Glad I didn't see it: I would have been devasted to see first see the hint of such large support and then be bummed out by the 40x post. Thanks for the comment though, Schleck Fan!
And thanks for cleaning up tsmoha. I see you put your admin powers to good use.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
We can't decide where to place our racing in Argentinia. The Tour de San Luis had to live with little expectations in the first place, and whilst our guys were certainly happy with going into breakaway, the letdown of a failed stage win (primarily by Tennant) and the unnecessarcy time loss of Belmokthar, which saw him drop out of Top 15 way down to obscure 50th place regions, makes the Tour de San Luis a tough race to swallow.
The adventure in South America didn't start half bad though. Cooper and Muhlberger were featured in the BOTD each on a day, Belmokthar than most notably hang on for a good GC placing in the first decisive stage on the third day. Whilst our Algerian workhorse did a very decent Time Trial, he kept himself up there the next day, just to lose it all on a mountain stage, when - from the feelings of it - half the peloton did a better job than us strava guys at climbing that godawful mountain..
So, indeed it has become apparent that our weakness is the lack of mountaineous climbing in our department. Still, this is no excuse for the abysmal time trial by Tennant. Tipped as the strongest Time Trialist in the entire CT and certainly an outspoken favourite for this race, the british man from the Track disappointed us once again after his failed prologue in Benelux Challenge. Tennant was obviously not happy with his performance either; as a result, he spent the next two days in mountain regions on a breakaway quest for.. tv time, anything different can't really explain the effort he put in. Because he certainly wasn't riding for a stage win there with his lack of climbing legs.
Sebastien Einsle at least showed us on th last day how a BOTD is to be pulled off. The man from Luxembourg is a specialist for having a nose for the right break, and has he joined the fellow breakawayees that day, who would have thought that a breakaway managed to stick on the end on such a flat day of racing. But Einsle did it, unfortunately he missed out to Mager in the sprint of the two. It was a fight and we are glad that Einsle wanted to win in the first place and kept on riding, despite the peloton coming from behind. In risking it to win, he gained still a second place.
Mager and Einsle slipping away
Mager stretching his muscles as victory pose, whilst Einsle takes second
Muhlberger trying his luck on the second day in the BOTD
Congratulations go to Alpina - Avianca, who can celebrate their first GC win of the season. Mauricio Soler took the race by a strong performance on the 6th day, distancing the other pretenders for the race throne, which was till that point a fairly close battle within the GC ranks. Belmokthar finished the race on an underwhelming 41st place, where much more would have been possible if it wasn't for a terrible off-day.
Could be a long season for Tennant with all the randomness in TTs. You may have to rely on his flat ability more than his TT ability to win stages.
Whole raft of c1 races coming up for the team. Will need some good luck for sure there. But the team has already shown it can score well in c1 cobbles.
The Rider wrote:
Could be a long season for Tennant with all the randomness in TTs. You may have to rely on his flat ability more than his TT ability to win stages.
Yes, maybe he could be a decent leadout one of those days for Corioni or Favilli.
Whole raft of c1 races coming up for the team. Will need some good luck for sure there. But the team has already shown it can score well in c1 cobbles.
Indeed, March is a tough month for us but most definitely a very interesting one and also maybe a bit of a potential look-out (shopping) window for us into next season(s). We will see how we do, I am slightly optimistic.
Strava sent Emir Van Wyk upfront at some point and he stayed for a fairly long time in the breakaway alongside later winner Joseph. Langeveld did an excellent job keeping himself up the front and could follow the pace making of guys like Maes in the decisive racing moments. Meanwhile, Summerhill was off on his own whilst Joseph hang onto the wheel of the American; the wheelsucking of Flander's finest was well worth it, when he outsprinted Danny and took vital points and the biggest win for our CT contrahents over in Belgium.
Officially, lots of same time was taken for the later riders, however in reality many small groups seemed to arrive in the finish. Langeveld finished on a strong 7th place, improving on his performance of GP Kigali and ensuring a nice comeback after San Luis, De Backer came 17th.
Tour of Ukraine was solely chosen for the lucrative TT and with hopes of a nice Top 10 result and maybe some BOTDs, Strava was hopeful at the start. Of course our modest stage race ambitions were smacked to the ground and left us wheeping like little children.
The race began fairly good though. Muhlberger was the sole and first breakawayee of the first stage, of course he stood little chance to survive. Not even some little KoM points were given out as a reward for his efforts.
The next day was a day of non-performance for the team, whilst the hilly route actually made us hope that Canola would perform similiar magic to his countryman Favilli, but these hopes were really exceeding reality by a large margin. The italian did good on the next day where a mountaintopfinish saw him finish 25th. Additionally, Sebastien Einsle went into the breakaway and this is something we always like to see him of him do.
Our big hopes layed on the slighty hilly Time Trial. Regardless of the superior Time Trialist rivals Tennant had to face, we were still somewhat looking forward to the race; however Tennant finished only 27th, over 2 minutes behind winner Tanel Kangert. This was a major disappointment and by now, our management becomes worried about the later goals in the season, which largely depended on Tennant performing. We hope the tenant won't run out of money to his rent then.. (yeah, we had to bring that line again!)
On the last day, Einsle enjoyed another day in the breakaway. This guy is certainly worth his money so far, giving us some nice screentime on C1 level. Again the sprint was won by Kupfernagl, whilst Canola actually got our highest stage result that day; a grand glorius 21st place.
So what remains? Some defeats, one big disappointment, Muhlberger and Einsle doing what they are paid for and Canola leaving us somewhat questioning if he was performing slightly below or over average, we really can't tell.
Gratz to the victory to our buddies over at Evonik!
Stage Results
Stage
Type
Winner
Strava stage
Strava GC
1
Flat
Kupfernagl
51; Dupont
6; Muhlberger
2
Hilly
Costa
57; Einsle
59; Canola
3
Hilly/MTF
Sanchez Gil
25; Canola
27; Canola
4
TT / Sl. Hilly
Kangert
27; Tennant
33; Canola
5
Flat
Kupfernagl
21; Canola
33; Canola
Tour of Ukraine, GC
1
Luis Leon Sanchez Gil
Evonik - ELKO
14h45'02
2
Rui Costa
Prio - Porto
+ 44
3
Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy
Children of Chernobyl Foundation p/b Nemiroff
+ 57
4
Kristjan Koren
Gazelle
+ 1'52
5
Dan Craven
Project: Africa
+ 2'18
6
David Boily
RBC Pro Cycling
+ 2'22
7
Lars Boom
Aegon - Lavazza
+ 2'24
8
Wilco Kelderman
Team Puma - SAP
+ 2'29
9
Tanel Kangert
Gazelle
+ 3'49
10
Jonathan Bellis
RBC Pro Cycling
+ 4'02
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
There is nothing to share about Gent-Wevelgem concerning our team. Yes, we have made the wrong decision by backing up De Backer and leaving Langeveld at home. This was a fail on our parts. De Backer is clearly the Portechkin of Management Game, meaning that he is bound to choke and fail as soon as the pressure lays on him. When he can share leadership duties with Langeveld, he has been doing really well (see GP Kigali and Dwaars). We will learn from this.
So, instead: We just show us a picture of Daniel of Team Puma winning the race ahead of Gent-Wevelgem legend Tom Boonen.
The first update of the CT rankings has been published and Strava is more than happy with the look of it. The strong season start of Corioni at the Great Ocean Road Classic (2nd place behind Richie Eazy of the Rancor) was followed by a most notable, strong February campaign, including Favilli and Langeveld's strong racing at Benelux Challenge, Kriek's stage win on the last day in Belgium and Langeveld's win at Geraardsbergern-Bosberg classic.
With 59 points scored in January and a baffling amazign 337 points in February, Strava now holds lead over the CT rankings by a margin of over 100 points to second place. 443 points in total makes for a dream debut for us and we sincerely hope that things continue like that.
1
Strava
443
2
Indosat - ANZ
339
3
Compal-Merida
325
4
Generali - Kronenbourg 1664
295
5
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo Cycling Team
290
6
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
275
7
Netia - Norske Skog
271
8
SanCor Cycling Team
257
9
In-n-Out Cycling Team Powered By Carrefour
240
10
DeLaval - Kiitokori
226
11
Fablok - Dunlop
217
12
Actavis - DKSH
209
13
Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions
204
14
Gatorade - SIS
189
15
Alpina - Avianca
187
16
Severstal-Mercator
177
17
Verkefnid Iceland
135
18
Fred Whitton Race Team
134
19
Fox Sports - Golomt Cycling
124
20
BelarusBank Pro Cycling
121
21
Akzonobel - Statoil
109
22
OTP Bank - Slovnaft
102
23
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
54
24
Team Type 1
41
25
Sodexo ProCycling
22
26
Elta - Hellenic Post
0
At least when it comes down to the projected rankings, Strava still holds a good spot at 2nd, however things will become probably a little bit worse befor they get better again. Our rival teams have performed notably well in March, whilst our own campaign has come to some stops.
Strava is ready to bounce back and we hope that for March, our lead is still enough to hold the crown. For better or worse, we at Strava predict a very close points race in the end and we hope we can be part of it in the best way possible.
As for now, we look forwad to ending the racing around Trentino and hope for some late March points at the two remaining march classics, GP Tokyo and Seskin Classic.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Well done on the top spot, well deserved. Over 400 points is a massive total to have at this point. The cobbles really have helped you out big time, but will the points sustain the team to a high position as the cobbles run out and the mountains and stage races come fast and thick?
Shonak wrote:
As for now, we look forwad to ending the racing around Trentino and hope for some late March points at the two remaining march classics, GP Tokyo and Seskin Classic
450 points is massive. Strava is on a great way and one can only love how they race with an attacking strategy in nearly every race. Take alone Tokyo were both Tennant and De Backer tried a late attack and your other riders (Einsle) seem to catch the quite often as well
@Rider: There are still some nice cobbled races coming up though in all divisions, I hope the boys then score equally well as in the first few of them. The mountains won't treat us like KoMs but I have more hopes for stage races in some, especially the hilly ones like Tour of Scotland.
@knockout: Haha yes of course, you laid the groundwork and we just follow in the slipstream. Yes, I'm happy with most of the initiative the guys have shown so far, I wanted to have some riders who do that kind of stuff and glad it works out so far. Important thing is: They continue to do so.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Trentino was a mandatory race for us following our band choices, however we did not really look forward to it. Our line-up focused on breakaways, leaving the Team Time Trial at the side since Tennant would have too few helpers anyway.
The opening Team Time Trial saw no success with us finishing on a predicted 19th spot close to bottom. The next day saw a mountaineous stage, won by Mikel Nieve out of the breakaway. Unfortunately none of our guys was featured there.
Pfingsten listened to our commands then and joined the breakaway but it was a futile attempt since the stage was presumably always going to end in a bunch sprint. Nothing to show for the long effort of Christoph, but at least we have shown on third day that we are actually racing here as well. Unfortunately, apparently that was already everything they wanted or thought that was necessarcy.
On the two last stages, which were predestined for breakaway efforts, none of our riders were featured despite the large number (12) of breakawayees.
This is a huge disappointment and with zero points we leave Trentino. Gladly, the upcoming GP Tokyo was a little bit more kind to us. But just a very little bit.
Stage
Type
Winner
Strava stage
Strava GC
1
TTT
Akzonobel - Statoil
19
136; Canola
2
MT/MTF
Mikel Nieve
72; Belmokthar
77; Belmokthar
3
Flat
Matthews
16; Canola
77; Belmokthar
4
Hilly/MTF
Novak
30; Belmokthar
60; Belmokthar
5
MT/MTF
Rolland
88; Pfingsten
90: Pfingsten
Giro del Trentino, GC
1
Winner Anacona
DeLaval - Kiitokori
19h10'53
2
Jakub Novak
In-n-Out Cycling Team Powered By Carrefour
+ 1'07
3
Mikel Nieve
Indosat - ANZ
+ 2'17
4
Mauricio Soler
Alpina - Avianca
+ 4'40
5
Andreas Landa
Verkefnid Iceland
+ 4'42
6
Darwin Atapuma
Indosat - ANZ
+ 4'59
7
Edoardo Girardi
Generali - Kronenbourg 1664
+ 5'16
8
Hideto Nakane
Actavis - DKSH
+ 5'31
9
Yasmani Martinez
Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions
+ 5'32
10
Pierre Rolland
Generali - Kronenbourg 1664
+ 6'16
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Strava is all about the joy of cycling and racing, and our guys really have shown that in Japan the past week. Though we came home almost empty-handed, two strong attacks by our guys livened up the race and a strong finish saw multiple of our riders in the lower scoring regions.
The race kicked off with Eldrige from Team Type 1 all alone on the front for most of the race, however Bert De Backer took himself a heart and attacked 43 away from the finish. He quickly bridged to Eldrige and together they wanted to keep the peloton away, however the adventure was only made for short-lived dreams. Roughyl 15 kilometers, our duo was caught again.
But the race was just getting in shape back then. A large amount of riders were dropped to the pace being drilled at the front. The Argentinian Ranco was most notable featured at the front; time for one our boys in orange to join the fun. Showtime Tennant!
Our british TT champion has had a string of disappointing TT results so far, so why not try it in best Tony Martin-fashin on the road itself. 11 kilometers from the finish he set off for an impressive late attack, bringing him close to the gates of victory. Unfortunately the gap of almost 30 seconds at some point wasn't enough, he was caught in the last kilometer by the peloton.
In the confusion of the sprint, Corioni followed the wrong wheels and ended up somewhat at a twenty-something place. Fortunately for us, Langeveld and some other riders of us were attentive and achieved to score some little points.
Certainly a fun race with lots of Strava activity.
GP Tokyo, Results
1
Michael Matthews
Compal-Merida
5h58'19
2
Ben King
Gatorade - SIS
s.t.
3
Matteo Pelucchi
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo Cycling Team
s.t.
4
Maximiliano Richeze
SanCor Cycling Team
s.t.
5
Vyacheslav Kuznetsov
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
s.t.
6
Jack Bauer
Compal-Merida
s.t.
7
Frantisek Rabon
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
s.t.
8
Aleksandr Serebriakov
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
s.t.
9
Wes Sulzberger
Gatorade - SIS
s.t.
10
Michael Mørkøv
Netia - Norske Skog
s.t.
11
Kirill Pozdnyakov
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
s.t.
12
Sebastian Langeveld
Strava
s.t.
13
Martijn Verschoor
Team Type 1
s.t.
14
Ethan Weiss
Gatorade - SIS
s.t.
15
Dmitri Kozontchuk
Compal-Merida
s.t.
16
David Vitoria
Actavis - DKSH
s.t.
17
Andrew Tennant
Strava
s.t.
18
Timothy Dupont
Strava
s.t.
19
Kristian Sobota
Netia - Norske Skog
s.t.
20
Ioannis Drakakis
Elta-Hellenic Post
s.t.
21
Adam Stachowiak
Netia - Norske Skog
s.t.
22
Ermin Van Wyk
Strava
s.t.
23
Claudio Corioni
Strava
s.t.
24
Yauheni Hutarovich
BelarusBank Pro Cycling
s.t.
25
Evgeni Popov
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
s.t.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Not being featured in the great reports by tsmoha hurts. It does so especially when our guys do nothing to deserve a mention, at all.
Granted, this is C1 level and we are at times optimistic when it comes to our boys but a little bit more than a 40th place by Belmokthar could have been expected with the likes of Favilli, Canola, Belmokthar and Langeveld present.
The race was once more won by Gazelle whose team depth is impressive and certainly somethhing to be inspired by for future seasons, aehad of youngster outfit Team Puma-SAP.
Belmokthar finished at least ahead of the Grande Roy from Bonscuro, who is said to podium a race one of these days, according to the team manager. We would like to see that and raise that by: Belmokthar will be standing next to Roy on the podium, just one of these days.
1
Maxime Monfort
Gazelle
-
2
Wilco Kelderman
Team Puma - SAP
s.t.
3
Jonathan Bellis
RBC Pro Cycling
s.t.
4
Jay McCarthy
Bank of Ireland
+ 31
5
David Boily
RBC Pro Cycling
s.t.
6
Meron Amanuel
Eritel - Sonatrach
s.t.
7
Romain Zingle
Team BPost
+ 51
8
Fabio Felline
Team Puma - SAP
s.t.
9
Filippo Pozzato
Gazelle
s.t.
10
Travis Meyer
Risa - Ergon
s.t.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Zimnyanya GP: The Race With The Name We Have To Copy-Paste
Boy, some great racing concluded March and although we saw little points and (possibly) the loss of our Rankings lead, we feel good: Because the first of April gave us some solid points thanks to Corioni and also due to De Backer.
As a pan-cake flat classic, this race in Belarus was always (almost) going to end in a heavily contested bunch sprint. All the big boys showed up, most notably home-backed team BelarusBank brought all their A-game sprinters an dlooked like the team to beat. However, it was the Rancor from Argentinia who dictacted large parts of the race.
Corioni did well in finding Richeze's wheel, which he already knew quite wel from the Ocean Road Classic. Serebriakov was between him and Richeze, whose guys were setting up the sole sprint train in the finish. Our other guys could have been some help too, but these things are always confusing and hectic and we applaud Corioni's instinct.
He went fast and solid, at a time Claudio even was all ahead, but Serebriakov form Novatek got the better of him and beat him to the line. Congratulations to Novatek!
Another second place for Corioni in a Classic with the side-effect of a little pay-back to Richehe; this race gave us some solid points and leaves us with the promise by Corioni that one of these days a win will follow as well. Still many race days left but he has left us impressed so far.
Zimnyanya GP
1
Aleksandr Serebriakov
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
3h51'34
2
Claudio Corioni
Strava
s.t.
3
Maximiliano Richeze
SanCor Cycling Team
s.t.
4
Anthony Lavoine
Fablok - Dunlop
s.t.
5
Luka Mezgec
OTP Bank - Slovnaft
s.t.
6
Matteo Pelucchi
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo Cycling Team
s.t.
7
Rafael Andriato
SanCor Cycling Team
s.t.
8
Cameron Meyer
Fred Whitton Race Team
s.t.
9
Juan Pablo Forero
Alpina - Avianca
s.t.
10
Michael Vanderaerden
Verkefnid Iceland
s.t.
11
Yauheni Hutarovich
BelarusBank Pro Cycling
s.t.
12
Tuguldur Tuulhangai
Fox Sports - Golomt Cycling
s.t.
13
Mauro Santambrogio
Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions
s.t.
14
Bert De Backer
Strava
s.t.
15
Aleksandr Mironov
Severstal-Mercator
s.t.
16
Valentin Iglinski
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
s.t.
17
Vyacheslav Kuznetsov
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
s.t.
18
Taylor Tolleson
Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions
s.t.
19
Sebastian Tolosa
SanCor Cycling Team
s.t.
20
John Murphy
Chiquita - Universal p/b Minions
s.t.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
lol I wish that would happen but March was horrible points-wise despite lots of races; I think we will lose the top spot in March and fall way down in the projected rankings. At least April seems to get much better with Zimynana and De Panne already delivering some points, so hoping March was a one time thing.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
KBC De Panne Tour: Langeveld with bad legs, Tulik victorous!
The 4 days of racing in West Flanders started unbelievably bad with Langeveld and the rest of the team losing huge chunks of time, but with some gutsy breakaway spirit and nonchalance, our team got hands on some nice points on this C1 level event.
Over 10 minutes were lost on the first stage, which was also the hardest combo of Kasseien and Hellingen in the four days of racing. Langeveld had the worst race imaginable and couldn't even hang on with his teammates. They all finished mostly together then, roughly 10 minutes down. We were in a bit of no man's place on that first day, surely our guys could have finished way higher but what do you know, these things happen.
Unimpressed by these first day, De Backer went into the BOTD on the second stage which also featured some cobblez. He finished 6th, just ahead of the first big chasing group. Langeveld was also featured in this group and had good legs that day. Unfortuantely, this happened one day too late.
On the third day a pancake flat stage was seen and Tulik did good by getting into the breakaway. The group survived until the finish, where Tulik was at the wheel of Daniel and outsprintend his former companions for a sweet stage victory. Tulik really exceels at C1 level, reminding us of his top BOTD performance at GP Kigali. The last day of racing, a short TT, was nothing to talk about from Strava's side.
Overall victory went to Danny Summerhill from Azteca, congratulatins to them.
Far more was expected by the recent Cauberg Classic on C2 level, where Strava sent a huge line-up of well-proved puncheurs to contest for a strong Top 10 placings and with som eluck, even the podium. However, the breakaway made a fuss out of things with Matthias Wengelin from Carlsberg - Danske Bank taking the honours of the stage.
In the end, Strava wasn't up too much in the finale anyway, the Cauberg becoming a packed place of a hilly bunch sprint, where our guys should have been far more ahead and aware in their positioning. This way, Marco Canola came 19th, whilst Favilli managed to score a single point coming 22nd; this makes up for a grand total of 3 points. Not what we had in mind but we have to take it.
This is also our last race for April and it'll give the competition plenty of room to catch up and may even leave us behind in the Rankings come May. So whilst our guys will have to recover well now from a demanding spring campaign, management crosses the fingers that things will work in our favor still when May comes around.
