@Nemo - Yeah not a bad start at all. Very nervous for February, I really hope we do well!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Viana do Castelo, or, The Vindication of jph and jandal
It was a clear February day on the Portuguese coast for the modern classic of Viana do Castelo, a fearsome profile with hard climbing, technical sections and many cobbles. We lined up with a deep squad, spearheaded by Mekseb Debesay, who despite being very well suited to the parcours has never excelled here. He was supported by Luke Rowe, Xandro Meurisse, Hamish Schreurs, Shaun Nick Bester, Jamalidin Novardianto, Robert Stannard and Salim Kipkemboi - a talented bunch for sure!
We kept our powder dry for the first half of the race which thankfully was not as tough as it was last year, when by this point more than half of the peloton was already out the back! With 115km to go the first attacks behind the breakaway began, as we sent Meurisse and Rowe, two riders we believed had very decent chances themselves, up the road. Twelve initial escapees became three on the climb, which joined the early breakaway trio. Meurisse was one of them, with Hugentobler and Smirnovs the biggest names with him.
With 60km to go the group had a fairly stable two minute lead on the peloton, and so our aim was to leave Meurisse at the head of the race for as long as possible, to give us an excuse not to chase and to provide a helper up the road for Debesay. Meanwhile as the peloton whittled down to just 39, we had five riders in the selection - Debesay supported by Bester, Novardianto, Stannard and Schreurs.
As the chase ramped up, Meurisse became the sole rider able to resist the advances of the favourite's group and distanced his breakaway companions. He bled around 30 seconds to the peloton but still had 1'20 over the top of the penultimate ascent to Santa Luzia, with the prospect of a 45km solo not seeming to faze him. Behind Novardianto and Bester continued to keep Debesay company as the peloton dwindled to only 11 riders!
Meurisse took the smaller hills and cobbles before the final climb well, and with 23km to go still had just over a minute to play with, giving us a huge tactical advantage.
However that advantage was threatened somewhat when one of the main favourites, Benoot, managed to attack away from the main group, catching Meurisse at the foot of the final climb despite the efforts of Bester and Debesay, the Belgian duo holding a gap of 48 seconds to the chasing group, still containing our trio. Sinkeldam also attacked. Debesay elected to sit on or near the front and let the gap grow, allowing Meurisse, if he had the energy after 100km at the front, to fight for the podium while we became favourites for the sprint behind.
Meurisse somehow had the energy to keep going with the much fresher (and more fancied) Benoot, and as Sinkeldam joined he in fact even lead down some of the final cobbled descent back into the town. He was now gauranteed a podium place, but could he muster anything in the sprint after 115km riding hard at the front?
Once we reached the bottom of the climb, he cleverly positioned himself at the back of the trio for the run-in to the sprint and could launch last. He would be perhaps slightly more favoured than Benoot in a straight sprint, and far less so than Sinkeldam.
But occasionally in cycling, it's your day and you will not be stopped, and you somehow find the energy after half a day in the breakaway, most of it in the wind, to sprint home in first position, and that's exactly what Xandro Meurisse did in just his second race in Xero colours. We played the team game brilliantly today but it can't be mistaken that this is one of the great solo performances we've seen from a Xero rider!
To turn a brilliant day even more amazing, Debesay did indeed power home to easily win the sprint for fourth, while after a great day of domestiquing Bester and Novardianto were rewarded with 12th and 13th respectively. Stannard finished just out of the points after a hugely impressive performance given his age and lack of cobbled experience in 32nd.
While the cobbles squad was absolutely crushing it in Viana do Castelo, another contingent was also riding around Portugal in support of George Bennett, looking for a repeat of last year's podium in the PTHC Volta a Portugal.
However the week never really got going for our freshly-trained mountain leader, as he ended up just 11th on GC, his early season form clearly not up to the standard we expect from him.
Meanwhile in the Hong Kong Challenge our other climbing leader, the quickly-maturing Joseph Areruya looked supremely comfortable in his new role spearheading the team, with an assured finish of third place on stage 1. He surprised even further by holding that GC position through Stage 2's time trial, where Morne van Niekerk took second place on the stage, just 12 seconds from his maiden professional victory.
Unfortunately with how close the GC was despite another solid performance to come home sixth on Stage three our young Rwnadan slipped to fifth on GC and lost his lead in the young riders' classification. Still, it was a brilliant performance from him in his first-ever professional leadership role and in a very strong field.
Rounding out the month was another man new to leadership, Hamish Schreurs was our hopeful in the first of three C2 cobbled classics this year, the fearsome GP Herning. He finished a solid but unspectacular seventh after being the only member of the chasing group to try a bridge to the leaders, ultimately paying for his ambition in the sprint.
Rider of the Month
Oh come on, who do you think it was?
Setting off solo from the mid-stage breakaway on the way to victory - Viana do Castelo
Xandro Meurisse Total RoTM Wins | 1 RoTM Wins This Season | 1
@withoutnonsense - Thanks for the support and welcome to the MG world - great to see an enthusiastic new follower of the game and hopefully a manager in the future Can I presume in you we have had a fan lurking in the shadows this season, since we were the second HQ you commented in?
@redordead - You're welcome to write them Not sure what I'll do with the HQ to finish the year - will do the normal year-end review, stats, rankings, awards and driver summaries but in terms of the missing season recap stuff I'm not sure how much time I have right now. It could be as barebones as just the Rider of the Months, or it will be Rider of the Months + highlights and wins. Or again, you could be a guest writer in the HQ
As you said there are some great moments in the season that it would be a shame not to be able to brag about them a bit!
Spring opened, as it often does, with a cobbled classic, as Mekseb Debesay took a credible 9th in Geraardsbergen-Bosberg, with Schreurs and Bester in 20th and 25th respectively helping to make this a solid day out for the team. Missing from the cobbles squad was Luke Rowe, who was leading another squad at the same time at the Barbados Bicycling Bonanza, where, with little expectations on his shoulders, he managed a credible 12th on GC in a packed sprint field, with a best stage result of 5th, coming on the final day.
Similar consistency was shown by the team at the Jelajah SKL tour, where Schomber (4th), Houle (4th and 7th), Debesay (6th) and Bazhkou (9th) rode quiet but solid stages to give us somebody in the top 10 on each day, and Debesay (11th), Houle (18th) and Bazhkou (26th) did decently in the GC. Not a race we'll remember for long, but at least it wasn't a 0-pointer by any means.
The Vuelta al Pais Vasco was a week of surprises, starting with a top 5 in the opening TTT! The great performances continued as Xandro Meurisse took 2nd place on Stage 2, and continued to mix it up with the best puncheurs in the division and get great stage results, including two 4th places. Thanks to the ITT he could only manage 9th on GC, but that was still a great result! Hugo Houle was 17th, a good GC performance but he disappointed with no stage results to speak of despite being a favourite for some of them. Meurisse took third in the points classification, and the team took second in the teams ranking.
Back to the Benelux for a pair of races, with the former, Le Samyn, being one to forget, with Debesay suffering to 28th, behind Schreurs in 22nd. However, the second race, our first PT wildcard outing of the year, provided a great memory, with Hugo Houle taking a brilliant 4th on GC at the Ronde van Nederland, with a stage podium also in the bag. A real shame it doesn't count for points, but it provided great exposure and experience to race in the PT at the front!
The month wrapped up with a pair of prestigious classics, Strade Bianche and Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne. The latter showed Debesay continuing his newfound poor form, only mustering 17th, but the former provided a positive surprise, with Joseph Areruya, acting as hills leader for the first time, coming in a very respectable 8th place, whilst Morne Van Niekerk took a nice (but points-less) 35th from the breakaway.
Rider of the Month
Houle's PT exploits and GC consistency could well have won it, but one man's overperformance actually scored points so once again it's...
Wearing the points jersey in the crucial ITT - Vuelta al Pais Vasco
Xandro Meurisse Total RoTM Wins | 2 RoTM Wins This Season | 2
Tour de Pologne, or, The Most Excited We've Ever Been for 10th on GC
The Tour de Pologne started in fine fashion with the above scene! After the team did a lot of work in the peloton through the day and on the lower slopes of the final climb, our two national champions showed their jerseys in the sprint - but both would be trading them in! George Bennett does what he's turning into a specialty and paced himself to perfection on a medium length climb, winning the sprint and claiming yellow, whilst Joseph Areruya was 4th and would slip on the white jersey. Xandro Meurisse also finished in the front group. They held their jerseys for the next three days, surviving the flat days 2 and 4 and both mixing it up without great success on the hillier stage 3 as two late attackers held off the pack, with Bennett in 9th and Areruya 13th after trying and failing to follow the winning move.
Despite not being top favourites the team took the role of protecting the yellow jersey and running the show in the peloton by the horns, dominating the run-in to the final climb on Stage 5, the queen stage. As we began the final ascent Bester, Meurisse, Schleck and Nikiema had the pace in the pack churning along with Areruya and Bennett tucked safely in behind.
Areruya lead out the sprint to deliver Bennett to pole position with 500m to go, meanwhile Meurisse decided he wasn't done despite his huge pace-making efforts, creating a wonderful shot of three Xero riders in a row leading the sprint!
Areruya faded to 9th, Meurisse was pipped and ended up 5th, but nobody was catching George Bennett who claimed a second stage win with a brilliantly timed sprint in yellow, capitalising on a perfect team performance in the final 10km. Bennett moved back into the points classification lead with a good chance to win it, while Areruya and Meurisse made themselves 7th and 10th on GC respectively.
Bennett was half a bike length away from repeating his trick a third time, but Gesink began to shut the gap at the top of the GC with a well-taken stage win as GB could only manage third place. Areruya rose to 6th, with Meurisse dropping to 11th after losing 30 seconds in the finale.
However with very few time gaps so far, with just 48 seconds from 1st to 8th, 2 minutes to 16th and 3 minutes to 23rd, it was never going to end in perfect yellow glory with a 25km ITT on Stage 7, and a former World Champion in that discipline 16 seconds behind us on GC. In the end Bennett slipped to 10th, Areruya 14th (and losing the white jersey), and Meurisse 16th, while Bennett won the points jersey and the squad quite easily snatching 1st in the Teams Classification.
That final haul along with 6 days in yellow and white, 4 in green, two stage wins, and various stage placings, made for one of the biggest points totals and most positive GC-focused stage races we might ever see in our history with the best GC result being 10th! An awesome performance which gave our season some real momentum in terms of fighting at the top and pushing to get into the top 10 or deeper.
Soon after the brilliant week of the climbing squad in Pologne, Luke Rowe took to the flats of the Netherlands to defend his title in the Veenendaal - Veenendaal classic. He won last year with a sprint over Kenneth Vanbilsen from a small group after he spearheaded a late attack with around 15km to go and made another solo move before the finish before being caught but never really captured. We didn't expect to be let go so easily, and if we did surely that exact set of circumstances couldn't happen again, the peloton surely aren't that stupid!
Can I presume in you we have had a fan lurking in the shadows this season, since we were the second HQ you commented in? 
