd say he's a top guy in the PCT, but hopefully if last year's training took him to a legitimate podium contender for his niche of MO/HI types stage races this year we have make him a touch stronger to stand out a bit more from the many 80MO guys, and maybe even attack which I'm not sure he did all last year

@viking - Haha, sure you won't be doing that again next season

@Abhishek - You love to see it

@roturn - Similar to tsmoha I was sure you'd like to see your former man getting some more power I really would love to see him in the PT as much as you, sadly no mountain stage race wildcards this year, will consider strongly a GT next year and beyond that I think a nice goal might be to promote before he begins a decline, which is a good period yet but also not that far away, and not sure it's happening yet.

@SotD - Yep, his training last year went so well, turning him from a solid top 75 scorer under the radar to a genuine Top 30 leader with good planning. Made a lot of sense considering the possibilities to take him up another notch

@quadsas - We wouldn't dream of trying to compete with the glorious Pagan gods... you have left me confused as to who Martin is and how I could have trained him for 150k though.

@hillis - Thanks a lot

@the_hoyle - Not sure he will quite join the big boys of the PCT or that I'll try to make him do so, but hopefully he can muscle a bit more of a presence for himself for sure Thanks

@Nemolito - We have utmost confidence in Bennett to deliver and wouldn't be so unkind as to cut him for one year of underperformance after three great seasons, but thanks for the offer anyway

jandal7 wrote:

quadsas wrote:


Ugh, what the hell, you're gonna FORCE Stan to ride in that? He deserves to don the Žalgiris kit

@redordead - Thanks a lot! That's for sure the eventual plan but no idea when or how just yet

@knockout Think they should be alright at what they do but yeah clearly not going to have that MO advantage. Think you meant 8 outside of them though Cheers

We began our season with three races in the antipodes, or as we call them Down Under, the plain old podes.

The Down Under Classic is the PCT's traditional curtain-raiser and, although we had hard plans to animate the race together, that smooth operator Luke Rowe stood us up. He later sent us a text saying "Sorry traffic in the peloton was terrible xx... Raincheck on that late attack?". Oh Luke, how could we stay mad at you? 20th position in the sprint.

Next up was the Tour Down Under where we had high hopes for Hugo Houle on the rolling to hilly stages to target stage points and a decent GC finish. We just needed to try and stay up there in the flat sprints but we weren't really expecting anyth-


But what's this? Houle stunned us all and made a big statement in the GC race with a nail-biting victory on the flat Stage 1, capitalising on a disorganised sprint by picking his moment well and moving himself into the ochre leader's jersey.


He'd lose it to Down Under Classic winner Guarnieri on Stage 2 as former Xero man Tosh van der Sande took stage honours, but regained it in a uphill sprint into Stirling on the third day, just losing out on a second stage win to Isostar legend Kump. We missed the bonuses on Stage 4 but kept the jersey going into the centrepiece showdown on Willunga Hill.


Hugo put in a true race leader's performance, surprising many pundits by showing his strength on the hill and keeping the late attacker Borges in check, chasing him down himself and denying anybody else the GC lead. He didn't have the energy left to sprint but kept a s.t. finish with the puncheurs to retain ochre going into the final stage. However with Tosh and Kumpi both within striking distance and looking stronger than our man in the flat sprints, victory was not yet assured ahead of the final stage into Adelaide.


And sadly despite keeping a handle on and beating two of his threats - Kump and Borges - Houle couldn't keep a Tosh van der Sande in the form of his life from taking 2nd on the final day, with enough bonuses to snatch the GC victory by four seconds. Despite it being a great overall points haul (backed up by our debutant Meurisse in 16th on GC), and our happiness for our former rider, it was a bitter pill to swallow to lose the race in such a fashion after such a great race up to that point.


Closing out the month was the first of our home races for the year, the Gisborne GP. Despite lighting up the race in previous years with either breakaways or home victories it was a disappointingly quiet day for us, however Areruya (in his sexy new Rwandan National Champion's jersey) sprinted home to 16th from the second group, bringing home some decent points and beating last year's hill leader Dyrnes by a spot.

It was an obvious choice, with a huge performance only just missing out on a GC victory...

Defending his jersey with pride - Tour Down Under, Stage 5

Pos		Team	Total
1		Farfetch Pro Cycling	465
2		Desigual	305
3		Bakkafrost	217
4		Berg Cycles	210
5		Swisslion Cycling Team	173
6		Xero Racing	172

*insert lazy STOP THE COUNT joke here*