We celebrated two incredible victories in April: Peter Sagan won the Ronde van Vlaanderen and then Leigh Howard won the Ster ZLM Tour, our team's very first WT stage race win.
In Flanders, Sagan himself caused what turned out to be the final selection with a long-range attack starting over 50 km out. It was bound to fail, he was caught by the group of co-favourites a few kilometres later, which then thinned out to 10 riders but no further attacks stuck. It came down to a sprint, Sagan started in 7th position but timed his effort beautifully to overtake Senechal just ahead of the finish line. It was Sagan's second Ronde victory after winning all the way back in 2015, but it was a first for our team, our second ever monument.
The Ster ZLM Tour with its five flat stages once again attracted pretty much all the best sprinters in the world. Howard, thanks to some training, ranks maybe 10th in this crowded field and consequently on three of the stages he finished 10th, 11th and 16th. But miracles happened on stages 3 and 4. On stage 3 he alone reacted to a very late move by Alitalia's Colbrelli and Demare, barely hanging on at first before surprising Demare and surging past him on the right hand side for the win. A day later he had the luxury of a sprint train, unheard of for Team BP, and Howard made full use of it. Wagner released him at just the right moment and he surged past his competition to win his second stage and then the general classification. Simply outstanding.
In Paris-Roubaix the defending champion Sagan missed the decisive split with 27 km to go, only 4 riders would compete for the win, with Pintzopoplous winning the crown, while Sagan was beaten by Phinney in the sprint for 5th.
Sagan was a little weaker in the Ardennes Week than last season, though 7th, 9th and 11th are hardly bad results. Even more so when considering that he had zero support from his team. We took a bit of a gamble this year with a weak classics squad, but were still disappointed by our other riders' performances, especially Jonathan Dibben.
A candidate for the biggest disappointment of the season is Flakemore's performance in the Trofeo Campania. Nominally one of the best TT specialists in the world he only rode to a 28th place. Time trials are rather random, of course, so it wasn't entirely unexpected.
On a much brighter note, Lasse Norman Hansen finished the Driedaagse De Panne just 3 seconds behind Luke Durbridge. A shame he couldn't win the race, but it was still a performance of a lifetime. He was extremely strong on the two cobblestone stages, even gaining 34 seconds on the rest with a late attack on stage 2. And he was 3rd in the final ITT, a notable result in itself.
April 2021 Results Overview
WT
Ronde van Vlaanderen
Sagan
1st
WT
Ster ZLM Tour
Howard
1st
Howard
2 stages
WT
Paris - Roubaix
Sagan
6th
CT.2
VDK-Driedaagse De Panne
Norman
2nd
WT
Trofeo Campania
Flakemore
28th
WT
Amstel Gold Race
Sagan
7th
WT
La Flèche Wallonne
Sagan
9th
WT
Liège - Bastogne - Liège
Sagan
11th
Despite a lack of depth scoring we've moved up to 3rd in the WT teams ranking and have scored about 100 points more than at this point last season.
Portugal - 18th (13th EU) Brazil - 32nd (3rd SA) Angola - 65th (11th AF)
Nelson OLIVEIRA
Tour d'Indonesia (2.CT2) - 124 points
Oliveira started out riding as a domestique for Figueirido in Indonesia, avoiding losing any time whilst helping his countryman to a stage victory. On Stage 3, a solid effort on the TT bike saw Oliveira jump into 2nd overall. This was followed by a handful of quiet days before a somewhat disappointing performance in the final day's MTT meant that Kelly Elissonde leapfrogged our man for the overall victory. Still, one can't be too disappointed with 2nd place in the General Classification.
Volta ao Algarve (2.CT2) - 130 points
Riding on home soil, Oliveira was always intended to be the main GC threat this time out. After two quiet days whilst the sprint trains went to work, Oliveira scored a podium in the ITT, behind Ryan Mullen and Lachlan Morton. He needed just 25 seconds in the final day's hills if he wanted to raise his arms in yellow. Ever the selfless rider, he ended up sacrificing himself. His effort in assisting Vanbilsen to the stage win meant he finished only 21 seconds ahead of Mullen and missed out on the overall victory on countback!
Tour de San Luis (2.CT2) - 72 points
Oliveira headed off to South America hoping that this time the entirety of the squad would be focused on him. After two excellent outings, surely he was worthy of a little solipsism? It was going to be another case of patient riding, as the wily veteran only expended as much energy as was necessary to secure himself in each day's first finishing group, snagging a 6th place along the way. Then he unleashed himself in the individual timetrial, moving himself to 2nd overall. Two weak days in the semi-mountains cost him, however, and he fell to 6th overall before the end of the week.
Istrian Spring Trophy (2.CT1) - 0 points
It was always going to be a tough ask riding at a higher level and after finishing only five seconds ahead of Michael Boroš in the prologue the team switched its focus to the Czech puncheur. This meant a quiet couple of days on domestique duty as Oliveira finished 29th overall.
Michael BOROÅ
Christchurch - Akaroa (1.CT2) - 9 points
Perhaps too hard a start for the Czech phenomenom, as he could only manage a disappoint 20th against a field filled with lighter climbers.
Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco (2.WT) - 8 points
Whilst a visit to the Basque Country certainly meant more favourable parcours for Boroš, an unfortunate side effect was riding aginst the World Tour's best. Still, he put up a decent showing. He scored 7th from a decent position in the opening day's bunched sprint, but an anonymous second appearance was followed up with Boroš blowing early on during the hard-ridden stage 3. At that point, the team's aims switched to securing a decent GC-placing from Figueirido; that resulted in a mere 24th.
Clasica Iberica (1.CT2) - 60 points
Boroš continued his time in Spain with a much easier hilly classic. Unfortunately, he and his companions weren't able to chase down a move by Joël Kweuke, which meant our man had to settle for 3rd. Still, nothing wrong with a podium.
Roma Maxima (1.CT1) - 23 points
Next on the agenda was Rome. This time it was Simon Yates, who had shown some dominant performances in the Basque Country, taking victory. Boroš was strong enough to hold on to the leaders, but could only sprint to 12th against some tought competition.
Istrian Spring Trophy (2.CT1) - 167 points
No rest for the wicked, as Boroš continued to shift westward; this time he was targetting the two uphill finishes in Istria. A rather forgiving prologue meant that the Czech rider found his way on to the podium when he followed the winning move on the second day. Unfortunately, neither his TTing nor his sprinting were strong enough to prevent his companions moving ahead of him via bonus seconds. Following up with a strong 4th place showing, and a quiet final day, meant that Boroš secured himself 3rd overall.
Paris - Roubaix (1.WT) - 0 points
Nobody really expected anything out of Boroš, and with most of his teammates apparently disappearing into the ether, nobody can be too disappointed with 83rd.
4 Jours de Dunkerque (2.CT2) - 0 points
A domestique outing for Boroš, although his efforts left much to be desired.
Kenneth VANBILSEN
Volta ao Algarve (2.CT2) - 64 points
For anyone else the pressure of taking on the dual mantle of sprinter and cobbled classics leader might've been too much, but for Kenneth Vanbilsen it appeared to be a walk in the park. He scored a podium in his first outing for the team against a mass of pure sprinters. Then, despite losing a significant amount of time across the next two days, followed it up by taking victory in a reduced sprint at the end of the hilly fourth stage. A podium in the points standings and 19th overall certainly aren't too shabby.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (1.WT) - 46 points
The first cobbled classic of the season, and Vanbilsen's first opportunity to show his mettle against World Tour opposition. He stuck with the leading group, but the strength of the competition showed when he could only score 11th.
Roma Maxima (1.CT1) - 0 points
A domestique outing in support of Michael Boroš.
Dwars door Vlaanderen (1.CT1) - 26 points
The first in a succession of springs cobbled classics, being slightly less prestigious and of a lower category it carried marginally greater hopes of victory. Unfortunately, Vanbilsen was unable to follow the attacks towards the finish and instead had to settle for another 11th place.
E3 Prijs Harelbeke (1.WT) - 80 points
Fortunately, there were going to plenty of opportunities for Vanbilsen at this point in the season. This time the favourites kept it together. That isn't to say they weren't riding hard, 11 riders stretched out an impressive gap of over six minutes to the peloton. In the reduced sprint, Vanbilsen once more wasn't the strongest but, now that he couldn't do any worse than in previous attempts (given the size of the group) he scored an excellent 6th.
Gent - Wevelgem (1.WT) - 0 points
The toll quite quickly told, and the pendulum swung back against us. Vanbilsen was dropped early on and, exhausted, finished only 53rd.
Wallonië Prijs (1.CT1) - 17 points
Knowing his biggest test was still to come, Vanbilsen hung back in the pack before surging to 3rd in the final sprint, good enough for 15th overall.
Ronde van Vlaanderen (1.WT) - 3 points
Evidently a weeks rest wasn't sufficient, 40th and nearly six minutes behind the leaders.
Paris - Roubaix (1.WT) - 0 points
The "Hell in the North" indeed, Vanbilsen crashed out early on.
VDK-Driedaagse De Panne (2.CT2) - 209 points
Evidently at least half the issue was that we had been asking Vanbilsen to compete against riders who were simply of a greater calibre. Where the Belgian really shined was against his peers, and lessers. Vanbilsen dominated the first stage, and basked in the glory in a relaxed second day that saw the morning's escapees succeed by several minutes. This would eventually prove to be a mistake as, despite scoring 5th in the flat third stage, Vanbilsen would drop to third overall by just five seconds after the final day's timetrial. A stage win, a GC podium, and the green jersey wrapped up an *almost* perfect race.
Rheden GP (1.CT2) - 92 points
Unfortunately for Vanbilsen, Jan Ghyselinck timed his move perfectly in the Netherlands. With the chasing group unable to make the catch, Vanbilsen instead sprinted his way to 2nd.
4 Jours de Dunkerque (2.CT2) - 144 points
A solid sprint to 6th on day one was followed up by a complete performance a day later. Kenneth Vanbilsen secured 4th for himself, whilst Schaffner and Heymans took the opportunity to score a 1-2 for themselves! The next day was harder, and Vanbilsen took another 4th, this time from a select group. A relaxed Day 4 bled into a mass sprint in the final stage; Vanbilsen came 2nd to McEvoy, which meant the Briton surpassed him in the points standings. Thus 2nd in the points and 3rd in the GC for the Belgian.
It was always going to be a tough ask, riding against the world's best on less than favourable terrain. Figueiredo had shown he could compete at altitude in last year's Vuelta a Espana but he was somewhat lost in the rapid racing over the basque hills. A couple of middling results, wherein he failed to follow the winning moves and thus steadily lost time to the leaders, ended in 24th in the GC.
Giro del Trentino (2.CT1) - 129 points
Finally unleashed in an alpine environment, Figueiredo was keen to recapture his early form in South-East Asia. His support group put in a decent shift to avoid losing too much time in the TTT, but Figueiredo was only able to award them with a collected ride to 11th in the first mountain stage, already 2½ minutes down in the General Classification. A much stronger ride to third, where Figueiredo couldn't quite chase down the victorious attack saw him move up to 7th and within 2 minutes of the lead. Combining a solid, if quiet, ride in the hills with an impressive 4th-place performance on a difficult final day, Figueiredo managed to claw back 5th overall against a litany of prestigious names.
Yet another month is done - and we keep saying the same as we always said: we didn't race a whole lot yet. The hard numbers actually confirm our feelings: so far, we did 51 out of 180 RDs, which is 28.3%, while we are already done with 40% of the months (let's ignore the fact that the entire race calendar is rather tail-loaded, though...).
So it doesn't come as a big surprise that we only have 3 races to report on concerning the main team - however, one of them was already our 3rd focus race of the year. But let's tackle them in order:
Giro del Trentino
3 mountain stages, a hilly one, and a TTT to kick off the tour - perfect terrain for Juan Chamorro!
While we were just slightly below our own expectations in the opening TTT - taking 6th place - stage 2 was pretty disappointing. Chamorro only took 10th, even behind three U25 riders.
But the good thing in an almost pure mountain stage race is that there are some possibilities to bounce back - which is exactly what Chamorro did on day 3. He looked to be the strongest rider of the day, attacked multiple times and did a lot of work - which probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. In the end, he was outsprinted, but still held on to a nice 2nd place! With the gaps unfortunately being pretty small, this only made him move up to 6th in the GC, but at least it was a clear sign of life.
Stage 4 then was the hilly one, and the only goal was to not lose any time on his opponents. Mission accomplished, taking 7th in the first big group of 44 riders.
The closing stage 5 then turned out to be one separating the wheat from the chaff - with Chamorro finishing 6th, after having missed out on a big move and then closed most of the gap without much help, we'd classify him as "wheat".
In the end, Juan Chamorro finished 4th of the Giro del Trentino - which does not only sound unfortunate, but indeed was, given that he was just 3" away from the podium... On the other hand, 7th place was just 16" away as well, so we can be happy with 4th overall, along with 5th in the points standings and 3rd in the KoM classification.
Unfortunately, the next few riders finished close to, yet outside the scoring positions (Top 25): Tácio Mendes (30th), Sándor Biró (33rd) and Alexander Brus (36th). So all in all a successful race on the top, but zero depth points is still slightly disappointing.
Rheden GP
A cobbled race - which means we went pretty much all-in for Roberto Romero MartÃnez, while still keeping Rick Zabel as a backup in case the cobbles were not ridden very hard.
The fact that a select group of 6 riders competed for the win means that the cobbled sectors were tough - so no top result for Zabel (who still scored some points in 11th place). The good news, however, is that Roberto made that selection - he was however the weakest rider of the group and ended up 6th, but this is still a nice result for him. And a sign that we can probably subscribe to more cobbled races next year, given that his results so far this year are pretty consistent!
Colombia Team GP
As announced earlier, we had yet another focus race this month - and a very special one, given that it's the only uphill TTT classic on the calendar! We finished 2nd last year, and having a pretty much equally strong roster this year, we were pretty confident.
And we were right to be positive! While once again missing out on the win, we clearly confirmed that last year's result wasn't a one-off, but we actually confirmed it with another 2nd place this year! A great job by the team, and a very nice amount of points coming in here - meaning that we have done rather well in all of our 3 focus races so far! Let's hope the sponsors will still be as happy by the end of the year - two more focus races are yet to come though.
With only three races and a total of 9 RDs, we expected a drop in the standings - which did indeed happen, despite us scoring a pretty decent amount of 412 points making for a good 45 PpRD. Which is clearly above the 26 PpRD we had for the first 3 months.
So the overall tendency is good, although we dropped from 7th to 9th in the CT standings and from 18th to 23rd overall. With lots of WT classics raced this month - including 3 monuments - and us doing no WT races at all, it was clear that we'd get overtaken by a couple of teams - let's hope we can strike back later on when we'll be racing more, including a couple of WT races and even the final monument of the year. But it's a long way to go until then, so let's just continue bringing in some good results, and everyone will be happy!
In the Lincoln GP, a focus race, Sagan was definitely in top form, he attacked multiple times and kept to the front of the group – only he failed to sprint from the front or to follow GVK's sprint, he let two more riders overtake him and finished 4th. Still, it could have been much worse and became a moderately successful focus race.
The Giro d'Italia was disappointing, I'm sad to say. Howard and his sprint train made too many mistakes, he only once challenged Kittel seriously and often finished behind several weaker sprinters. Tao Hart's race was even worse, bad enough across the three weeks and then the final two mountain stages were real tragedies. He finished 12th overall, worse than last season (11th) despite raising his AVG from 76.7 to 79.3. 200 meagre points for him.
Over in Sochi, Scott Davies showed a good performance and finished 14th overall. However, Flakemore disappointed again in the ITT, he was 11th, beaten even by Davies (TTR 80 vs 74).
The only win of the month came from our dev team, Astley Carter won the opening stage of the Giro de Valle d'Aosta, he was able to keep the green jersey until the end. He was also 4th in Rutland-Melton, he pretty much carries the dev team all by himself.
May 2021 Results Summary
CT.2
Aleko Vitoša
Stannard
14th
WT
University of Lincoln GP
Sagan
4th
WT
Giro d'Italia
Tao Hart
12th
WT
Grand Prix of Sochi
Davies
14th
We dropped from 3rd to 5th in the WT ranking. A real concern is the lack of breakaway appearances and depth scoring. We haven't once fought for a KOM classification, neither with the main nor the dev team. Aside from Sagan, Howard and Hart (and Majka, who hasn't raced yet) the rest of main team has scored just 318 WT points so far. And our whole U23 team scored 2 prestige points across three CT.2 stage races, that's how passive we've been.
Month number 5 is in the books! We had two mid-length stage races, as well as the Scandinavian TT classic. All of them were ranked CT.2, hence the potential scoring wasn't too high. Let's see how we did:
Tour de Romandie
The race started with a mountain time trial - perfect terrain for team captain Juan Chamorro! And he did a good job, finishing 3rd behind top favorite Verona - and U23 rider Ollero! More on that in the Gauchitos summary, but it was clearly a fantastic start to the race!
Chamorro also was attentive on the flat stage 2, finishing 7th - ahead of sprinter Eduardo Gonzalez. Not the best sign of quality for the latter - but in his defense, the finish straight was uphill.
However, we've got no clue what happened to Chamorro after this stage, as he was just at least three levels weaker starting from stage 3. On a rather easy stage, our clearly strongest climber (and puncheur) missed the cut, losing more than 2 minutes. Fortunately, Tácio Mendes, who also did a decent job in the opening TT (11th), took over team leadership, finishing in the first group.
Stage 4 then confirmed that something was really wrong with Chamorro, as he even lost more than 3 minutes on an easier stage than the day before! We think he was ill or injured, but none of our medical staff were able to confirm. Again, Mendes was attentive enough finishing in the front group, alongside Armando Huamán and Gustavo Martin.
We then had a really tough - and hence decisive - mountain stage on day 5. Unfortunately, Mendes wasn't quite strong enough to keep up with the best, but finishing 9th on the day still meant he was able to hold onto a Top10 GC result (7th). By the way, Chamorro almost lost 15 minutes - nope, that wasn't just a minor issue with his health!
The race was closed with a 22km pan-flat time trial on stage 6 - and what a result that was for us! Tácio Mendes won the stage, moving up to 4th in the GC, while Fernando Gaviria took 4th on the final stage, Jonathan Saavedra was 9th and - back to much better form - Juan Chamorro was 14th.
Besides some minor KoM and U25 points, we didn't get any additional scoring - especially Chamorro leaving with 0 points from the GC was a huge disappointment. Mendes did a great job filling in for him, but we still ended up below expectations.
Amgen Tour of California
The next race we attended was held on the American double-continent, so our participation was pretty much mandatory. It was the first stage race of the year for Javier Gomez, who was already part of the strong-going Colombia Team GP lineup last month.
Stage 1 was a hilly-rated one, and we again had some hopes for Eduardo Gonzalez doing well there - but somehow he seems to have lost quite some speed compared to last season. A 12th place wasn't a great result - nor were 11th, 13th and 10th on stages 3, 4 and 5.
On day 2 we had the first GC-relevant stage, with Gomez finishing about where we expected him to - 7th place. Daniel DÃaz did well to take 15th on that day.
We then had the only real mountain stage of the race on day 7 - and Javier Gomez added another 3rd place finish to his tally! With Daniel DÃaz taking 9th of the day, the latter moved up to 11th in the GC - while Gomez was now 2nd, just 16" behind Landa! And we were as close as 28" to the team standings leaders...
Unfortunately, we weren't able to gain any more time on the flat final stage, but at least Eduardo Gonzalez finally found another gear and finished 5th. DÃaz even moved up to 10th in the GC due to a competitor losing some unexpected time!
In the end, Javier Gomez took 2nd in the GC, while Daniel DÃaz took 10th place. The 2nd place in the team standings adds some points, and so while we were a bit worse than expected in terms of stage results, the overall scoring from this race was definitely good!
Copenhagen - Malmö ITT
The final race of the month was the traditional TT classic leading from Denmark to Sweden. Fernando Gaviria was our only rider doing all races this month, and while he had taken 4th place twice before in an ITT, he finished on a decent 5th place here. Sándor Biró and Eduardo Sepulveda both scored some points as well, taking 22nd and 27th.
The next stop was Switzerland, where they joined the main team at Tour de Romandie. We already mentioned it, stage 1 held a big surprise for us - with Germán Ollero taking 2nd place in the opening TT, even ahead of Chamorro! However, he threw that great GC position away on day 3, when he joined the breakaway and eventually lost some time - however, with the KoM jersey after that stage as a reward! He lost it on the next day, though, and the entire team went on to race completely invisibly, and without any scoring positions in the overall standings. Another missed opportunity in terms of breakaways in the second half of the race, but the start was great!
The Giro Valle d'Aosta is probably THE climbing race for U23 riders, with 4 mountain stages in 6 days. The first one was flat, though - and for the first time this year, Miquel Espinosa showed up, to take a nice 2nd place! On day 2, containing the first big mountains, Germán Ollero and Ernesto UrÃzar showed that they were ready for this race, both finishing in the Top10, inside the first big group. However, the next stages showed that for whatever reason they weren't able to keep up with the strongest climbers, and they didn't even try to support each other. Especially stage 5 was an absolute horror-show, with both losing more than 10 minutes, finishing behind some way worse riders. We'll have to add some tactics classes to our development program... At least Espinosa added another Top10 finish on stage 4 (7th), and Germán Ollero somewhat redeemed himself on the closing MTT by winning it! Not even getting a Top10 GC place was a huge disappointment, though, without any doubt.
As we said before, having raced only CT.2 races, the scoring potential wasn't huge. With just above 25 PpRD despite some results that felt really good, the actual scoring confirmed this. Still, we were able to climb up two spots in the CT ranking, and gained one place in the CT prestige rankings, where we're up to 8th (23rd overall). With quite some racing in June - including another WT appearance - we hope to make up some more ground, heading towards the promotion spots - although reaching them seems rather improbable by now.
Peter Sagan was in top form in the Tour of Germany and finished 3rd overall. Not quite enough to win a stage, but he was very consistent on the hilly stages, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th. Leigh Howard also had a fine race, he sprinted very well on the flat stages against tough competition and was 4th in the points ranking. He was also surprisingly good on the hilly stages and finished 15th in the GC.
For the first time in the World Tour – and only the second time ever – our team won the teams classification, in our focus race in Guatemala. Captain Rafal Majka, riding his first race of the season, won the queen stage and finished 2nd overall. Just like last season, behind Bardet this time, last year it was Herrada. Tao Hart was a bit anonymous and finished 13th overall. Campbell Flakemore finally rode a good ITT, beaten only by Vorobyev. Wit additional points from minor classifications this has been a very successful focus race.
The Tour of Mount Fuji was the career highlight of James Lowsley-Williams. He joined the early breakaway on three of the five stages, he wore the polkadot jersey for a day and he finished 3rd on the final stage. Which also placed him 2nd in the KOM and 5th in the points ranking. Neo-pro Safari Akinyemi rode an excellent MTT on stage 1 and wore white for two days. Jordi Simon finished 30th overall.
JUne 2021 Results Summary
WT
Deutschland Tour
Sagan
3rd
WT
Vuelta a Guatemala
Majka
2nd
Majka
1 stage
Team
1st
WT
Tour of Mount Fuji
Simon
30th
CT.1
GP Luxembourg
Sagan
11th
CT.1
Tour de Suisse
Fritsch
58th
CT.2
Circuit des Ardennes
Kreuziger
30th
Fitting for our miserable depth scoring is the fact that our nominally weakest rider, Lowsley, is now our 5th best scorer only behind his four captains.
The second-most intense month so far in terms of race days is behind us - and let's not beat about the bush, it was disappointing. Instead of using some higher category races (WT, CT.1) to improve our PpRD, we actually lowered it. Let's see what went wrong:
La Jurassaine
Obvoiusly, those classics always attract lots of stronger riders, even from WT, and so we knew it would be tough for Juan Chamorro to get a great result.
He didn't do too bad at first sight, finishing 12th. However, seeing how many weaker climbers once again beat him was frustrating to see. At this point we have to admit that we underestimated the impact of his low resistance - at least that's the only reason we see why he'd regularly lose to 76-78 climbers. And most of those who finished ahead of him were in this range - disappointing.
Furthermore, the rest of the team also disappointed, scoring not one single additional point. Especially Yonder Godoy should have done better, so we leave the race with a measly yield of 23 points.
Vuelta a Guatemala
Our second WT race of the year was again much closer to home - maybe Europe just isn't our favorite place to perform after all.
But directly on stage 1, we had yet the next disappointment to digest. We thought it would be a perfect opportunity for Eduardo Gonzalez - but apparently the stage was too hard for him, and none of our riders even entered the Top 50 of the stage. None of the leaders lost any time, though, which was far more important.
And the good news is we actually got something out of this stage! Gustavo Martin joined the breakaway of the day, collecting bonus seconds and KoM points - and ended the day 3rd in GC, and leader in the KoM and U25 standings! Great job by our young Bolivian!
Stage 2 then was the first true test for our GC leader - it was a so-so result. Javier Gomez finished 13th, losing over 3 minutes - but in a WT field that was acceptable. And fortunately, Tácio Mendes finished just 4 spots further down, losing an additional 20" - so we had two cards to play in the GC race! Martin unfortunately lost both his jerseys on day 2, but that wasn't unexpected.
Nothing spectacular then on day 3; the stage again was slightly too hard for Edu Gonzalez, who could only sprint to 15th. The big bummer then came on stage 4, the ITT, where hopes were high for Javier Gomez to confirm his position or even make up a few spots - but no, no, no. He lost more than 3 minutes, finishing just in the Top 100 - and being just half a minute faster than Daniel DÃaz who really can't TT.
We don't think it had anything to do with the hotel food, as we even had three Top 50 finishers - Pablo Gonçalves, Tácio Mendes and Jonathan Saavedra - all good TTers, but all usually slower than Gomez - and more than one minute faster on that day.
Which obviously meant we had to shift to Mendes as our GC leader - fortunately he barely lost more time than Gomez on day 2...
And it seemed like assigning Tácio Mendes the leader role somewhat gave him wings, as he delivered his masterpiece on stage 5 - finishing 4th of the day, and moving up to 8th in the GC! A fantastic and never expected performance, given the names he was able to beat on the day! Wow!
And as a bonus, Mendes moved up to 2nd in the KoM standings - and thanks to good performances by Javier Gomez (22nd) and Daniel DÃaz (24th), we even jumped up to 3rd in the team standings!
So it was all about defending that result in the final stage - and although we once again didn't have a say in the fight for the stage win, our riders confirmed their GC positions, letting us leave Guatemala on a high! Just to summarize: Tácio Mendes finished 8th in the GC and 2nd in the KoM standings, Javier Gomez was 21st in the GC, and Daniel DÃaz finished 27th. And this trio also made sure we finished 3rd in the team standings!
All in all, we went home with a total of 232 points in the bag - exactly the same amount we already scored in Tachira - equivalent to a PpRD of almost 40, that was definitely more like what we needed!
Tour de Suisse
Back to Switzerland, for 9 days of CT.1 racing. Switzerland and Chamorro, that didn't go too well earlier this month, so we left him at home and brought Javier Gomez as our leader.
And he did well in the hilly prologue, taking 7th place - three spots ahead of a surprisingly strong Sándor Biró. We actually had 6 riders in the Top 35, which was worth 2nd place in the team standings after day 1. Biró also was 2nd among the U25 riders.
And the Hungarian continued to surprise, taking 10th on stage 2 - one spot ahead of Javier Gomez, taking over the U25 lead. Which on the other hand was a bad performance by our designated GC leader, almost throwing away a possible Top 5 result early on.
Shoutout to Rick Zabel, by the way, who finished 15th on that tough stage! And he was the decisive factor for us to also take over the lead in the team standings!
When speaking of Zabel - the next four stages were the reason why we sent him to Switzerland, supposing he could get some nice results thanks to his good puncheur skills.
Well, it wasn't to be on stage 3. Only 19th place, far below expectations.
Far better then on stage 4 - a hilly rated one - where he narrowly missed out on the podium to take 4th place. Due to the hilly rating, not many points were awarded for the green jersey fight, but it was great for the morale anyway!
Stage 5 again was a flat rated one, with a pretty easy profile - but for whatever reason, the sprinter teams couldn't control the race, and the GC favorites actually battled it out!
And once again, Sándor Biró was attentive and stayed with the first bigger chase group, confirming his 9th place in the GC so far! Moreover, Javier Gomez finished not far behind and was 10th in the GC.
Despite Tácio Mendes also making the Top 20, we still lost the lead in the team standings - but at least Biró had a very solid lead in the U25 standings!
Stage 6 then saw a classic bunch sprint - but Rick Zabel unfortunately was nowhere to be seen once more. 20th place - that's definitely not an acceptable result for our lead sprinter. So all eyes - and hopes for points - then were on the GC guys again.
And Sándor Biró's madness went on! He again was our highest finisher - taking a great 9th place on the day, two seconds ahead of Javier Gomez! This made him gain one spot in the GC - and thanks to a strong Alex Brus in 20th, we took back the lead in the team standings as well! Only two days to go...
But on day 8, the inevitable happened. Sándor Biró cracked - and was only our 6th finisher that day! Meaning that nobody seriously helped him - what a shame, and what a lack of team spirit! At first sight only, though...
One who can easily be excused is Alex Brus, as he was in the breakaway, and eventually finished 14th. But Tácio Mendes taking our 2nd best stage result just didn't make any sense at all - while Javier Gomez rightfully tried to salvage at least his GC position. And both Eduardo Sepulveda and Rick Zabel were pulling in Biró's group - so the only one who really acted egoistically is Mendes, the others did their job well.
And in fact, not that much harm was done; Biró dropped back to 9th, but Gomez stayed in 10th. The white jersey still was ours - only the team standings went out of reach that day.
So, time for the finale then. And bad news first - Sándor Biró cracked again, and Tácio Mendes again didn't support him. Javier Gomez didn't have his best day, either - by far not - and finished only 19th. So we lost everything on the final day - both Top 10 GC spots, and the white jersey.
But wait - that was "just" the bad news. The stage actually wasn't that bad at all. Sure, having no-one in the GC Top 10 while having targetted a Top 5 is bad, no question about it.
But Alex Brus once again joined the breakaway - and that almost was a full success for him! He finished 2nd on the day, moved up to 3rd in the KoM standings - and even to 13th in the GC! Meaning that despite not having any top GC result, we still had 3 in the Top 20, and another one in the Top 25:
- Javier Gomez (11th)
- Alex Brus (13th)
- Sándor Biró (16th)
- Tácio Mendes (24th)
And the best news last - we even won the team standings!
So once again, our leader failed, but the team was there - that looks like some great news for the future, once we actually get a reliable leader!
Tour d'Andorra
Andorra was again Chamorro time. He looked to be in decent form right on stage 1, joining the bunch sprint - and ending up 13th.
And finally, he was able to confirm this impression in the mountains, beating everyone he should actually beat (besides a breakaway rider who took the win, and Landa who he can almost never beat) - taking 3rd place on day 2!
The downside was that the rest of the team pretty much took a day off - worst of them all once again Yonder Godoy, losing almost a quarter of an hour... Our roster spots aren't just to make holidays, by the way!!!
Unfortunately, already day 3 was again back to normal... Especially Peiffer and Chapman way too often beat him this year, and they beat him on stage 3 again - by more than a minute! The drop back to mediocrity had once again happened. But with two stages left, maybe he could finally shake those bad feelings off and actually still get a GC podium?
But well, we're speaking of Juan Chamorro, so more than one good performance per race obviously was out of the question. 16th place on stage 4, so no, no spot gained back.
The surprise then almost happened on the final day - Juan Chamorro for once was even able to beat Landa, Peiffer and Chapman, overtaking Peiffer - but he still didn't get a GC podium. Figueiredo was just 1" behind him pre-stage and beat him in the sprint for bonus seconds - a very symptomatic scenario for this season. So we leave with two decent stage results, 4th in the GC - which would be nice if in CT.1 or WT, but insufficient in CT.2 - and 4th in the points standings. You can spot a pattern there?
By the way, Yonder Godoy apparently had some ambitions as well here, as he rode to 15th place. An OK result for him - but one he should get on a regular basis, not just once a season.
Los Gauchitos
The development team also had three races this month - thereof two in the U23 category, so the hopes were rather high.
Next up was Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt, another race in Germany, but this time in the CT.2 category. Unfortunately, our boys failed to make even the least impact, be it from bunch sprints or with breakaways. The best stage result was a 23rd place by Ernesto UrÃzar on the final day - but the total score for this race was a big fat zero. As in most CT.2 races, unfortunately.
The hopes were again a bit higher for the Coup des Nations Ville Saguenay in Canada, another U23 stage race. This time our sprinter was Miquel Espinosa - and he wanted to prove us that his nomination was right, taking 3rd place in the first stage!
Stage 2 unfortunately wasn't very convincing, as he only took 13th place, but he was able to bounce back with a 5th place on the closing day! Overall, this made him finish the race on a nice 5th place in the GC (which admittedly was only the case because the organizers messed up the bonus seconds on the final day), and 6th in the points standings.
All in all, two good races and another anonymous one - we're surely not among the worst U23 teams, but by far not as good as we were hoping to be, either.
Standings
It was a big month for us in terms of race day allocation - but unfortunately, the results overall weren't good enough to reflect this in the rankings. While we're up to 2nd best scoring CT team in WT, we stayed in 9th place in CT and in 23rd overall (prestige ranking), remaining the 8th best CT team. Promotion is miles away - almost 1,000 points - which is very disappointing at this point.
The main reason can be seen - or not - in the individual standings, where our first rider (Chamorro) appears on 49th place overall only. Compared to the teams with realistic promotion ambitions, we lack a rider who can win big races - so far neither Chamorro nor Zabel have been able to fill this gap. An interesting transfer season may be ahead of us - but let's first ensure that our sponsors are happy enough to give us another budget raise!
On the other hand, the pretty good month of the U23 is reflected by the rankings, where we've gained 3 spots and now are in 8th place - exactly like the main team. Not bad, but not where we hoped to be, either.
Polestar, Telenor to conclude sponsorship agreements at the end of the season
As the season is in its mid phase there were mumblings within the Polestar - Telenor Cycling Team about some important news. And the rumours that have been cirulating have been true - Polestar, the car company that has been at the forefront of the team since its very inception, has decided to conclude their 4-year involvement with the team once the season concludes. The main reason for Polestar's departure was cited change of marketing strategy which no longer involves at 100% sponsorship agreements. And while this wasn't included as part of the reasons, the team's overall performance in their first (and for now only) season in th WorldTour certainly didn't help matters as well. Both Polestar and ivaneurope have quelled any notion of performance playing part in the end of the relationship. "It's strictly a business decision and from the beginning all parties agreed that our first season in the WT circiut will be tough. So therefore there are no performance-related reasons behind the end of our 4-year fruitful partnership with Polestar" - said ivaneurope.
For these 4 years, Polestar oversaw a period of really competitive team with a mix of solid U30 stars mixed with veterans still capable of winning big races. The result was promotion to the WT in year 3.
Around the same time Telenor had also announced that both parties will not renew the sponsorship contract after the season. Telenor Group, which has been sponsoring the team since 2019, also refused to cite the current performance of the team as a reason for their departure. But this raises a dilemma for ivaneurope - with two of its main backers gone after 2021, finding replacement sponsors would be tall order considering that the team would most certainly go down to the CT division once again. And the sponsorship deals aren't as lucrative as those in the WT. The fate of the Youth Team is also uncertain. Another issue could be ivaneurope's desire to maintain his team registered in either Sweden or Norway, where sponsorship could be tricky.
For now the team got assurances from sportswear brand Puma that they will remain committed to the team regardless of their division in 2022. The German brand would continue providing the team with the outfits and other apparel.
DNB set to become the new main sponsor for Polestar - Telenor ProCycling
Following the announcement of both Polestar and Telenor that the two brands will not renew their sponsorship agreements after the conclusion of the season, the team led by ivaneurope has began a hunt for new backers to fill the void in preperation for a return to the CT division in the 2022 ICL season. Despite some initial concerns of clasing regional interests with other teams, the team has announce that DNB ASA, one of Norway's leading financial service companies will become the team's new title sponsor. Though at first they were not that interested in entering as main sponsor, the sales pitch that convinced DNB to change their stance is the focus on the top Nordic riders the team currently has headlined by Fredrik Ludvigsson, who has been marked as top priority to be retained once the renewal season hits. Ludvigsson, who has been with the team since its inception, has expressed desire to remain with the team next season.
For now the agreement is only confirmed for sponsoring the main team that is going to compete in the CT division. The fate of the Youth Team (currently funded by Telenor) is unknown, but insiders claim that negotiations are ongoing with DNB to extend the agreement to the Youth Team as well. It is also unknown if the team(s) will get secondary sponsor in the name, though it was speculated that sportswear brand Puma could step in if no suitable partner is found. The nationality is expected to be changed to Norwegian to reflect the change from Polestar (a Swedish brand) to DNB (a Norwegian brand)
Peter Sagan added to his string of good results with a 6th place in the Asmara Cup. Once again we had no other rider in the top 50, we need to take another look at our classics squad in the off-season.
Majka sadly couldn't repeat last year's performance in the Tour de France. He barely defended a 5th place finish against Pinot and stood no chance against Kelderman and Quintana. And continuing another theme of this season, we only featured in breakaways twice - though we did make them count, Flakemore won stage 14 and Birch was 2nd on stage 19.
But our TT specialist Flakemore had another two mediocre TTs, on paper he was the 2nd best TT rider in the peloton, yet he only finished 7th both times. The positive highlight was Davies' performance, he was quite active with late attack attempts and finished 17th overall.
July 2021 Results Overview
July
WT
Asmara Cup
Sagan
6th
WT
Tour de France
Majka
5th
Flakemore
1 stage
We had hoped for more points from Majka, but at least Flakemore and Davies had their best races so far. We remain 5th in the WT ranking.
After discovering the team had made no social media posts, and in a furious state having also discovered the team was still well on course to promote, the team manager of the famously well-put together organisation that is Santos-Euskadi decided a serious reshuffle was needed in the social media department.
From now on, the guy who used to do the facebook will do the twitter, the twitter gal does the gram, the gram guy does the tiktok, the tiktok girl does the new bereal account and the facebook doesn't exist because we want to alienate any fans of ours who still use facebook. And most importantly yours truly the website guy has returned from running a full-time dedicated hate mail campaign against the journalist who allegedly discovered the Lafar Majka con has returned to doing the website. I'm back, and not a moment too soon. Will I make 8 succesful posts on here before the end of the season to get the extra budget? Uh yeah, maybe when the team gives me a comission from that budget I am supposed to single handedly earn them
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
The following recap encompasses the races for both Polestar ProCycling p/b Telenor and Telenor Youth Team p/b Polestar for Juarez onwards.
The first race in our recap was Circulo de Juarez, where the Youth Team only participated. Neither rider was a GC threat, but instead it was a breakaway gallore and KoM sprints. Both Tomislav Vuksanovic and Jakub Kaminski took the lead in the KoM in Stage 1, while David Hill took over the U25 classification in the following stage as well as entering the KoM race. After Stage 2 the team was classified as 1st, even though the team classification rarely matters in a sprint stage race. Hill briefly lost the lead to Proximus' Johnny Donleben, but in the final stage Hill reclaimed the white jersey as Donleben lost over 2.5 minutes to the peloton, tumbling down the pecking order as a result. In the end David Hill was the team's MVP in this race, finishing in respectible 16th overall, the best U25 rider and 4th in the KoM standings. The team was classified 3rd. These results were able to convince DNB, who had sent representatives to Mexico, to increase the partnership to the U23 division as well.
Clasica San Sebastian was unfortunately a quiet affair with Martin Laas being the best placed rider in 43rd, while Kim Magnusson finished right behind him. The next race the main team took part though was far more eventful. In Poland Daniele Ratto showed that he has his case for the GC by finishing 4th in Stage 1, while another rider with high chances in Tom-Jelte Slagter was 10th. The two have been very consistent for the duration of the race, scoring Top 20 finishes in most stages. Slagter however ended up with the stage win honours by winning Stage 5, propelling him ahead of his Italian teammate. In the final standings Slagter was 6th, while Ratto - 7th. Ratto finished 4th in the points standings with Slagter 7th in the same classification.
Tour of Northern Europe was next and Fredrik Ludvigsson was the designated captain. The first stage was your standard sprinters affair with Jonas Ahlstrand finishing 7th. Stage 2 was a TT one where Ludvigsson finished 4th and with a 3rd place finish in Stage 4 the Swedish TT specialist, who has been basically the heart and soul of this team since its inception, took a Top 3 placement in GC. He held it to the very end and he caped off his best race of the season so far with a win in the final TT, beating GC winner Kwiatkowski with both awarded the same time. Further down the order sprinter Ahlstrand finished 15th while Silvan Dillier was 18th.
The final race in our recap was the Baltic Chain Tour where both the main and youth teams participated. The opening prologue started off well with Michael Valgren Andersen being the best of the bunch in 9th. Stage 2 saw no action from either team, but in the following stage Sverre Jacobsen took his chances in the breakaway and never looked back as he went on to win the stage with almost a minute ahead and took over the points standings for a while. Stage 4 saw Jordan Kerby getting a high finish in 3rd and he did even better in the final stage which he won in a sprint. While not being very active in the race following the prologue, Valgren finished 7th overall nonetheless. Stage winners Jacobsen and Kerby were way behind to make a difference, but their escapades didn't left them empty handed in the points standings with Kerby winning it outright following his high finishes in the final 2 stages and Jacobsen took 3rd in the standings. Shoutout to the Youth Team's Florian Diedrich, who finished tied on top in the KoM standings, but based on a tie breaker he was classified 3rd.
On the sponsor front several things were ironed out. As mentioned previously, DNB has decided to keep the Youth Team around following the performance at Juarez. In the meantime the team had also extended partnership with Cervelo, with the Canadian bicycle brand remaining for another year. There are no news on the rider front yet, though it's believed that John Degenkolb may not be on the team next season.
August was a very successful month for Team BP, with excellent results from Sagan and Howard, aided by good performances from Tao Hart and, surprisingly, Flakemore.
Sagan's main focus was the Eneco Tour. Paris-Roubaix winner Pintzopoulos managed to win stage 4 with a gap of 27 seconds to the other favourites, without that feat Sagan would have won this year, but runner-up is great, too, he was consistent as always. He finished 7th in San Sebastian, another good result, though Komisarek's win means he cannot defend his World Cup crown.
Team BP's most positive surprise this season is Leigh Howard. He won the opening stage of the Tour of Northern Europe and held onto the points jersey until the end. I'm pretty sure that's our first points jersey in the World Tour.
Campbell Flakemore may have ridden another two sub-par TTs, but he was very attentive on the hilly and cobbled stages and surprised us by finishing 7th overall, an excellent result for him.
Howard added another fine result, taking 2nd place in the Hamburg Cyclassics. Phinney was successful with a late attack, so Howard actually won the mass sprint against several better opponents. Dibben finally showed himself as 13th, only Sagan disappointed a little as 19th, his worst result all season.
Tao Geoghegan Hart added the next good result by finishing 6th in the Course du Lac D'Annecy. He was lucky to be well positioned in a group of 13 riders fighting for 4th place.
August 2021 Results Overview
CT.1
Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian
Sagan
7th
CT.2
RideLondon–Surrey Classic
Stannard
8th
WT
Tour of Northern Europe
Flakemore
7th
Howard
1 stage
Howard
Pts
WT
Course du Lac d'Annecy
Tao Hart
6th
WT
Vattenfall Cyclassics
Howard
2nd
WT
Eneco Tour
Sagan
2nd
Team BP WT Scoring 2021
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Total
Majka
391
583
974
Sagan
70
696
601
125
265
80
428
2265
Hart
230
255
200
49
80
814
Howard
60
122
390
251
112
428
1363
Flakemore
8
2
25
92
90
217
Davies
35
12
95
142
Dibben
14
45
8
3
44
114
Wagner
1
17
18
Simón
16
8
1
25
Cano
18
4
31
53
Reis
5
5
Kreuziger
1
1
Akinyemi
12
1
13
Lei
28
28
Cuming
8
8
Stannard
4
2
6
Fritsch
8
1
9
Hansen
38
2
40
Christian
4
4
Meyer
10
1
11
Birch
10
42
52
McCluskey
Shelton
Van Winden
15
16
3
34
Lowsley
5
125
3
133
Total
407
5
1216
1035
655
997
944
1070
6329
RDs
7
6
20
17
28
19
23
19
33
8
139
Pts/RD
58.1
0.8
60.8
60.9
23.4
52.5
41.0
56.3
45.5
WT Rank
6
10
4
3
5
5
5
2
2
Sagan and Howard both scored 428 WT points in August which catapulted us to 2nd in the teams ranking. Sagan is already at 2265 points, another fantastic season from him. Howard has racked up 1363 points, what a surprise he's been.
Tao Geoghegan Hart had a bad Giro, but all his other results have been very good. Flakemore has disappointed in just about every TT he's ridden, but a breakway stage win in the TdF and now a good GC result in Northern Europe have made him a bit more valuable.
Although he wasn't quite capable of matching the ferocious pace set down by Durbridge, Oliveira showed he still had it on the TT bike. His second-place is even more impressive in light of the fact that the gap between him and Durbridge is greater than the gap between him and the bottom end of the Top 20. If not for someone who has no right to be competing at this level, Oliveira would've been the best.
GP Luxembourg (1.CT1) - (37 points for the team)
A parcour that was both flatter and shorter than that in Scandinavia did Oliveira no favours. Given that there were multiple riders of Durbridge's calibre present, 34th can't come as too much of a surprise. What was rather shocking was the performance of Alexandre Manarelli, who forced his way into the Top 10!
Tour de Suisse (2.CT1) - 24 points
Starting off with a less than solid day on the TT-bike was a poor omen that Oliveira was not quick to turn around. The second timetrial was better and he managed a Top 10 on the final stage, but by that time the damage was already done. Oliveira came away with a somewhat disappointing 14th overall.
Circuit des Ardennes (2.CT2) - 86 points
It was a return to domestique duties amidst the Ardennes, as Oliveira supported Boroš on his way to overall victory. He was central to the team's performance in the timetrial, which had the side-effect of catapulting him into the Top 5 on GC. Absent any surprises on the sprint stage, Oliveira only had to survive the final day, and survive he did. After closing down attacks from the favourites, Oliveira clung on to the tailend of the lead group as Boroš sprinted to victory. An excellent ride to 4th for both the team and himself.
Volta a Portugal (2.CT2) - 88 points
Things got off to an incredible start in the teams home race: Oliveira was only denied the victory in the prologue by the efforts of his teammate. Yet again, Manarelli showed that he was worth his wage with another strong performance on the TT-bike. Things took a turn for the worse from that point forward, as Oliveira struggled to match the expectations which had been set for him, sliding down the GC order. An excellent Stage 9 saw him momentarily return into contention for the Top 5, but despite another solid in the penultimate day's timetrial he missed out by just five seconds.
Michael BOROÅ
Circuit des Ardennes (2.CT2) - 222 points
Depsite being the fastest finisher, an early attack by Koretzky meant that Boroš had to settle for second on the first stage. From there, it was a rather simple matter. Victory in the TTT wasn't quite enough to dislodge the yellow jersey, merely closing the gap. Then, a sprint stage which offered a quick respite before the final day in the hills. This time there were no decisive attacks and from a bunched sprint Boroš won both the stage and, with the time bonuses attached, the general classification.
Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian (1.CT1) - 11 points
Poor positioning proved costly, Boroš was caught up in the pack when the decisive attack was launched at the base of the final climb. Given that disadvantage, nobody in the chasing pack was able to reel the favourites back in.
Once again, Boroš was imperfectly positioned for the decisive move, but this time he didn't let it stop him. Perhaps the fact that there was more time to rectify the issue played a part, but we digress. Boroš did his damnedest to bridge across to the leading pair in the closing kilometres. Although he fell short of that goal, he did enough to secure himself the final step on the podium.
Tour do Rio (1.CT2) - 42 points
Like clockwork, Boroš missed out on the decisive move once more. Ventura managed to hold off the chasers after a late escape. Like in San Sebastian, the high pace did the Czech no favours. Already edging towards his maximum pace, there was no burst of acceleration to carry him to a higher-scoring finish.
Criterium Hainleite (1.CT2) - 92 points
With the assistance of Vanbilsen's leadout, Boroš made a decent effort at securing victory. From a mass sprint, luck pays as much a part as skill, an Boroš was unlucky to only manage second after Latvijas gave their man, Becis, a superior leadout.
Kenneth VANBILSEN
Aleko Vitoša (1.CT2) - 92 points (+ 68 for Schaffner)
The parcour out in Bulgaria always promises a hard day of riding, and this edition was no different. It was the flandriennes who came out on top, triumphing over the climbers relatively early on. Schaffner had managed to escape in an early attack; with him up the road Vanbilsen was content to sit on as the favourites group was whittled away. Things came to a head on the penultimate climb. The breakaway had been caught, but a ferocious descent by Schaffner was enough to dislodge all but Vanbilsen and Geissler. With a 2:1 advantage, and nobody looking likely to make their way back up to the front, victory seemed certain. Unfortunately an advantage in terms of manpower doesn't necessarily translate into an advantage on the road. Geissler rode away to victory whilst Vanbilsen and Schaffner were forced to settle on the remaining podium positions. No win, but an excellent day for the team.
Tour de Suisse (2.CT1) - 3 points
Given the limited number of cobbled events on the team's race programme, Vanbilsen had been sent to Switzerland in the hope that the limited number of sprint stages would attract lesser sprinters. That was not the case. Instead the Belgian flandrienne struggled to break into the Top 10 almost as much as he struggled to make it over the numerous climbs.
Kigali GP (1.CT2) - 120 points
He might not be able to compete against the sprinters of the World Tour, but never let it be said that he doesn't know how to dominate on the cobblestones. As the favourites' group was whittled away, Vanbilsen refused to be dropped. He proceeded to dominate the select sprint up the final false flat, having enough energy to raise his hands in celebration at another victory.
Criterium Hainleite (1.CT2) - 8 points
The team felt that it was Boroš who had the best chance at victory, so Vanbilsen was relegated to leadout duties.
Eneco Tour (2.WT) - 0 points
Against the big guns of the World Tour there wasn't too much expected of Vanbilsen, but something still would've been nice. Instead, his domination of his continental peers failed to translate to anything worthwhile in the higher classifications.
Frederico FIGUEIREDO
Aleko Vitoša (1.CT2) - 0 points
Despite a significant ascent in the race's circuit, this was not a day for the climbers. Figueiredo was relegated to domestique duties and, despite failing to finish, played his part in a great result for the team.
Giro d'Italia (GT) - 123 points (+ 60 for Rodrigues)
Another year, another wildcard entry into a grand tour. Figueiredo is not a premier stage racer, he is never likely to challenge for GT victory, instead he was sent here with the aim of a stage win or Top 15 overall. After a solid team timetrial in the prologue, Figueiredo slowly lost time throughout the first two weeks, languishing around 20th in the GC. He seemed rather reluctant to spend time in the breakaway, instead sending various teammates up the road instead. That changed on Stage 16. A day in the breakaway, which was only caught and passed on the final climb, rocketed the Portuguese up into the Top 15. From that point on it was a solid, if unassuming, ride to 14th on the GC for Figuerido. For the team, however, excitement awaited, as David Rodrigues, not content with three weeks of domestique work, won on the final stage!
La Jurassaine (1.CT1) - 0 points
Exhausted after weeks in the Alps and the Appennines Figueiredo was exhausted. At least that's the excuse he gave for a torrid outing that ended without a single point for the team.
Tour d'Andorra (2.CT2) - 117 points
Romeo Heymans just narrowly being pipped for victory on the first stage meant the pressure was loaded onto Figueiredo come the mountain passes that surround the microstate of Andorra. That his previous performance had been so miserly only made it that much heavier. Things started decently, 7th place on Stage 2 made it look like Figueiredo would be competing for the lower end of the Top 5. He lost the favourites early on the subsequent stage, but made up for it with a nicely ridden penultimate stage that was sufficient to slot him into 5th on GC with one day remaining. There he put in his best performance yet, being the first favourite to cross the line, but denied the stage win by a surviving escapee. After initially looking rather weak, his strong recovery was enough for a GC podium.
Another abysmal outing for Figueiredo, these mountainous classics really seem rather disagreeable to him this year. Given his slow start even in stage races, perhaps there is some issue in settling in on the bike, but still: disappointing.
USA Pro Cycling Challenge (2.CT1) - 73 points
Figueiredo has never been anything more than mediocre on the TT-bike. In America this put him on the back foot from the start. There have been several storylines which have seemed to recur throughout this summer, one of them being that were Figueiredo stumbles someone else strikes gold. This time it was Dario Antonio who, when he joined the morning's breakaway, likely didn't expect it to make it all the way; he finished second on stage two. For Figueiredo, things began to improve the next day when he sat on the chasing group all the way up the final summit. Aside from stage four, where it momentarily looked like he might secure victory in what amounted to an uphill sprint, Figueiredo rode a collected race on his way to 7th in the GC.
| 
Tour d'Indonesia
Christchurch - Akaroa
Tour of Bishkek
Tour de San Luis
Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Clasica Iberica
Roma Maxima
Istrian Spring Trophy
Paris - Roubaix
Rheden GP
Michael BOROÅ - 70th (280 points)
Juan Chamorro!
Sándor Biró (33rd) and 
Alexander Brus (36th). So all in all a successful race on the top, but zero depth points is still slightly disappointing.
Rick Zabel as a backup in case the cobbles were not ridden very hard.
Andrés Cruz took another disappointing 10th place, while the whole rest of the team finished in the very last group on the road. We still don't know what happened; we suppose that our second sprinter 
Latvijas Balzams - Olainfarm
Jonathon McEvoy
Tour of South Africa
Oskar Raudsepp
Titas Vaitkus
Tour de Romandie 
Eduardo Gonzalez. Not the best sign of quality for the latter - but in his defense, the finish straight was uphill.
Gustavo Martin.
Amgen Tour of California 
Eloy Nogueira 10th! Gomez also moved up to 5th in the GC, only 33" off the lead! DÃaz was 13th and Gaviria 18th - and we moved up to 2nd in the team standings.
Copenhagen - Malmö ITT 
Vuelta a Guatemala 
Tour d'Andorra 
Aleko Vitoša
Race Horizon Park
GP Moscow
Coupe des Nations Ville Saguenay
GP Luxembourg
GP Kigali
Gran Premio San José
Lachlan Morton
Circulo de Juarez
