Lampawog, Scotson and Hoole are here to lead our cobbles challenge as they will do for almost all of the cobbles races on the calendar. We hope the likes of Allegaert, Haverdings and Domgjoni can provide able support.

Nothing extra to say, except the hope that the consistency can continue in this race as well.

Rinse and repeat. Looking to see how this plays out as a stage race!

One more time for good luck, although we are slightly depleted here.

We have a good TTT team and it was a conscious decision to strengthen it this off-season. Too bad Lampawog and Scoson has to miss out but we should still have the fire-power to contest near the top of the standings in this race.

SotD wrote:

I think I would have personally swapped Scotson and Hoole in that double-header. The cobbled race is slightly above 200km where Hoole can make use of his better STA compared to Scotson, while Scotson would have added +2 to the TTT. Not sure it matters overall, but it would be something I would micromanage

We didn't join the early break but Hoole was part of the later attacks. The move did not stick. When the eventually splits came, Lampawog was able to follow the decisive moves. He finished 7th in the reduced bunch sprint at the finish.

1	Lukas Spengler	Bacharu Mamachari Faito!	4h37'51
7	Jay Lampawog	Philips - Hero	s.t.
34	Daan Hoole	Philips - Hero	+ 4'48
64	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Hero	+ 9'11
68	Callum Scotson	Philips - Hero	s.t.
88	David Haverdings	Philips - Hero	+ 11'54
89	Ivo Domgjoni	Philips - Hero	s.t.
128	Pavel Novak	Philips - Hero	+ 19'53
154	David Beckham Elkatohchoongo	Philips - Hero	+ 29'37

Novak joined the early break this time. The group would eventually be caught after many more moves from the pack. Lampawog was once again able to stay in the front group through all the moves. He went one better this time, finishing 6th in the reduced bunch sprint. Once again, we failed to pick up any depth points though.

1	Biniam Girmay	Bralirwa - Cegeka	4h24'40
6	Jay Lampawog	Philips - Hero	s.t.
34	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Hero	+ 4'54
37	Daan Hoole	Philips - Hero	s.t.
62	Callum Scotson	Philips - Hero	+ 8'08
74	David Haverdings	Philips - Hero	+ 10'03
109	Ivo Domgjoni	Philips - Hero	+ 19'47
125	David Beckham Elkatohchoongo	Philips - Hero	+ 21'39
157	Pavel Novak	Philips - Hero	+ 31'32

Stage 1 was flat and we didn't have a sprinter.

Lampawog joined the break on Stage 2, which basically meant our GC hopes were not going to be realized unless something amazing happened. It did not happen and all our riders lost a lot of time.

Stage 3 was flat again, and we didn't do anything.

Domgjoni tried to join the early break on Stage 4 but was unsuccessful. Lampawog eventually did join the break and picked up enough KOM points to end 3rd in that rankings. Hoole attacked later, but none of those attacks could survive for very long. Lampawog did finish in the front group to move up a bit in the GC - 47th! Scotson was 70th, Allegaert was 75th and Hoole ws 91st.

1	David Per	Grieg-Maersk	17h05'58
47	Jay Lampawog	Philips - Hero	+ 3'39
70	Callum Scotson	Philips - Hero	+ 5'43
75	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Hero	+ 6'12
91	Daan Hoole	Philips - Hero	+ 7'43
107	David Haverdings	Philips - Hero	+ 13'07
121	Ivo Domgjoni	Philips - Hero	+ 18'51
141	Pavel Novak	Philips - Hero	+ 33'05
146	David Beckham Elkatohchoongo	Philips - Hero	+ 38'11

Hoole missed out in this race, given the clash with Olympia, but we still followed the same strategy as the previous HC races. Lampawog made it into the chase group behind the five leaders who made the decisive move for the race win. He ran out of steam in the end to finish 13th. Allegaert was 21st.

1	David Per	Grieg-Maersk	4h32'41
13	Jay Lampawog	Philips - Hero	+ 44
21	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Hero	+ 1'12
51	Callum Scotson	Philips - Hero	+ 3'15
87	Athit Poulard	Philips - Hero	+ 4'40
100	Ivo Domgjoni	Philips - Hero	= 5'34
103	David Haverdings	Philips - Hero	s.t.
136	Pavel Novak	Philips - Hero	+ 6'16
158	Nicolas Vinokurov	Philips - Hero	+ 10'00

We rode a solid race led by Zmorka, and ably assisted by Conci et al. He finished 7 seconds down on eventual winners Riders of Rohan, living up to our billing and expectations of being podium contenders. If only we could've brought Lampawog and Scotson as well to this race!

1	Riders of Rohan	47'53
2	Philips - Hero	+ 7
3	Tryg - ENI	+ 14

cunego59 wrote:

OHN and KBK were great by Lampawog, Cheshire unfortunately a bit of a letdown. I think decent is indeed the right description overall for his performances. Cool to see the team building succeed for Olympia

Caspi wrote:

Lack of support may have had an impact on Lampawog in Le Samyn. I think you've planned well though.

Our first C2 race of the year sees our mini TTT team travel to Australia and try to get some depth scoring from the ITT. We are not sending any sprinters here so it's all about just one stage for us in this race!

MVD's first classic as our improved hills leader, and also his first race since he relegated himself to riding for McCormick in TDU! This race is always tricky to predict but we believe our leader should have enough versatility to be able to get a good result from this race. The support team is strong enough, so we can't have any excuses.

We went with a cheeky double-leadership strategy in this race, with Kulikovskiy thrown into the fold in case it is unselective! We do believe the race will still favour the punchers but doesn't hurt to take a punt once in a while.

Another C2 race this month and it is the TTT team who takes center stage once again. We hope our depth can get us a decent placing here.

Conci finally starts a race as our leader this (Olympia notwithstanding). We hope he can do well in the ITT and hang on to the lead group in the hills to get a good result. Kulikovskiy is also here to try and get some success in the first two stages.

Lampaog and the cobbles crew are back in Lillestrom to try and continue our consistent performances in PCT cobbles so far this season. Realisticaly, we're targeting a Top 15, but we hope for better, and hopefully some depth scoring.

We decided to throw all our cards at the Ukraine table, hoping that three-pronged leadership does not mean they get in each other's way. We don't believe Zmorka can keep pace on the hills, so it should be Conci leading the charge for a good result here.

MVD is back as leader in Britain in a race that might play out harder than it looks on the profile!We are hoping he has enough climbing capabilities on top of his puncher skills to be able to challenge near the top of the GC in this one. We also have Alben here to see if he can get a surprise result in one of the flatter stages.