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[PCT20] Swisslion Cycling Team | Farewell
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| redordead |
Posted on 02-06-2021 06:44
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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       Balkans International
| 04.09 - 11.09 | PTHC | Goals: Top 5 GC; 3x Stage Top 3/Stage Win |
 | Eduard Alexander Beltran | Leader |  | Gabriel Marin | Domestique |  | Aberlardo Ablenado | Domestique | | Miha Poljanec | Domestique | | Tyron Giogieri | Domestique | | Izidor Penko | Domestique |  | Abolfazl Gilanipoor | Domestique | | Goran Antonijevic | Domestique |
The race preview is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
Edited by redordead on 28-06-2021 12:18
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 02-06-2021 06:55
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11675
Joined: 27-07-2015
PCM$: 1861.50
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Big race for Beltran as we go into the puncher heavy part of the season. All the best 
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| redordead |
Posted on 03-06-2021 07:17
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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AbhishekLFC wrote:
Big race for Beltran as we go into the puncher heavy part of the season. All the best
Do or die time for Beltran and the team!
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| redordead |
Posted on 04-06-2021 07:20
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 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 |
After two trips to the Arab peninsula for the Tour of the Middle East, Swisslion came here for the 3rd time and 3rd time was definitely a charm for the team. This season much maligned Hugues Mottin started well in the opening time-trial to place 11th. Then it was on to the sprints. Things didn't go so swimmingly there as Kris Boeckmans was completely disconnected from his teammates and couldn't participate in the sprint. Leadout loanee Gabriel Marin recovered what he could with a 6th place. The Costa Rican delivered Boeckmans well on stage 3 and 3rd place it was.
Kris Boeckmans performing better on stage 3
Stage 4 was the crucial time-trial in terms of GC. Mottin was able to continue his strong form with a 6th place on the day. That vaulted him up to 8th in GC. In addition to that Izidor Penko produced another fine ride that put him in the young rider's jersey. All in all, a great day to secure success in this race.
Hugues Mottin with his best ride of the season on the TT bike
The main priority for the final stage was to guide Mottin safely to the finish, but it was also another chance for Boeckmans to grab an elusive stage win. The stage proved to be quite chaotic with many splits occuring, but in the end no time gaps were given. Swisslion were well represented with 6 riders in the top 50 of the stage. Boeckmans finished what was a weird race for him with another 3rd place. Mottin lost a spot on countback, but 9th in GC was more than the team expected. A great source of pride was Penko winning the young rider's jersey with 33rd overall. Matic Groselj also added a few points in young riders classification. All in all one of the best races for Swisslion this season.
Izidor Penko on the podium wearing the young rider's jersey
Race goals:
| Top 15 GC | Success | Hugues Mottin | 9th | | Stage win | Failure | Kris Boeckmans | 3rd (Stage 3, Stage 5) |
Race score: 9/10
The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| redordead |
Posted on 08-06-2021 10:01
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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 | Lahcen Saber | Leader | | Goran Antonijevic | Domestique |  | Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy | Domestique | | Ivan Siric | Domestique | | Matija Mestric | Domestique | | Georgios Stavrakakis | Domestique |  | Stepan Kurianov | Domestique | | Yuriy Natarov | Domestique |
Swisslion travelled to Holland for this sprint classic with Lahcen Saber in what was his last sprint of the year. It was a windy day that made it very difficult for all the riders. Even the breakaway wasn't willing to run themselves in the ground and got caught with 20 km to go. Strong wind meant that the riders were all across the road in search of shelter and the elastic snapped in the last 10 km. Saber kept himself safe up front going into the final. Given the lack of helpers in these conditions the leadouts were ineffective. The Morrocan went for his own sprint with less than a kilometer to go. It proved a decent choice as he finished 4th on the day. A good result to close his sprint season.
Lahcen Saber in the middle behind the winner
Race goals:
| Top 5 | Success | Lahcen Saber | 4th |
Race score: 7/10
The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 08-06-2021 10:28
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3367
Joined: 20-04-2020
PCM$: 425.00
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Some nice results lately, I would even dare to say Saber's fourth in Holland was worth an 8/10 
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| redordead |
Posted on 11-06-2021 06:22
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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Nemolito wrote:
Some nice results lately, I would even dare to say Saber's fourth in Holland was worth an 8/10
Very nice results indeed, but you always need that carrot to keep improving
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 11-06-2021 06:39
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11675
Joined: 27-07-2015
PCM$: 1861.50
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Glad that Saber improved in the second half of the season
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| knockout |
Posted on 11-06-2021 07:33
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7735
Joined: 21-12-2010
PCM$: 400.00
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Seems like the team finally bonded together to avoid relegation. Mottin, Saber, Beltran all chipping in some points
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| redordead |
Posted on 11-06-2021 20:03
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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He surely did. Hopefully I use him better next year and he gets back to his Philips form
knockout wrote:
Seems like the team finally bonded together to avoid relegation. Mottin, Saber, Beltran all chipping in some points
That's certainly one way to describe it
Even if someone like Mottin suddenly starts pulling his weight, that makes a big difference in a relegation scrap.
"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 14-06-2021 07:15
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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 |
Swisslion came to Britain with one of the weakest squads this year. With 3 neo pros and 3 stagiaires to accompany the veterans Hugues Mottin and Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy, one could say the race was going to be an uphill task. Speaking of hills, that was the foremost objective, to guide Nepomnyachsniy safely through the hilly stages with minimum time loss. Stage 1 in that regard was successful. Stage 2 rated as flat was supposed to be the easiest one, but an unexpected split did occur which led to some riders losing over 2 minutes. Nepomnyachsniy was well placed again. Stage 3 was the time-trial stage, crucial for the team's GC hopes. Nepomnyachsniy slightly underperformed to finish only 20th, which placed him 8th in GC. Mottin, who was targeting this sole stage, had a decent 4th place. Nepomnyachsniy limited his losses on the crucial hilly stage 4 and in fact came into 6th place, by bettering some of the other time-trial specialists. That would be his final placing as the last stage went to the breakaway and he finished safely in the group of favourites. A fantastic result for the Kazakh veteran in his penultimate race of the season.
Hugues Mottin with a 4th place in the time-trial on stage 3
Race goals:
| Top 10 GC | Success | Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy | 6th |
Race score: 8/10
The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 05:32
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| Nemolito |
Posted on 14-06-2021 07:21
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3367
Joined: 20-04-2020
PCM$: 425.00
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Great result for Nepomnyachsniy! The only stage he lost time is the stage where he gained some places in the GC, so I guess you could forgive him for losing a bit of time there Definitely an okay time trial by Mottin as well, hope he can overperform a little in Deutschland!
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| redordead |
Posted on 14-06-2021 14:20
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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Nemolito wrote:
Great result for Nepomnyachsniy! The only stage he lost time is the stage where he gained some places in the GC, so I guess you could forgive him for losing a bit of time there Definitely an okay time trial by Mottin as well, hope he can overperform a little in Deutschland!
True He survived the hills very well, which more than made up for his slight underperformance in the TT
Would be pretty awesome if Mottin can deliver another good result. Looks like he's finally becoming worth the money spent
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| redordead |
Posted on 15-06-2021 07:22
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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 Deutschland Tour
| 17.09 - 21.09 | PTHC | Goals: Top 20 GC; 2x Stage Top 3 |
| Kris Boeckmans | Sprinter | | Matic Groselj | Domestique | | Gabriel Marin | Leadout | | Stepan Kurianov | Domestique | | Izidor Penko | Domestique | | Ivan Siric | Domestique | | Dusan Rajovic | Domestique | | Hugues Mottin | 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 26-06-2021 16:05
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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| Lahcen Saber | Free Role | | Matija Mestric | Domestique | | Gabriel Marin | Domestique | | Matic Groselj | Domestique | | Miha Poljanec | Domestique | | Goran Antonijevic | Domestique | | Dusan Rajovic | Domestique | | Ivan Siric | Domestique |
 Tour of Lithuania
| 26.09 - 29.09 | HC | Goals: Top 3 GC; Stage Top 3 |
| Eduard Alexander Beltran | Leader | | Michael Christodoulos | Domestique | | Tyron Giogieri | Domestique | | Ivan Siric | Domestique | | Matija Mestric | Domestique | | Georgius Stavrakakis | Domestique | | Stepan Kurianov | Domestique | | Yuriy Natarov | Domestique |
The race preview is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| redordead |
Posted on 28-06-2021 13:41
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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Balkans International
| 04.09 - 11.09 | PTHC | Goals: Top 5 GC; 3x Stage Top 3/Stage Win |
| Eduard Alexander Beltran | Leader | | Gabriel Marin | Domestique | | Aberlardo Ablenado | Domestique | | Miha Poljanec | Domestique | | Tyron Giogieri | Domestique | | Izidor Penko | Domestique | | Abolfazl Gilanipoor | Domestique | | Goran Antonijevic | Domestique |
A crucial race for Swisslion in their quest of retaining their PCT status. It's also the team's home race and with 4 local riders in the squad, the motivation was there to make this race a success. Stage 1 followed an eerily similar pattern to last year's edition. The breakaway won it by a big margin again, which wasn't the way Swisslion wanted to start the race. Stage 3 proved to be the more selective stage as the favourites duked it out on the final climb. Swisslion leader Beltran had a decent finish to place 4th on the day. Stage 4 finished in a bunch sprint from where the Colombian was 10th. Stage 5 was another stage marked as important. This time Beltran tried forcing the issue by attacking from farther out. Unfortunately his attempt was neutralised and he ended up losing time to the other favourites.
Eduard Alexander Beltran in a close finish on stage 4
Stage 6 was one where you would not be surprised if it went to the breakaway, but in fact the break was caught fairly early. That left time for GC attacks. Beltran smartly followed the wheels to finish 7th on stage and gained back the time he lost on the previous stage. Stage 7 was as flat as you can get in this race. Swisslion did not bring a sprinter to the race, so Miha Poljanec was given the freedom to go in the breakaway. It quickly became clear the peloton were happy to give this stage to the breakaway. That was music to the ears of Poljanec. He wisely didn't do too much work in chasing the late attacks and proved to be the strongest in the final sprint. A fantastic first win for the still young Slovenian, who's been on the team since it's establishment in 2018.
Miha Poljanec outsprinting his breakaway companions to take a brilliant win
The final stage is arguably the toughest of the lot. So it wasn't good timing for Beltran to have a bad day. The Colombian lost almost a minute, but luckily for him some of his main competitors were in the same boat or worse. As a result that was enough for him to finish 5th in GC. Which is exactly what the goal was before the race. So in a race of ups and downs Swisslion finished their home race on a big high note.
Race goals:
| Top 5 GC | Success | Eduard Alexander Beltran | 5th | | Stage win | Success | Miha Poljanec | 1st (Stage 7) |
Race score: 8/10
The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| redordead |
Posted on 29-06-2021 10:05
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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Deutschland Tour
| 17.09 - 21.09 | PTHC | Goals: Top 20 GC; 2x Stage Top 3 |
| Kris Boeckmans | Sprinter | | Matic Groselj | Domestique | | Gabriel Marin | Leadout | | Stepan Kurianov | Domestique | | Izidor Penko | Domestique | | Ivan Siric | Domestique | | Dusan Rajovic | Domestique | | Hugues Mottin | Free Role |
Race goals:
| Top 20 GC | Success | Hugues Mottin | 19th | | 2x Stage Top 3 | Failure | Kris Boeckmans | 6th (Stage 2) |
Race score: 4/10
The race report is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| redordead |
Posted on 30-06-2021 14:01
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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| Eduard Alexander Beltran | Leader | | Matic Groselj | Domestique | | Tyron Giogieri | Domestique | | Stepan Kurianov | Domestique | | Dusan Rajovic | Domestique | | Georgius Stavrakakis | Domestique | | Matija Mestric | Domestique | | Yuriy Natarov | Domestique |
The race preview is brought to you by Sijaj,
team media sponsor of Swisslion Cycling Team
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 01-07-2021 08:34
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11675
Joined: 27-07-2015
PCM$: 1861.50
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Congrats for Lithuania! Great to see Beltran finally coming back to form. Hope he has a great October too. He's gonna meet Kelderman twice
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| redordead |
Posted on 01-07-2021 11:37
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4881
Joined: 18-10-2017
PCM$: 200.00
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| Pos | Last | | Team | Total | RD | PpRD | Proj | | 1 | 2 |  | Repsol - Netflix | 3985 | 158 | 25,22 | 4414 | | 2 | 1 |  | Farfetch Pro Cycling | 3920 | 149 | 26,31 | 4604 | | 3 | 3 |  | Mapei | 3684 | 157 | 23,46 | 4106 | | 4 | 14 |  | Desigual | 3303 | 163 | 20,26 | 3546 | | 5 | 17 |  | Kraftwerk Man Machine | 3094 | 159 | 19,46 | 3406 | | 6 | 5 |  | Bakkafrost | 3084 | 165 | 18,69 | 3271 | | 7 | 6 |  | Xero Racing | 3058 | 153 | 19,99 | 3498 | | 8 | 4 |  | MOL | 2970 | 151 | 19,67 | 3442 | | 9 | 7 |  | Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff | 2936 | 161 | 18,24 | 3192 | | 10 | 8 |  | Duolingo | 2797 | 159 | 17,59 | 3078 | | 11 | 9 |  | Polar | 2775 | 159 | 17,45 | 3054 | | 12 | 15 |  | Valio - Viking Genetics | 2749 | 165 | 16,66 | 2916 | | 13 | 10 |  | Minions | 2554 | 159 | 16,06 | 2811 | | 14 | 13 |  | Berg Cycles | 2536 | 151 | 16,79 | 2938 | | 15 | 12 |  | Podium Ambition | 2445 | 164 | 14,91 | 2609 | | 16 | 16 |  | Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam | 2372 | 155 | 15,3 | 2678 | | 17 | 11 |  | DK - SVA Zalgiris | 2367 | 159 | 14,89 | 2606 | | 18 | 20 |  | Fablok - Chocolate Jacques | 2132 | 153 | 13,93 | 2438 | | 19 | 19 |  | Swisslion Cycling Team | 1922 | 161 | 11,94 | 2090 | | 20 | 21 |  | GCN Racing | 1875 | 153 | 12,25 | 2144 | | 21 | 18 |  | Andorra Cycling Project | 1788 | 155 | 11,54 | 2020 | | 22 | 23 |  | Azteca - NBCSN | 1716 | 159 | 10,79 | 1888 | | 23 | 25 |  | Aramco DP | 1703 | 157 | 10,85 | 1899 | | 24 | 22 |  | Nordstrom - CA Technologies | 1660 | 162 | 10,25 | 1794 | | 25 | 24 |  | Adastra N Hell Energy Cycling | 1505 | 161 | 9,35 | 1636 | | 26 | 26 |  | Campari Asahi Procycling | 1032 | 149 | 6,93 | 1213 |
Ranking update #5 is here and it is a good update for Swisslion. While the ranking spot is the same 19th, the team scored almost 400 points in this period. That is a big number in our context of fighting against relegation and it puts us firmly on safe ground. So how did we do it?
It started in the month of August which was supposed to be one of the leanest months on our calendar. Lahcen Saber achieved his best result in a cobbled race to score some modest points in Macskako Kerekparverseny. The important race of the month was the new Arab Tour. With Kris Boeckmans in the sprints and Hugues Mottin against the clock, scoring was a must at the HC stage race. Both riders delivered with the Belgian scoring a couple of podiums and the Frenchman finishing a very strong 9th in GC. Their success was added to by our very own Izidor Penko winning the young rider's jersey. We capped off our successful month with Saber finishing 4th at the sprint classic Ronde van Het Ijsselmeer.
The rest of the update covers the first half of September and 3 stage races. First the Tour of Britain. We've never before had a rider capable of doing well in a hilly, time-trial filled race. Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy though was up to the task. The veteran Kazakh rode a smart race and limited his losses on the hilly stages. The time-trial was always his trump card and he managed to finish a very good 6th overall. After that came our most important race of the season. Our home tour, Balkans International. It was a stick or twist race for our main leader Eddy Beltran, but he managed to somehow pull through and finish 5th in GC. Which satisfies the MGUCI race goal we choose at the start of the season. Of course the happiness was shared among the whole team, as it's the only goal we managed to accomplish so far. I also have to mention the stage win of Miha Poljanec from the breakaway. Here is another rider that is going to reach his full potential for us and we were ecstatic to see him pull off his first professional win. The last race of the update is the Tour of Deutschland. Kris Boeckmans couldn't compete with some of the better sprinters there. Hugues Mottin and the youngsters added a few posts from the time-trial performance.
So a hugely positive period for the team. The pressure on the last few races are now off, as we can start thinking about another season in the PCT division.
| Kris Boeckmans | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 481 | | Eduard Alexander Beltran | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 470 | | Lahcen Saber | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 308 | | Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 210 | | Hugues Mottin | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 119 | | Abolfazl Gilanipoor | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 110 | | Tyron Giogieri | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 54 | | Miha Poljanec | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 44 | | Stepan Kurianov | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 38 | | Aberlardo Ablenado | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 37 | | Izidor Penko | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 33 | | Matic Groselj | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 7 | | Georgios Stavrakakis | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 6 | | Gabriel Marin | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 4 | | Michael Christodoulos | | Swisslion Cycling Team | 1 |
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Swisslion Cycling Team
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Ronde van Het Ijsselmeer 
Tour of the Battenkill 
GP Lugano 
