After winning this PTHC stage race in 2021, 2022 and 2024, Miguel Angel wants to win it for a fourth time. It's his favourite race of the season and we are convinced that he will be competitive once again.

After failing to win this race last season in a tragedy, we have sworn to come back for revenge and will try our very best to win it this year. Will we succeed this year?

It's the one monument we are still chasing and it's almost like an annual tradition that we set it as one of our goals and fail it. As the old saying goes: Smart is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Or something like that.

Another monument where we have sth to prove: Lopez finished only 14th last year which is far below what we expect from him in a race like this. Can he find his legs and return improved again?

It's the big one. We think we are as strong as we will ever be and it would feel wrong to set any other goal than this one after talking so much about this being an "all in season".

After winning the World Championship Road Race, Miguel Angel Lopez earned the right to race in rainbow stripes this season. We have recruited hillis91 to design the jersey for him. He provided us a beautiful design that combines a classic clean front with a back that includes an Evonik stylized Colombia flag to represent both the team that helped him grow into the world class rider he is today and the country that had massive contributions to winning the world championship race itself. We are excited to see it in action and hope to see it in lots of celebration pictures!

To start the season, we are travelling to Tasmania for one of the races that historically is one of the most disappointing ones for us. This year we arrive with triple leadership with Luke Plapp, Rune Herregodts and Tobias Foss. Three riders that represent a very similar archetype of rider who could do well here if we get the right scenario. We are hoping that the hilly stage will result in the right amount of selectiveness for our stars to gap the top time triallists but dont give the puncheurs too much of an advantage over the stage racers.

This is the first of many races this year where our small squad size and the quality of our riders forces us to bring a reduced lineup to the startline. Yet we are still quite intrigued with the lineup we have for the race.

This is a race that should suit Luke Plapp as perfectly as any. We hope to see him in the fight for a top 5 overall finish here. We also have high hopes for Rune Herregodts who is one of the premier prologue and time trial specialists in this pthc band and we think he is strong enough on the hills and mountains to also secured a decent GC finish himself. Roger Adria and Bauhaus are two jokers for this race who might not have high expectations but could surprise as well.

After long considerations, we decided to trust both of our two loaned stars in this race. Ovsyannikov is our lead sprinter and Herregodts a specialist for the epilogue. Neither of them is a big favourite for any of the stages or the GC but both have the quality to secure valuable points here. The rest of our lineup is filled with decent prologue riders who arent good enough for it to matter as well as some of our strong rouleurs. Although they probably wont be able to play a role here as recent years have shown that there are no wide open empty spaces in the Qatari desert where the wind could play a factor.

Last year, we started January with an abysmal 11.36 PPRD over 11 race days and a deserved last place in the first ranking update. This year, we hope to do a lot better than that as this month represents how we have improved this year as newly maxed Plapp and our loan stars will be responsible for our season start. Without our two biggest stars ridiing, we hope to be at least midtable, especially considering that our longest PTHC race is already in this month.

baseballlover312 wrote:

Knew we'd have to see Plapp in Portugal and wouldn't be able to take white there, but as with Plapp, the race suited Skjelmose too much to pass it up.

Plapp/Herregodts will be a great duo for Tasmania to start the season right.

It's time for the triple header and this year we are going for it: Lecuisinier will open his season in Italy and alongside him is an incredible strong mountain support with Tobi Foss and Pascal Eenkhoorn as his key domestiques for the race. Rune Herregodts is here for the opening prologue and additional support in the TTT and in the mountains and also the whole group of Mo/TT min wage guys we acquired this off-season is here for additional support.

Second race of the triple header and it is Plapp who is leading us here. We think he is extremely well suited to this stage race and hope that he can contest for the top 5 spots. He is accompanied by most of our rouleurs and sprinters as we needed the uphill riders to support in the two clashing races but hope that he doesnt need much support here anyway.

Third race of the triple header and its Lopez who leads us in Luxembourg like every year. This time, his support team is very reduced but with Calmejane, Adria and Arndt, his most important domestiques are with him. Versatile rouleur Ansons and Ovsyannikov complete the team. Ovsyannikov might look questionable there but that's a decision made because of our small squad size, our wish to send a 8-men lineup to Tirreno and the wish to only use two of his RDs in the triple header.

We kinda take it serious this year? Whats wrong with us?

Argh. Early candidate to be our worst race all year. Scoring 41 points might be a success.

February is a month dominated by the triple header. The triple header itself looks better than ever for us with big hopes for each of the three races and featuring all of our riders and should make this a pretty good month for us. After that, we go to our least favourite race where we expect to be at least average this year and also Milan San Remo where we will miss the good old times with Michael Van Stayen and predict a min score.

SotD wrote:

Ridiculously strong lineups for the tripple header! Love it

The MSR setup on the other hand is some funky business

knockout wrote:

Argh. Early candidate to be our worst race all year. Scoring 41 points might be a success.

redordead wrote:

RIP my win goal in Tirreno


I'm pretty sure 41 pts isn't possible. But you can aim for 45

The race already started: Lopez is leading us here and his support is combined from some of our best rouleurs and some of his usual puncheurs support. Winning might be difficult but we want at least a top ten from him.

After the Tirreno desaster, it is time to come back with a success race for Lecuisinier. We are already in a position where every result except a dominant GC victory would be a disappointment. Eenkhoorn and Arndt are his key domestiques here. Arndt and Adria might be looking at stage success themselves with stage two fitting their skill sets almost perfectly.

It's time for cobbles to start and of course that means Ovsyannikov is leading us. A reduced lineup due to race day struggles but our main quintett for the cobbles is here. The Cheshire route is a profile that suits neither of Ovsyannikov and Neilands particularly well so a top ten to start the classics season would be nice already.

Next cobbled classic, same lineup but this time, we have two additional bottle carriers at the start line. E3 should fit Ovsyannikovs skill set more. The sky is the limit but we are expecting to finish at least inside the top ten.

The next cobbled race, this one is a two day affair. On paper, the first day should suit Ovsyannikov really well while the second one might be a tad too tough for him. Still, in the only cobbled stage race on his schedule, we hope that he can prove his value and compete with the bests.

The Ronde Van Vlaanderen. Same lineup as e.g. E3 with Holowesko and Mendoza as sacrifices for the cobbled gods. Once again it's Ovsyannikov to lead us. Once again, expectations are a top ten at least but we don't see a reason why we should not hope for more.

March is a month without a single bad race on paper. We have high hopes for almost every race and hope to climb a lot in the rankings. The highlight is obviously Colombia where Lecuisinier wants to threepeat his GC victories in what is already one of his last races for the season.