Hey guys,

I'm writing you from Qatar where my first race will start very soon, but first, as promised, a monthly review.

January was an exceptional month for the team. It's safe to say that I've never witnessed such dominance in the previous years. With the strong focus on our early nationals and the Tour Down Under, our riders of course had an advantage over the rest of the peloton, but see for yourselves:








I'll spare you with the rankings this time, because, let's face it, they're very monotonous, with us leading every list by miles. However, there's one number I'd like to highlight: With the Etoile de Bessèges finished, only three days into February, Orica GreenEdge has already assembled - wait for it - 21 (!!!) victories. That's just insane. We all know that we're not going to continue like that, but even more so, we're very happy that we made the best of the early races.

In other news

Sponsor contracts are being renewed all over the place. Most importantly, Astana, BMC and FDJ have signed new contracts with the respective teams. However, there's also one team that'll have to look out for a new sponsor for 2015: It's Bretagne - Séché Environnement, the French Pro Conti team.

While GreenEdge is in until at least 2016, there are negotiations running over here as well: Michael Matthews, Simon Yates and Luke Durbridge have all signed new contracts. But I also overheard the managers here talking about how Leigh Howard has already refused two offers, so he might be leaving.

Back to Bretagne: The month hasn't been all bad for the team, as they were announced one of the four Wild Card teams for the Tour de France. The other lucky ones are the second French ProConti team Cofidis, plus MTN - Qhubeka and IAM Cycling.


Meanwhile, the Tour of Qatar is starting tomorrow, and I'm totally psyched! I'll write up a quick preview for you - some big names are around - and then you can expect the first race report.

Stay tuned,

It's me again, folks, writing to you from my luxurious hotel room. I'm about to head down to the start of the Tour of Qatar, but first let me give you this quick Preview I've prepared:





Held since 2002, the ASO-organized Tour of Qatar is one of the main cycling races in the Arab area. A sprinter's race, it has attracted big guns ever since. With four victories between 2006 and 2012, Tom Boonen is the record winner. His team mate Mark Cavendish is the defending champion.




Looking at the terrain, it's no surprise that the race is entirely flat. On five stages, the sprinters have the opportunity to collect bonus seconds, but the team time trial on stage two might tip the scale.




Defending champion Mark Cavendish returns with an amazingly strong team including Mark Renshaw and Gert Steegmans. He's challenged by our own Matthew Goss, who's already proved his shape with two stage wins in San Luis.

Mark Cavendish	Omega Pharma - QuickStep Cycling Team
Matthew Goss	Orica GreenEdge
Giacomo Nizzolo	Trek Factory Cycling
Roberto Ferrari	Lampre - Merida
Alessandro Ballan	BMC Racing Team

Matthew Goss is our undisputed leader here. Brett Lancaster is his main lead-out man while Jens Keukeleire and me are battling it out for the last place in the sprint train. With a better rhythm and more experience, Jens probably has the upper hand here.



I'd like to remind you again that this is my first professional race, so don't expect too much. My main concern here is to get used to riding in the pro peloton and helping the team as best as I can. I don't expect lots of chances to go for myself, but that's fine.

As for the team, a few podium places are the minimum goal. We hope for maybe a stage win or two as well, since Matthew should be in better shape than Cavendish. We don't have the best squad for a team time trial here, so we have no idea what's in for the GC.



So, we're all set for the race. The first report is gonna be up soon, wish me luck!

It's the first race of the season for me, but Matthew is already in great shape and intends to add a win to his victories from San Luis.

Since I don't have that rhythm yet, I won't be part of the sprint train for today. Jens Keukeleire and Brett Lancaster as the final guy will do that. I'll have domestique duties, and if I still have the energy, I can see what I can do in the final sprint on my own.







So here we go. The start of my professional career. I was in the middle of the pack at starting line, and I was excited as could be.




The peloton took a slow start in these hard conditions and it took seven kilometers for the first riders to break away. We decided not to take part today, so after a while, it was a duo that established a solid lead: Adam Phelan (Drapac) and Maxime Daniel (AG2R).



Uncontested, Matthew Goss took the third place at the first intermediate sprint. He did the same at the second sprint - four points and four seconds that could come in handy later in the race.



And that was my first impact on the stage: I fell back to fetch some water bottles. So far, it was a rather unspectacular debut.

Km 103 of 138

With 35 kilometers to go, the advance of the leading duo was cut down to a bit more than two minutes, mostly due to the work of IAM, Trek and Omega Pharma. The peloton started to stretch out under the heavy cross winds.



20 kilometers left and I was on my last trip to the front, distributing the final water bottles and energy bars. Passing by Brett and Matthew, I overheard Brett complaining about his miserable legs today. I couldn’t help but notice Matthew’s annoyed look, but he said it was fine. With the help of Jens, he would try to jump on another train and see what he can do. What a pity that I was completely drained, otherwise, this could have been my chance!



The pace was lethal now. Only five kilometers later, I found myself in the second group. Only 32 people were left in front, luckily including most of our other riders – and the leading duo was still up front! No idea how they were managing to do that.



Inside the last kilometers, Matthew Goss was riding alongside Mark Cavendish, but the break was still in front. Amazing effort. But would it last?



No. Mostly thanks to a great effort of Jens Keukeleire, the two got caught. Matthew was still in a great position behind Cavendish.



But a Mark Cavendish doesn’t give away such an opportunity. Goss finishes third behind compatriot Heinrich Haussler.



I finished alongside Danish champion Michael Morkov, some two and a half minutes later.

1	Mark Cavendish	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step	3h05'06
2	Heinrich Haussler	IAM Cycling	s.t.
3	Matthew Goss	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
4	Gerald Ciolek	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.
5	Roberto Ferrari	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
6	Giacomo Nizzolo	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
7	Jens Keukeleire	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
8	Gert Steegmans	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step	s.t.
9	Matti Breschel	Team Saxo Bank	s.t.
10	Maxime Daniel	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.

1	Mark Cavendish	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step	3h04'46
2	Heinrich Haussler	IAM Cycling	+ 8
3	Matthew Goss	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
4	Maxime Daniel	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
5	Adam Phelan	Drapac Pro Cycling	+ 12

1	Mark Cavendish	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step	25
2	Heinrich Haussler	IAM Cycling	20
3	Matthew Goss	Orica GreenEdge	20

1	Maxime Daniel	AG2R La Mondiale	3h04'54
2	Adam Phelan	Drapac Pro Cycling	+ 4
3	Giacomo Nizzolo	Trek Factory Racing	+ 12

Well. I certainly hoped to finish at least inside the first group, but I have to admit that I was a bit swamped by the pace and the hectic in the last kilometers. Still, the manager said he was content with my domestique duties, and we got our first podium spot. If we manage to form our own sprint train, we might do even better next time.

Tomorrow's the team time trial, a completely new experience for me. Wish me luck!

Ian Butler wrote:
Water bottle duties, that's noble, but I hope he doesn't have to do that for too long.
For me personally, the screens are a bit too bright, the white really dominates the shots. But that's just my opinion

We don't have a time trialing squad here, so the aim is to limit the losses. For me personally, it's the first team time trial ever, so I hope to gather some experience and make the best of it.








MTN - Qhubeka was the first team on the course. They eventually finished rather far back, second to last.




Drapac Pro Cycling surprised with a strong time here. Best time on the intermediate check ...

Team 6 of 16

... but only for a few moments, then Lampre took over. A bit of a surprise, since the team isn't really known for their strong time trialists.




Their time lasted a while until BMC with Slovakian time trialing champion Peter Velits came and crushed it. They also took the provisional best time over the finish line, of course.




Garmin, another favorite for today, couldn't match them. Second place for the time being, 15 seconds behind in the finish.

Team 13 of 16

Trek Factory Racing were only a second behind on the intermediate sprint and towards the finish, it became obvious that those two teams would fight for the stage win today. Eventually, Trek came three seconds short and finished second.




As we feared, we couldn't match the top teams today. Sixth place for us, which is decent, although we hoped for a smaller gap.




Omega Pharma around Mark Cavendish lost the yellow jersey today.

1	BMC Racing Team	15'59
2	Trek Factory Racing	+ 4
3	IAM Cycling	+ 16
4	Garmin Sharp	s.t.
5	Team Saxo Bank	+ 42
6	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
7	Lampre - Merida	+ 51
8	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step Cycling Team	s.t.
9	Drapac Pro Cycling	+ 1'04
10	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	s.t.

1	Brent Bookwalter	BMC Racing Team	3h21'05
2	Alessandro Ballan	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
3	Michael Schär	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
4	Peter Velits	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
5	Manuel Quinziato	BMC Racing Team	s.t.

1	Mark Cavendish	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step	25
2	Heinrich Haussler	IAM Cycling	20
3	Matthew Goss	Orica GreenEdge	20

1	Giacomo Nizzolo	Trek Factory Racing	3h21'09
2	Fabio Silvestre	Trek Factory Racing	+ 0
3	Raymond Kreder	Garmin Sharp	+ 12

Not much to say. It was a very interesting experience for me, very intense, it all went so quickly that I hadn't even the time to worry about doing something wrong. When we were done, I was praised for my performance, so I think I did fine.

Regarding the result, the sixth place is okay, but the 42 seconds were a bit more than we had hoped. Still, Matthew Goss is in reach of a decent overall finish if he continues to grab bonus seconds over the next few days.

That's it for today!