We didn’t expected much and we got just that. On his own with a weak cobbles team, he managed to bring us some points, so this race is not a complete waste.

Comments

A complete disaster. While we managed to lose not too much time during the TTT and a fairly good first mountain stage, Mikel crashed completely during the last stage, arriving behind Jordi Simon and losing 5 GC places, from top 10 to a bare top 15. Without any notable stage result or depth scoring, this was kind of waste.
At least, Bruno was at the attack.
The team will be expected to react in march, as we have races in France and in Basque Country.

	FL	ST	RS	RC	SP	AC
Oscar Guerao	72	68	61	78	81	73
Jon Aberasturi	73	71	69	74	78	76
Marc Sarreau	75	74	76	75	76	76
Alexis Renard	71	66	73	65	67	67
Cristian Rodriguez	70	76	70	70	65	71
Oier Lazkano	64	64	67	63	64	68
Nils Brun	66	69	67	66	62	67
Jordi Simon	67	71	76	69	58	65

Not many races in France in the continental calendar, so we came here, quite far from Bordeaux, though the city’s linked to the Antilles.
As we will probably face worthy opponents, we don’t expect to much of Oscar here, other than to be well positioned and to fight hard.
We’d be delighted to see Cristian go for the break and atone for San José, too.
(Note: it's been written before the first results).

	MO	HI	ST	RS	AC	FG
Fabien Doubey	74	75	72	72	70	63
Luca Wackermann	68	74	74	74	72	70
Bruno Armirail	71	73	73	75	65	74
Sergio Martin	70	72	72	72	72	69
Mikel Bizkarra	75	71	70	70	71	70
Clement Berthet	71	70	68	71	70	69
Dario Puccioni	74	66	74	70	64	59
Hugues Mottin	56	59	64	71	52	64

Daring attempts! We’ve seen Luca and Fabien try things in other races, so we hope they’ll make their legs speak and make our jersey proud, as we (normally) aren’t targetting GC. Clement and Bruno have been known to go in breakaways, so we’ll hope for that two. The former isn’t to bad on the TT bike too, but Hugues will be our main asset for opening and closing stage.
And Mikel as yet to show that he can be effective at something.

	MO	HI	ST	RS	AC	FG
Cristian Rodriguez	70	76	76	70	71	75
Quentin Pacher	71	75	73	74	73	72
Sergio Martin	70	72	72	72	72	69
Clement Berthet	71	70	68	71	70	69
Nils Brun	64	68	69	67	67	65
Alexis Renard	60	67	66	73	67	67
Dario Puccioni	74	66	74	70	64	59
Marc Sarreau	58	65	74	76	76	63

With three stages in Bilbao and two in Vitoria-Gasteiz, this race is as much a home race as it gets. As a C1 race, the field will be very strong, stronger than us actually. So we’ll have to show our colours, be offensive, and make our public proud.
Oh, and we didn’t send any Basque in this race. Because why not.

	MO	HI	ST	RS	AC	FG
Cristian Rodriguez	70	76	76	70	71	75
Fabien Doubey	74	75	72	72	70	63
Luca Wackermann	68	74	74	74	72	70
Remy Rochas	77	74	70	70	73	72
Mikel Bizkarra	75	71	70	70	71	70
Oier Lazkano	64	69	64	67	68	71
Jordi Simon	76	66	71	76	65	67
Dario Puccioni	74	66	74	70	64	59

More hills! These are the theme of the month. If we can do like in Gisborne, that would be good. We’d like to avoid to repeat San Jose in San Marino.

	FL	HI	ST	RS	SP	AC
Fabien Doubey	71	75	72	72	67	70
Luca Wackermann	74	74	74	74	74	72
Oier Lazkano	64	69	64	67	64	68
Nils Brun	66	68	69	67	62	67
Alexis Renard	71	67	66	73	67	67
Dario Puccioni	65	66	74	70	53	64
Marc Sarreau	75	65	74	76	76	76
Oscar Guerao	72	63	68	61	81	73

Strange race, with a hilly rating, but a flat finish. Without knowing how the race will go, we brought punchers and Guerao, in case he finishes with the leading group in the sprint. As for the other races of the month, the goal will be to be active and to at leat try do anything.

@ Nemolito Thanks, with a bit of luck wie'll be able to repeat some of these results, even if it's becoming worse and worse with the days going
And yeah, I sure have to record the picture of our first yellow jersey!

As our reporter in charge of the team was occupied on the other races of the circuit these last few months, we couldn’t follow as closely as we would have hoped the results of the bordelese team in the continental tour. We will not cover all everything we missed all this time, but we can make a review of the most notable results:

– In the first Basque race of the season, Cristian Rodriguez won the mountain classification, which is the first jersey brought home by the team.
– Oscar Guerao won Bordeaux Métropole Euskotren’s first stage, in the USA Pro cycling challenge. He also took a podium on stage 2.



– Still during the team’s North-American trip, Mikel Iturria finished 4th of the GC in an uneventful, but strong race at the Tour of Vancouver.

– Hugues Mottin brought in a 2nd place in the Isle of Man ITT.

Now then, of course, there were some less good results, and in the global rankings, the team stays 15th in the CT rankings (on 19 teams). Going up in the rankings will need some more strong result, of the type of June, the team being the 10th better of the month.

Back to today though! Three races this month for the Bordeaux Boys, one in each category. Also we’ll stay around France, as we go in Benelux, Trentino and Britain.

	FL	MO	HI	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH
Oscar Guerao	72	55	63	68	61	78	66	81	73	69	76
Cristian Rodriguez	70	70	76	76	70	70	55	65	71	75	74
Marc Sarreau	75	58	65	74	76	75	72	76	76	63	64
Jon Aberasturi	73	58	63	71	69	74	56	78	76	59	56
Jon Ander Insausti	70	53	64	76	73	64	77	57	66	66	70
Clement Berthet	64	71	70	68	71	63	60	62	70	69	75
Oier Lazkano	64	64	69	64	67	63	60	64	68	71	61
Nils Brun	66	64	68	69	67	66	59	62	67	65	61

No time-trialist for the prologue, and a rather weak cobble team to resist the bigger opposition and all the specialists from PCT. The team will mainly be here for the youngsters to gather experience. Maybe Oscar Guerao can continue with his sense of sprinting to get a good result in a stage, and Jon-Ander Insausti get a minor placing points. Cristian Rodriguez might be up for the breaks.

	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	SP	AC	FG	DH
Mikel Iturria	71	77	73	72	77	74	76	60	61	69	66
Fabien Doubey	71	74	75	59	72	72	71	67	70	63	60
Mikel Bizkarra	64	75	71	62	70	70	70	64	71	70	66
Jordi Simon	67	76	66	53	71	76	69	58	65	67	61
Hugues Mottin	67	56	59	77	64	71	64	50	52	64	69
Clement Berthet	64	71	70	58	68	71	63	62	70	69	75
Alexis Renard	71	60	67	65	66	73	65	67	67	67	65
David Martin	64	59	66	58	64	65	67	66	68	61	61

It’s the only C2 race of the month. It looks like Vancouver a bit, with its TTT and the mountain stages. The goal for the team should be the same than in North America: limit the losses in the (longer) team time trial, and try to keep up with the favorites in the mountain. Another top 5 might be possible, if Itturia has good legs.

	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	SP	AC	FG	DH
Fabien Doubey	71	74	75	59	72	72	71	67	70	63	60
Quentin Pacher	70	71	75	61	73	74	69	70	73	72	67
Cristian Rodriguez	70	70	76	67	76	70	70	65	71	75	74
Luca Wackermann	74	68	74	53	74	74	73	74	72	70	64
Mattia Petrucci	62	66	66	57	66	64	60	61	66	62	63
Nils Brun	66	64	68	59	69	67	66	62	67	65	61
David Martin	64	59	66	58	64	65	67	66	68	61	61
Hugues Mottin	67	56	59	77	64	71	64	50	52	64	69

The team brings most of its French force in Britain, because what else? The field probably will be stacked, and the guys didn’t have much strength in the other hilly races, so they’ll probably hope for some breakaway action, and of course, once again, to show the young ones how to race!

Following season’s end, with Luca Wackerman’s victory in Switzerland and Christian Rodriguez’ 12th place in Italy, Bordeaux Métropole’s president for sports and Euskotren marketing director held a press conference about the future of the team.

“Though one can obviously not be happy with the 15th position of the team, and the fact that the team missed most of its goal, the guys showed some interesting performances, two of them being today’s victory in Zuri Metzgete, with a second strong result from Luca Wackerman, and an encouraging 12th place by Christian Rodriguez in the Giro dell’Emelia, but there obviously was others through the year.

We can confirm that Bordeaux Métropole and Euskotren will continue to sponsor the team next year. We always were going for a long term project, and with the idea to change cycling for the better. We will also try to set up more realistic goals for the team, ones which will be actually achievable.

All of that will also mean that the budget will be tighter for next year, though we’ll dedicated some help to management to select races and riders. One of the goal will be to mainly him for races where we can go without taking a plane. We’ll see whether the calendar let us do that.�

With the season done, it’ll be time to make a review of the team’s and riders’ performances. This will be in our next edition.

As we’re still reviewing the season – I know you’re all waiting for the notes – let’s have a look at the team’s youngsters. Three young riders were in full contract with Bordeaux Métropole – Euskotren this season, and we went to watch them train, and this is our report.

(Sadly, we couldn’t interview them, so we don’t know the team’s plans for the future*)

	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
2022	64	71	70	58	68	71	63	60	62	70	69	75	58
2023	64	73	72	58	68	72	64	60	62	72	71	75	58

Berthet improved his climbing abilities, and took some acceleration capacities with it. He’ll probably develop as an attacking climber aiming for climbing classification and stage wins. He surely has the downhill skills for it.

	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
2022	71	60	67	65	66	73	65	65	67	67	67	65	67
2023	73	61	68	66	67	74	66	66	68	68	69	66	68

The goal here seems to make use of Alexis Renard’s abilities on the flat to send him on late attacks, to control the race at the front of the peloton, or to ride in a breakaway with a teammate. He could be a good asset for the team in the coming years.

	FL	MO	HI	TT	ST	RS	RC	CB	SP	AC	FG	DH	PR
2022	64	64	69	59	64	67	63	60	64	68	71	61	59
2023	64	66	72	59	66	69	66	60	64	71	74	61	59

Oier Lazkano showed strength in shorter climbs, and a good attacking spirit. What we have seen, is that he continues in this path. He still lacks the ability to sustain longer climbs though.

You surely didn't have an easy first year with your team, but I guess you learned a lot about planning and roster composition. At least for riders like Rochas, Pacher or Doubey, more points should be possible with optimal planning.
Also, you put more weight on quantity than on quality this year - I guess with two 75k instead of three 50k riders, you could already get quite a lot more points in CT. But that's obviously up to you

Congratulations to your Zuri win and 15th place in the rankings. Good to see your sponsors are staying and backing your long-term approach. I'm afraid we'll meet again in the transfers then and make some riders more expensive than we'd like them to be. But on the other hand it's great to have another French team around as I'm not sure Bonduelle's remaining in the game. So I look forward to ride against you next year!

Iturria and Wackermann along with a few others are very nice CT riders to build around for next season.
Hopefully you can keep your strong regional identity and push higher up in the rankings

Fantastic way to end the season, hopefully more of that next season! I'd like to say merci beaucoup once again for all the reporting work you have done this season. If your riders perform only half as strong and consistent as you, it should be an easy promotion next seaso

Imladrik wrote:
I think I inteded to write close to the same thing in your HQ. The battle for talent I'll remember fondly, until some other battle take place in a month, I guess. Good luck for next season, maybe we'll have another shared breakaway success!

Imladrik wrote:
(Sadly, we couldn’t interview them, so we don’t know the team’s plans for the future*)

There we are! With the season well ended, and as the team’s direction is, without any doubt, already thinking of renewals and transfers, it’s time for us to make a review of the riders, and maybe help management to decide who to keep or not.

Mikel Iturria

31 y.o.

140 000€

150 pts

Main results:

Race	GC	Stages	Other
Vuelta a Tachira	6th
Tour of California	3rd
Tour of Vancouver	4th	5th (S4), 3rd (S6)
Giro del Trentino		9th (S2)
Volta a Catalunya		7th (S4)

Appreciation: Mikel was brought in as the star of the team – the biggest salary also – and he played his role as a stage race leader. He probably lacked a TT team to help him in some races, and had a very disappointing Volta a Catalunya. We would have loved to see him attack more.
7/10

Oscar Guerao

35 y.o.

50 000€

116 pts

Main results:

Race	GC	Stages	Other
Vuelta a Tachira		3rd (S1), 2nd (S2)	GC leader for 1 day
Tour of California		6th (S2), 3rd (S5)
USA Pro Cycling Challenge	9th	1st (S1), 3rd (S2)	3rd Points, GC leader for 2 days
Ras Tailteann		7th (S1), 7th (S3)
Uppsala Classic	8th
Arab Tour		10th (S2)
Herald Sun Tour		4th (S1), 6th (S2), 3rd (S3)

Appreciation: Oscar was very consistent all year long in the C2 sprints. He brought less points than Iturria, but that’s mainly because he had stage rather than GC results. Still, 13 top 10 are nothing to be ashamed of at this age and wage. He was also the first yellow jersey and the first stage win for Bordeaux Métropole – Euskotren.
8/10

Hugues Mottin

35 y.o.

50 000€

79 pts

Main results:

Race	GC	Stages	Other
Vuelta a Tachira		7th (S10)
Tour of California		9th (S1), 7th (S7)
Isle of Man ITT	2nd
Herald Sun Tour	7th	6th (S4)

Appreciation: As for Oscar Guerao, Hugues had good result for a veteran of the team, whenever he could ride for himself. Most notable is his 2nd place at Isle of Man. He also was determinant in assuring that not too much time was lost in the TTT, thus helping Mikkel Iturria achieving his good GC results.
7/10

Luca Wackermann

31 y.o.

65 000€

82 pts

Main results:

Race	GC	Stages	Other
Gisborne GP	7th
Tour de Romandie		9th (S6)
GP Izola	8th
Zuri Metzgete	1st

Appreciation: Luca was the first of the Italian contingent to come to the team. He was bought to PT team Zwift Pro Cycling.
Though his race schedule wasn’t close to perfect, he took every chance he had to good results. He notably launched the team’s season by a top 10 in Gisborne, and achieved it in style with a strong win against local team Jura in Zuri. He already is one of the fan favorites.
9/10

Jon Ander Insausti

31 y.o.

50 000€

28 pts

Main results:

Race	GC	Stages	Other
Tour du Faso	9th	4th (S3)

Appreciation: Jon Ander was himself a feat of team management, being a Basque cobbler. Though he didn’t brought in many notable results, he finished with a decent points haul, even without many leadership occasions.
5/10

Jon Aberasturi

33 y.o.

50 000€

16 pts

Main results:

Race	GC	Stages	Other
Vuelta a Tachira		10th (S2)
Baltic Chain Tour		7th (S2)

Appreciation: Jon main goal was to be a helper to Oscar Guerao, and we have to admit that he couldn’t really achieve this goal – though Guerao didn’t really need a companion to navigate the sprints. He was good enough in his own leadership occasions.
4/10

Rémy Rochas

27 y.o.

80 000€

37 pts

Main results:

Race	GC	Stages	Other
Tour d’Andorra		2nd (S2)

Appreciation: Brought in from PT team ELCO-ABEA, Rémy certainly didn’t have the schedule adapted to his skillset. Thus he hadn’t major result, except a winning breakaway with fellow French team Le Creuset in Andorra, one of the most important race of the year for the team. If he decides to stay in Bordeaux, he’ll have to negotiate more chances for himself. In the end, he only raced 39 days, not all of them being suited.
NC

Cristian Rodriguez

28 y.o.

55 000€

54 pts

Main results:

Race	GC	Stages	Other
Tour of Chile		3rd (S1)
Vuelta al Pais Vasco			KoM winner
Spanish National Championshp	1st

Appreciation: Not many outstanding results for Cristian, but he managed to get to very important ones: the team’s first distinctive jersey with the best climber classification in one of the most important race of the year for the team, and the Spanish NC. He’s also been a good domestique or attacker in other races, sometimes lacking good help or schedule for better results.
6/10

Bruno Armirail

29 y.o.

70 000€

2 pts

Appreciation: Bruno was active all year long, showing the jersey in the break, helping the mountain leaders and participating in the TTT results. Though he didn’t have any results for himself – and wasn’t expected to – he has been a very loyal teammate.
6/10

Marc Sarreau

30 y.o.

85 000€

14 pts

Main results:

Race	GC	Stages	Other
Tour of the Middle East		7th (S1), 9th (S2)

Appreciation: Marc was hired to be Jon Ander main helper on the cobbles. That did not come to fruition. Apart from that, he was a valuable domestique on the flat, and managed to get two top 10 when he had the occasion.
4/10

Clément Berthet

24 y.o.

100 000€

17 pts

Main results:

Race	GC	Stages	Other
Tour of Vancouver		10th (S4)
Giro del Trentino			2nd KoM, 7th U25

Appreciation: 2nd highest wage of the team, due to the talent battle with Le Creuset, Clément also is one of the best prospect of the team for the coming years. He’s expected to get better result next year, and to put his descending abilities to use.
4/10

Mikel Bizkarra

33 y.o.

drafted

9 pts

Main results:

Race	GC	Stages	Other
Tour of Vancouver		10th (S6)

Appreciation: Mikel the 2nd was one of the main domestique in the mountain, though we can wonder how well he got this role, seeing some of Mikel Iturria’s results. Still, he did what he could as a drafted rider, who begins to feel his age.
NC

Nils Brun

23 y.o.

50 000€

Appreciation: Nils was loaned in from PT Team UBS for his neo-pro year. He’s been a nice fellow, keen to learn and to work. We hope we’ll see him again when we ride against his team next season.
NC

Fabien Doubey

30 y.o.

50 000€

21 pts

Appreciation: Though he lacks of notable results, Fabien got multiples depth results. We remember him for a daring attack with Luca on Classico San Jose. If he stays on the team, we except better results next year, maybe with a better schedule.
4/10

Oier Lazkano

24 y.o.

50 000€

Appreciation: Maybe the future of Basque cycling! Oier has been seen some times at the front. Like Clément Berthet, we expect him to begin to get some minor results from next year on.
NC

Oier Lazkano

24 y.o.

50 000€

Appreciation: Maybe the future of Basque cycling! Oier has been seen some times at the front. Like Clément Berthet, we expect him to begin to get some minor results from next year on.
NC

Sergio Martin

27 y.o.

50 000€

1 pt

Appreciation: Sergio was one of the mountain domestique. He didn’t have any occasion to really shine.
NC

Quentin Pacher

31 y.o.

50 000€

3 pts

Appreciation: Another local man – Quentin is born in Libourne, close to Bordeaux. He’s one of the hills/medium mountains domestique, and has been seen at the front of the race some times.
NC

Dario Puccioni

27 y.o.

drafted

Appreciation: Dario never was really seen anywhere. He was one of the quiet climbing domestiques.
NC

Alexis Renard

24 y.o.

50 000€

Appreciation: The last of the team’s talents! As for the other two, next year is when he should begin to be more active.
NC

Jordi Simon

33 y.o.

50 000€

6 pts

Appreciation: Jordi was seen from time to time, playing his role to protect Rodriguez or Rochas’ KoM jersey, managing to take 6 points in the same time.
3/10