The third and final GT of our PT return, the Vuelta was set to be the most important to our season. It would be the headline race in captain Pierre Latour's race schedule for the season, a season that had been relatively disappointing and luckless to date.

The team was picked around supporting Pierre's GC ambitions. Frankiny, Firdaus, Wibisono and Herrera's job was to protect Latour in the mountains, and in Frankiny's case have freedom to attack and join a break if the opportunity presented itself. Baska and Sagiv were selected to help guide Latour through the flat stages with Yudha being a general support rider that can get up hills.

We felt we had a pretty strong team and a terrific leader in Latour who suited the route quite well. The startlist ended up being quite formidable, headlined by Herklotz and also terrifyingly Areruya. This made the goal of a podium seem a little ambitious, but Latour is a great rider and had the full backing of the team.

Ahmad Firdaus should be a top-3 u25 rider in the race, but with him most likely dedicating himself to helping Latour there was no guarantee that he would do well in the classification. Luke Plapp headlined as the biggest competitor, and it was thought by most that he would run away with the jersey.

The Vuelta started out without a bang, a quiet first few stages and a nervy stage on stage 4 where Latour was dropped and managed to scrape his way back into the peloton at the death to avoid a time loss. This was the highlights of the first week of the race, with Latour staying safe and Firdaus already having lost 10+ minutes.

Week 2 also started off quietly for the team, with no real action coming until stage 11 with a big mountaintop finish. Firdaus made it into the BOTD and rode to an impressive 5th place at the finish behind Herklotz. Firdaus moved into the lead in the u25 jersey, and Latour had a bad day and lost 5 minutes.

Stage 14 was almost a disaster - Latour dropping early on the final climb along with Firdaus and Frankiny. The latter two did a great job pacing for Latour, bringing him back towards the front where he managed to finish 4th on the stage. Firdaus did lose the white jersey to Plapp who re-took the jersey, Firdaus now being a tad under 5 minutes down in the classification now.

Latour attacked the final climb of stage 16 and managed to gain time on all the GC favourites asides from superman. Most importantly, he managed to chip away a few seconds towards the small deficit he had to Dombrowski (currently 2nd GC, Latour 3rd). Firdaus and Frankiny were in the early break, with Frankiny riding well to a 5th place on the stage and Firdaus sadly lost more time, now over 9 minutes behind Plapp in the u25 classification. He kept losing time, being almost 14 minutes down after the next stage.

The stage 18 MTT was a huge moment in the race. Firdaus rode himself into the hot seat for a large portion of the stage, before settling into an amazing 4th place. Latour rode a great race also, finishing 2nd behind you know who and bringing him=s gap to Dombrowski down to just over a minute heading into the final stages.

Stage 19 was another big stage, with Frankiny joining the early break. He went into the pointy end of the stage along with Wellens and Gregaard, but they were too strong and he sadly cracked hard and fell back past the favourties group.

Latour had another good day, attacking again towards the finish. He was dragged along the final Km by Firdaus, with Herklotz and Areruya riding the coattails. The 4 fought it out at the line with Herklotz (obviously) coming out on top. Dombrowski managed to limit his losses, and Latour was left with just over a minute to make up on the final GC relevant stage the net day. Firdaus's great form paid off with him taking back the white jersey, albeit with a razor thin margin to Plapp. A big stage 20 was coming up, with the podium and u25 classification to be decided.

Frankiny and Firdaus joined the break on stage 20, along with Plapp. Frankiny was dropped early after doing a lot of work initially to get away from the peloton, with Firdaus and Plapp both also dropping on the first climb. They both rejoined the break, but Plapp was eventually dropped again. Firdaus hung on to the break until letting go before the final climb. Latour attacked from the red jersey group along with Areruya and bridged up to Firdaus, who immediately went to work and buried himself to extend the gap to the main group of favourites.

Latour pushed on the front all the way up to the line before being overtaken by Areuya for the win. His second 2nd place was overshadowed by his third 2nd place, that being 2nd in GC - he managed to gain enough time over the red jersey group to move up to second.

Firdaus' rode himself back into the white jersey with another strong ride that proved integral to Latour improving his GC. This was confirmed after the final stage, with Firdaus winning the white jersey at the Vuelta! A huge achievement for the team, and an indicator of the direction the team will be heading in the future. He was given no chance of this before the race, a really huge achievement for him along with his 16th place in the GC.

A huge 21 days for the team - Latour rode an amazing race and solidified his place as one of the best over 3 weeks with his 2nd in GC behind the android. He rode very conservatively for the first two weeks, staying calm before finding his attacking legs in the final week and riding his way onto the podium. A huge result, and our best ever result in a GT!

Firdaus showed the world what he is capable of, surprising by taking home the white jersey in the biggest moment Indonesian cycling has ever seen. He rode a superb race supporting Latour, also managing 16th GC for his efforts.

Kilian Frankiny rode a brave race, managing to get himself into several breaks and having a decent crack at the KOM where he finished 4th.

Overall, a highly successful return to the Vuelta for the team. Some huge results across the board in all but the points classification, we managed 2nd in the teams classification also. Pierre Latour also rode his last race days as a maxed rider here. We're privileged to have had him ride a GT for us in his prime, truly a special rider.