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Oz Cycling Project | PT15
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 08-06-2015 07:45
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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|NEWS|
DISASTROUS START INTO THE SEASON FOR OZ
It's too early to panic, but the start into our first ProTour season was absolutely horrible: entering Badaling International with at least minor hopes to score a Top-15 with Jack Bobridge, the team - and especially our captain himself - was far from being in best shape, eventually seeing Giovanni Visconti finishing as a quiet 26th in the first bigger group.
While also Marcus Burghardt finished in this bunch (as 38th), our best puncheur Bobridge crossed the line as 64th. An absolutely underwhelming shocker: "If that's a sign of what to expect this year, well... then we won't even have a long season, as we were doomed right away", said a frustrated TS Moha when spotted half-drunk in an (adults) bar.
Entering the simultaneously held Down Under Classic with less hopes, we can't really say that we're too shocked by William Ford finishing as Oz's best (38th) there. Of course we had hoped for Steele Von Hoff to compete in the bunch sprint, but he didn't.. at least, Alex Wohler (picture below) did what he does best: showing our colors in an early breakaway attempt. Empty-handed though.
Badaling International | ProTour
| 1 |  Yuri Trofimov | Tinkoff Bank | 5h47'06 | | 2 |  Jan Bakelants | Bouygues Telecom | + 25 | | 3 |  Tejay Van Garderen | Movistar - US Postal | + 1'02 | | ... | | 26 |  Giovanni Visconti | Oz Cycling Project | + 1'58 |
Down Under Classic | HC
| 1 |  Mark Dzamastagic | Evonik - ELKO | 1h29'27 | | 2 | Jérôme Baugnies | AMEX-Navigon | s.t. | | 3 |  Thomas Vedel Kvist | Swedbank-PEAB | s.t. | | ... | | 38 |  William Ford | Oz Cycling Project | s.t. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 10-06-2015 22:11
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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|NEWS|
PORTRAITS - MORTON AND HAIG AS OZ'S FUTURE
This current season may be our first (of hopefully more) year(s) in the ProTour, but the team also added two pieces mainly for Oz's future in this and last year's tansfer season: Jack Haig (22 years, joining Oz as a neo-pro last year) and Lachlan Morton (23, transferred from Jaguar to Oz this year). The two climbers are expected to become the team's faces - building something like a "triachry" with our current captain Jack Bobridge.
I'm happy to be back in Australia, joining an ambitious team with a few of our countries best cyclists. I feel ready to step up another level here
- Lachlan Morton -
When Lachlan Morton joined Oz a few weeks ago, it was pretty clear, that we won't just focus on this, but also the further year(s). The stage racer has already made a nice progress with his former teams HTC Nieuwsblad/Quickstep and Jaguar/Eritel, but he's still young enough to become one of the world's best climbers. This year in ProTour is likely to be his "finishing touch", so we can't expect Morton to perform on the highest level every day.
We do know it will be a challenge this year. I knew, when I signed with Oz. Me and the entire team accept this challenge
- Lachlan Morton -
With Morton signing a long-term deal with Oz Cycling, the team, that lacked climbing depth (and stardom) in the past three years, is aiming to build a strong Aussie duo for the upcoming years. When acquiring Jack Haig last year (where he spent his first year with now disbanded Maloja in the CT), the manager's favorite domestic rider would become our first real climber talent.
Probably the best day in my life, when I inked the deal with Oz. It's an honour to now spend the season with Lachlan, Jacko and Gossy
- Jack Haig -
Building for the future? Of course we try. As important as knowing a few great talents on your team, it's obviously very important to prove those strengths we showed last year. Both Morton and Haig now join a core of promotion heroes. The Oz Cycling Project will face a tough year, but we're hoping to keep this two talents (and of course the whole team) in the ProTour for a few more years at least.
Lachlan Morton | 23 years old
Stats in 2016
| FL | MO | HI | TT | STA | RES | REC | COB | SP | ACC | FI | DH | PRL | | 70 | 82 | 76 | 73 | 79 | 78 | 78 | 54 | 57 | 66 | 68 | 68 | 73 |
Jack Haig | 22 years old
Stats in 2016
| FL | MO | HI | TT | STA | RES | REC | COB | SP | ACC | FI | DH | PRL | | 71 | 76 | 73 | 75 | 74 | 73 | 76 | 58 | 61 | 72 | 70 | 67 | 75 |
Stats in 2017
| FL | MO | HI | TT | STA | RES | REC | COB | SP | ACC | FI | DH | PRL | | 72 | 78 | 74 | 77 | 76 | 75 | 78 | 58 | 61 | 73 | 70 | 67 | 77 |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 11-06-2015 18:24
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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|NEWS|
GOSS & DURBO FAIL IN QATAR - FORD 9th OVERALL
After Jack Bobridge failed in Badaling, also Matthew Goss and Luke Durbridge didn't show up in best hape at the Tour of Qatar. Both failed to do anything special in this 6-days-event and so Michael Ford would (once again) be our strongest TT-rider to at least grab a 9th in GC eventually.
While missing a stage-win in the concluding short timetrial (somehow expected against Coppel), Ford and Wen Hao Li (picture below) went for a 3-4 on the stage to save this race from becoming a true disaster for Oz. Our biggest GC-hope Durbridge had a complete off-day to finish outside the Top-20! A missed (rare) opportunity for him to score a good GC-result.
Also Goss couldn't compete with the best sprinters: after two okay first stages (6th and 9th), our world champion missed any further Top-10 result to go for a total fail overall: "It's been an underwhelming start for our star-riders", said manager TS Moha shortly after the race. Spot on.. at least, two solid rides from Pim Ligthart and Haijun Ma would secure Oz the Team's Classification.
Tour of Qatar | ProTour
| 1 |  Ben Swift | Vesuvio - Accumalux | 14h19'13 | | 2 |  Sam Bewley | Becherovka - Petrof | + 7 | | 3 |  John Degenkolb | Pokerstars.com | + 38 | | ... | | 9 | Michael Ford | Oz Cycling Project | + 1'14 | | ... | | 18 |  Pim Ligthart | Oz Cycling Project | + 1'16 | | 19 |  Haijun Ma | Oz Cycling Project | s.t. |
Notes | 1st in Team's Rankings
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 19-06-2015 21:15
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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|NEWS|
VISCONTI TAKES STAGE, BURGHARDT FINISHES 10th IN HET VOLK
One of the most awaited stage races - the newly established Omloop Het Volk - has just finished today, leaving some questions about the future of the event. Many people couldn't really believe, what we saw. The results, however, will count to the rankings anyway. Our biggest hope - premium cobbler Marcus Burghardt - eventually finished 10th in the GC, to miss out on our expectations to make the Top-5.
The opening - most challenging of three cobbled stages - day would already leave Burghardt without any realistic chances to make the podium, as he would finish about 5 minutes down on the stage-winner. Two PCT-teams (BPost, Azteca) would go for a 1-2 in the final GC, with Vanspeybrouck and Summerhill proving their skills on this level.
While Burghardt went for an empty-handed attempt to attack the bunch on the second day, our veteran Giovanni Visconti would make it into the winning break, eventually attacking this group to go for a great stage-win! Definitely a nice way to make up for Burghardt's rather disappointing showing.
Our TTT on third day wasn't worth an Oz-performance, though it must be said, that we had our doubts if our TT-beasts would be competitive in this unique cobbled timetrial. It wouldn't be enough to make Burghardt go for more than an okay 10th in the GC. Visconti adding a decent 20th overall.
Omloop Het Volk | ProTour
| 1 | Pieter Vanspeybrouck | Team BPost | 10h02'45 | | 2 | Danny Summerhill | Azteca-NBCSN | + 1'20 | | 3 |  Pit Schlechter | Vesuvio - Accumalux | + 2'56 | | ... | | 10 | Marcus Burghardt | Oz Cycling Project | + 6'18 | | ... | | 20 | Giovanni Visconti | Oz Cycling Project | + 8'18 |
Notes | Stage-win and 2nd in Points (Visconti)
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 22-06-2015 09:14
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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|NEWS|
PORTRAITS - DOCTOR POZZOVIVO'S BIGGEST SURGERY?
Domenico Pozzovivo has been one of our key signings this season: the Italian veteran - coming off a huge contract year with the now disbanded Kappa team - would become The Oz's first real stage racer in the team's fourth season. Facing a tough (first) year in the ProTour, it was about time.
The team had a certain plan for the Giro and, to be honest, this made my decision to join Oz quite easy
- Domenico Pozzovivo -
Pozzovivo may not be amongst the very best climbers (anymore), but he surely comes with a decent allround setup: his outstanding 2nd place in the Giro di Lombardia last season as a nice prove here. Repeating similar results for Oz would be huge enough, but the management is happy with the rather "cheap" deal anyway. The Doctor should be capable of scoring a few notable results in his five races.
The biggest goal will be the Giro d'Italia - a Grand Tour, that Pozzovivo certainly used to enjoy (one GC-podium, 3x unlucky 4th). A goal-race for Oz Cycling as well, so it makes just sense overall. We may not expect him to finish as high as he already did here, but the management still hopes for a Top-10 result at the end of three tough weeks.
Racing La Vuelta will be something different and I'm looking forward to it. I do want to add something nice to my palmares there
- Domenico Pozzovivo -
Pozzovivo will also ride La Vuelta, where he's aiming to fill an empty space in his palmares. T-A, Dauphine and Lombardia may offer a few chances to add valuable points to our fight against relegation. We're happy to welcome such an experienced climber in our roster. May this become the Doctor's biggest and most succesfull "surgery": keeping Oz away from the danger zone - a huge task!
Domenico Pozzovivo | 33 years old
Season Schedule
| Race | | Best results so far | | Tirreno - Adriatico | | 9th (2010) - 26th (2013) | | Giro d'Italia | | 3rd (2012) - 4th (2009, 2010, 2011) | | | Stage-win (2012, S13) |  Vuelta a España | | - |  Criterium du Dauphine Libere | | 15th (2011) | | Giro di Lombardia | | 2nd (2014) - 24th (2013) |
Edited by tsmoha on 23-06-2015 17:35
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 23-06-2015 17:27
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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|NEWS|
VISCONTI STRONG 5th IN BAYERN, PHELAN NARROWLY MISSING KoM
Second visit to the PCT for Oz this year, as we were heading for Germany: coming back to the Bayern Rundfahrt with good memories (with Kristjan Koren finishing 5th for Oz one year ago), we had minor hopes for Andrei Grivko and Giovanni Visconti to play their allround skills to perfection and grab us one or two solid Top-15 results here.
While Steele Von Hoff wasn't a participating in the sprints, our young gun Adam Phelan would kick off our race nicely, taking the KoM-lead early and almost keeping it til the end - Björn Thurau unfortunatelly stole it on the final day then. Still a nice runner-up for Phelan though.
But more important, Giovanni Visconti once again delivered Oz a very welcome GC-result, as he attacked the bunch in the key (hilly) stage to go for 3rd on the day and 5th in the final GC! For a long time, it looked like he could actually win this queen stage, but an extraordinary finish from Sanchez Gil ended those dreams.. In other news, our former rider Kristjan Koren delivered big time for Gazelle, taking the overall victory! A huge result for him and his promotion hunting team.
Bayern Rundfahrt | HC
| 1 | Kristjan Koren | Gazelle | 17h53'30 | | 2 | Ian Bibby | Eritel - Sonatrach | + 10 | | 3 | Luis Leon Sanchez Gil | Evonik - ELKO | + 25 | | 4 | Ian Boswell | AMEX-Navigon | + 1'03 | | 5 | Giovanni Visconti | Oz Cycling Project | + 1'28 | | ... | | 22 |  Andrei Grivko | Oz Cycling Project | + 3'45 |
Notes | 2nd in KoM (Phelan), 3rd in Stage 4 (Visconti)
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| Forever the Best |
Posted on 23-06-2015 17:34
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3803
Joined: 27-06-2014
PCM$: 400.00
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Btw,Pozzovivo won Stage 13 in 2012 Giro d'Italia(the edition which Ricco won) not 2013.He wasn't at Giro in 2013 |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 23-06-2015 17:35
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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So true, thanks for the hint 
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| roturn |
Posted on 23-06-2015 17:46
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Team Manager
Posts: 22246
Joined: 24-11-2007
PCM$: 3900.00
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Sorry for stealing that jersey. Then again I bought Thurau last year for exactly doing those attacks. Unfortunately he did it too rare last year but this is a good start for him and always nice to see a rider doing this in his home race.
Definitely you got some nice points though for a PCT race. Not all PT teams score a lot in those races. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 23-06-2015 17:57
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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roturn wrote:
...always nice to see a rider doing this in his home race.
Totally agree. Just checked my results from the past three years:
1x KoM for Gerrans at Herald Sun Tour
1x tied KoM for Matthews at Tour Down Under
So Thurau makes sense of course. And thanks: yes, definitely a nice race for Oz. Only kept Visconti for races like Bayern and 5 Jours Dunkerque in particular.
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| roturn |
Posted on 23-06-2015 18:05
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Team Manager
Posts: 22246
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PCM$: 3900.00
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Yeah. I remember. I had not expected this and was a bit annoyed to see Thurau dropping that much on that stage instead of following Visconti.
Now I am more than happy that he had lost time to attack again.
Nice records in those races as well. Nice gimmicks. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 25-06-2015 21:04
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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|NEWS|
TIRRENO - ADRIATICO: POZZOVIVO DELIVERS AS 4th OVERALL
The first race of the traditional ProTour early season double-header has just finished today: Tirreno - Adriatico has been one of our target races in spring, with both Domenico Pozzovivo and Lachlan Morton lining up for Oz Cycling. Facing some super strong competition for this mix of hilly and mountainous stages, we did have some hopes for our two best climbers to bring in some points.
Things went well right from the start, as an ever reliable Michael Ford
finished 3rd in the prologue. Chanceless against Jerome Coppel, but still another stage-podium for him. With no sprinter in our line-up, we then totally focussed on the key stages for the GC-contenders.
And local hero Domenico Pozzovivo delivered: after a pretty good hilly stage (with Pozzo and Morton moving up to 8th and 9th in the GC), our Italian veteran would then go for a crucial attack in the first of two mountain stages! Breaking clear from the GC-favorites together with Daniel Martin, Pozzo eventually finished 3rd on the stage, narrowly holding off Andy Schleck and Romain Sicard. While Morton dropped outside the Top-15 on this day, Pozzovivo moved up to 4th in the GC - and would also finish off the race with this great result two days later. His best result ever here, after finishing as 9th in 2010.
Tirreno - Adriatico | ProTour
| 1 |  Daniel Martin | Aker - MOT | 31h19'30 | | 2 | Simon Spilak | Festina-Canal+ | + 1'38 | | 3 | Romain Sicard | Orange - KLM Cycling | + 3'01 | | 4 | Domenico Pozzovivo | Oz Cycling Project | + 4'04 | | ... | | 17 | Lachlan Morton | Oz Cycling Project | + 9'21 |
Notes | 2nd in U25 (Morton), 2x 3rd in Stages (Ford, Pozzovivo)
Edited by tsmoha on 25-06-2015 21:15
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 26-06-2015 22:11
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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|NEWS|
PARIS - NICE: GOSS FAILS, BOBRIDGE WITH STRONG 6th OVERALL
After Domenico Pozzovivo rode to a stunnig 4th in Italy, also Jack Bobridge did very well this week, finishing 6th at Paris - Nice. Definitely a nice double-header for Oz Cycling, with two of our captains delivering with strong overall results.
Luke Durbridge kicked off the race with a 3rd place in the prologue (see picture below). Our fifth third place in a PT-stage this year. A decent result for Durbo, who did fail quite hard in Qatar a few weeks back. Matthew Goss though didn't bounce back from his rather poor results so far, once again failing to do anything notable in the flat stages here.
And so our biggest hopes remained on Bobridge's shoulders. After his Badaling-disaster, Bobo came back strong for this hilly stage race. He was right at the front in every key stage and thanks to a nice finish on day seven, he moved up to a very nice 6th in the GC. Lacking an outstanding stage-result (also thanks to many breakaway victories here), but still giving Oz nice points through this GC-placing.
Paris - Nice | ProTour
| 1 |  Edvald Boasson Hagen | Aker - MOT | 29h37'26 | | 2 | Yuri Trofimov | Tinkoff Bank - Tinkoff Insurance | + 7 | | 3 |  Toms Skujins | Red Bull - Huawei | + 2'12 | | ... | | 6 | Jack Bobridge | Oz Cycling Project | + 2'59 |
Notes | 3rd in Stage 1 (Durbridge)
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 29-06-2015 12:29
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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|NEWS|
BURGHARDT FINISHES 9TH IN MILAN SAN REMO!
February concluded with two challenging one day races, including the first monument of the season: Classique du Grand-Duché and Milan San Remo. While we hadn't just minor ambitions for the hilly classic in Luxembourg (with Bobridge riding P-N), the Oz brought both Marcus Burghardt and Jack Bobridge to Italy.
The Grand-Duché went as expected: when Simone Ponzi would take a huge win, our best finisher would be Andrei Grivko as 24th. He didn't manage to join the crucial attacks, but did at least add some points thanks to his position in the front of the peloton.
The Oz's first monument ever went clearly better then: Sam Bewley sprinted to a dominating victory, going past the only late attacker (Ulissi) easily.. Burghardt was well placed after the Poggio and went to sprint for a nice 9th place eventually. The third time, he finishes MSR in this position (after 2012 and 2014), so a well known San Remo result for himself. It's definitely a good result for Oz, as we he couldn't expect anything more. Bobridge added a solid 21st at the finish.
Classique du Grand-Duché | ProTour
| 1 | Simone Ponzi | Good Energy | 5h40'59 | | 2 | Tejay Van Garderen | Movistar - US Postal | s.t. | | 3 | Ben Gastauer | Vesuvio - Accumalux | s.t. | | ... | | 24 | Andrei Grivko | Oz Cycling Project | + 2'40 |
Milan San Remo | Monument
| 1 | Sam Bewley | Becherovka - Petrof | 7h36'38 | | 2 | Mikhail Ignatiev | Metinvest-Dacia | s.t. | | 3 | Edvald Boasson Hagen | Aker - MOT | s.t. | | ... | | 9 | Marcus Burghardt | Oz Cycling Project | s.t. | | ... | | 21 | Jack Bobridge | Oz Cycling Project | s.t. |
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| knockout |
Posted on 29-06-2015 18:41
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7735
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You seem to have quite a lot of solid results lately. No extraordinary good ones but the points keep ticking and as I see it no real disappointments.
Top ten MSR, strong GCs in both triple header stage races and Visconti performing as well.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 29-06-2015 19:08
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
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Thanks for stopping by, knock!
Yes, we had some decent results most recently. Pozzovivo and Bobridge did well, Burghardt rode his usual MSR business If only Goss already hadn't "skipped" quite a bunch of possible points, I would call this start a definite success. He surely needs to bring in (more) points, even though I never expected him to go sky high..
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 04-07-2015 10:40
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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|NEWS|
DURBRIDGE BEST OZZIE IN HERBIERS' SHOCKER
The ProTour's most important (individual) timetrial event was on the menu: the Chrono des Herbiers would of course be a key race for our team. While we didn't expect Oz to fight for the victory (with Coppel and Phinney as the clear favorites), Luke Durbridge and Michael Ford made for a dangerous duo to aim for two inside the Top-5 here.
Things didn't go as planned though: Phinney (17th) and Coppel (14th) would end up with shocking results, as also Michael Ford (19th) would totally fail eventually. While Metinvest would then go for a huge 1-3 with Zmorka/Ignatiev, at least our two other participants did quite well afterall.
Luke Durbridge (4th) and Miles Olman (10th) finished, where we could expect them to finish. Olman with a nice performance in particular. But it's still a shocking result overall, as we (as a TT-focussed team) are slightl concerned about our biggest goals this year - such as the Copenhagen event and the opening TTT at the Giro.
Chrono des Herbiers | ProTour
| 1 | Marlen Zmorka | Metinvest-Dacia | 1h03'19 | | 2 | Jesse Sergent | Becherovka - Petrof | + 7 | | 3 | Mikhail Ignatiev | Metinvest-Dacia | + 30 | | 4 | Luke Durbridge | Oz Cycling Project | + 43 | | ... | | 10 | Miles Olman | Oz Cycling Project | + 54 |
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| The Rider |
Posted on 04-07-2015 10:52
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Some great GC placings for the team means the disastrous start to the season has been swept under the carpet!
tsmoha wrote:
Michael Ford (19th) would totally fail eventually.
For the first time ever? Seems like it to me. Though the team had depth so other riders could get in the top 10.
Layout looking easy on the eye. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 04-07-2015 13:22
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
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Yeah well, Ford has been my most consistent TTler indeed. Didn't always deliver big time, but collected several stage wins plus two Differdange victories with Rogers. Herbiers though has never been his favorite course: a 5th place in 2009 as his best result, but this year as his worst.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 09-07-2015 10:56
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
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