Tour de Gabon
Tour Down Under
Tour of Oman
Volta ao Algarve
Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne
Clasica Almeria
Strade Bianche
Paris-Nice
Tirreno-Adriatico
Nokere Koerse
Milan-San Remo
Volta a Catalunya
Dwars Door Vlaanderen
E3 Harelbeke
Criterium International
Gent-Wevelgem
Driedaagse De Panne - Koksijde
GP Indurain
Rudy wants to thank his manager for getting so many cobbled classics, even though the rest of the team considers him more or less the retarded cousin. Hopefully he can prove them wrong in other races like Strade Bianche, Tour Down Under and Milan - San Remo.
You're welcome Rudy - now we just expect you to prove us right in getting you all those cobbled races. You will get to race all those races and many more. Still haven't quite figured out who you will get to help you along the way.
In fact I think most of the Spaniards are just happy that they won't have to attempt anything on those crappy roads you love so much.
Fortunately we have now been able to close the case about the imperialistic team member.
The culprit has been found and after a few days work our legal department were able to find a loop-hole allowing us to get rid of him without having to pay him anything.
The rider in question is Alexander Serebryakov. We have found documentation of him having been a loyal supporter of Putin's dream of restoring Russian grandour and suppressing the Chechen cry for independence.
We are happy to say that he will never get to wear our proud orange jersey again and we would not be surprised if it turns out that this imperialistic scum only got his results through cheating, corruption and drug abuse.
Alaon EtxeberdeaEdited by Atlantius on 11-01-2014 15:17
After finally having settled the roster we are now ready to get racing.
We start in La Tropicale Amissa Bongo where we will be giving the chance to some of the less well-known riders on the team, who will be going for breakaways and stage wins.
Being out main classics rider Rudy will have a busy early season starting in Australia. Since actually trying to do something in cobbled races is still relatively new for us we have appointed 7 riders, who will race all the cobbled classics in support of Rudy in the hope that they will learn how to do before we reach the really big races.
Tour Down Under Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne Strade Bianche Nokere - Koerse Milan-San Remo Dwars Door Vlaanderen E3 Harelbeke Gent-Wevelgem Driedaagse de panne GP Indorain
Schedule for Cristiano de las Campos
The pre-season tests show that Cristiano is one of the very best climbers on the team. For that reason he will be targeting the Giro d'Italia this season with some shorter stage races to bolster his physique.
That also meand we have only planned for him to race two races in the early season. Two races where he will be given captaincy though.
As one of the oldest teams in the game Cyclingnews.com has decided to make a feature article about the teams history and the riders, who has shaped it. It's worth a read
That has also inspired us to equip our headquarter with a sort of a Hall of Fame featuring six riders of great importance to the team over the years.
What is your most memorable moment with/from our team?Edited by Atlantius on 11-01-2014 15:18
Sanchez winning Olympic Gold in 2008. Not strictly an Euskaltel moment, but their best known and most successful riders top achievement has to be included.
Or more team specific, has to Anton in la Vuelta in 2008 and 2010. What could have been if not for some bad luck.
Mayo winning on Alpe d'Huez. I mightn't have been able to follow cycling back then, but even just watching it on YouTube you can feel what sort of a great day that must've been.
My love for Euskaltel is based on their relentless attacking in the early years every time something with the slightest resemblance to a mountain appeared.
Mayo's trip up the Alpe was epic. For me that was the foundations of my hope that someone would be able to crack Armstrong. Especially alongside Zubeldia's great GC that same year (finished 5th).
For me it was also a great relief almost when Sánchez finally got the team it's first win in Vuelta al PaÃs Vasco 2012. That was huge.
And then of course the picture of Antón on the road in the red jersey is etched into my eyes.
We went to this race with a team mainly going for breakways and individual stages. A chance for some of the less well-known riders from the team to make themselves noticed.
A quiet day all-together for the team as they missed out on the break. Lobato did well in the intermediate sprints early on the stage and Vrecer tried to get away approaching the final.
The guys even tried to mix in the sprint even though Lobato was gone from the front group. Mestre was best placed in 21st place.
All-in-all a good show of spirit, now let's hope for a bit more luck in the coming stages...
For some reason none of the guys felt like going in the break today either.
Since JJ told everyone this morning before the race that he was feeling great today the whole team did a lot of hard work in front of the peloton.
With 500 m to go it looked like a certain win for Ciolek, but then Lobato came shooting out of a cannon and beat the others by a bike length!
Stage 3 turned much more deciseve than we had expected with a lot of late attacks.
Before that Lobato tried to get a few points for the points jersey but failed but didn't quite succeed.
In the finale Vrecer tried to get away, and secured the team a good 10th place. Hopefully he'll be able to build on that in the coming stages.
A slightly disappointing stage from the guys as none of them showed their faces just one and Vrecer prety much lost his excellent opportunity in the GC.
Everything pointed to a bunch sprint, but the big sprinters team took a very long time reeling in the break. That resulted in a chaotic disorganized sprint, where Labato failed to get properly placed.
Kocjan's 13th place was a fairly good effort by his standards though.
Another sprint finish.
The guys did their best, but our lack of experience when it comes to setting up a sprinter was obvious.
Fortunately Lobato has an amazing kick and blasted by a lot of riders on the last km to finish 6th
We had high hoped for Lobato today so the guys did a lot of work in the peloton. Unfortunately only MTN wanted to help chase the big breakaway and they only wanted to secure the GC in stead of chasing another stage win fro Ciolek.
In the end the break was just too strong for us. Lobato proved our confidende in him was just as he was only one rim-width from beating Ciolek in the pelotons sprint for 10th place.
I have to say that I'm overall really happy with how the team performed in La Tropicale Amissa Bongo this last week.
I had sent a team with riders, who can't expect many chances throughout the season so I didn't expect anything except that they tried.
I had both hoped and expected more attacking, but I gave them free hands to race as they found fit and they believed the best chance was helping out Lobato and Vrecer.
With a stage win to JJ already on stage 2 I guess they were right...
Btw I promised JJ to say thanks to the fans and his team mates both in ans out of Africa for the support.
Robert tried his best to get a good GC by attacking a few times late on the hilly stages, but didn't quite have the luck needed when a group managed to break away on stage 4, thus loosing his shot at a top 10. Still 16th is a fine result by his standards and we are off to a much better start than expected.
Detailed stage reports and results can be found in the Race report post.
For the General Classification we have brought a more well-known name in Igor Antón. He has never raced Tour Down Under before, but I'm convinced he can do well and we have agreed that he needs to try a different approach to the season after he haven't quite found his old mountain legs again after the crash back in 2010. Hopefully this will be the first step to get the old Antón back.
Tarik Chaoufi
Juan José Lobato
André Schulze
Jure Kocjan
Ricardo Mestre
Tour Down Under
Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne
Strade Bianche
Paris - Nice
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
Willem Brouwer
