Seasons

2013 - Learning the Ropes

2014 - Climbing The Food Chain

2015 - The Knockout Blow?

2016 - On the Quest Of Greatness!

2017 - Cementing Their Place at The Top.

Results

1	John Degenkolb	Team Giant - Shimano	5h30'35
2	Zdenek Stybar	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	s.t.
3	Bradley Wiggins	Lotto Belisol	+ 59
4	Greg van Avermaet	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
5	Dries Devenyns	Team Giant - Shimano	+ 1'58
6	Edvald Boasson Hagen	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.
7	Yohan Offredo	FDJ.fr	+ 2'47
8	Björn Leukemans	Wanty - Groupe Gobert	s.t.
9	Fabian Cancellara	Trek Factory Racing	+ 3'19
10	Niki Terpstra	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	+ 4'11
18	Simon Yates	Lotto Belisol	+ 9'20

Results

1	Tom Boonen	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	6h22'51
2	Sep Vanmarcke	Belkin-Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
3	Zdenek Stybar	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	+ 39
4	Tony Gallopin	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
5	John Degenkolb	Team Giant - Shimano	+ 1'43
6	Greg van Avermaet	BMC Racing Team	+ 2'29
7	Geraint Thomas	Team Sky	+ 2'53
8	Simon Yates	Lotto Belisol	+ 3'22
9	Nikolas Maes	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	+ 4'20
10	Robert Wagner	Belkin-Pro Cycling Team	s.t.

Adam Yates told journalists yesterday that he and brother Adam are upset about their treatment at Lotto Belisol telling journalists that, We signed with Lotto after being promised to be absolute team leaders at any races we chose, however after we signed they signed Contador, Wiggins, Pinot and Bardet, which wasn't part of our plan as we wanted to make sure that he team brought in some of our chosen domestiques like Mikel Nieve, but that didn't happen, so at the moment our lawyers are debating whether to sue Lotto for a breech of conract, but I know for a fact that we wont be here next year as there are already a number of offers on the table that we are interested in, although i'm not going to say yet as I still race for Lotto and if there is a big change then there may be a chance that we stay, but it would mean that Contador and Wiggins would have to leave or we can't ride for the team. Yates looked serious and annoyed when speaking his mind to journalists, finishing the interview by saying, I know that this isn't a great thing to say before a race, but I want Lotto to know and I want to let other teams know that we are available to sign for next year. The other riders in the room seemed to understand the viewpoint of Yates, as the Lotto team is unbelievably strong after a big budget pay day for the team from the sponsors allowed them to go crazy in the transfer market.

The first stage of the race finished in the way that everyone expected as it came home into a sprint with Giant Shimano prefectly setting up Tom Veelers for the victory meaning he takes the first leaders jersey of the race, he was follwed home by Gianni Meersman (OPQS) and Matteo Trentin (Lotto).



Gianni Meersman took revenge on Veelers after easily taking the sprint victory on stage 2 of the Tour of Turkey. The stage started in a relaxed way as a group of 3 riders went away early, however Giant had the race under control and they were caught with 10 kilometres to go, however going under the flamme rouge Omega Pharma jumped them with Trentin and Meersman in attendance with Steegmans providing Meersman with the final lead out as Trentin wa sunable to pass the flying Belgian, with Veelers fighting home for third, meaning that Trentin takes the GC going into tomorrows mountains stage.





The race started with the rider immediately faced with a climb, however it was Lotto that took it on and as a slight increase in pace caused Yates and two teammates to leave the bunch behind with only Robson Chalapud for company, they immediately pulled out a 1 minute gap on the bunch and worked hard to stay away. However they were caught on the decsent and the bunch settled down until the next climb. The group then stayed together until the final climb, where Lotto killed the pace, however Yates faltered and Duarte took a superb solo stage win after a late attack to distance the field.



Matti Breschel put in a solid performance as he ought hard to stay with the climbers as the hill parcours cause problems for the sprinters. Breschel came home with 10 other riders, with Magnus Cort following him home in second place, the group also included Duarte and Yates. However the star of the stage was Moreno Moser who was caught with only 50 metres to go after spending the whole day in the break.



Today was quite a simple stage, the break went away, Giant chased and brought it back then they showed how they are the best lead out team in the pro peloton as they led Veelers out perfectly, however a flying Ben Swift fought his way to 2nd place after being in the middle of the bunch with 1 kilometre to go and overtook most of the bunch in the final few metres, showing he has some superb form at the moment.



The Lotto team set their riders up perfectly as Bradley Wiggins showed his superb form at the moment as he took the stage win as Yates managed to take GC lead off Duarte, after Duarte was gapped by 31 seconds on the final steep climb, meaning Yates goes into the final two stages with a 9 second lead. However Wiggins' ride was absolutely spectacular as he powered up the climb with Yates clinging to his back wheel for grim death as he suffered up the short punchy climb to the finish, it follows Yates's outburst at the press conference proving that the Lotto team is overpowered.



After fighting for the wins in every sprint this week without a train, this time he was set up perfectly by teammates, Eisel and Van Der Sande, meaning all Swift had to do to get the win was move off the wheel of his flying teammates. However Giant showed there strength in depth as Ramon Sinkeldam took second place with Trentin 3rd.





The final stage started off as expected with the break going away early featuring a rider from most of the main teams, including Kudus of Lotto. However with 15 kilometres to go the break was cuaght and it was Lotto that took it on with Wiggins and Yates working to lead out Trentin and going into the final kilometre they were clear from the rest, however Trentin was pipped to second as a flying Meersman came from behind to take the win. That meant Yates took the GC win after a strong week of racing, which bodes well for the upcoming Giro.

Stage 8 Results

1	Gianni Meersman	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	2h21'33
2	Matteo Trentin	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
3	Kenny Dehaes	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
4	Tony Gallopin	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
5	Adam Yates	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
6	Bradley Wiggins	Lotto Belisol	+ 51
7	Ben Swift	Team Sky	s.t.
8	Bernhard Eisel	Team Sky	s.t.
9	Edwin �vila	Colombia	s.t.
10	Fabio Taborre	Neri Sottoli	s.t.

GC

1	Adam Yates	Lotto Belisol	26h48'38
2	Fabio Duarte	MTN - Qhubeka	+ 1'00
3	Warren Barguil	Team Giant - Shimano	+ 1'30
4	Wout Poels	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	+ 1'51
5	Giampaolo Caruso	Team Katusha	+ 1'57
6	Damiano Caruso	Cannondale	+ 2'17
7	Davide Formolo	Cannondale	+ 2'23
8	Michael Rogers	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 2'39
9	Bradley Wiggins	Lotto Belisol	+ 2'53
10	Jan Bakelants	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	+ 3'29

Points

1	Matteo Trentin	Lotto Belisol	14	73
2	Gianni Meersman	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	15	72
3	Ben Swift	Team Sky	9	60

KoM

1	Adam Yates	Lotto Belisol	0	17
2	Bradley Wiggins	Lotto Belisol	0	17
3	Warren Barguil	Team Giant - Shimano	0	15

Young Rider

1	Matteo Trentin	Lotto Belisol	+ 2h21'33	+ 21'33 (12)
2	Adam Yates	Lotto Belisol	s.t.	26h48'38 (1)
3	Edwin �vila	Colombia	+ 2h22'24	+ 33'38 (18)
4	Warren Barguil	Team Giant - Shimano	s.t.	+ 1'30 (2)
5	Nicola Boem	Bardiani CSF	s.t.	+ 23'19 (15)

Team

1	Lotto Belisol	7h04'39	80h32'36 (1)
2	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	+ 1'42	+ 2'50 (3)
3	Cannondale	+ 2'33	+ 1'51 (2)

Adam Yates seemed subdued and thoughtful as he answered questions before the start of this years Giro d'Italia, it seemed the young rider had been spoken to as he didn't seem his normal bubbly self, however team mate Brad Wiggins seemed excite and keen to race as the Belgian team field one of the strongest teams ever seen in a Grand Tour with a number of potential GC winners. The Young Briton spoke about his recent win at the Tour of Turkey and his hopes for the race saying, "There's a number of strong riders here who are trying to win the GC, and I hope that I cn be up there, but the Giro has always been hard for me especially last year, but hopefully I can ride like I did at the Vuelta and take the win. However I know that if I falter then the team will be still up there with Thibaut, Pete and Brad who could all win the race overall."

The Lotto team fought there way to victory in the opening team time trial as there power showed as they put 17 seconds into BMC who were 2nd over the 19 kilometre course, however it was almost expected of a team that contains great time triallers in Wiggins, Yates and Kennaugh. However it was Wiggins who crossed the line first and with it took the first leaders jersey, to cap a great start of the season including his 3rd at the Tour of Flanders, and stage win in Turkey.



Marcel Kittel took his first win of the Giro as he won the sprint on stage 2 of the race fighting off Mark Cavendish, as his Giant team did all of the work on the front of the peloton to reel in the 4 man break, that contained Bob Jungels, Talor Phinney and Luca Paolini. In the final few kilometres Omega Pharma took over the pace making however with 1 kilometre to go Giant jumped down the inside going into the final bend, and from then on it seemed Kittel was certain of victory.



It was Alexander Kristoff that took the win today over a lumpy 3rd stage of the race, after a 4th category climb close to the finish broke up the Giant train, and meant that Marcel Kittel found himself without teammates going into the final kilometre, after Katusha's tactics worked perfectly for their man Kristoff, as Paolini attacked over the 4th category climb forcing Giant to use thire riders giving Kristoff an easy ride to the finish. Mark Cavendish came home for 2nd with Kittel 3rd. However Caleb Ewan's 13th meant he took over the race lead from Bradley Wiggins.



Mark Cavendish took victory in yet another sprint stage, what more needs to be said.



Bradley Wiggins took the victory as the favourites for the final victory came to the fore, Wiggins won after a late attack allowed him to steal a march on the field as he took the win with his teammate Yates coming home 9 seconds back as Lotto showed there strength with 3 riders in the main bunch of favourites. It means Wiggins leads the race with Yates second and Meintjes 3rd. However the shock was the Vincenzo Nibali lost time to Yates, as Cadel Evans finished in the bunch of favourites to put himself in a handy position going into the mountains in the days to come.



Orica Greenedge set their ardennes classic rider up perfectly as he breezed to victory ahead of Team Skys in form sprinter Ben Swift, with Wiggins and Yates finishing in 4th and 5th to maintain there 1st and 2nd overall. The Orica team worked all day to chase down the break of Acevedo, Bakelant and Kiserlovski and they were caught as they hit the foot of the final climb and Daryl Impey kicked hard to set up Matthews causing the bunch to split to pieces on the climb, however none of the favourites were effected by the split.





The first mountain stage of any race can always be a strange thing and this years proved to be another proof of that theory as the Lotto team immediately split the race up on the first climb of the day pulling out a 4 minute gap before the summit of the climb with Nibali's Astana team not committing fully to the chase and no other teams interested in chasing the gap down. So with the Lotto team in a group of 6 with no other riders from other teams it seemed the stage was perfectly suited to them. Then with 20 kilometres to go the gap was down to 2 minutes and there was 5 riders left after Kennaugh crashed on the descent to the foot of the final climb. However there was no coming back for Nibali and Yates took the stage with almost 2 minutes advantage on Nibali meaning he takes nearly a 2 minute and a half lead into the second week of the race.

GC After Stage 7

1	Adam Yates	Lotto Belisol	25h26'01
2	Bradley Wiggins	Lotto Belisol	+ 2'31
3	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana Pro Team	+ 2'33
4	Peter Kennaugh	Lotto Belisol	+ 4'03
5	Thibaut Pinot	Lotto Belisol	+ 4'05
6	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	+ 4'10
7	Leopold König	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 4'14
8	Ryder Hesjedal	Garmin Sharp	+ 4'19
9	Fabio Aru	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
10	Fabio Duarte	MTN - Qhubeka	+ 4'21

Young Rider

1	Adam Yates	Lotto Belisol	+ 2h34'26	25h26'01 (1)
2	Thibaut Pinot	Lotto Belisol	+ 2h37'02	+ 4'05 (3)
3	Rafal Majka	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 2h37'15	+ 5'24 (7)
4	Peter Kennaugh	Lotto Belisol	s.t.	+ 4'03 (2)
5	Fabio Aru	Astana Pro Team	s.t.	+ 4'19 (4)

Team

1	Lotto Belisol	7h48'30	75h37'22 (1)
2	Astana Pro Team	+ 5'10	+ 7'24 (2)
3	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 6'03	+ 8'59 (3)
4	Belkin-Pro Cycling Team	+ 10'26	+ 15'01 (4)
5	Garmin Sharp	+ 16'19	+ 18'54 (5)

JoeArmstrong13 wrote:
Wiggins won after a late attack

jandal7 wrote:



It was a time trial, we all can see that. Please don't insult my intelligence.

Interviewer: So I'm joined today with the race's overall leader Adam Yates, thank you for joining me Adam

Adam Yates: It's my pleasure

So you've made it to the first rest day with the GC lead how do you feel?

I'm quite suprised to be honest as I have been struggling for form recently, so its nice to see that it was just in my head as my legs have been strong and I mean to win yesterdays stage was something I wasn't expecting and to gain over a minute on my closest rivals was a big bonus for me, and it was good to see the team work completely for me, and we saw that when they do I repay them with the win, to be honest I was suprised that Brd was so keen to commit to me especially when he was leading the race, but that was good for my mental health.

So of course you mentioned your team showed it's strength yesterday, What do you think you can get out of the race?

Well I think I can win the overall, and as we saw in the past few years that means I could win the points jersey, and it would be a dream to do the KoM, Points and GC triple, but of course I'm still going for the Young riders jersey, and I think that would be an absolute record so for sure that's in the back of my mind. I mean anything could happen but we've got four guys up there on GC, so we should be able to win the race overall, and then I think I still have a couple of stage wins in me as well.

So it seems you want to dominate the race?#

Well to be honest we have brought as strong a team as we could here so that shows in the way we are riding as we are here to win and to win big, the management are thinking we could get all the podium spots and all the jerseys, so I think that would show our intentions, but there is a lot of in fighting between riders at the moment.

Well of course in your pre race press conference you mentioned this, so how has it been so far?

Well I've managed to stay out of it as I try to keep away from it all, but this isn't a harmonious team, on the road we are but off it we are rivals. I dont like that so as I said I wont be here next year, but I've got to ignore that and focus on my own race as this is my chance to prove the management wrong and to show other teams that I can win the big races.

So where do you see yourself next year?

Well I can't really tell you, but there are a couple of rumored new teams starting up that sound very interesting, but there is a couple of maybe smaller teams that are also interested in hiring me and I know that if me and Simon went there we would be the team leaders. To be honest I want to find a team that is willing to only sign the riders we want, so I think MTN looks an interesting team as it would allow us to link up with Eddy Boss and they are starting to show their strength, but there are other teams that have contacted me, and MTN haven't yet offered anything, but I'm hoping they do. We've also been in talks with Sean Yates about a new British team that he wants us to lead, but that's all that I've been told, then there's the rumour that Bob Stapelton is trying to revive his teams of the past and get a sponsor on board as he's told the media that he's missed the cycling environment and he wants back in, so I think if he was to ask we would say yes for the right terms even if it meant we had to drop to the Pro Continental rankings.

I'm sorry but I have to ask your views on the Nibali and Astana affair?

Well I saw this question coming, but all I'm going to say is this, I'm very upset to hear that there is still doping in the sport, but to be honest it doesn't surprise me. I've always had my suspicsions about Astana and doping, and that's why we didn't go in our first year when they wanted to sign us at any cost, as we knew it wasn't right for us. In terms of myself it has no efect as I would never dope I've been raised in the brtish system, where we have always been told of other ways to gain benefits without doping, like a strange thing called TRAINING HARDER! Although I think it's good that the dopers get caught, but I am also very happy about the new lifetime bans that the UCI has introduced as it will mean less people will dope. I mean it's a shame to see them leave the race as they are a strong team and Nibali was one of my main rivals, but they deserve everything they get and he is a disgrace to the sport with the way he has behaved and what he has done, so yeah I just cant believe it.

Thanks Adam that's all my questions

Ok and I'm always open to comment on any of your questions.

Adam Yates everybody what a great guy, and we all wish you the best of luck for the rest of the race.

Thanks Mate.

John Degenkolb took a sensational sprint victory after his Giant team set him up perfectly for the win, after a perfect lead out by Marcel Kittel that saw Degenkolb released with 100 metres to go with a 5 bike length lead, with Kittel being able to celebrate and still get home for third place after Heinrich Haussler sprinted around him in the final few metres. However Degenkolb's win was overshadowed by the story of Astana's expulsion from world cycling after the UCI today announced that they would give life time bans to all riders on the team and immediately grant a world tour license to MTN Qhubeka, the news came after the revelation of yesterday's rest day as Vincenzo Nibali was thrown off the race following the release of the Astana Report in which it tells us that the Astana team were all subject to a doping programme organised by the team management and implicated by Michele Ferrari, the investigation found that Vincenzo Nibali was among the riders that were given horse's blood before the 2014 Tour De France among a long, long list of other offences, Adam Yates told reporters yesterday, "I think it's sickening what they did and I'm glad there out of the sport, sure its annoying because it cast us into don't but I know I haven't done any of that shit, so I know I'm safe.





The race began today under a fast pace with a number of riders trying to get in the break, including King of The Mountains Leader Teo Geoghegan Hart. Then when the race hit the climb of Etna for the first time the Lotto team pounced and immediately shrunk the group to 30 riders with Thibaut Pinot then attacking over the top of the climb and building up a 2 minute lead over the Yates group, however with 13 kilometres to go Duarte and Yates attacked and immediately started to pull away from the group of favoruites, who began to look at each other, Yates then attacked Duarte and soloed to the finish, however it was Geoghegan Hart that took the stage win after a superb ride, which saw him move up to second overall as Lotto took all of the top 3 riders on the GC



You could tell today that it was the day after a hard stage as the bunch didn't care about the break, with the two riders who went away early on in the stage managing to stay away until the finish as the bunch took an unofficial rest day. In the finale it was Kolobnev that took the win ahead of Jerome of Europcar, with Cavendish leading the bunch home a minute behind.



Robert Gesink took a surprising win as he was the strongest rider of the leading group of 3 on the final climb, which also included 3rd placed rider Bradley Wiggins. Gesink followed the attack of Wiggins with only 20 kilometres to go and from then on the bunch didn't seem to want to chase as race leader Adam Yates came home 43 seconds back as the GC remained unchanged.



Damien Gaudin took the win as the break stayed away on another flat and featureless stage. Race leader Adam Yates came home in the belly of the pack as Mark Cavendish led the bunch home, as he starts to prepare for tomorrows mountains stage as he looks comfortable at the top of the GC.