A race we won last time we were here with a spectacular team display lead by a fantastic Xandro Meurisse solo victory, now we were up against many of our beloved stars from that day in Meurisse (who had since added another victory here), Debesay and Rowe as well as another former Xero in Higuita, plus some other great riders, notably Benoot from our friends at Sony. For us though we still thought we had an ace to play in the form of Thomas Pidcock, whose multi-discipline skills are perhaps nowhere better suited on the road than a race with a steep cobbled descent every lap.


After going from midway through the race in 2020 and 40km out in 2022 we suspected our friend Xandro would be making a long-range attack again this year, and Pidcock was quick to respond and even pass him when he did it from a similar mark this year. Johann van Zyl remained in the favourites' group as it whittled down to 21 and then to 9.


It was Pidcock and the great young puncheur Schmid who overhauled the breakaway and rode together for a long while, taking a lead going into the final lap. Meanwhile behind. However things were kicking off behind, and Benoot was in hot pursuit.


There was no matching the Belgian today, a supreme favourite on this route living up to his billing. However Jorgenson from Zwift was having the ride of his life and also passed the former leaders.

Pidcock used his descending to his advantage and dropped Schmid, inching closer and closer to the American on the descent. The gap was still closing inside the final kilometre...


but it wasn't quite enough as our man settled for the bottom step of the podium. A great ride that didn't quite come off but felt like it so could have on a different day, maybe one where the Sony team got locked in the hotel. A very solid result for the team with van Zyl finishing a very respectable 9th.

With Debesay (5th), Meurisse (6th), and Higuita (11th) there were 5 Xero alums int he top 11, plus four other riders we had entered deep discussions or FA bidding on at one time or another. We know ball.

1	Tiesj Benoot	Sony - Force India	5h28'42
2	Matteo Jorgenson	Zwift Pro Cycling	+ 48
3	Thomas Pidcock	Xero Racing	s.t.
9	Johann Van Zyl	Xero Racing	+ 2'49
44	Alan Boileau	Xero Racing	+ 9'59
71	Yacine Hamza	Xero Racing	+ 14'12
81	Oier Lazkano	Xero Racing	+ 17'05
83	Kees Duyvesteyn	Xero Racing	s.t.

@Abhi - Yeah with the two combined we can't really be hating the haul from the race even if we wish it ended in glory

@Fab - Call 'em how I see 'em Yeah it's tough the RDs on Pidcock, even if other classic Xero "OVL too high" guys like Meurisse have been proven that maybe they live up to it I'm not sure Pidcock will. Still very very early days though.

The other two races in February, Le Samyn and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, passed with little to write home about save for Hamza's breakaway appearance in the former. Safe to say that we are giving ourselves a Herculean task to fight back in the rankings

He was ably backed up by van Zyl but for another month it's...

Never our most successful race but with Fouche, Houle, Pidcock and a great supporting cast here we had a lot of hope they could do some good things here. A solid 6th in the opening team time trial was a solid start to the race.


Stage 2 looked like one of our best opportunities for Houle or Pidcock to grab a stage win. The Brit felt better on the day and so Houle and van Zyl controlled the pace to reel in the breakaway and discourage any attacks. With 2km to go Kipkemboi hit the front with Pidcock in his wheel, looking to surprise the quicker sprinters.


The plan worked to perfection and Pidcock never looked in doubt of delivering his first ever professional victory, and our first of the season. A fantastically taken win with contributions from the whole team.


Stage 3 similarly looked like one where our hybrid duo could deliver something and once again we were the quickest in the bunch, this time in the form of Houle. However unfortunately the late attacker Calmejane just held off the charging peloton as we settled for 2nd. To make things worse, everyone but Houle lost 20 seconds. We slipped further down the GC on Stage 4's individual time trial, with Morne in 15th our best positioned rider, though Pidcock and Houle both sat at around a minute down and van Zyl and Fouche were both within two minutes of the lead as well.


The decisive stage 5 ended on a tough uphill finish and Pidcock and Fouche were our strongest riders, working together to try and shut down attacks from the favourites group. They couldn't follow the strongest puncheurs on the final slopes and settled for the first major group, moving to a very credible 5th and 11th on GC respectively, as well as running 1-2 in the U25 category.


Stage 6 was ridden fast but wasn't decisive enough and so in the final hilltop sprint we looked like contending for another stage win - however the elite climbers Oomen and Beltran proved just too strong for young Pidcock's acceleration as he settled for third - still enough to raise him to a fantastic 4th on GC as he kept hold of the U25 jersey. Fouche was a very good 7th which allowed him to break into the Top 10 on GC as well, capping off a very well executed and good-scoring race for our team.

1	Sam Oomen	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	16h25'57
2	Fausto Masnada	Jura GIANTS	+ 38
3	Eddie Dunbar	Indosat Ooredoo	+ 49
4	Thomas Pidcock	Xero Racing	+ 1'06
10	James Fouche	Xero Racing	+ 2'09
37	Johann Van Zyl	Xero Racing	+ 7'59
54	Hugo Houle	Xero Racing	+ 11'01
58	Salim Kipkemboi	Xero Racing	+ 11'32
92	Florian Vermeersch	Xero Racing	+ 18'08
109	Morne Van Niekerk	Xero Racing	+ 20'41
178	Nils Schomber	Xero Racing	+ 44'37

A season debut for our man Joseph Areruya, fresh from his expensive off-season training camps and with expectations to win nearly every race he competes. He's a top favourite here, but he's actually never won a puncheur's classic - or a classic of any kind, with his only podium in fact coming here last year. The lights are bright - how will he react?


As should be expected by now, the pressure really means nothing to Areruya (or at least does nothing to temper his aggression) as he and local lad Tesfaye Herin launched a double-attack with 35km remaining, sending the peloton into a scramble.


After around 15km the groups that resulted from the splits and counterattacks eventually rejoined together, now just 46 riders strong and with the breakaway in sight.


With 10km left in the race that was still too many companions for Areruya, who attacked with much more power this time, with only Moscon following. However over the next hill he shook off the Italian and with seven kilometres until the line in Siena, it was Areruya against the world with 26 seconds on his side.


The peloton were working together decently well but Areruya proved he was by far the strongest today and took victory - a special start to his season and a special day for us, as he was followed home by not one, not two, but three straight former Xero neo-pros in Stannard, Meurisse and Higuita. We love to see our boys doing well - and proving how undervalued they went on the transfer market!

1	Joseph Areruya	Xero Racing	5h00'22
2	Robert Stannard	DuckDuckGo - Everesting	+ 52
3	Xandro Meurisse	Lampre - Pinarello	s.t.
4	Sergio Higuita	Los Pollos Hermanos	s.t.
44	Salim Kipkemboi	Xero Racing	+ 3'45
45	Hluigi Tesfaye Herin	Xero Racing	s.t.
94	Johann Van Zyl	Xero Racing	+ 6'30
121	Corbin Strong	Xero Racing	+ 7'32
130	Ilan Van Wilder	Xero Racing	s.t.
149	Kees Duyvesteyn	Xero Racing	+ 12'45
162	Oier Lazkano	Xero Racing	+ 14'22

From the Pais Vasco and Strade Bianche recaps you may have guessed it was a turnaround month for the team, but two shockers in huge races meant it was one of the worst in team history outside of those races.

George Bennett flashed his worst form in years at the Vuelta a Colombia, finishing absolutely nowhere in the GC, while the entire team collapsed in our home race at the Tour of South Africa, despite our usual squad there running it back we found neither stage nor GC joy and barely avoided a 0-pointer with Houle finding a fourth on the opening stage. Nevermind the GP Izola and Lillestrom GP - not exactly banner races for us but 0-pointers only softened by breakaway appearances from Ramirez and Hamza.

I've never seen anything like this but with a fantastic GC performance and our first win of the season, taking advantage of quiet months in his first three with the team it's...

Not our most suited Grand Tour or the one we wanted to attend as a wildcard - that would be La Vuelta, with less flat ITT kilometres and the potential for Bennett and Areruya to co-lead. However we were awarded entry into the Giro. After Areruya had his crack in 2021 (finishing 8th, winning the U25 and 2nd in the KoM, a major animator and nearly stage-winner), he went to defend his crown in Poland and left the Giro duties to George Bennett, with an able squad around him, including U25 jersey contender Fouche, former Giro stage winner Novardianto, prologue wonder Schomber, home hero Tesfaye Herin, and the multi-talented Pidcock. Not a race that would make any difference to our final rankings, but obviously one of the most prestigious races in the sport and a huge deal for us - and Bennett's final crack over three weeks while at his peak.


Schomber was the first of those names to make his presence felt on the big stage, but could only manage fourth in the prologue. Bennett was 133rd, but over such a short distance that meant the worst damage was 13 seconds to Haig.


Stage 3 was the first chance at any GC action, but the final climb proved too easy to cause any separation and the battle for first was left to the lighter sprinters - Bennett finished 7th, just ahead of GC favourite Dombrowski and the best of the climbers.


Stage 6 was a tough one, with a huge amount of elevation gain over many shorts climbs. On this kind of short uphill finish Bennett is one of the best among the climbers, and he certainly felt it was a huge chance for a stage win. He lead the sprint early...


But Dombrowski and Haig, the clear two top riders in the race, proved slightly too strong, and our man had to settle for third. Still, a marker of strength as he was the only rider to stay in touch with that duo, earning him third on GC going into the first mountain stage. Meanwhile Pidcock was 12th and took over the white jersey, while Fouche had a tough day, conceding five minutes already and sitting 9th in the U25 competition.


If the short climbs are Bennett's specialty, then the kind of long, steady climb that is Blockhaus is, if not a weakness, not quite where Bennett can make his mark usually. However, 14th was still a huge disappointment on an off-day for him, tumbling to 8th on GC. A better but still subpar stage for Fouche in 30th, who moved to 3rd in the U25s, while Pidcock fell to fourth.

To make matters worse, Stage 8 was the race's long, flat, individual time trial. Schomber held the hot seat for a while as the best of the early runners. Bennett fell to 12th on GC, which isn't terrible with only climbs to go, but over three minutes now separated him from Galta's third spot on the podium. Fouche and Pidcock both fell ever so slightly in the GC, but closed the gap to under two minutes to Schmid in the white jersey. Things weren't going our way.


Stage 10 was the inversion of Stage 3 - an easier uphill finish we expected to go to a sprinter. However on an earlier categorised climb splits formed in the peloton, and Bennett was the strongest in the pack at the end - however not strong enough to quite chase down the late attack of Amezawa, settling for 2nd place. Unfortunately one of the biggest GC losers from the gaps was Fouche, who conceded three minutes, now five minutes down in the U25 competition and 41st on GC.


If a climber looks down and out on GC then it's time to attack - and the 100km mountain stage to the beautiful Montvergine di Mercogliano looked a great prospect to gain some time from a breakaway and maybe fight for a stage win. Fouche snuck into the 22-rider breakaway, which quickly gained a gap which wasn't to be recovered by the peloton. However with U25 1st and 2nd Schmid and Johannessen also present, there was still work to be done in that department.


However while the 6+ minutes would be a great gain over the peloton to vault Fouche back towards the Top 20 on GC, the his first professional win would have to wait as a four-man group went clear of the breakaway with 6km to go on the final climb.


Behind, Bennett is always one to keep fighting when he's down and he too was on the front foot today, kicking off the festivities in the GC group, followed by Amezawa. He got a lot of camera time, but it's time to go back to the breakaway to see who will be taking the stage win...


And it's James Fouche, who has attacked the chasing group, rode through the leaders, caught and dropped the soloing Vosekalns, and is now solo with a lead going under the red kite!


We can't quite believe it, but it's a fantastic come-from-behind victory - the first of James Fouche's career and it's at the Giro d'Italia on a mountaintop finish, what a way to do it! He went to 17th on GC, and 3rd in the U25s, now with 2'07 to Schmid in 1st and 30 seconds to Johannessen in 2nd.


Behind, Bennett and Amezawa were caught by a handful of GC favourites, which meant a stalemate with many of the Top 10 as he slipped up to 9th in the standings at the halfway point of the race. Much work still to be done - but Fouche has shown the blueprint on how to do it - get on the front foot, and let's attack!

We pick up at Stage 12, with ten stages to go and some work left to be done for us to have fully satisfied ourselves at this Giro d'Italia. Jams hopped in what was not to be another successful Giro breakaway for him on a flat transitional day.


Stage 13 was a finish on Etna and both of our GC men were on the offensive - Fouche in the breakaway, and Bennett in the peloton. Bennett was animating the race among the favourites, and ended up a slightly disappointing 6th, gaining time on some of the others in the Top 10 but losing a place in the GC. Meanwhile Fouche had a similarly mixed result - moving down to 24th on GC, but having by far the best day among the young riders and finally moving into the white jersey, which he hoped to keep until Venice.


Stage 14 also finished on the Montebello, this time an MTT. Both riders kept their GC positions and made incremental gains - Fouche extended his white jersey lead to almost two minutes, while Bennett still sat 9th but with just 64 seconds to 6th, which looked a very reasonable target.

However, we still felt in the fight for at least 4th place - just three minutes ahead. A huge target with some formidable opponents in the fight behind Dombrowski and Haig who looked in a class of their own. Galta sat in the middle of the two groups in the final podium position - no better a rider historically than most of the other riders in the Top 10, but with a four minute advantage over the group around Bennett going into the final week.


Stage 16 was a transitional stage but with some deceptively hard climbs in the run-in, we looked to get on the front foot. Unfortunately, while Bennett made the first move, it would be the second one that stuck, as Carthy, Godoy, Hirt and Giannoutsos gained two minutes on the Xero-led peloton, moving Bennett down to 11th on GC. Dammit! It was going to take some huge rides in the mountains to salvage our GC fight. Johanessen and Arensman also gained time back on Fouche, drawing to just a minute behind in the U25 standings.


First, though, Pidcock took advantage of some tired sprinters to take 5th on the final sprint stage before the mountain finale. A quiet but solid race from him so far - some minor stage placings, 31st on GC, 4th in the U25 competition and technically still well in contention among those better climbers, just two minutes behind Fouche.


Fouche was in the breakaway for Stage 18, taking in the Gavia before a finish at Bormio 2000. He couldn't fight for the stage win among a group of climbers who hadn't ridden their guts out each day fighting for the GC (plus Amezawa and Giannoutsos, who were in the GC fight and had huge gains), but he effectively wrapped up the U25 jersey - he had a great day in the breakaway, and the other contenders had a poor one, and he opened his lead to almost eight mintues. In fact, Pidcock also managed to move past the other two to give us a 1-2 in those standings.

Bennett finished solidly on what was a bit of a quiet day for the favourites, but well another two spots due to the breakaway raid. Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.


On Stage 19 Bennett was a man on a mission. He lead the breakaway attacks, and lead over all the mid-stage KOMs - not necessarily his target, he was just pushing the pace. He did earn the KOM jersey by the end of the day, but that's not what brought him to this breakaway.


Over the penultimate climb an elite selection formed in the breakaway, with Bennett joined by Godoy and Stussi, also on a GC raid and from a better starting position, as well as Pinot chasing the stage win. However, Godoy looked by far the strongest on the day as he pulled away over the summit. Bennett just kept his tempo. Going into the final ascent of the Passo Lavaze, Godoy was due to move into pink - while Stussi and Bennett was going to 4th and 5th respectively, past everyone but Dombrowski and Haig, and by a margin.


Unfortunately those gains were not to be made flesh thanks to Godoy's presence - perhaps Gazelle and Amaysim would have let Stussi and Bennett have their fun, but Godoy was going to mess with their 1 and 2 - let's hope they didn't waste their efforts chasing the breakaway today with still one day to go! Bennett was the strongest of the chasers and came home 1'22 down on Godoy, and 3'15 up on the first of the peloton. This only moved him to 9th, but there was less than a minute up to a clearly tiring Stussi in 5th, which had to be the goal with Bennett looking by far the strongest climber (even if he wasn't timing everything right) in the last week outside of the Top 4.

Fouche and Pidcock each lost a spot - now sat 25th and 31st respectively, and 1st and 3rd in the U25s with Pidcock losing 5 minutes and his GC spot to Johannessen (this time a different Johannessen than the one competing for most of the rest of the race), who was still seven minutes behind Fouche.


Stage 20 had the profile of an epic, and after the past few days none of the Top 10 were allowed in the breakaway. We had decided Fouche or Bennett would go together (which we slightly preferred to be able to maybe defend the KOM jersey - or not at all. It would be the latter - the highest major rider in the GC allowed in the group by Gazelle and Amaysim was Shikai in 11th, 7'18 down. We would have been a bit stricter, but what do we know about winning Grand Tours? Meanwhile 7th place Giannoutsos was allowed in despite only being four minutes down - insert Breaking Bad "he can't keep getting away with it" GIF here.


Bennett - resplendent in his blue jersey, though he had mathematically already lost it - was always going to attack on the penultimate climb - not crazy far out, but giving it his everything not just for the Top 5, but for the podium. However, with Shikai holding an 11 minute lead on the peloton, it made Bennett seem like to only sane rider there as he put his heart and soul into opening up a solo gap, mopping and dropping breakaway stragglers.

With 12km to go - a short descent then the final climb - he had visions of the Top 5 - he would need to hold this gap. Shikai was out of sight, but if he could catch and pass a tiring Giannoutsos - still minutes ahead, 4th was even on the table. However, with all the might of the peloton now waking up, it would be a hard ask. The snow began to fall, and it was an epic quest for Mr. Xero on these cold, desolate, Alpine slopes.


Halfway up the climb things were looking good, really good - above our dreams, provisionally in the fight for 3rd on GC, looking somewhere between Dombrowski and Haig, still behind Giannoutsos and definitely not catching Shikai, who really looked like he was going to do the impossible and take pink from 11th at the start of the day. He needed to not blow up and keep riding as fast as the peloton which kept speeding up to find his way to the podium, and just stay steady to at least secure the Top 5.

He kept grinding, kept gaining, never out of the wind, and finally under the red kite caught Giannoutsos and co. With 12 bonus seconds available for 2nd, he would still need to find 23 seconds in just 1000m, and so rather than resting after finally finding companions, he attacked hard as soon as he made the catch. He also needed to scrap for every second - 3rd or even 2nd seemed unlikely, but right now he did have it.


He stopped the clock way too far behind Shikai, but far enough ahead of Giannoutsos that he knew he would be no worse than 4th. He sat, and waited, as first Dombrowski crossed the line - a minute ahead, time to spare. Was third possible? The seconds ticked down... as Haig nudged across, 14 seconds in hand. What felt crushing in the moment - seconds away from a Grand Tour podium - was soon dissipated as the achievement of 4th in the Giro d'Italia, from 13th two days ago, sunk in. Another heroic effort in the career of George Bennett, which is filling up with them.


Behind Fouche stayed steady in 25th, while conceding just three minutes to a flying Johanessen, securing the U25 jersey. A jersey now a little bit associated with Xero perhaps, with two wins in three years? His mission for the race achieved, and his brilliant stage win making up for a disappointing GC overall.

Pidcock lost just one place to end up 32nd on GC, and also securing us 3rd in the Teams classification, which we would have never expected pre-race! A brilliant GC finish from a non-climber, and 7th on the final stage in Venice as well a cool capstone.

A team effort, to be sure, but the story of the race for us is George Bennett - Mr. Xero himself - with 4th in his last effort at his peak in a Grand Tour, the absolute talisman of this team from the Continental Tour to now seven seasons later. We perhaps didn't give him all the chances at a Grand Tour he deserved for a rider who does so well over three weeks. New Zealand's best ever Grand Tour finish - a historic ride for that reason alone. 4th in the GC, 7th in the Points, 5th in the KOM, and, if we can indulge in cliche, 1st in our hearts.

1	Chen Shikai	Polar	77h16'53
2	Joseph Dombrowski	Gazelle	+ 4'43
3	Jack Haig	Amaysim Australia.com	+ 5'32
4	George Bennett	Xero Racing	+ 5'46
25	James Fouche	Xero Racing	+ 33'30
32	Thomas Pidcock	Xero Racing	+ 44'47
106	Hpaolo Tesfaye Herin	Xero Racing	+ 2h19'04
154	Florian Vermeersch	Xero Racing	+ 3h48'15
160	Jamalidin Novardianto	Xero Racing	+ 4h08'26
166	Yacine Hamza	Xero Racing	+ 4h23'15

Now MGUCI, where are our 827 points? You know we earned them fair and square. You're trying to cover up the fact that a crappy little PCT team beat all but two of your beloved PT teams - well we're not having it, and we're letting the people know, and we demand justice! Rectify this in the July rankings update or we will go to CAS!

@Nemo - Yeah Pidcock loaded his early season up well to get a few rider of the months. Very happy with that Giro, obviously gutting for the top two teams the way things shook out with Shikai but when looking at the race as a whole I don't feel too guilty about Bennett ending up 4th in that field especially with the form he showed.

@red - It was definitely an odd one, even ignoring the final stage I think it was full of strange AI choices for a lot of the GC riders and even some funky stuff on transitional days. Abhi did a great job wrangling it into the reports. And yes if we were PT it would have been a great race for us in the rankings Happy to help

Last year we set Areruya a Win Goal, and he came home with the GC, two stages, and the points classification. Not to be unreasonable taskmasters about it, but that's really the minimum standard he's gotta hold himself to on this parcours - preferably this time without the heart attack of almost losing to Lucas freaking Hamilton on the last stage and being bailed out by an Andreas Paez bike-throw. A far tougher field this year though, with some top climbers attending now including Meintjes, Higuita, Penasa, Yates, and Olivier, as well as most of the division's best puncheurs.


With Schomber chasing pink in Italy, our focus for the prologue was purely on Areruya keeping his losses to a minimum. He finished 40 seconds down on the winner, and 30 on Bobridge, the fastest of the GC hopefuls. Perhaps more than we wanted, but should be achievable.


Areruya won Stage 2 last year and it looked like a perfect springboard in his title defence to try and repeat. With 1km to go on the final climb he was four rows back and looked out of it.


With 600m to go though he'd somehow managed to find his way to the front with extraordinary technique and burst of speed and lead the sprint as the wet gravel road continued higher.


And he held of Meintjes to repeat his stage win here in remarkable fashion, barely even visible when the sprint opened up and ending up taking the win just a kilometre later, a fantastic win. He moved to 7th on GC, 17 seconds down on the new leader Faglum Karlsson, and took over the green jersey, which he'd end up losing to our guy Meurisse who somehow took two sprint stage wins because he's a certified dawg. Can't be too unhappy to see him doing well.


Stage 5 was an uphill sprint - Areruya didn't quite have the kick of the front three, with Guerreiro denying Stannard, Meurisse and Areruya a Xero alumni 1-2-3. No bonuses but a leg loosener ahead of the decisive final two stages.


On the final climb of Stage 6 Higuita and Buchmann jumped clear of the peloton early. Sensing that would be the winning move, Areruya joined Olivier in bridging across.


Areruya is never one to miss an opportunity to attack, and was only ever interested in a winning move of 1 - so as soon as they made the catch he was gone, and it was clear nobody was in a position to follow.


He quickly got a gap, but perhaps overdid himself with still around 2.5km to go, and the gap never really opened up anymore as the chase reorganised. The commentators pronounced him as "looking dead", but he recovered to take the win, and the GC lead with 20 seconds in hand over Meintjes, who was again his runner-up. He'd equalled his race from last year with two stages, the points - he just needed to tie up the GC.


Things kept remarkably civilised until the final climb - perhaps with everyone so tight together on GC everyone knew it would only take one climb to make all the difference to their race. Areruya was isolated, but even if he wasn't there was no question that when Yates made the first move, he was going to do what the yellow jersey does and close it down himself.


Not only that, but he effectively took Yates as the world's most overqualified leadout man, and sprung into a monster sprint as the red kite approached. This would be an awful tactic if he lost from here - but right now it just looked like a show of dominance.


Three stages, the GC, the points, nobody compared to Joseph Areruya this week. Quickly becoming his favourite stomping ground, he goes back-to-back in Poland with an emphatic sprint, even opening up a gap worthy of record despite the flat finish! Sometimes we feel that, because he's such a favourite with such high expectations, we don't properly celebrate Areruya's wins - well here we go: Oh my God he's so freaking good I can't believe Joseph Areruya rides for our cycling team! It's been clear for a few years, but our boy has very much become a man, and a dominant force in the PCT. First goal of the season well and truly achieved.

1	Joseph Areruya	Xero Racing	26h53'38
2	Louis Meintjes	Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes	+ 52
3	Daan Olivier	Fastned	+ 1'02
43	Johann Van Zyl	Xero Racing	+ 15'01
44	Salim Kipkemboi	Xero Racing	+ 15'22
88	Corbin Strong	Xero Racing	+ 24'06
90	Alan Boileau	Xero Racing	+ 25'15
93	Ilan Van Wilder	Xero Racing	+ 26'07
118	Kees Duyvesteyn	Xero Racing	+ 34'10
147	Oier Lazkano	Xero Racing	+ 44'36

From the Pais Three other races left in April, classics in which we had good-to-very-high hopes, with mixed results. Beginning with the Badaling International, which Hugo Houle was hoping would once again end in a sprint finish. It did, and he was 2nd - but there were 23 riders ahead of the peloton. Shoutout to Meurisse who continues his stellar season over at Lampre with a win here. Meanwhile Houle was even worse, failing to score in the Lisbon Classic.


The GP Wallonie was only entered with one goal in mind: an Areruya win. In the end he never found his form to create a gap, and had to spend a lot of time chasing down other attacks due to being isolated. A masterclass in how to beat a dominant rider from the other teams, hats off. The flatter finish saw Ackermann and Stannard too quick in a small group sprint, with our man having to settle for the lowest step of the podium - his first race loss this year. His bad days still look alright. Tesfaye Huart made the fans happy with a 22nd place and a few points.

Still looking quite poor in the rankings, but can't deny the kickstart of those Pologne points. A shame the MGUCI refused to add the Giro haul we rightfully earned in the latest rankings. We appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but they said that they are only interested in overturning justice done against teams that have done wrong, not overturning injustices against teams being unfairly treated. If only we had that Emirati money.

Two very strong contenders as our climbing leaders both started their seasons. Both with historic results for different reasons, in the end it's...

AbhishekLFC wrote:
Nice outing in the Giro for the team with Areruya delivering perfectly in Poland. Great stuff!

redordead wrote:
I still have PTSD from last year's Pologne. Nice to see Areruya doesn't have those issues, in fact the seems to be a model of consistency

From the Pais The month started with the Cheshire Cycling Tour - a race that Rowe and Debesay used to enjoy in its stage-race format, and that we are forced to ride as a classic. Jams made his way into the break and ended up 42nd, while Vermeersch was just ahead in 41st. Bare minimum of a breakaway and points - achieved.


Next was the Tour de Romandie - historically a very good hunting ground for Bennett, with a 2nd and 3rd in his last two attempts. Jams continued his good start to the month with 4th in the Stage 2 sprint, and Bennett lined up a very good race with a classic stage win on a hilltop finish on day 3. He looked good value for a strong GC finish but had the worst day of his career and finished 89th on the MTT, as the 4th-ranked favourite for the stage. What the fuck.

The Tour of Lithuania proved too tough for Hugo Houle on both the flat stages and the hills, and after a mediocre TTT we didn't hold a lot of hope for any points at all. However when we lose hope in a Houle race it's usually one name who steps up, and to the adoration of his home crowd Henrikas Tesfaye Houda made the most of his opportunity in the final day's breakaway to hang on to the favourites group and finish 12th on GC to salvage something for us.

Houle did slightly better in the Tour of Norway, with 12th, 6th and 3rd on the stages which suited - unfortunately not putting in a great ITT or hilly performance and only managing 3rd on GC.

All in all another poor month and promotion seems almost impossible, we are well below mid table. It would take some seriously good racing to see us even in the fight from here.

The two usual suspects of performing when our leaders fail both turned up, but for doing it multiple times its