Having already told you our schedule, the next logical step is to tell you our goals.

Easy : Stage Win Tirreno Adriatico

Medium: Win Clasica Almeria

Hard: Top 3 Milan San Remo

We feel these goals are all quite challenging, but still possible. Tirreno Adriatico is an important race for us. Many teams will be bringing their best sprinters, but for us it is a season peak. Therefore we are confident that Elia Viviani will deliver us to at least one stage there.

As we said before, many of the bigger teams often leave the Clasica Almeria off their calendars. Hopefully, Sacha Modolo will be able to capitalise on their mistake. Last season he came second many times, this year we hope he can go one better.

Finally, Milan San Remo is the biggest one day race on the calendar. It might not suit us perfectly but we will never have a better opportunity to win a monument, since it is a race sprinters win. Much of this goal depends on luck, whether the attacks work, etc etc. However, as a team we will work as hard as possible to achieve this goal and have a great season part.

The start of the season will be staring very soon, so it is time you guys know what you will be up against in our first 3 races of the season, Gabon, San Luis and Marseilles to be precise.

Tropicale Amissa Bongo

Gediminas Bagdonas
Nicola Boem
Sonny Colbrelli
Marco Coledan
Andrea di Corrado
Massimo Graziato
Martin Kohler
Tom O'Callaghan

This is the first race of the season for many teams, and it is no diferent for us. As we have already said, the stages are more hilly than we would have liked, but there are a few opportunities for a rider who can mix it up in a small sprint. This means Sonny Colbrelli for us. His support is one of the weaker teams we will put out, but even so, we are looking to sneak a stage win somewhere.

Tour de San Luis

Alfreo Balloni
Donato de Ieso
Christian Delle Stelle
Filippo Fortin
Hugo Houle
Sebastian Lander
Sacha Modolo
Alexander Wetterhall

Our next big race is San Luis. We expect quite a big World Tour field, but hopefully many of them will be only looking for the mountains. Sacha Modolo will lead us here but there is a strong support cast, including Fortin and Lander, so we are hoping to challenge for the points jersey. The EPIC ruling body told us to get a stage win, but we are hoping for more.

GP la Marseillaise

Filippo Baggio
Niccolo Bonifazio
Stig Broeckx
Sonny Colbrelli
Massimo Graziato
Martin Kohler
Andrea Pasqualon
Antonio Santoro

Last but not least is the GP Marseillaise. It is a hilly race but there is a chance of a sprinter making it. Sonny Colbrelli is one of our best climbers, and a strong sprinter, so there is no one better to lead us. His support team is a mixture of sprinters and punchers/fighters so we will be up for it whether it is a hard or easy race. It is hard to set a target without knowing how things will go, but a podium here would definitely be achievable.

Our first race of the season was the Tour of Gabon. A quick glance at the startlist and our expectations were dramatically lowered, but even so we got on the plane hoping to shock the world tour teams before they were ready for us.

On stage 1 the big names were definitely shocked, but not by us. The only appearance from the Bardiani boys was Martin Kohler's attempt to get in the breakaway. Our new signing's ride was short lived, but he did pick up a few points and got our jersey out there.

Stage 2 was even better for the team. On paper it was a flat stage, but that's not quite how things turned out. The relentless pace set down by Movistar decimated the peleton. GC riders, punchers and sprinters alike were dropped on the climbs. In the end only 21 riders contested the sprint. Thankfully for us one of these was Sonny Colbrelli. He might not be one of the fastest men in the bunch, but he also isn't bothered by the hills. In the end he sprinted to a good 8th place, behind some world class sprinters. He didn't quite have the team, or the pure power, to win the stage, but we are happy with the performance. Also worthy of note is Nicola Boem, who rode in the first breakaway of the day.

On stage three our best rider was again Martin Kohler. He got in the breakaway. It was the winning breakaway, but not for Martin. Luck just wasn't on our side in the end, and he was caught by the favourites. 18th is still a decent result, but it could have been more. Behind Martin, things weren't going any better. Sonny Colbrelli was one of many riders caught out by the peleton's high speed. However, the general classification was never really our aim, so it was more helpful to have an opportunity to attack in the later stages.

However on stage 4 we were largely anonymous. It was a flat stage, but we decided to rest Sonny until he could maybe sneak a podium in a later stage. Unfortunately, the next two stages were similarly poor for us. Breakaways won both times and there was no point sprinting attacking for small prizes. Andrea di Corrado did get in the break on the final stage, but he wasn't able to give us one last hurrah..

In summary, this wasn't a great tour for the team. Sonny was unable to spring a surprise, and we never really succeeded from the breakaway. However, we had expected as much. The field was just too strong for us, with a lot of top riders wanting to test their legs, especially considering the Tour Down Under is just around the corner. Hopefully we will have better luck in Argentina.

Hello again everyone. As I speak the Bardiani boys are partying away the evening here in Qatar, though no alcoholic drinks are allowed of course! The reason, of course, is that Massimo Graziato has recorded our first win of the season, on stage 4 of the Tour of Qatar. Considering we are a sprinters team, some of you might be surprised to hear that the win came from a breakaway on a flat stage.

In the end, it was a close run thing. As you can see in the picture above, Massimo narrowly edged out his breakaway companions, including Androni rider Yukiya Arashiro. This is a great day for the team, especially considering Massmo is a new addition to the Bardiani line up. Hopefully the boys won't stay up too late tonight, as we hope for more success in the next few stages, be that from the breakaway or in the sprints.

For more information on this particular stage, and the race as a whole, watch out for our summary of the race.

Normally, Qatar is a sprinting festival of the fastest men on wheels. What it lacks in hills, variation and overall excitement, it makes up for in paying for lots of big names to turn up. Not this year. We sent Fabian Brookes to Qatar hoping to get a stage win, having seen the startlist, it looked like more was possible.

Unfortunately, on stage 1, Fabian was very disappointing. Despite being in a good position throughout the stage, and one of the best sprinters in the race, he only managed 6th place. This was far below our expectations, especially considering the riders who beat him.

Stage 2 was equally disappointing. Having already shown our ineptitude the previous stage, we were not expected to chase. Unfortunately, the boys also didn't feel the need to form a lead out train, or quite frankly, do anything. Fabian Brookes still sprinted to 7th place, but we all know this too is far below his capabilities.

Stage 3 was the time trial stage. Historically, we are not good at time trials, and the tradition continued this year. Our best performer was Gediminas Bagdonas, who finished in 11th, beating some decent time trial riders as well. However, as a team, it was poor, but no less than expected.

Stage 4 was our best result of the year so far. If you have read the previous posts you will already know what happened, but here is a quick reminder anyway. Our new signing Massimo Graziato took it upon himself to get into the breakaway. Many other riders clearly had similar thoughts, as it ended up being a huge breakaway. That combined with the fact Sky were clearly only interested in defending Edvald Boasson Hagen's jersey, meant that the breakaway quickly built up a huge advantage. Seeing the breakaway was a winning one, many of the weaker sprinters in the group tried to attack and leave their fellow escapees behind. However, together with the remaining riders Massimo reeled in the attackers, and prepared for the final sprint. In the last few kilometres he slipstreamed Yukiya Arashiro and then sprinted past him to take our first win of the season, we couldn't have been happier for Massimo and all the team.

Unfortunately for us, the rose water parties were a bit too crazy for the boys, and they weren't able to perform to the same level on stage 5 or 6. Fabian was caught out by the wind and the high pace, and ended up in 75th place, our best finisher on stage 5. Alexander Wetterhall got in the break on stage 6, but it came to nothing. By the time he rejoined the peleton the entire rest of our team had already been dropped, so he was also our best finisher, in 35th.

Overall, this tour was quite disappointing. We came into the race with one of the best sprinters and one of the best lead out trains. To not even have contested the sprint on three seperate stages is unacceptable. We understand the wind was an issue, but all of the other top sprinters seemed unaffected. Before the next races our riders will have spent a lot of time in the wind riding on the flat, as it seems to have effected us badly in Qatar. The only good performance of this race was that of Massimo Graziato. He won a stage, and was our best performer in the general classification, finishing 36th, 11:20 down. He was also our best rider in the points classification, finishing 9th with 15 points. Hopefully he can continue his form into his next races of the early season.

Since we last gave you our startlists, several races have started, and many have finished, though none to our satisfaction. However, the time has come to reveal what squads we will send to the next few races and what we expect.

Tour of Oman

Filippo Baggio
Alfredo Balloni
Niccolo Bonifazio
Stig Broeckx
Marco Canola
Elia Favilli
Tom O'Callaghan
Elia Viviani

The Tour of Oman is our second race in the middle east, and we will be hoping for much better results. Our leader here is Elia Viviani, who will be starting his first race. Hopefully he will hit the ground running as he prepares for the big goals of his season. We will be looking to get at keast a podium on a stage, but a stage win should be possible depending on the startlist.

Volta ao Algarve

Gediminas Bagdonas
Nicola Boem
Marco Coledan
Donato De Ieso
Christian Delle Stelle
Andrea Di Corrado
Massimo Graziato
Martin Kohler

While our team is racing in Qatar, we will send another squad to Portugal for the Volta ao Algarve. We have been told to target a good general classification finish here, so hopefully none of the other teams turn up, or else we have little chance! Gediminas Bagdonas is our leader, as a decent sprinter and a decent climber he might have a chance of getting a top 10 on a stage or 2. Interestingly this also sees the return of Massimo Graziato, our hero from Qatar. He has as much chance as anyone of fulfilling our goal.

Tour de Langkawai

Filippo Baggio
Alfredo Balloni
Niccolo Bonifazio
Stig Broeckx
Fabian Brookes
Andrea Piechele
Nicola Ruffoni
Antonio Santoro

Our final race of this preview is in Malaysia. It is the second race for Fabian Brookes. Thankfully his arch nemesis the wind has not shown signs of being on the startlist. There are plenty of flat stages for him to compete for, and we have high hopes. In our eyes, there is definitely the possibility of multiple stage wins or a points jersey.

Today, we are happy to announce that our team in Oman has brought back another win for Bardiani. It seems the middle east is our lucky charm, as both of our victories have been recorded here. However, while Qatar disappointed, Oman has certainly started with a bang. Our second victory, like the first, came from the breakaway, here is the story of how it happened.

Niccolo Bonifazio was our man for the breakaway on stage 1. His main purpose there was to force the other sprinters teams to chase, but of course in the back of our minds there was a small hope for glory. His breakaway stuck, and Niccolo did some work on the front to make sure things stayed that way. Having had a quick glance around, he was one of the strongest riders there, giving him the perfect opportunity to work for himself.

With just a few kilometres left, the peleton was bearing down, so Niccolo attacked off the front of the group together with Pyroli Feunard. In the end he had just enough kick to beat Pyroli, and the two of them were the only breakaway members who held off the charging peleton, head home by Arnaud Demare. We at Bardiani are delighted with the result, as it showed great cunning from Niccolo to get a result for the team even though Elia was caught out in the main peleton. Some people say that a stage win from the breakaway for us is poor, but having two stage wins already so early on in the season is a results very few teams can match.

The long awaited french one day classic was an exciting race for us, even if many of the other teams left Marseilles feeling disappointed. Its hilly course with a flat finish meant even before the start no one was quite sure what to expect. Some teams, such as Belkin, sent sprint teams, others sent their punchers, while we opted for a bit of both in Sonny Colbrelli.

Another option for the victory was the breakaway. Despite all the teams being aware of this, a strong group was let go, which held a stable advantage, even when there were just over 30km left. At this point, Sonny took his chance to attack. We knew there were better sprinters in the group, and if it came down to the punchers we had no chance. Our only option was to try and get some distance between Sonny and the peleton before the final descent.

Sonny caught the breakaway with 27km left. However, before he could recover the group was ripped apart by an attack from Juan Manuel Garate. Just after the group was caught by the peleton, leaving only Garate out front. In the end he took the victory, and the places behind were taken by a mix of breakaway riders and team leaders. Sonny could not quite keep up with the other riders, but still finished strongly in 9th, in front of some great riders. Overall, it was a promising result from us, as many stronger riders were beaten and it showed some clever tactical riding from Sonny.

The Tour of Oman started off well for Bardiani, unfortunately the form could not be continued into the next few stages. Niccolo Bonifazio's stage win on stage 1 put us in a good position, but Elia Viviani's sprints never really showed the true power we are used to. Many other top sprinters were there, and the race featured some difficult gradients, but even so the actual sprinting in this race was disappointing

Unfortunately stage 2 was never going to be one for Elia Viviani to win. In the end he couldn't handle the hills and his being dropped was no surprise. Even so it was a good sight to see the Bardiani riders on the front of the peleton, even if they were riding to the benefit of Astana. Stage 3 was also disappointing. The finish was challenging, but not beyond Viviani's capabilities. Despite being in a good position for the sprint he only managed 14th.

Stage 4 was uneventful, as expected, considering it was a mountain stage. Stage 5 too was far too hilly. However, despite being hilly, stage 6 was far better for us. Elia Favilli survived the hills and sprinted to 9th place. For a terrain which is normally poor for us, 9th was a good result.

Despite the strong performances on the first and last stages, our Tour of Oman was slightly disappointing. Elia Viviani cannot be blamed for our poor results, since very few of the race finishes suited him well enough to win stages. A stage win was a very strong result from this race, even if it did not come in the usual fashion.

The Malaysian race was a very important race for us, and it suited us well. Multiple pan flat stages in a race which is often forgotten by the big world tour teams due to its big race day cost. As such we were one of the the strongest outfits there, and although we had no overall contender, our hopes were high for a good finish in the points classification. Our lead sprinter in Malaysia was Fabian Brookes.

Stage 1 was a solid if not spectacular start to the tour. The team kept everything under control, including the breakaway, meaning the top placings were solely for the top sprinters. Fabian had a good lead out and delivered a good sprint, but it was just not quite enough. For the last few hundred metres he was locked into a duel with Barry Markus of AG2R. Unfortunately Fabian cracked first and had to settle for second place. Even so we were happy with this result, as it showed Fabian had recovered his sprinting legs after the disaster in Qatar.

Stage 2 was very similar to stage 1, in that it was strong, but didn't end as well as it could have done for us. Our team controlled the race well, and again, we had a very strong lead out train. Nicola Ruffoni in particular gave an outstanding lead out for an extended period of time. Unfortunately his lead out was almost too good, as by the time he pulled off Fabian no longer had time to get up to the speed and was again beaten by Markus. In fact he had to settle for 3rd in the end, which was still a strong result, though again it could have been more.

Stig Broeckx got in the breakaway on stage 3, but the mountains aren't his speciality, and in the end he could not stay with the group. On stage 4 Brookes was again pipped to the line by Markus, but only just. His second place was good, especially considering the chaotic nature of the sprint, but it could have been much more. Despite being mountainous, stage 5 was a good stage for us. Alfredo Balloni held on for a top 10 spot, ahead of climbers who were much stronger on paper.

Stage 6 was more disappointing. None of the teams committed to chasing the breakaway, and in the end we were beaten. However, so were the other main sprinting teams. In the end this was a disappointment, as by this point all hopes of the points jersey were gone, and you can't get a stage win if the breakaway wins. Stage 7 reverted to the general pattern, with Fabian again being unlucky in the sprint. He still made it onto the podium though, which helped his strong position in the points competition.

Stage 8 was very interesting for the team, as it involved a serious lack of communication and a big tactical oversight. Despite the breakaway being a long way up the road, we pushed very hard along for the last few kilometres. This did not achieve much except dropping Alfredo Balloni, who was in a good GC place. Thankfully Fabian won the sprint, but it was for 5th place. If the chasing was earlier and less intense, this could have been a great stage for us, instead it was a shambles.

On stage 9 our chasing was again not up to standard. This time it was too lax, and the breakaway was successful again. Unfortunately, Fabian beat Markus and Howard again, making us wonder what could have been. The final stage was one for the sprinters as well. Fabian seemed to forget his previous form though and came 3rd again.

Overall the Tour went well for the team. We secured multiple podiums and showed that we are a true sprinters team, not just a team with sprinters. However, we will also leave Langkawai with a slight twinge of disappointment. Fabian was the strongest sprint on paper in Malaysia, yet we failed to secure a single stage win, never mind the points jersey.

This Spanish classic was one of our biggest goals for this season part. Its flat terrain made it perfect for us, as it gave us the opportunity to challenge for a classic win, which we cannot always do. Sacha Modolo was our leader for the race. He is a strong sprinter, and was easily strong enough to handle the hills.

The race was uneventful for us until the last few kilometres. Sacha attached himself to Alexander Kristoff's wheel for the finale. It proved the right choice as the Katusha train was very strong. Even so, Kristoff chose to launch his sprint early, not wanting to be caught out by someone with quicker acceleration. In the end he had started up far too early on, and ended up leading out Sacha.

This put Modolo in a fantastic position to capitalise. He sprinted very well, and held off all the pack bar one, the world's fastest sprinter, Marcel Kittel. Sacha was disappointed not to get the victory we wanted, but for us, this was a great race. The field was so strong that to finish on the podium is an incredible achievement. He raced well, and even if his sprint was not the strongest he showed the tactical awareness we have been lacking in recent races. This meant we left Almeria happy with our performance.

This Belgian one day race is the only cobbled race we plan to enter this year. However, since we are not much of a force on the cobblestones, we picked Nokere for a reason. Its small minor cobbled sections made it still likely we could control the race and take it in a sprint. Our leader, Elia Viviani is adept at handling the cobblestones, but we also brought Elia Favilli in case the race was more selective than expected.

For extra reassurance, we also sent Massimo Graziato into the breakaway. Fresh off of his success in Qatar he had the skills and the fighting spirit to stay in the breakaway and perhaps even challenge for a win. Thankfully for us we had made the right call. The breakaway quickly gained a large advantage over the peleton. Meanwhile Elia and Elia were struggling to keep up with the peleton due to the large number of attacks by the big cobbles riders.

Massimo found himself in the front group for the finale. Claeys and Soupe in particular were both strong sprinters as well though, making it hard for him to surprise them. In the end he didn't have to, late attacks forced Soupe onto the offensive, but despite Massimo's best efforts he couldn't get around the other two and had to settle for 3rd.

3rd is an incredible result for the team, particularly on a terrain we do not normally excel on. Massimo is quickly becoming one of our highest points scorers, his tactical knowledge and determination let him pick up our first stage win of the season, and in Belgium he has secured us another podium. In summary, this was another good race for the team.

Our second race of the season was the Tour of San Luis, in Argentina. It was a race many teams weren't bothered about, and those that did were mostly focused on GC. For the sprints, our main competitor was Peter Sagan, so really, that meant all we could manage was a few podiums. In order to get that there were several other second rate sprinters to beat though. Our leader here was Sacha Modolo, so we were hoping he could spring a few surprises.

However, stage 1 didn't go well for us. We did a lot of chasing, and were one of the dominant lead out trains. This put Sacha in a great place to capitalise and perhaps even challenge Sagan. However, his legs clearly weren't up to the task, and he fell back rather than charging forward, finishing up in 8th place. This was far below our expectations. It seems Sacha just wasn't fully prepared for the beginning of his year, but even so, this was a disappointing day for the team.

Stage 2 showed slightly more promise, but the results were no better. Our team was hard at work all day, but after a lot of riding it became painfully apparent that we were the only team willing to do any work. We pulled back most of the breakaway, but it meant our lead out train was severely weakened before it even begun. The tired heads of our riders must have gotten confused as well, as they lost track of Sacha in the bunch and led out Filippo instead. In the end a breakaway rider won, but we still could have done without the chaos in our lead out. Filippo managed a creditable 9th, Sacha came out of nowhere to come 6th. It just goes to show how well we could have done if the two of them worked together.

Unfortunately stage 3 was a no show. It was perhaps not surprising since it was the first foray into the mountains, but even so a breakaway would have been nice. The riders instead chose to preserve their energy for the later sprint stages, which was perhaps a good idea. The time trial stage was also predictably poor. In fact, the rest of the race for us was very average. Overall the team utterly failed to perform in Argentina. Sacha could not get his sprint team working well for him. None of our riders featured in any classification, so we came out of the race disappointed.