- 2.HC - Tour de Langkawi

Stage 1:

Durbridge wins the prologue in front of Larsson

Stage 2:

Darryl Impey wins the mass sprint. Serikov end up 3rd.

Stage 3:

Miron Serikov wins the stage and takes both sprinters and the leader jersey.

Stage 4:

Koldo Fernandez wins the sprint. Serikov is 4th.

Stage 5:

Second day in a row Fernandez wins the sprint. This time Serikov is 2nd. Serikov is still holding onto the leader and the sprint jersey.

Stage 6:

The only real mountain stage of the tour. Stalder is in top form, but he's the only climber we have in the race, so he'll have to do it on his own.

We still have Serikov in the leaders jersey, and we'll do everything in our power to defend it, or at least defend it so much that he can win it back.

We sent Bertogliati into the breakaway, however he's not gonna lead. The breakaway scoops all sprint points and the sprint jersey should be secured for another day for Serikov.

As we get closer to the final mountain, Stalder feels he has good legs.

A kilometer before the mountain Serikov suffers a puncture. Couldn't have picked a worse time. However he's quickly inside the peloton again.

The break gets caught and Bertogliati is ordered to the front of the peloton. Stalder has golden legs today.

12 kilometers from the top Stalder attacks. It's time to go all out attack if he wants to win the race.

Even though the other riders try to catch up he end up crossing the line with a solo victory!

Feillu and Serpa comes in 2nd and 3rd around a minute after Stalder.

Stalder goes into 1st position overall safe from all sprinters.

Stage 7:

Lloyd Mondory wins the stage, Serikov comes 4th and holds onto the sprinter jersey.

Stage 8:

Lloyd Mondory is the freshest after the mountain stage and wins his second sprint in a row. Serikov is 3rd but looses his sprinter jersey to Kolde Fernandez.

Stage 9:

Serikov takes revenge and wins the stage in front of Impey. He now has an advantage of 3 points in the sprinter competition.

Stage 10:

The ultimate success has been completed.

- 4 stage wins (2xSerikov, Stalder & Durbridge)
- Overall GC (Stalder)
- Moutain ranking (Stalder)
- Sprint rankings (Serikov)

February 2014:

- 2.1 - Giro della Calabria

Marcel Wyss wins a hilly stage 1. Serikov wins stage 2 in a mass sprint and gets the Sprinter jersey. Overall Marcel Wyss wins it in front of Vecchiola and Stalder.

- 2.1 - Volta ao Algarve

Luke Durbridge wins the final stage. A 25 km time trial.


- 2.HC - Tour de Langkawi

See the post above :-)

Conclusion:

The first HC stage race we enter and it's a huge success! besides that some nice wins for Durbridge, Wyss and Serikov.

In the rankings we've already ranked up 712 points and is a clear number 1. Individually Serikov leads with 238.

Transfers:

iakes Eslava also turns out to have limited potential. Thanks for helping me chose guys :-)

Misc:

Dietziker and Bertogliati has decided to retire at the end of the season.

Daryl impey

- 2.1 - Semaine Cycliste International

The Team:

Yannick Podevin - Leader
Ignatas Konovalovas - Free
Hubert Dupont - Free
Rubens Bertogliati - Team mate
Patrick Gretsch - Team mate
Luke Durbridge - Team mate
Jermini Colatrella - Team mate

Our goal:

Yannick Podevin needs to end on the podium. We want a stage win as well.

Stage 1:

Ben Swift wins in the mass sprint. All of our riders preserved energy.

Stage 2:

A hilly stage which is won by young comet Vecchiola. Konovalovas, Bertogliati and Podevin is 1,08" behind.

Stage 3:

A team time trial. We should have a decent shot at it with the riders we selected. We end up 9th?! Gotta stop simming those races.

Stage 4:

Another hilly stage. Podevin seems to have no morale at all ending up 3 minutes behind winner Vecchiola. Our best bet at the moment is Bertogliati. He's 15th overall. Seems like our first goal is gonna fail.

Stage 5:

Eros Capecchi takes the win. Our riders are disappointing us and our best rider is Dupont at 23th. Overall Bertogliati is 17th.

Stage 6:

The Time Trial. We have several good time trialers in this race. Luke Durbridge is the favourite as he comes to the race in top form.

Luke Durbridge absolutely crushes the opposition and end up 31 seconds better than Manuelle Boaro.

Overall our best rider was Konovalovas at 17th

- 2.HC - Trois jours de la Panne

The Team:

Ignatas Konovalovas - Leader
Danilo Wyss - Sprinter
Cameron Meyer - Free
Yannick Podevin - Free
Egon Smet - Team mate
Marcel Wyss - Team mate
Franz Kraehenbuehl - Team mate
Miguel Gentizon - Team mate

Our goal:

Stage win. Possibly a top-10 by either Konovalovas or Podevin. Meyer is only here to get some races in his legs. Konovalovas is in great form so he might fulfill our expectations.

Stage 1:

Konovalovas end up 6th on this hilly stage. The stage was won by Seeldraeyers. All other Swiss Life riders are already ages behind.

Stage 2:

Widely expected to end in a mass sprint it does. Theo Bos wins and all others finished in the same time.

Stage 3:

Another sprint finish as Coen Vermelfoort wins in front of Bos.

Stage 4:

The final stage is a 12 km time trial.

Seeldraeyeers leads in front of Visconti and Ballan. The biggest question is. Can Seeldraeyeers keep Devenyns at 4th behind him. He's 52 sconds behind at the moment.

Konovalovas goal is a stage win and a podium place in the overall GC. He's 1,21" behind Seeldraeyeers so the overall win is gone.

Marcel Wyss sets the best time, but is beaten by a number of riders. Wilco Kelderman sets the best intermediate time at checkpoint 1.

Konovalovas reaches checkpoint 1 in a slow time. He's 11 seconds behind Keldermann.

Konovalovas gives it all the last 5 kilometers but end up 2 seconds behind Kelderman in second position.

As Seeldraeyeers reaches the first time check he's already 20 seconds behind Devenyns. He still have 30 seconds to give. So I guess he's a little more relaxed on the final 5 kilometers.

Seeldraeyeers finish the race and wins the GC with 13 seconds to Devenyns & Konovalovs.

Conclusion

A decent race by the team. Konovalovas at 3rd was above all expectations, however we would have liked a stage win here.

March 2014

Conclusion:

We entered few races in march, the two biggest has been covered by other posts. All in all a good march.

We're still first in the continental ranking. And Serikov is second individually.

Misc:

After undoubtedly his biggest win in his career. Florian Stalder decides to retire at the end of the season.

April 2014

- 2.HC - Giro del Trentino

We got a stage win on the team time trial. Besides that Cameron Meyer entered in surprisingly bad form. Looks like I have to be over him, to get him into shape before his next big race.

- WT - Tour de Romandie

Our team is badly out of shape as we concentrate on the continental races. Boasson hagen owns the race and wins 4 stages and is a runner up on another. On the final stage a 16,1 km time trial, Cameron Meyer ends up 4th afetr being the leader for most of the race.

Overall. Cameron Meyer ends up 21st.

Conclusion:

We're down to second in the continental ranking. Serikov is 8th individually.

May 2014

- 2.HC - 4 jours de Dunkerque

Serikov is in good form and wins stage 3. Due to good results on the other stages as well Serikov wins the sprinter competition. Danilo Wyss is 6th in the GC.

- 2.HC - Tour of Belgium

A lot of decent results. And then to spice things up Meyer and konovalovs ends 2nd and 4th on the final hilly stage. This means Konovalovas ends up 1st in the GC, Meyer is the runner-up.

- 2.HC - Tour of Bavaria

Serikov wins stage 2, 3 and 5 in mass sprints. Thoma wins the time trial in front of Gretsch. Serikov is in incredible form and gets 8th. Swiss Life gets 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the GC. Serikov wins 3 stages, the GC and the sprinters jersey.

Conclusion:

An incredible month for the team! 5 HC stage wins. 2 HC GC wins, and 2 HC sprint jerseys. Our team are heading towards the World Tour!

We now again have a solid lead in the continental ranking. 1454 points. (Ag2r 1008 and Orica 938)

Individually Miron Serikov yet again moves into the lead with 490 points.


Transfers:

Morabito have renewed his contract