We didn’t have any specific ambitions in Portugal, so being part of an early breakaway and seeing where it would lead us seemed like a good idea. Page clearly felt ready for a little adventure and found company in Veber and Brkic, with whom he could enjoy the Portuguese panoramic views:



With half the race to go, they were joined by Meurisse, Smirnovs and Hugentobler and still managed to maintain a three minute lead.



With 50 kilometres left, the gap was reduced to 1 min 20 seconds and the chasing peloton was thinned out. Taubel was still where he was supposed to be, but Hagen started to lose contact during one of the many cobbled strokes:



Not much later, the race started to get really tough. When Meurisse fired things up on the steeper slopes, Page had to let the leading group go, while further in the background Taubel had the same issue regarding the peloton.

Skip a good 40 kilometres and that same Meurisse that whipped Page out of the leading group crossed the finish line first, beating fellow Belgian Benoot and neighbour Sinkeldam in a sprint.

Not really to our surprise, Bablidze and Hagen benefited from their puncheur abilities and grabbed 20th and 21st position, nicking some points for our team in the meanwhile. This also confirmed our believes that this race wasn’t cut out for the pure cobbleurs, except for those who combine the cobbling skills with puncheur talents. Taubel ended 42nd but his opportunity on a parcourse that really fitted his skills was just around the corner. Zordan again was nowhere to be seen, but the cobbles surely had something to do with that. It was not here where we expected him to recover.

Gent-Wevelgem constituted a first true playground for Taubel and he was clearly planning on grabbing this opportunity. He rode a very attentive race and could almost always be found in the front of the peloton:



When the Kemmelberg was conquered a third time, Kreder, the last surviver of an early breakaway, was caught. Almost simultaneously a group of favourites managed to gain some advantage, but Taubel at that point wasn’t part of them. Baugnies and Thomas were paying more attention and didn’t miss the jump.

The other favourites, Taubel included, managed to close the gap before the fourth ascend of the Kemmelberg. Taubel still wasn’t very impressed and didn’t feel the need to retain his position in front of the group.



This eventually resulted in another backlog. Van Lerberghe and again Baugnies were amongst those to try and make a profit, while Taubel, with Van Avermaet and Naesen, had to take care of the chase. They succeeded however and swiftly joined the front group.



During the last ascend of the Kemmelberg, Taubel did not allow himself to get caught again and could be found where he was supposed to be:



After the last time Kemmelberg, the cobbles ended and only 42 kilometres separated the racers from that sought after podiumplace. This triggered a series of attacks: Basso, Van Lerberghe, Rathe, Van Avermaet and Baugnies all tried their luck eventually dividing the front group in three groups, with Taubel in the second.



Under impulse of De Vreese, working for Sinkeldam, Taubel almost managed to regain contact with the leaders:



Unfortunately, they never really made contact and Taubel had to start his final jump in 10th position with quite a few gaps in front of him:



With Naesen winning the fight in front of him, Taubel eventually managed to grap the 8th position.



Considering Taubel isn’t the greatest finisher, we were very happy to see him committing like this and achieving a top 10 notification all on his own. This was a very good general rehearsal for GP Herning, where he was to meet even more components. The goal nevertheless remained top 10.

A cobble race on the calendar, so that means Page was at it again during the first couple of kilometres of the race:



With more than 100 kilometres the go, their playtime was over and a messy period of racing kicked off. The peloton was ripped into pieces several times and a small group of riders, with some strong cobbleurs aboard, had gained some advantage. Taubel stayed seated, never had in any real trouble following the pack and led others do the dirty work. And there certainly was some dirty work to be done. Baugnies and Maes themselves had to work early in the race to avoid the gap with the front group getting too big.



Baugnies was the first racer to eventually connect with the front group, but soon others, Taubel included, followed. Taubel even took charge of maintaining the tempo for a bit with 14 kilometres to go:



Nolf gave it his best shot with 10 kilometres to go, but he couldn’t maintain the effort. The strongest racers were back together but Taubel was the one in the worst position.



When Naesen went for victory and Lindeman crossed the road, gaps started to grow and Taubel his position worsened:



Lindeman’s move in the end proved to be the smartest as he bested Van Avermaet in the sprint. Taubel did fine finishing 9th. He proved he is the ideal man to send to cobble races, not having those be a top priority, but still racking up some points here and there.

The Hong Kong Challenge was marked with a red dot on the calendar for our puncheur squad. Here’s where they had to redeem themselves in the quest for some points.

Although that goal was certainly not attained, Wahyudi managed to brighten up our day a little bit by joining the early breakaway. On the first cat. 2 climb he even managed to cross the summit first, gaining some very interesting points in the KoM ranking:



On the next cat. 1 climb, Wahyudi did another terrific job and crossed the summit second, behind Reis who had previously attacked and started a solo adventure.



The breakaway was captured soon after and the race was steadily been made tougher and tougher, with the backdoor of the peloton wide open. None of our puncheurs would eventually be able to resist the almost gravitational pull said backdoor represented by the time Adastra’s Preidler took the victory.

Wahyudi defended our honour and acquired the first point for our puncheurs in their history as he ended the stage as leader of the KoM ranking. We certainly wanted him to be be able to hold on to the jersey until the end of this – what for the rest of our puncheurs again seemed to be a great – Challenge. Hagen did a relatively good job ending 35th and thus beating Zordan, who only finished 46th. Will Hong Kong join the list of races that just don’t get Zordan’s motor going?

- KoM ranking -

This second Hong Kong Challenge stage constituted the first TT where our specialist Oram attended to. A lot of strong TT’ers found their way to Sunny Bay, so we were realistic and knew Oram would have to have a superb day to achieve a top 10 notation. We would have been happy with top 20 however, but that proved to be too much to ask.

Positioned 173th after stage 1, it’s obvious we found out pretty soon how Oram did. This is not what we wanted to witness:



Oram eventually ended 27th, 7 places higher than what we had hoped for.

Hagen didn’t do too well in terms of stage position, but he apparently did better than some other GC contenders and jumped some places in the general ranking. If he maintained this level he was to end top 30 and win us some points. Khodayari had the chance to do the same if he himself were to jump on the early breakaway train or no other KoM contenders interfered. He won us some free KoM points during this TT as well.

- general ranking -

- KoM ranking -

With all the KoM points for grabs in the early beginnings of this last stage, the tactics weren’t rocket science, or so we thought. Jump per jump, multiple riders found there way in the leading breakaway. Schultz joined the third party. The Sunlight squad felt the danger, but made a silly decision. Instead of helping Wahyudi join the breakaway, they started the chase with 7 kilometres to go to the next KoM sprint:



When that, rather unsurprisingly, didn’t work out a racer in yellow-white attacked but it wasn’t the racer we expected. Zordan seemingly found THIS moment the ideal moment the show himself for the first time this season:



Zordan came close but never really succeeded in his intention and couldn’t stop Schultz from taking enough points to push Wahyudi of the KoM throne.



Eiking lasted longest from that breakaway but with 20 kilometres to go, he as well was caught.

The peloton stayed together until the last climb, where only in the dying meters the stronger puncheurs distanced the rest. No Sunlight racer could keep up with the greatest. Zordan, Hagen, Wahyudi, Burmann and Avetisyan all finished in the fifth group, 1 minute 9 seconds behind winner Preidler.

Our silly team tactics ended up in Wahyudi losing two places in the KoM ranking. Hagen maintained his top 30 general ranking, only losing one spot this last stage.

We finally saw Zordan trying SOMETHING, so that’s better then nothing but we still expect much more. Let’s hope today is the prelude of better to come.

This first stage in Spain counted as the stage we had the least expectations for, as it was set-out to be a sprinters race and none of our sprinters were present. We nevertheless ensured a nice mix of Sunlight riders and if there was ever going to be one rider who should have had a go at this stage, it had to be Oram. And to our surprise, he really did embark on that adventure. The only thing on our mind at that stage however, was receiving some airtime, which Oram delivered.



While he was at it, Oram decided to carefully spread his energy while still meddling when points where on the line. He managed to finish 3rd and then 2nd in the intermediate sprints and also grabbed some KoM points (3th – cat. 3 climb).



The peloton had tried to steadily close the gap, but after the descend of the ultimate hill, Oram and co still had a 50 second advantage with only 6 kilometres to go.



Powerhouse Katrasnik and decent TT’er Oram made sure the peloton eventually couldn’t close the gap, so they could fight it out amongst themselves and companion Alarcon, who started the sprint.



While Oram isn’t the strongest sprinter and started the sprint in third position, he clearly managed to save a lot of his energy (contrary to Katrasnik, who was obviously rewarded more points for his efforts during the race) and also timed his sprint very well. This produced Oram’s very first victory and the teams very first victory on C1 level. Champagne was in order!

1

James Oram

Guave's Sunlight Cycling

3h55'10

- points ranking –

1	Gasper Katrasnik	Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	32
2	James Oram	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	31

- KoM ranking -

1	Gasper Katrasnik	Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	6
2	Daniel Allonca	Aramco DP	4
3	James Oram	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	2

Points acquired – Oram: 29

Stage 2 of this Volta announced itself as a race for the puncheurs. Was this going to be the race where Zordan finally wakes up? The answer in short: no, but he wasn't to blame. The course of the race eventually didn’t go as expected and made this stage a very entertaining one for the neutral viewer.



While Katrasnik went for a two for two, Oram’s day started less well as he struggled when the mountainous terrain introduced itself. The squad was doing it’s job, but at that point it didn’t seem as if Oram would be able to stay with the pack the whole race.

While Vichot impressed in the breakaway group, it started to look like a repeat of scenario was in the making, as the peloton appeared to not want to make a move.

When passing under the red bow, things had changed and it seemed as if the breakaway group wasn’t going to be as lucky as Oram the day before, perhaps because of the fact they lost Katrasnik somewhere in between. To everyone’s surprise, Vichot – who granted his companions close to nothing during the breakaway, managed to launch a last powerful sprint and remained away from the clutches of the peloton.

That also meant he surpassed Oram in the general ranking. Oram on the other hand, managed to survive this stage and didn’t lose a lot of time. That was probably the fruit of a strong team effort. Zordan and co themselves finished relatively high, which possibly indicated they were actually in good shape.

1	Arthur Vichot	Bakkafrost	4h41'08
28	Andrea Zordan	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
36	Farzad Khodayari	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
40	Mihran Avetisyan	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.

- general ranking –

1	Arthur Vichot	Bakkafrost	8h35'46
2	James Oram	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 6

- points ranking –

1	Gasper Katrasnik	Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	40
2	Arthur Vichot	Bakkafrost	37
3	James Oram	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	31

Points acquired – Oram: 3

With Oram having done such a marvellous job up to this stage, an individual TT could have been an opportunity for him to stay in touch with the yellow jersey. Not that that was an ambitions of ours at all, but it would have been fun. It being an TTT obviously changed things, but we were nevertheless curious to see how far Oram could lead the rest of our squad (who are, apart from Chilean TT champion Burmann, not the strongest TT’ers).

Despite the good form most of our riders showed, the TTT wasn’t a success as we ended in a dreary penultimate place.

1	Uri Martins Sandoval	Azteca - NBCSN	50'48
126	James Oram	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 2'52
127	Nandra Eko Wahyudi	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
128	Farzad Khodayari	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
129	Wolfgang Burmann	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
130	Andrea Zordan	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
131	Mektel Eyob	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
132	William Maesen	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 2'53
133	Mihran Avetisyan	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 2'55

- points ranking -

1	Gasper Katrasnik	Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	40
2	Arthur Vichot	Bakkafrost	37
3	James Oram	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	31

The prominent Sunlight racers had a lot of work cut out for them and knew just what to do. Eyob and Zordan didn’t let the grass grow under their feet and made sure they were part of the early breakaway. This was the first time two in yellow & white joined a breakaway and they weren't the weakest riders neither, as both Eyob and Zordan are squadleader of their respective squads.



Zordan being the most active of our two riders at front, quickly payed a price and started to jojo quite a bit with the leading group. With five kilometres left to the top of the Alt de Toses (cat. 1), Zordan fell out of the front group for the last time.



With 36 kilometres to go, Eyob clearly felt more or less rather fresh as he had been saving his powers up until then. When the peloton approached within 1 minute 30 seconds, Eyob went for it on his own at the foot of La Molina (cat. 1). He was overtaken by Atapuma before reaching the summit but nevertheless succeeded in crossing the top in second position, before being reeled in by the peloton.

We feared Eyob at that point had lost too many of his powers and would lose touch with the GC contenders during the final ascend of La Molina, thus wasting the opportunity to jump a couple of places in the general ranking.

Not long after Kudus won this fourth stage, we could see that our stronger climbers still did a rather good job with Burmann in 22nd place and Eyob in 31st. They both saw their general ranking change drastically, as Burmann went from 91st to 27th and Eyob from 92nd to 35th. That meant they both were still in contention for a top 30 general ranking.

With both a hilly stage and mountainous stage in prospect, Eyob had the best cards in hand to actually achieve that top 30, but we obviously started rooting for Burmann as well.

While Oram was still (but expectedly only for a very short period of time still) in fourth place on the points ranking, Eyob had collected some interesting KoM points and had quite a few opportunities in the offing to better his position in that ranking as well.

1	Merhawi Kudus	Repsol - Netflix	5h16'56
22	Wolfgang Burmann	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 28
31	Mektel Eyob	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 3'35

- general ranking -

1	Merhawi Kudus	Repsol - Netflix	14h43'52
27	Wolfgang Burmann	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 3'30
35	Mektel Eyob	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 6'35

- points ranking -

1	Gasper Katrasnik	Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	40
4	James Oram	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	31

- KoM ranking –

1	Arthur Vichot	Bakkafrost	52
5	Mektel Eyob	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	24

Stage 5 of this Volta presented a very last opportunity for Zordan to add some glitter to his prestation, with an interesting finale on the program.



Things started looking interesting when our troops reeled in the early breakaway, just eight kilometres before the start of the ascend of the Turo del Puig.



Unfortunately, that work didn’t lead to a positive result. What’s more: the contrary came about with Burmann losing touch with the peloton…

In the end, no significant action was taken on the Turo del Puig, leading to a sprint where Navardauskas showed the fastest legs.

Zordan and Eyob finished in that same group, meaning Zordan again wasn’t able to impress and Eyob still was four places away from a top 30 notification. Burmann lost quite a lot of time and ended up falling out of the top 30. Suddenly, having two racers take a top 30 notification in this Volta's general ranking seemed a distance dream.

1	Ramunas Navardauskas	Adastra N Hell Energy Cycling	3h44'30
44	Andrea Zordan	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
45	Nandra Eko Wahyudi	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
50	Mektel Eyob	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
112	Mihran Avetisyan	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 1'42
126	Farzad Khodayari	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 2'29
127	Wolfgang Burmann	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t

- general ranking –

1	Merhawi Kudus	Repsol - Netflix	18h28'22
31	Wolfgang Burmann	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 5'59
34	Mektel Eyob	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 6'35

With quite some work still on their plate, our troops decided not to waste a second and almost all of them (Eyob, Zordan, Wahyudi and Avetisyan) went on the attack.



As if our presence wasn’t remarkable enough, Khodayari jumped on the train and joined soon after. Five racers of the same team in a breakaway group of 15. That must have been a record of some sorts.



To add on the remarkable, our whole team took the first five places at the top of the Coll de Fatxes, with Eyob grabbing the 10 points.



With 10 kilometres left and the peloton almost swallowing OUR breakaway, first Khodayari and later on Eyob gave it one more shot in an attempt to stay away from the group.



Eyob eventually didn’t succeed, as Kudus clearly wanted to win this Volta in style. Together with Maesen (who benefited from not joining the breakaway and while doing so rode his best race in yellow and white so far) and Burmann, Eyob finished in a fourth group behind Kudus. By doing so, Burmann and Eyob both surprisingly managed to jump in the top 30 again. Once again however, Eyob was beaten by one of his domestiques in the general ranking. He nevertheless did show consistency over two stage races in different categories (C2 en C1). He and Oram also took some minor points thanks to their points- and KoM ranking, which made us leave the Volta with more points gained then expected and therefor rather happy.

1	Merhawi Kudus	Repsol - Netflix	4h35'50
21	William Maesen	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 2'26
27	Mektel Eyob	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
29	Wolfgang Burmann	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.

- general ranking –

1	Merhawi Kudus	Repsol - Netflix	23h03'52
25	Wolfgang Burmann	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 8'45
27	Mektel Eyob	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 9'21

- points ranking –

1		Merhawi Kudus	Repsol - Netflix	73
7		James Oram	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	31

- KoM ranking –

1	Arthur Vichot	Bakkafrost	52
5	Mektel Eyob	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	34

Points acquired	- Burmann: 3
	- Eyob: 5
	- Oram: 1

Groves grabbing some interesting points in the first intermediate sprint of the first stage



Coutinho on the left and Feiereisen a bit further in the middle sprinting towards a top 20 notification

Our squad disappointed during the first stage of Ras Tailteann. Groves did well in the breakaway, but Coutinho was left without a lead-out in the sprint. With 1500 meters to go, Yamamoto was too far behind to be of meaning for Coutinho while Feiereisen apparently decided to ride his own sprint, finishing only a couple of places behind Coutinho but quite some more behind winner Kip.

1	Ismael Kip	Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	4h55'31
13	Lionel Coutinho	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
17	Kevin Feiereisen	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.

Impressive attendance of the sprintquad

The sprintsquad realised things had to be organised differently for them to be successful and produced a decent lead-out in the second stage.



Coutinho, Yamamoto and Feiereisen in each other’s neighbourhood

Unfortunately, the timing of the lead-out was a bit off and Coutinho had to face the wind too early. He couldn’t fight off his opponents and eventually had to settle for the 6th place behind Andersen.

1	Asbjorn Kragh Andersen	Carlsberg - Danske Bank	3h22'59
6	Lionel Coutinho	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
10	Genki Yamamoto	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
12	Kevin Feiereisen	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.

Points acquired – Coutinho: 1



Taubel having a piece of the action



Coutinho falling short just a few centimetres

The second stage unfortunately didn’t constitute a general repetition for the third as Coutinho had to manage his business by himself due to the incomprehensible absence of a lead-out. He luckily didn’t need any help as he missed-out on his first win by only a few inches behind general stage race winner Carsi, but still secured his first podium place for our squad and also managed to achieve decent positions in the different rankings. Groves proved to be the third best youngster of the pack.

1	Mustafa Carsi	Nordica - Enel	4h07'09
2	Lionel Coutinho	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.

- general ranking –

1	Mustafa Carsi	Nordica - Enel	12h25'02
5	Lionel Coutinho	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 11

- points ranking –

1	Mustafa Carsi	Nordica - Enel	39
4	Lionel Coutinho	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	33

- U25 ranking –

1	Samuel Mugisha	Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes	12h25'36
3	Kaden Groves	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 1

Points acquired	- Coutinho: 33
	- Groves: 3

Oram taking the first KoM points during the first daily breakaway

Page and Barbier disappointed as they were our designated racers for a good notification on this nearly pan flat parcours but were nowhere to be seen. Oram did what he does best and joined the breakaway, during which he secured the polka dot jersey for the next day. Le Gac rode decently, but couldn’t prevent losing some time on the sprinters and winner Nelson.

1	Ricki Nelson	Podium Ambition	2h25'30
40	Olivier Le Gac	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 33

- KoM ranking –

1

James Oram

Guave's Sunlight Cycling

5

Points acquired – Oram: 3


Oram showing off his polka dot jersey

As a proud man, Oram clearly found energy his polka dot jersey. His adventurousness was enviable, but we all knew he wasn’t going to snatch any points in the daily breakaway as KoM points were only achievable on the finish line and the peloton didn’t hand out presents.


Le Gac behind the tree on his way to an admirable 12th place

The finale obviously suited Le Gac, who also must have had a very good day as he snatched away the 12th position and did interesting business regarding the general ranking.

1	Oleksandr Prevar	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	2h03'22
12	Olivier Le Gac	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 5

- general ranking –

1	Oleksandr Prevar	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	4h29'05
16	Olivier Le Gac	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 25

- KoM ranking –

1	Oleksandr Prevar	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	6
2	James Oram	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	5

Points acquired – Oram: 1


Oram ticking off the 3 for 3 breakaway challenge on his bucketlist

Stage 3 and Oram was lucky enough to still be wearing the polka dot jersey, because actual KoM leader Prevar also lead the general ranking. Why not show it off one more time then? It was a good thing he grabbed this opportunity, because he did lose the jersey after this stage.


Page in bad shape

Le Gac took the honours and showed that he, unlike others, was in good shape by finishing 21st and gaining one spot in the general ranking.

1	Ben Swift	Berg Cycles	3h54'14
21	Olivier Le Gac	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.

- general ranking -

1	Oleksandr Prevar	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	8h23'19
15	Olivier Le Gac	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 25

Wahyudi and Burmann experiencing a short lived trip


Le Gac at the bottom of the bend in preparation of another solid finish

Le Gac kept his good form and lost only a limited amount of time, which kept his chances of a top 20 listing cool.

1	Zico Waeytens	MOL	3h38'36
20	Olivier Le Gac	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 1'04

- general ranking –

1	Zico Waeytens	MOL	12h01'52
17	Olivier Le Gac	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 1'32

Oram saving the honour

Whilst Oram fought for the KoM-podium, Le Gac had one job: not losing track of the big pack. We saw no issue in the profile of this last stage, which should have suited him just fine. To be honest, we thought the top 20 listing for Le Gac was in the pocket already, which is always a stupid thing to think before crossing the last finish line.


The pack tearing up with catastrophic consequences

Maybe it was karma hitting our team, maybe not. We can't know for sure. What we know for sure: with only eight measly kilometres more to go in this year’s Tour of Southland a break in the pack arose with Le Gac on the wrong side of things, leaving him more than a minute and a half behind winner Swift and thus messing up his general ranking.

So Le Gac returned home without points, which might be our biggest disappointment so far because all looked so bright for so long. Fortunately Oram didn’t let it get to his heart, as he did a terrific job in the KoM-ranking ending a shared second and winning us more points than Le Gac could have won with the general ranking he was protecting. Not all bad news, in other words.

1	Ben Swift	Berg Cycles	4h32'36
65	James Oram	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 1'39
73	Rudy Barbier	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
74	Dylan Page	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
85	Olivier Le Gac	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
104	Wolfgang Burmann	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.

- general ranking -

1	Zico Waeytens	MOL	16h34'28
37	Olivier Le Gac	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 3'11

- KoM ranking –

1	William Connolly	Glanbia Foods Cycling Project	17
2	Zico Waeytens	MOL	12
3	Anthony Turgis	Farfetch Pro Cycling	12
4	James Oram	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	12

Points acquired – Oram: 12

The start, otherwise known as: the only place one of ours was in sight

Without Zordan or Le Gac, it was always going to be a very tough day for our troups. Joining an early flight could have alleviated the pain, but none were feeling up to it. Eventually our two free signings Avetisyan and Bablidze, together with Khodayari did it the best, finishing in the fifth group behind winner Quevedo.

1	Xavier Quevedo	Carrefour - ESPN	5h00'41
43	Mihran Avetisyan	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	+ 3'32
44	Farzad Khodayari	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.
50	Irakli Bablidze	Guave's Sunlight Cycling	s.t.

Tour of Eritrea

22th - 27th of march

No GC podium ambitions in this Tour of Eritrea. The main goal is to deliver some strong stage finishes. Coutinho can count on the services of Barbier, Yamamoto and Groves. Zordan yet again has a chance to prove his worth during the hilly stages, while Khodayari is our best shot for a decent KoM ranking. In other words: more than enough goals to pursue!