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[PCT20] Swisslion Cycling Team | Farewell
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 10:48
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| redordead |
Posted on 30-04-2021 06:28
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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 Kenya Mountain Classic
| 19.07 | C1 | Goals: Top 10; Top 25 |
 | Eduard Alexander Beltran | Leader |  | Stepan Kurianov | Domestique |  | Aberlardo Ablenado | Domestique |  | Ivan Siric | Domestique |  | Tyron Giogieri | Domestique |  | Georgios Stavrakakis | Domestique |  | Abolfazl Gilanipoor | Domestique |  | Yuriy Natarov | Domestique |
Race goals:
| Top 10 | Failure | Eduard Alexander Beltran | 13th | | Top 25 | Success | Tyron Giogieri | 21st |
Race score: 5/10
The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| ivaneurope |
Posted on 30-04-2021 07:03
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2933
Joined: 09-05-2011
PCM$: 300.00
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At least you've brought two riders into the Top 25. My next best rider was Konig in 29th
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| redordead |
Posted on 30-04-2021 11:25
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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ivaneurope wrote:
At least you've brought two riders into the Top 25. My next best rider was Konig in 29th
A first time for everything I guess 
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| redordead |
Posted on 03-05-2021 13:27
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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 Tour de France
| 03.07 - 23.07 | PTM | Goals: Have fun  |
 | Lahcen Saber | Sprinter |  | Matija Mestric | Free Role |  | Gabriel Marin | Leadout |  | Matic Groselj | Free Role | | Miha Poljanec | Free Role |  | Michael Christodoulos | Free Role |  | Dusan Rajovic | Free Role | | Goran Antonijevic | Free Role |
Week 3! Can we make it to the Champs Elysees in Paris?
Stage 15 was the penultimate flat rated stage, but far from flat in the profile. Miha Poljanec was able to make it into the breakaway and the break did survive. The youngster showed his inexperience by chasing the late attacks and launching his sprint too early. So only 10th on the day, but still impressive. Stage 16 was a brave ride by Matic Groselj as he actually recorded some points on a KOM. Stage 19 was the hardest mountain stage of the race and unfortunately the team suffered some casualties. Dusan Rajovic and Goran Antonijevic both finished outside the time limit.
Miha Poljanec sprinting at the end of stage 15
Coming off stage 19 things looked bad for a few of Swisslion's riders on stage 20. Marin and especially Groselj found themselves alone in the mountains. Each doing their best they were both able to make the limit. Off to Paris we go! The last stage was always going to end in a sprint and the team wanted to give Lahcen Saber one last chance to shine. Poljanec even tried to surprise with a late attack in the final lap on the Champs Elysees. In the end the entire team ran out of steam from the tough mountain trek. Saber finished 7th on the stage and that netted him a final 5th in the green jersey competition.
Matic Groselj fighting against the clock to make the bus to Paris
Over what was and still is a difficult season for Swisslion. The team can walk away from this race with some pride and a sense they accomplished something. They were really part of this race and didn't just come along for the ride. Everyone here associated with the team is hoping this will give the riders and staff motivation and confidence to finish out the season strongly.
Race goals:
| Stage win(s) | Success | Lahcen Saber | 1st (Stage 4) | | Breakaway appearances | Success | | 8 breakaways |
Race score: N/A
The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| redordead |
Posted on 04-05-2021 10:31
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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| Pos | Last | | Team | Total | RD | PpRD | Proj | | 1 | 1 |  | Farfetch Pro Cycling | 3257 | 118 | 27,6 | 4830 | | 2 | 2 |  | Repsol - Netflix | 3063 | 131 | 23,38 | 4092 | | 3 | 3 |  | Mapei | 2757 | 134 | 20,57 | 3600 | | 4 | 5 |  | MOL | 2720 | 123 | 22,11 | 3869 | | 5 | 4 |  | Bakkafrost | 2711 | 132 | 20,54 | 3595 | | 6 | 7 |  | Xero Racing | 2593 | 129 | 20,1 | 3518 | | 7 | 6 |  | Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff | 2548 | 131 | 19,45 | 3404 | | 8 | 9 |  | Duolingo | 2486 | 131 | 18,98 | 3322 | | 9 | 8 |  | Polar | 2221 | 121 | 18,36 | 3213 | | 10 | 12 |  | Minions | 2068 | 118 | 17,53 | 3068 | | 11 | 13 |  | DK - SVA Zalgiris | 2064 | 131 | 15,76 | 2758 | | 12 | 10 |  | Podium Ambition | 2052 | 138 | 14,87 | 2602 | | 13 | 11 |  | Berg Cycles | 1983 | 125 | 15,86 | 2776 | | 14 | 14 |  | Desigual | 1906 | 107 | 17,81 | 3117 | | 15 | 15 |  | Valio - Viking Genetics | 1852 | 127 | 14,58 | 2552 | | 16 | 16 |  | Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam | 1825 | 116 | 15,73 | 2753 | | 17 | 17 |  | Kraftwerk Man Machine | 1783 | 113 | 15,78 | 2762 | | 18 | 18 |  | Andorra Cycling Project | 1638 | 124 | 13,21 | 2312 | | 19 | 20 |  | Swisslion Cycling Team | 1524 | 132 | 11,55 | 2021 | | 20 | 19 |  | Fablok - Chocolate Jacques | 1488 | 103 | 14,45 | 2529 | | 21 | 21 |  | GCN Racing | 1484 | 128 | 11,59 | 2028 | | 22 | 24 |  | Nordstrom - CA Technologies | 1429 | 130 | 10,99 | 1923 | | 23 | 23 |  | Azteca - NBCSN | 1351 | 110 | 12,28 | 2149 | | 24 | 22 |  | Adastra N Hell Energy Cycling | 1329 | 130 | 10,22 | 1789 | | 25 | 25 |  | Aramco DP | 1283 | 127 | 10,1 | 1768 | | 26 | 26 |  | Campari Asahi Procycling | 895 | 114 | 7,85 | 1374 |
Ranking update #4 has been released for the PCT division. Well it hasn't been a spectacular period, but we have actually done solid here. Moving up one spot in the ranking is mostly down to us using more RDs than some others. The gap to our rivals has mostly remained the same as the last update. So what were our results?
Pico Basile didn't offer the points we expected, some of the CT best were there and we couldn't quite compete with them, while Cristobal wasn't really a race where we expected to score in. The big race was in Berlin. Kris Boeckmans finished 5th and Lahcen Saber 12th, which was a big result in a HC race. The biggest points windfall of the period. Another big race followed a day later in Torshavn. This time it was Stepan Kurianov who stepped up to deliver a 5th place finish with a late attack. Saber added another 12th place and both amounted to another decent points haul.
We have expectations of some good stage results from Boeckmans in the Middle East, but we couldn't really find our footing in the sprints. Two of our three climbers did alright on the final mountain stage, to at least take something back home. The 2nd of the two time-trial events, the Celtic Chrono ended up being worse than the one in Windhoek. 11th from Mottin and only 24th from Nepomnyachsniy simply was not good enough. We finished the period with two mountain classics. Tyron Giogieri took advantage of a weaker startlist to finish 5th, his best result of the year. Unfortunately Abolfazl Gilanipoor who was also among the favourites had to work for the Albanian and only finished 15th. Negating any depth result we targeted. The last was in Kenya. Eddy Beltran went there to stretch his legs, before his final part of the season in September. His legs weren't great though as he finished 13th on the day.
So all in all a decent month for the team, but we have to keep this up and we need Eddy Beltran to produce his best form in the late season hilly races!
 Kris Boeckmans | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 456 | | Eduard Alexander Beltran | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 354 | | Lahcen Saber | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 256 | | Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 166 | | Abolfazl Gilanipoor | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 108 | | Tyron Giogieri | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 52 | | Stepan Kurianov | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 38 | | Aberlardo Ablenado | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 35 | | Hugues Mottin | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 34 | | Miha Poljanec | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 12 | | Georgios Stavrakakis | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 6 | | Izidor Penko | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 3 | | Matic Groselj | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 3 | | Michael Christodoulos | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 1 |
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| knockout |
Posted on 04-05-2021 12:13
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7735
Joined: 21-12-2010
PCM$: 400.00
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Still sitting awkwardly close to the relegation zone which is hard to see since barely anyone could have expected Beltran to flop this badly. Really hope that your team can make the turnaround and at least stay in the division.
I suspect that Edy still has a couple of good race days left, especially Balkans has one of the best profiles for him all year long. Not sure where else he will ride but iirc San Sebastian is in the very same band so i suspect he will still have a fair bit of scoring in the remainder of the year.
So despite how close the projected ranking looks i think your team still controls its own fate. But getting additional help e.g. by Fablok barely scoring in the Tour of America would obviously make the situation ever so slightly easier for you...
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| quadsas |
Posted on 04-05-2021 12:24
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2518
Joined: 18-01-2013
PCM$: 300.00
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Having a stinker so far, but I reckon you should be fine in the end, it seems that the Philips stank on Saber is slowly dissipating and he may provide some biggun result towards the end.
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 04-05-2021 22:19
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3367
Joined: 20-04-2020
PCM$: 425.00
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Slowly but surely more teams are looking at a "sure" relegation, but so far Swisslion is holding on. I hope you can keep battling until the end, and manage to secure your spot in the PCT. EAB's races will be crucial indeed, it's time for him to finally redeem himself!
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| redordead |
Posted on 05-05-2021 06:57
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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knockout wrote:
Still sitting awkwardly close to the relegation zone which is hard to see since barely anyone could have expected Beltran to flop this badly. Really hope that your team can make the turnaround and at least stay in the division.
I suspect that Edy still has a couple of good race days left, especially Balkans has one of the best profiles for him all year long. Not sure where else he will ride but iirc San Sebastian is in the very same band so i suspect he will still have a fair bit of scoring in the remainder of the year.
So despite how close the projected ranking looks i think your team still controls its own fate. But getting additional help e.g. by Fablok barely scoring in the Tour of America would obviously make the situation ever so slightly easier for you...
Well Balkans is on the menu, that's no secret really But I expect most of the best puncheurs from PT or PCT to be there and we have already seen Beltran's propensity to finish around 30th in these PTHC races. Also his mountain stat has shown to mean diddly-squat in hilly races this year. I guess the potential 8 RDs wasted will at least kill our season at the earliest possible.
Fablok have so many RDs in hand and more dependable riders that I don't even factor them as relegation candidates 
quadsas wrote:
Having a stinker so far, but I reckon you should be fine in the end, it seems that the Philips stank on Saber is slowly dissipating and he may provide some biggun result towards the end.
Whatever is on Saber is purely down to me putting him in cobbled races  Unfortunately his RDs are practically spent, so no big results left I'm afraid.
Nemolito wrote:
Slowly but surely more teams are looking at a "sure" relegation, but so far Swisslion is holding on. I hope you can keep battling until the end, and manage to secure your spot in the PCT. EAB's races will be crucial indeed, it's time for him to finally redeem himself!
Only Campari looking at "sure" relegation I think. It is all mostly down to EAB indeed. That's the scary part 
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| redordead |
Posted on 05-05-2021 14:04
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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| 04.08 |  | Macskako Kerekparverseny | C1 | | 07.08 | | Clasica San Sebastian | PTHC | | 17.08 - 21.08 |  | Arab Tour | HC | | 21.08 |  | Ronde van Het Ijsselmeer | C1 |
It's a fairly busy end of the season for us. We go to Hungary for Macskako Kerekparverseny, then to Spain for the new Clasica San Sebastian. The two more important races though are the new Arab Tour and Ronde van Het Ijsselmeer. Some last chances for our sprinters.
| 03.09 - 07.09 |  | Tour of Britain | C1 | | 04.09 - 11.09 |  | Balkans International | PTHC | | 17.09 - 21.09 |  | Deutschland Tour | PTHC | | 25.09 |  | Tour of the Battenkill | PTHC | | 26.09 - 29.09 |  | Tour of Lithuania | HC |
We were in the Tour of Britain last year and it didn't really work for us. We have a different approach this time, hoping for some better success. Balkans International is our one true home race on the calendar. We hope we can show our best form there. The Deutschland Tour will be the first time for the team and literally the last chance for a big sprint result. Battenkill is simply a race we attend due to the PTHC band, we don't have any result expectations for the race. The Tour of Lithuania replaced the Tour of Beijing. We placed 2nd there last year, we will try to go one better this year.
| 03.10 |  | GP Lugano | C1 | | 12.10 - 15.10 | | Bayern Rundfahrt | C1 | | 18.10 |  | Giro dell'Emelia | HC |
Last month of the season still has some important races for the team. GP Lugano is a hilly race we saw last year. The profile has changed a bit, we hope for the better for us. We will participate for the first time at Bayern Rundfahrt and it's the last chance for our two timetrialers to deliver some results. The season finishes in Italy at the Giro dell'Emelia. It wasn't the final race last year, but we did win it. It's a sponsor goal so we would love to win it again!
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 08-05-2021 07:13
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11676
Joined: 27-07-2015
PCM$: 1861.50
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It's 2019 Beltran time!!
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| redordead |
Posted on 09-05-2021 09:05
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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2020 sucks in MG almost as much as it did IRL 
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| redordead |
Posted on 09-05-2021 18:57
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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| Lahcen Saber | Leader | | Goran Antonijevic | Domestique | | Miha Poljanec | Domestique | | Ivan Siric | Domestique | | Matija Mestric | Domestique | | Georgios Stavrakakis | Domestique | | Stepan Kurianov | Domestique | | Yuriy Natarov | Domestique |
The race preview is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| redordead |
Posted on 12-05-2021 06:41
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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| Lahcen Saber | Leader | | Goran Antonijevic | Domestique | | Miha Poljanec | Domestique | | Ivan Siric | Domestique | | Matija Mestric | Domestique | | Georgios Stavrakakis | Domestique | | Stepan Kurianov | Domestique | | Yuriy Natarov | Domestique |
Macskako Kerekparverseny. That's a mouthful isn't it? The penultimate cobbled race of the year for the team. Not much was expected on this hilly course. As the race developed and lots of long range attacks were going up the road, Swisslion remained largely anonymous, but we found out Lahcen Saber was successfully holding his own with the other favourites. The race completely broke into pieces in the last 10 km. Saber ended up a couple groups behind the front. It was an every man for himself situation on the final cobble section and the Morrocan finished a season's best 12th on the day. The first cobbled race of the year, that the team walks away from it content with what they achieved.
Lahcen Saber on the last cobbled hill
Race goals:
| Top 20 | Success | Lahcen Saber | 12th |
Race score: 7/10
The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| redordead |
Posted on 13-05-2021 08:03
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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Clasica San Sebastian
| 07.08 | PTHC | Goals: Breakaway appearance |
| Gabriel Marin | Free Role | | Matic Groselj | Free Role | | Izidor Penko | Free Role | | Michael Christodoulos | Free Role | | Dusan Rajovic | Free Role | | Goran Antonijevic | Free Role | | Matija Mestric | Free Role | | Ivan Siric | Free Role |
The race preview is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| redordead |
Posted on 17-05-2021 06:32
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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Clasica San Sebastian
| 07.08 | PTHC | Goals: Breakaway appearance |
| Gabriel Marin | Free Role | | Matic Groselj | Free Role | | Izidor Penko | Free Role | | Michael Christodoulos | Free Role | | Dusan Rajovic | Free Role | | Goran Antonijevic | Free Role | | Matija Mestric | Free Role | | Ivan Siric | Free Role |
Race goals:
| Breakaway appearance | Failure | | |
Race score: N/A
The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| redordead |
Posted on 18-05-2021 12:55
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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Ljubljana - After reporting on the team's uncertain future post Tour de Suisse, we tried to contact general manager Bostjan Mervar during the Tour de France. Mervar didn't want to comment on the search for a new sponsor. But in the weeks after, we were finally able to get in touch with him. This is what he had to say.
Mervar: We have had a very successful Grand Tour. As successful as it can be for a wildcard team. A stage victory and plenty of TV time in the breakaways is all we could have asked for. Unfortunately those performances haven't changed anything in terms of our future. Our present sponsor is still at the exit door and it's true I am working hard to find someone to come in, in order to save this team.
So the team's future remains in doubt. We asked Mervar whether his sponsor search was limited to the Balkan region, but he did not want to comment on that. Whatever happens the team's PCT status going forward will have a major impact on what happens in the future.
The article is quoted from sports newspaper EkipaSN |
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| redordead |
Posted on 21-05-2021 06:30
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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Arab Tour
| 07.08 | PTHC | Goals: Top 15 GC; Stage win(s) |
| Kris Boeckmans | Sprinter | | Hugues Mottin | Free Role | | Gabriel Marin | Leadout | | Izidor Penko | Domestique | | Miha Poljanec | Domestique | | Matic Groselj | Domestique | | Dusan Rajovic | Domestique | | Michael Christodoulos | Domestique |
The race preview is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| redordead |
Posted on 26-05-2021 09:25
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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| Lahcen Saber | Leader | | Goran Antonijevic | Domestique | | Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy | Domestique | | Ivan Siric | Domestique | | Matija Mestric | Domestique | | Georgios Stavrakakis | Domestique | | Stepan Kurianov | Domestique | | Yuriy Natarov | Domestique |
The race preview is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| redordead |
Posted on 31-05-2021 18:31
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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Tour of Britain
| 03.09 - 07.09 | C1 | Goals: Top 10 GC |
| Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy | Leader | | Yuriy Natarov | Domestique | | Hugues Mottin | Free Role |  | Artur Sowinski | Stagiare | | Ivan Siric | Domestique |  | Kees Duyvesteyn | Stagiare | | Georgios Stavrakakis | Domestique | | Jeremy Bellicaud | Stagiare |
The race preview is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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