AbhishekLFC wrote:
@Fabianski: There's a reason I mentioned 4/5 goals is a real possibility for your team in your HQ I wish I was as confident about PCM as you are!

Having been one of our leaders for both our PCT seasons, it is no surprise that Saber is on top of this list. David Per stands out with his two loan-in seasons. Special mention to Marcel Wyss and Michel Kreder, who returns this time again, for being in the Top 10, despite having raced only one season with us, that too in the CT.

Van Zandbeek and Allegaert are the only riders to have raced with us for three seasons. Both of them have departed this off-season. Bardet will move into the 2nd spot after this season.

Three riders stand out in this stadning - Kelderman, Henao and Saber, who've been our stand-out leaders over the past two seasons in the PCT. David Per being on loan and being in the Top 10 shows just how good he was, even as a Level 1 to Level 3 rider.

Marcel Wyss took home an incredibly low €190 per point scored in our first season in 2017. Michel Kreder and Ramunas Navardauskas are the other star performances in this ranking.

Alexander Krieger is the only rider to have won a stage race for us - Course de Solidarnosc back in 2017, which secured our promotion to the PCT. Per and Saber are the riders to have won two stages. Kreder has also won three Points classifications. Jaoa Costa leads the KOM wins with two of them. David Per is the only U25 classification winner for us so far, having done so twice.

Henao Montoya is the only rider to have won more than classic for us. Wyss is the only other classic winner for us. A total of six riders have been on the podium so far.

Henao Montoya has the most overall wins for us, with three. Michel Kreder leads both the number of jerseys won and the number of podiums. He has a chance to improve his record this season.

Kreder holds an impressive record of finishing on the podium every six and a half racedays that he started. Kelderman is the only other rider to have a podium record of less than every ten racedays.

The first race of the season is also our first goal race, and it's a Win goal! Kelderman begins what hopefully is his redemption campaign and we're off hoping he can get off to the best of starts. Watson, as will be the case throughout the season, is his chief lieutenant, helped by Bardet, Storer, Bovenhuis and others. Watch out for Bardet, who's no slouch when it comes to climbing.

Nico Keinath starts his campaign as our leader on the climbs. It wasn't an easy decision to choose to go to Tachira, but considering the alternatives, we played it a little safe. We're not very sure what the ceiling is for Keinath at the moment, but we're hoping for consistent Top 5 finishes, but aiming for a solid Top 10 in the GC. With Bardet also riding, we expect points from him as well. This race will also be a chance to see an improved Inkelaar for the first time on his favoured terrain. Van der Sanden is also in the team to try to take advantage of the flat stages. We do not have a full roster for this race, and that will be a common theme across a lot of races this season.

Flat races for us this season is more about consistency rather than being spectacular. Boev and Kreder are the designated sprinters for this race, and we hope they can take advantage of the conditions that usually prevail in this race and get a good result. Van Lerberghe rides as a wildcard and we hope he can either aim for late attacks or help set up our sprinters for a good finish. Paprstka and Dumoulin are in with the task of managing the team on the flat roads.

First race of the season, and it was a Win goal for us.

We worked at the front of the pack to control the break in the first half of the race.



We stopped contributing to the chase in the second half and concentrated on protecting Kelderman. Bardet was dropped early but that wasn't too surprising after the work he had out in earlier.

We did put a couple of riders back on the front with Paprtska leading the field on to the final climb.



We sat back again over the next couple of kilometers. As soon as the Flamme Rouge was in sight, Kelderman accelerated and out himself into the lead.



He would only extend it over the final kilometer and had enough time to celebrate quite early and still take a comfortable victory.



Watson completed the good day's work by finishing 5th.

1	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	5h53'53
2	Gianni Moscon	Centovalli - Fiat	s.t.
3	Christopher Juul-Jensen	Carlsberg - Danske Bank	s.t.
5	Calvin Watson	Philips	s.t.
47	Tomas Paprstka	Philips	+ 1'19
68	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 2'28
90	Michael Storer	Philips	+ 4'51
101	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 5'16
136	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	+ 6'26
154	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 21'05

A job well done by Kelderman and Watson to start the season in the best possible way. Our first goal of the season is also complete. We couldn't really have asked for more from our first race.

Our first sighting of both Keinath and Van der Sanden as they start their campaigns for us.

Van der Sanden picked up two 3rd place finishes on Stages 1 and 3 to get us going.

The hilly Stage 4 became somewhat tricky for us with many riders losing time. Keinath was able to stick to the leaders' group and ride to 6th in the GC.

The bumpy Stage 5 was another chance for Van der Sanden. He was in an excellent position at the start of the sprint but a poor team decision to have Inkelaar lead him out cost us dearly. Van der Sanden could only manage 6th from the failed leadout.

The first mountain stage was a snooze-fest as the peloton took it easy allowing the break to take the win. Keinath retained his GC position.

The MTT on Stage 7 proved to be the turning point as Keinath finished 2nd, only behind Pinot, and moved himself up to 2nd in the GC.



Inkelaar also rode a creditable MTT.

On Stages 8 and 9, Keinath rode excellently to stick to all moves made by Pinot and finish on the same time as the GC leader. He finished 3rd in Stage 9 but did lose some time as Pinot picked up more bonus seconds by finishing 2nd.



In the process, he picked up time to all other of his rivals in these two stages and went into the final bumpy stage with a more than 2 minute buffer over Ranaweera in 3rd.

Stage 10 was uneventful for us meaning Keinath had secured 2nd in the GC. He also finished 5th in both the KOM and the Points classifications. Inkelaar finished 6th in the U25s.

1	Thibaut Pinot	Project: Africa	35h01'09
2	Nico Keinath	Philips	+ 52
3	Suranga Ranaweera	Sauber Petronas Racing	+ 2'19
42	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 21'53
50	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 23'43
63	Michael Storer	Philips	+ 32'21
65	Joonas Henttala	Philips	+ 33'18
83	Ide Schelling	Philips	+ 49'19
97	Geert Van der Sanden	Philips	+ 1h02'40

We came here with modest expectations of a Top 10 finish, because we were not sure how Keinath would match up with the competition. Realistically, we were hoping for a Top 5. To get 2nd place and to have him stick with Pinot all through, was excellent to see. We were hoping for some depth points but that didn't happen. Still, not much to complain about.

Dumoulin joined the break, our first breakaway appearance of the season.



The break was caught quite early.

Van Lerberghe joined an attack from Olereich along with Katrasnik with 15 km to go.



Van Lerberghe was caught 4 km later and Olereich. Katrasnik went on to win the race.

Paprstka was our best finisher in 25th.

1	Gasper Katrasnik	Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	3h12'23
2	Rüdiger Selig	Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes	s.t.
3	Mohamed Harrif Salleh	Trans Cycling Team	s.t.
25	Tomas Paprstka	Philips	s.t.
27	Bert Van Lerberghe	Philips	s.t.
34	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	s.t.
67	Igor Boev	Philips	s.t.
70	Michel Kreder	Philips	s.t.
73	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	s.t.
81	Tom Dumoulin	Philips	s.t.

No luck with the late attack but kudos to Van Lerberghe for trying. Boev and Kreder so far down is weird though.