SotD wrote:
A lot of weight on Benoots shoulders here. But with Raileanu as a luxury rider I suspect it could be good. I think Badaling should suit him pretty well.

Barta as a leader will be great to see, although it still hurt to see him miss that final development we in theory we helping him get at PT level.

We started off well, with Stoltz and Henttala claiming 6th and 8th, respectively in the Prologue.



Stoltz joined the break on Stage 2, picking up intermediate sprint points to go to the top of the GC!



Barta rode a good Stage 3 to finish 4th, moving up to 3rd in the GC. Stoltz lost his leader's jersey expectedly.

Barta did well again on Stage 4 to claim 6th on the day.

The flat Stage 5 saw McLay get his only chance of the race. He finished a respectable 7th.

Barta finished in the main pack on Stage 6, with his consistency moving him up a spot to 2nd in the GC.

Barta lost time in the Stage 7 ITT and ended up 4th in the GC. He was 6th in the Points.

Champoussin and Galvan Ramirez were 7th and 8th in the U25s respectively.

A very docile race for us saw Benoot unable to position himself in the closing stages and only managing 15th. This was disappointing as we expected the profile to suit him in this race. Velasco picked up minor points in 26th.

A race where we have not done well historically and this time was no different despite Velasco's incredible work at the front of the pack. Benoot started the finishing push in a good position but fell off to end up 13th.

We are not sure what to expect here! Benoot was on good form on the hills in the early season, which would have meant that we would have high expectations for him to spring a surprise here. But the last two races have been a dampener. Nevertheless, our three pronged cobbles attack rides together in one of a couple of times this season. Hopefully, we make the depth count, if not the top spots.

Our third and final wildcard race of the season is the middle chapter of the Ardennes treble. Benoot is here with a decently strong supporting cast to make a nuisance of ourselves and have some more fun.

Penasa finally comes out to play for us all the way in May and with almost half our RDs covered. While he is not a great TT rider, we hope our mediocre TT line-up does not lose too much time in the opening stage, while the MTT should suit Penasa much better. Dumoulin and Henttala make the squad mainly for the TTT (the latter is a decent domestique for the mountains), while the rest of the squad will concentrate on keeping Penasa safe uphill. The sheer quality of stage racers in the division means that we are keeping our hopes low for Penasa, despite his regular over-performances last season.

Two out of two for Penasa! Also, a rare appearance for Raileanu this season as a domestique on the mountains. He has usually been following Benoot around in his races. A stronger climbing team than in Romandie because of the absence of TT kilometers means we have slightly higher hopes from this race. We hope Penasa can survive on the hilly Stage 2 though.

Three out of three for Penasa! Whatever racing he missed in the early season, is being made up in this month itself! He did well here last season and we hope he can repeat that. The support team is quite weak in this one though. Dumoulin and Henttala are there again for the TT kilometers. Minali will try to make something happen in the two flat stages.

On paper, this race should suit Benoot quite well. But races are not run on paper and they rarely play as we expect. Still we are hopeful of a good showing here from him as well as the Kuroeda brothers. As always, our depth remains out main strength on the cobbles.

We hope Minali can slip in a couple of decent results in the first two stages. Beyond that, it's just a fun outing for the team. This is one of just three races all season for us no leader on the startlist.

We did not put anyone in the break, nor did we do the chasing. Instead, we went on the offensive, putting Shiki Kuroeda into a long range attack around the halfway stage. This move would not work but Shiki would ride to 25th to get us much needed minor points. Ahead of him though, Benoot followed every move at the front, and countered every time an attacker faltered. He pipped two riders at the line in the sprint for 2nd, giving us an excellent result to start off the month.

Van Asbroeck joined the break. They were caught with just 10 kilometers to go. Benoot had an unremarkable day, but still finished a decent 12th. Raileanu put in a good ride to 17th, and so did Velasco to 26th. This was the last of our wildcard adventures for this season.

We did as good as could be expected in the Stage 1 TTT - 15th, and losing 40 seconds.

Dumoulin joined the break on Stage 2 but could not make any impact. We did not have any sprinter to challenge for the stage.

Penasa did extremely well in the hilly Stage 3 to stay with the front group throughout and eventually pick up a 5th place finish.

Penasa once again stayed with the best group till the finish on Stage 4, losing time to just the stage winner. He would move up to 10th in the GC after this stage.

Penasa put in a quality ride to finish 10th on the Stage 5 MTT, moving up a spot in the GC as a result.

The last stage was flat and we just cruised to the finish safely.

Penasa finished 9th in the GC, with Xandri, Eenkhoorn and Henttala in 41st, 42nd and 44th, respectively. Eenkhoorn was 5th in the U25s. We were 9th in the Teams classification.

We did not have any sprinter for the flat Stage 1. Van Dijke decided to mix it up at the finish to get 14th and lead the U25s after the stage.

Penasa was his usual consistent self and stayed with the lead group till the finish on the hilly Stage 2.

We did a lot of work chasing the break on Stage 3, but Penasa had his first bad day of the season and dropped out of contention quite early.

Penasa would end up 16th in the GC with Raileanu in 22nd and Barta in 30th. Champoussin was 10th in the U25s with the Team finishing in 9th.

Penasa was distanced by the favourites' group halfway up the MTF on Stage 1. He would end up a lowly 18th, meaning this was two consecutive bad days on the mountains for him.

Penasa changed tack on Stage 2, staying near the front throughout and countering all the right moves to stay with the leaders till the finish.



He finished 18th again, but this was behind a large breakaway group which survived. He moved up to 10th in the GC after this stage.

Dumoulin joined the break on Stage 3, picking up some intermediate sprint points. They were caught with 10 km to go. Minali did get involved in the sprint, but he started off late and managed to get 8th.

Stage 4 went without incident for us. Stage 5 was the same. Minali finished seventh in the sprint on Stage 6, but this was behind a 5 rider break which survived, so he was outside the Top 10.

Penasa did just enough to hang on to his 10th place in the GC after the Stage 7 ITT, by a mere 4 seconds!

We didn't join the break but concentrated on chasing them down while keeping Benoot safe. Benoot was on his own in the lead group from 32 kilometers to go, but made his move after negotiating an initial set of attacks from others, with 20 kilometers left.



Very soon, he would go solo with 15 kilometers left, and never looked back after that, gradually increasing his advantage to the chasers! He cruised to an easy win with more than a minute's advantage to the next rider, incidentally, ex-Philips man Tom David, who finished 2nd.

We didn't do anything here. Best was 13th from Dumoulin in the Stage 3 ITT.

We did a lot of the chasing work in the pack. Choi stayed in the leading positions till the final kilometer, when he got tired and paced himself to a still useful 7th place.

Stoltz joined the break on Stage 1. Minali sprinted strongly to pick up 4th.

Galvan Ramirez joined the break on Stage 2. Minali once again had a good sprint and finished 4th again.



Stage 3 was about survival for Penasa, as he was dropped on the early sloped by a select GC group but made it back in the closing stages. He finished 12th on the day,, moving into the Top 10 of the GC.

Minali did not have the legs on Stage 4 and could not get involved in the sprint.

In the GC, Penasa finished 10th, Eenkhoorn 19th, Barta 60th, Champoussin 68th and Galvan Razmirez 99th. Minali finished 6th in the Points. Eenkhoorn finished 2nd in the U25s. We finished 5th in the Teams classification.

Dumoulin was our best result in the Stage 1 Prologue, finishing 13th. Choi limited his losses to 23 seconds.

Choi missed the first move on Stage 2, but attacked later. He couldn't catch the earlier attackers, but managed his pace and energy well to keep the pack at aby and take a strong 4th place on the stage. He moved up to 4th in the GC.



A breakaway win for Seibeb on Stage 3 saw him move to 2nd in the GC, meaning Choi dropped a spot on an uneventful day in the pack.

Stage 4 did not have any highlights from our end.

Shiki Kuroeda got involved in the sprint on Stage 5, taking a fine 6th spot.

The hilly Stage 6 turned out to be a bummer for us as Choi lost a fair chunk of time to fall to 10th in the GC.

He recovered handsomely in the Stage 7 ITT though, picking up 3rd on the day.

This saw Choi move back to 5th in the GC, meaning we had met our Top 5 goal for this race! Raileanu was 50th, Xandri 55th, Henttala 59th and Van Dijke 69th. We finished 9th in the Teams' clssification.

Our best result on the opening stage Prologue was Barta in 18th. Both Penasa and Eenkhoorn lost 19 seconds.

Minali finsihed just outside the Top 10 on Stage 2.

Penasa finished in the lead group on Stage 3 but Eenkhoorn lost almost a minute, which was disappointing.

The ITT on Stage 4 saw our riders lose time as expected.

Penasa finished the hilly Stage 5 strongly, taking 5th in the reduced bunch sprint behind the break. Eenkhoorn also finished in the group, and they moved up to 10th and 14th in the GC respectively.

Minaii once again finished outside the Top 10 on Stage 6.

Despite being somewhat aggressive and finishing 10th on Stage 7, Penasa ended up losing a palce in the GC.

Penasa ran out of steam in the closing stages of Stage 8, losing time and a couple of GC spots to end up 13th. Eenkhoorn retained his 14th place from the ITT. Champoussin was 60th and Barta 62nd. Eenkhoorn finished 3rd in the U25s. We finished 9th in the Teams standings.

Benoot finished in the lead group on Stage 1, managing 9th in the uphill sprint.

Rinse and repeat on Stage 2, as he finished 9th again.

He did slightly better on Stage 3, finished 6th this time.

The Stage 4 TTT put paid to our chances of a high finish, as we lost more than 2 minutes.

Benoot just about managed to hold on at the back of the lead group on Stage 5, losing no time and moving back to 8th in the GC.

He found his form back to an extent on the final stage, getting 7th and securing his GC spot - 8th. Raileanu finished 25th and Xandri 29th. Benoot finished 8th in the Points. Van Dijke finished 8th in the U25s. We finished 5th in the Teams standings.

redordead wrote:
Choi and Penasa bringing in some very good results and lots of points.

That's two PTHC goals accomplished now?
You're gonna be swimming in cash come transfers

Minali has been hit and miss all season, more miss than hit really. We do not have high hopes for this one and just hope for some depth points.

We have a very weak team here in support of Penasa and we also expect the startlist to be strong. As such, once again, we do not have high hopes from this race. Penasa needs to pull another bit of magic out of his bag of tricks for us to score well here.