No real expectations from this race, expect to hope that our guys can hold on to the reduced pack for as long as possible and score some depth points. We have a good record in this race with Saber as our leader in the last two years, but he's moved on now. We hope we can still get a good performance in under the radar.

Keinath is back on the road after a bit of a gap, and we hope he hasn't lost his great form of Tachira. The full mountain support is here, along with Watson and Storer to help our leader on the hills, and possibly also join breaks if they can. We are also hoping for Bardet to score points as well in the GC. Storer and Inkelaar should also be in the running for scoring points in the U25 classification.

Another PCT cobbles race, this time from the HC category! As such, we have similar expectations to what we did in Roma, that of our riders scoring some depth points, by holding their own in the pack for as long as they can.

We didn't join the early break, but Paprtska joined up at the head of the race with 37 kilometers to go.



He would last at the front for about 15 kilometers before being reeled in and eventually dropped by the pack. Van Lerberghe is dropped after the 15 kilometers to go mark. He would make it back to the peloton but was dropped again before the closing kilometers. He would eventually finish 21st.

1	Danny Summerhill	Andorra Cycling Project	5h01'33
21	Bert Van Lerberghe	Philips	+ 1'46
33	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 3'11
45	Tomas Paprstka	Philips	+ 3'36
90	Igor Boev	Philips	+ 7'09
96	Michel Kreder	Philips	+ 7'41
127	Ide Schelling	Philips	+ 11'12
154	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	+ 16'11

We missed our target by a position but we're not too worried about how things went in this race, given the startlst and the fact that cobbles in C1 is perhaps the hardest to score points off this season! Would've been good to have got some depth points from the Paprstka and/or Bovenhuis though.

The race started on a slow note, with Boev unable to get involved in the sprint on Stage 1.

On Stage 2, he would get involved, but was out in the wind too early and faded away in the end to finish 8th.

Stage 3 was the big one, and Keinath looked strong in the closing stages, staying right at the front of the pack in the closing half a dozen or so kilometers. He would then attack just before the kilometer marker.



He would hang on to his advantage, winning the stage and also moving into the lead in the GC.



Dream turned into a semi-nightmare on Stage 4, as Keinath struggled to stay with leaders on the hills, and finished more than a minute down on the day, and falling to 9th in the GC.

Stage 5 was redemption time for us as Boev surfed the correct wheels and launched the perfect sprint to take his first win of the season! Not bad for a free rider, eh?



Stage 6 turned into a dull affair with the pack finishing together. Keinath eked out a 6th place, for some more points and finished 9th in the GC.

1	Lawrence Warbasse	Carlsberg - Danske Bank	26h39'54
9	Nico Keinath	Philips	+ 37
44	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 12'26
53	Joonas Henttala	Philips	+ 16'11
70	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 20'39
92	Michael Storer	Philips	+ 30'53
98	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	+ 33'47
99	Calvin Watson	Philips	+ 33'59
112	Igor Boev	Philips	+ 44'43

9th in the GC for Keinath meant missing our GC target for this race, but two stage wins, 6th and 7th in the Points from Keinath and Boev respectively, 8th in the KOM for Keinath and 6th in the U25s for Inkelaar meant a decent all-round performance for the team in this race. Can't really complain about that but the non-performance of Bardet and Henttala so far is a little worrying.

This race was more of an exercise in patience and attrition rather than being specatacualr as Van Lerberghe remained in the leading couple of groups throughout, eventually narrowly missing out a Top 10 finish. He finished 11th.

A decent result for Van Lerberghe, although once again Bovenhuis and Paprstka failed to pick up points to add to our haul.

Van der Sanden returns in a leadership role after a bit of a break to try to improve from his previous outings so far this season. We hope to be competitive and improve from our result at the Great Ocean Road Race.

After two not-so good hilly classics, Kelderman leads us again in Izola, which too, does not quite support his skills. The difficult climbs end way too early for him to take advantage and we expect a larger group to be challenging for the win at the finish. For this reason, we are also taking the wildcard duo of Boev and Kreder to see if their sprinting skills come to any use at the finish. A tough one to call this.

Back to back hilly classics, and this one definitely suits Kelderman a lot more. We expect Kelderman to win any puncher race which ends in an hill-top finish, but cycling doesn't really work like that. However, we'll be very disappointed if we do not finish on the podium in this race.

Not the hardest cobbles race on the calendar, but this race should still provide some difficulties in the form of the hills for the riders. We've been doing well in the cobbles so far, and hope our trio can keep that run going. As with most cobbles races however, only six riders make it to our startlist.

A really difficult 'flat' race and a rare occasion where Boev and Kreder ride together this season. It will be very difficult to challenge the PCT sprinters in this race, but we hope we can make ourselves seen and cause some chaos at the front with our team line-up.

We didn't get anyone in the break. We didn't chase and when the pace picked up inside the final 10 kilometers, Van der Sanden and three others were dropped. We couldn't contest the final sprint as a result.

1	Oliver Naesen	Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes	5h19'15
33	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	s.t.
36	Tomas Paprstka	Philips	s.t.
50	Michel Kreder	Philips	s.t.
138	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	+ 4'00
139	Michael Storer	Philips	s.t.
140	Bert Van Lerberghe	Philips	s.t.
142	Geert Van der Sanden	Philips	s.t.

Horrible race for us and it seems like we need to lower our expectations from flat races even further!

We didn't join the break, with Kelderman in the team and helped chase them down. We managed to keep Kelderman at the front throughout the race. Kelderman attacked on the hill in the last lap around Izola, with Eiking in tow.



Together they managed to maintain a small gap to the pack till the line. Kelderman outsprinted Eiking to win the race!



Watson finished 8th, a good result for him. Bovenhuis finished 22nd.

1	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	3h58'02
8	Calvin Watson	Philips	s.t.
22	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	s.t.
26	Michel Kreder	Philips	s.t.
38	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	s.t.
41	Michael Storer	Philips	s.t.
60	Ide Schelling	Philips	s.t.
75	Igor Boev	Philips	s.t.

A great result for us in a race we were not too sure about. Kelderman attacked at the perfect moment and was strong enough to claim the victory. The depth points scored by Watson and Bovenhuis are always welcome.

We kept ourselves busy chasing the break from the early stages. Watson worked hard at the front to chase down the break inside the final 25 kilometers. He felt the effect of this 10 kilometers later, being dropped just as the pack caught up to the breakaway. Kelderman followed an attack by Eiking, along with Moscon, with 5 kilometers remaining. Soon more riders would jump onboard. Seven riders would be together at the Flamme Rouge, with Kelderman following the first move made by Moscon. Kelderman would even go into the lead with 500 meters left.



But inexplicably, he would lose momentum at the wrong time and be passed by two riders, finishing 3rd.

1	Gianni Moscon	Centovalli - Fiat	4h23'39
3	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	s.t.
36	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 3'24
49	Calvin Watson	Philips	+ 4'33
50	Michael Storer	Philips	s.t.
61	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	s.t.
66	Ide Schelling	Philips	s.t.
71	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	s.t.
79	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	s.t.

Third in itself is a good result for us but it is disappointing that Kelderman could not hold on to his lead with just 500 meters to go. Nevertheless, we did well here but probably should've scored some more from this race.

We put a rider in the break for a change, in the form of Schelling.



As a result, we didn't do a lot of work in the pack, leaving it to other teams. Most of the break, Schelling included, were caught with 82 kilometers left. Van Lerberghe was dropped on the 10th circuit but good work from Paprstka brought him back. The last remnants of the break were finally caught with 26 kilometers to go. The initial splits saw Van Lerberghe and Bovenhuis in the third group on the road, with Paprstka further back. The pack would close back in but another group of five riders got a gap, and wouldn't be caught. Bovenhuis finished 6th, the best of the rest.



Paprstka would claim 10th.



Van Lerberghe in 15th would make it a good effort.

We were hoping for a Top 5 result, but missed that by one position. 6th, 10th and 15th is however, a good return from this race. Bovenhuis used his skill-combo to good effect, while Paprstka put in a lot of work and deserves his Top 10 finish. Van Lerberghe overcame his early wobble to get more points for us.

We spent the early part of the race helping out occasionally in the chase but mostly conserving energy. Boev was on the right side of a split in the pack with 40 kilometers to go. The pack would group and regroup multiple times before the finish. Before the winning moves were made, Bovenhuis was our only rider in the lead group with 15 kilometers to go. The initial attack stuck till the end. Bovenhuis was our best finisher in 19th.

1	Travis Meyer	Eddie Stobart	5h25'19
19	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	s.t.
56	Tomas Paprstka	Philips	s.t.
66	Igor Boev	Philips	+ 4'04
77	Bert Van Lerberghe	Philips	s.t.
86	Michel Kreder	Philips	s.t.
102	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	s.t.
103	Ide Schelling	Philips	s.t.
118	Tom Dumoulin	Philips	+ 7'24

We didn't do too badly here. 19th doesn't give us a lot of points but it ensures we don't leave empty handed, and we didn't really expect to do much better to be honest.

quadsas wrote:
Philips and being successful, name a less iconic duo

AbhishekLFC wrote:

Zalgiris and Intxausti

Another race where we only send 6 riders, which is a common theme across a lot of our cobbled races this season. Van Lerberghe leads on paper, but our team structure has proven to be fluid enough on the cobbles for all three of Van Lerberghe, Paprstka and Bovenhuis to share the load of scoring points.

More cobbles mean more chances of three-way scoring for us. Boev replaces Kreder from Dunkurque to try to take advantage of any stage ending in a bunch sprint.

Not a lot of hopes for this with the presence of the big boys of PCT. Van der Sanden and Kreder join the cobbles squad in the faint chance that this race ends in a sprint. We hope to see more consistency, and that's about it.

Given how the flat classics have gone so far for us, we do not expect big things here either. Just some points would be good. The only race with a full eight member squad for us this month.