The first stage race of the season. Henao was leading in this race hoping to take advantage of the long climb to the mountain top on the final stage. Having won on his debut in the last race, we were hoping he could keep the momentum up.



A lot of attacks started off the race, but we stayed away from it. We also stayed away from the chasing of the break by the peloton, but the latter overcame the former with 4.5 km to go. Te Brake got onto the wheels of the Carlsberg sprint train with 2.5 km to go.



As they entered the final kilometer and the leadouts dropped off, Te Brake was still among the first five places. Our Dutch sprinter went past a couple of guys inside the final 300 meters and was neck-to-neck with Guardini as they approached the line.



Despite his best efforts, Te Brake had to settle for 2nd on the stage, which was still a lot higher than we were expecting!





More of the same from our team on the second flat stage, as we waited for the final few kilometers to make an impact. The breakaway was caught with 5 km to go and Te Brake this time got onto the wheels of the SPAR train.



He kept himself in contention through the rest of the sprint, maintaining a top 3 position till about 100 meters from the line. He ran out of steam just at the end and ended up still a good 5th.





We were worried that Henao might struggle a bit on this stage but we were hoping he could limit his losses on the hills.

Allegaert did get into the break but he wasn't strong to pick up any points on either the intermediate sprints or the KOM ones. Back in the pack, Pantano couldn't follow the pace up the hills, and got dropped. Dieteren followed a move a handful of other punchers with 16 km to go, but they were all brought back. This was repeated some time later, but again, the attempt was foiled.

With around 8 km to go, the decisive moves happened at the front, and the moment we were worried about arrived for Henao. He got dropped and could not keep up on the steep hills. He rode a lonely race post that, and ended up losing more than 7 minutes on the stage. Dieteren fared only slightly better, finishing 30th, nearly 5 minutes down on stage winner Bennett. Our GC hopes had just gone up in smoke.



With a massive regrouping job needed, we concentrated all our efforts on keeping Henao in a good position to salvage something from this race. A backup target was getting Te Brake to the line, as that would mean a handful of points from a high finish in the Points classification.

We didn't join the break. As the moves happened in the pack behind the break, Henao couldn't track the attackers but found himself in the next group chasing. He was still in the third group on the road, when his group halved in size some time later. However, after that, he surprisingly couldn't keep pace with the rest of the pack, and mostly played catch-up for the rest of the stage. He did get into the Top 10, at the finish, ending up 9th, almost catching the rider in front of him, but he still nearly 4 minutes behind stage winner Pluchkin.



His effort was only good enough to get Henao up to 18th in the GC, a long way down from our expected outcome from this race. Te Brake ended up outscoring Henao in this race and Pantano chipped in with some points.

Merwahi Kudus won the race.

1	Merhawi Kudus	Repsol - Netflix	17h37'26
18	Sergio Luis Henao Montoya	Philips - Continental	+ 11'19
50	Jarlinson Pantano Gómez	Philips - Continental	+ 24'50
58	Jan Dieteren	Philips - Continental	+ 28'44
77	Wout Poels	Philips - Continental	+ 35'21
100	David Per	Philips - Continental	+ 47'28
118	Patrick Müller	Philips - Continental	+ 58'29
141	Remco Te Brake	Philips - Continental	+ 1h10'43
150	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Continental	+ 1h20'28

The first two stages went very well for us but it all went downhill on the hill stage. Henao wasn't strong enough to keep up, while Dieteren was the bigger disappointment perhaps. Henao had to do too much to get back time on the final stage and he wasn't strong enough. We go away from this race with our January high wiped out, and with a realization of what PCT truly will be. Onto the next one I guess...

Ruijgh tried to get into the breakaway on two occasions but his efforts were thwarted. Having failed that, the team didn't really make any impact as the peloton chased the break. By the time the break was caught, the peloton was down to 58 riders and only Saber and Per remained in the front group. 41 km to go is when we lost all contact with the front group, which now consisted of just 23 riders. Saber tried to get back to the front group by pacing the second group for some time, but it was a fruitless exercise.



And that was it basically. As the fight continued up ahead, Saber, and Per, kept losing more ground to the front of the race. Saber eventually ended up 34th with Per a dozen positions lower down.

Geraint Thomas won the race.

1	Geraint Thomas	Podium Ambition	6h06'17
34	Lahcen Saber	Philips - Continental	+ 5'23
46	David Per	Philips - Continental	s.t.
116	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Continental	+ 23'22
117	Patrick Müller	Philips - Continental	s.t.
120	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	+ 24'21

February is off to a bad start, as for the second year in a row we come away from this race empty-handed. While we were not expecting Saber or Per to be near the front at the finish, we were expecting them to do better. Oh well, no point dwelling on this.

A chance to see how Krieger and Te Brake shared leadership as we lined up for this flat stage race. We didn't have high expectations from this one.


We didn't bother to get into the break and didn't bother chasing. Te Brake tried his best to get a good position in the sprint but only managed 17th in a packed field.


Pretty much the same story on this stage. Te Brake was more visible in the sprint but only marginally improved to 14th. He did fall in the GC after this stage though because of bonus seconds picked up by other riders.




Finally some action as Van Zandbeek got into the break and was aggressive in the first half of the race winning an intermediate sprint and picking up KOM points for minor placings.



He picked up another 3rd place in the final intermediate sprint before being caught on the final climb.



Te Brake and Krieger were nowhere to be seen in the sprint but Van Zandbeek's efforts on the stage put him into a points-scoring position while Te Brake dropped out of the same.

Matthew Goss won the race.

1	Matthew Goss	Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ	8h45'07
17	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	s.t.
31	Remco Te Brake	Philips - Continental	s.t.
85	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	s.t.
95	Jan Dieteren	Philips - Continental	s.t.
110	Wout Poels	Philips - Continental	s.t.
120	Lotto Petrus	Philips - Continental	s.t.

Van Zandbeek's breakaway adventure on the final stage was the only shining light in an otherwise horrible race for the team. One of our sprinters wasn't strong enough to contest at the front while the other seemed like he was out for a joyride. Nothing else of note to report. The management also takes responsibility for having signed up to this race, when there were better options to consider.

This was a pre-season win goal for the team but we knew we were never going to get there. We revised our expectations to a Top 10 and were hoping Costa could deliver the same in his first outing for us.


Hofstede joined the break and earned enough points to end the day 3rd in the KOM.



The break were caught 47 km from the line. There were a few riders who atatcked on the final climb but they were not allowed to get away. The stage came down to a sprint to the line. Costa was safe in the pack.


No breakaway involvement for us here. We didn't have a strong enough sprinter to be competitive and the stage was too flat for Navardauskas to try his luck. Everyone important finished safely in the pack.


we stayed in the pack till the final kilometers when Ulissi and Anuar Aziz launched the attacks. Costa stayed with the next group on the road. A couple of others gapped Costa's group before the finish but he got home in 7th without losing a lot of time. He moved up to 8th in the GC.




Another flat stage and again we had a day to relax. The breakaway got the better of the pack here.


We had given up attempting to get into breaks and were now only focusing on keeping Costa safe. The attacks started early this time but none stuck till McCarthy got away with 3 km to go. A slew of attacks followed, while Costa managed to keep himself in the front positions. There was an uphill sprint to the line, taken by Lutsenko. Costa finished with the same time but he lost a GC place on count-back.


No breakaway attempt on what was expected to be a hard day's slog. The breakaway was down to four riders when a group of riders attacked on the penultimate hill. We took over work at the front of the peloton and reduced the gap. The attacks then started from the favourites as the earlier attackers were not brought back. Costa couldn't follow initially but kept himself in a larger group of riders just behind the two sets of attackers. The riders who'd attacked first were all caught in the final kilometer except Barbnin who attacked again and took the win. Costa finished in the third group but didn't lose too much time nor any GC position.


Our only objective on the last stage was to survive and we did that. The breakaway survived once again.

Diego Ulissi won the race.

1	Diego Ulissi	Generali - EDF	29h38'12
9	Rui Costa	Philips - Continental	s.t.
36	Ramunas Navardauskas	Philips - Continental	+ 6'25
49	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 10'18
111	Ha Jeon Jung	Philips - Continental	+ 32'08
116	Christoph Mai	Philips - Continental	+ 35'42
139	Lennard Hofstede	Philips - Continental	+ 49'59

A decent result for Costa and we got what we came but there was no moments of excitement for us all race. A hard ground out result giving us solid points. A bit disappointing not to have Navardausakas up near the front on the punchy sprints. This is a bit of a lift the team needed in February though.

After the terrible disappointment in the Middle East, a similar profile in Catalunya meant that we were already unsure of meeting our Top 10 hopes from this race. Henao was leader again, with the full mountain line-up in support. Navardauskas was the wildcard rider in our line-up.


First up, it was the Prologue where we did not have a lot of hopes besides Navardauskas. The Lithuanian all-rounder had a quietly good run, finishing 15th on the stage, losing just 9 seconds to stage winner Keizer. Henao performed as expected, losing 19 seconds and needing to catch on the mountains.


We had high hopes of a good Henao performance on this stage as it suited him quite well. With the pack reaching the final climb before the summit finish, Denifl attacked, got a gap and brought the break to an end. Uran followed and Henao took up chasing in the pack for some time.



Although he showed some good strength in chasing the attackers, and the pack even caught up to Uran before the finish, Henao could only get 12th on the stage and failed to get back any time lost in the Prologue. With the hilly stage up next, it wasn't looking too good for us judging by past experience in Middle East.


We continued to avoid the breaks and instead, tried to attack the race a couple of times later on with Navardauskas. He did get a gap along with three others and with 26 km remaining, but it wasn't successful in the end. A lot of Top 10 contenders ran into trouble on this stage, while surprisingly, neither Henao nor Pantano were dropped and made up a lot of places by finishing in this group! Things were improbably looking up after this stage with Henao up to 11th in the GC.


A flat rated stage to release some of the pressure and reduce the load on the peloton. However, there were some climbs on the route too. No breakaway action for us again as we concentrated on keeping everyone safe. As the sprint trains formed after the break was caught, we were not near the front and neither were we expected to be. However, suddenly, and inside the final kilometer, Navardauskas came flying up the outside, and moved into the sliptream of Van Der Sande who had been delivered into a great position with a leadout by his Xero teammates.



With 200 meters to go, it looked for a split second like Navardauskas might take the win!



But he didn't have enough and settled for 3rd as he was passed by Brus on the line.



This was a result somewhat out of the blue for a rider who hasn't quite settled into the season or the team yet.


The stage we were dreading came around with Henao expected to lose a large chunk of time to the better Time Trialists among the GC contenders. And true to expectation, he did lose 2'43" to stage winner Brandle and 2'22" to new GC leader Keizer. Navardauskas continued his good race with 13th on this stage. Despite this loss of time, Henao did not lose any GC positions and now was in a position to perhaps move into the Top 10 with a good performance on the last stage.


We were hoping that this stage would be selective and not another where there's a reduced bunch uphill sprint to the finish like on Stage 2. The action for us started as Uran and Valls made the first moves to make up GC spots with less than 10 km to go. After two attempts and a small lead, they eventually got reeld back in.

Henao attacked with 3.5 km to go and had Valls for company.



With 1.8 km to go, the pair had 13 seconds to the next group. While the move failed, the acceleration from the chasing group put some GC contenders in trouble, including lead Keizer. Henao ran out of steam and couldn't make a push for the win. After getting caught, he stayed with the group which closed him down. Four riders went away in the final kilometers with Velits taking the stage win. Henao finished 7th on the stage and moved up to 8th in the GC. Pantano picked up some more points with a 26th place.

1	Ki Ho Choi	Meiji - JR East	18h08'23
8	Sergio Luis Henao Montoya	Philips - Continental	+ 2'05
26	Jarlinson Pantano Gómez	Philips - Continental	+ 8'10
31	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	+ 9'52
61	Christoph Mai	Philips - Continental	+ 19'48
94	Wout Poels	Philips - Continental	+ 32'38
107	Ramunas Navardauskas	Philips - Continental	+ 39'30
133	Lennard Hofstede	Philips - Continental	+ 55'44
138	Patrick Müller	Philips - Continental	+ 1h00'57

From where we were with Henao after Stage 2, we come away from this race with a lot more than we expecting at that point. Henao remained aggressive and attentive and this was a welcome turnaround from the disappointment in his last race. Navardauskas chipped in with a podium on Stage 4 and we hope this is the start of his season in terms of results. After a horror showing in the first three races of the month, February is starting to get back on track to a certain extent with this result to add to us meeting expectations in Poland.

Henao was our designated leader for the third time this month, and we were looking for a repeat of Catalunya rather than ToME for this one. He weren't overly enthusiastic about his chances, given his hill capabilities, but we were hoping for an over-performance.

We were not able to put any riders into the break. We didn't really help with the pace making either. The events of the breakaway being caught and the riders reaching the final climb were uneventful for us. Right from the start of the climb to the finish, Henao was sitting at the back of the pack, and it was evident he was struggling. his teammates weren't around to help him either, who were struggling to stay in touch themselves.

With 3 km to go, Henao was not even in the top 40 positions and we were looking at a near miracle to have him make up places. Miracles rarely happen in such a strong field, and Henao could only manage a disappointing 35th in this race.

Simon Spilak won, living up to his favurite tag.

1	Simon Spilak	Isostar - Slovenje	4h43'17
35	Sergio Luis Henao Montoya	Philips - Continental	+ 2'09
66	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	+ 2'47
72	Jarlinson Pantano Gómez	Philips - Continental	s.t.
115	Christoph Mai	Philips - Continental	+ 4'40
131	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 5'52
160	Wout Poels	Philips - Continental	+ 8'48
174	Ha Jeon Jung	Philips - Continental	+ 12'54
177	Patrick Müller	Philips - Continental	+ 14'32

February has ensured all the feel-good factor has been well and truly wiped out from January. We do still have a race to go to complete, but the way it's going in France, we won't have anything better to report in that review. We're already bracing for a tough season now, with our leaders seemingly not good enough to challenge at the business end of most races. We need a massive improvement soon or it could all go sour very fast.

Not a race which suits any of our leaders to a great extent. We don't expect the hill to have a major impact in the outcome, but the cobbles look too hard for Saber to hang on to the front, based on evidence from Gent - Wevelgem. Hoping for some return of Per magic like last season, but that's a long shot. Just getting some points from thsi one will probably be a good result.

Rui Costa leads for the first time with the backing of a full team on the startlist. This is a race where we hope we can beat the odds for a change, and are banking a lot on Costa's TT abilities to help him improve his final position. He's still unlikely to beat the PT big guns. We also have a decent TTT setup to help Costa's cause, to give himm the best possible opportunity to stay in touch. After that, it's up to him to perform on the hills. Not a lot of hopes elsewhere, except perhaps some chances our riders to show themselves in the breaks. We've picked Navardauskas as our rider to watch more out of hope that he'll finally get his groove back in a race that suits him better.

As is evident from our line-up, we are hoping that this race remains non-selective over the cobbles to allow Saber to take advantage in the sprints. Whether that happens remains to be seen and whether he'll actually have support left even if the scenario plays out is bigger question. This looks to be a profile which should Saber better than GW and Roma Maxima, so we're a little more hopeful for a higher finish.

Henao leads the team in his home race, which is also our best chance for a high finish all month. He will be without Pantano though, as our other Colombian will tackle advantures elsewhere in the same period. Once again, we've provided Henao with the best support that we could, given he circumstances and hope that he use the suitable profiles to his advantage. Krieger is here to try his luck in the two sprint stages. He needs to improve from his outings so far to have a decent result.

A rare opportunity for Pantano to lead this season. He does not have good support, as it is Poels plus our puncher support squad that will line up in this race. Saber had a couple of RDs left over and is here to try his luck on Stage 1. We hope Pantano can ride into a decent position by himself on the second stage.

Absolutely no expectations from this one as Dieteren leads the team. We would just be happy getting any points from here, and that too maybe a stretch.

Another triple clash, another planning mistake. We had a very different team in mind when we chose this race but made changes along the way and are left with a team reminiscent of Ras Tailteann. That was not a good experience. We're hopeful our mid-level TT guys can finish in the lower point positions in the GC and for a couple of bonus results on the stage. Not much more to hope for from this lineup.

Another cobbles profile that should be too hard for Saber to hang on to the lead group. We're at some minor scoring from him and Per from this one. The others are here to make up the places.

Just like the last triple clash, we rest our hopes on Rui Costa to get us a decent result from this one. We hope Costa and Navardauskas can perform well in the Prologue and Epilogue, and also for the hilly Stage 3 to be selective. Without the latter, it'll be hard for either to reach our expectation. We also hope Navardauskas can mix it with the pure sprinters on Stage 2, given the uneven profile just before the finish.

Another cobbles profile which looks to be strong hard for Saber to challenge at the front. Per is here as expected to try something special. Not a lot of help for our cobbles riders with the others likely to struggle on the hard cobbles.

We kicked off March hoping and needing to improve on our February results. However, judging by past results in cobbled classics this race wasn't exactly filling us with expectation for a good result.

We started off well enough, putting Navardauskas into a nine man break.



But that move was closed down. The later five man break did not have any representation from us. We didn't have the firepower to chase the break and left it to the stronger cobbles teams. With 30 km to go, the break was caught. Just 59 riders remained in the peloton at the time.

The first move was made with 24 km to go by Vanbilsen. Having got half a minute at one point, his lead was down to just 9 seconds with 14 km left. Vanbilsen did get caught. The next acceleration by Vanmarcke created a five man lead group, with Saber and Per in the next group.



Some more reshuffling later, Vanmarcke and Vanbilsen led the race, with Per and Saber in the next group of six riders, leading the chase.



The leading duo and the next group came back together, and as they slowed down to catch some breath, the next group caught up too, to make it a 14 man lead group with 5 km to go. With 1.6 km to go, Per and Saber were both still in the lead group and in the front positions. Per had pulled his captain to the front after they were both sitting at the back for some time.



With the last cobbled sector done, Saber was in second position, as the sprint started. Per started to drop back with his job done for the day.



Having safely negotiated the final tricky corner, Saber was doing his best to catch up, but the gap was too much to close down. Vanbilsen did hold on to his lead. Saber, too held his 2nd place in the sprint for a brilliant result for us.



Per came home in 9th place, out of energy, but having done a wonderful job for us.

1	Kenneth Vanbilsen	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	4h32'55
2	Lahcen Saber	Philips - Continental	s.t.
9	David Per	Philips - Continental	s.t.
49	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	+ 7'11
52	Ha Jeon Jung	Philips - Continental	s.t.
59	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Continental	s.t.
64	Patrick Müller	Philips - Continental	+ 10'43
76	Ramunas Navardauskas	Philips - Continental	+ 13'21
77	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	s.t.

This was not a result we were expecting! 2nd and 9th here after the horrible outing in Gent-Wevelgem is a world of a change. A result like this is probably what the team needed to get a lift after a bad month and we hope we keep this up. A huge credit of the Saber's 2nd place goes to Per, who shows the first glimpse of what he's capable of this season.

One down, nine more races to go this month. Keep them coming

Our second ever PTHC race, with the first at Pro Halstatt not going too well. We did have reasonably high hopes for this one, with Rui Costa a good fit for the course. He would have our full hills support to help him achieve a good result.


The first stage was a Team Time Trial and while we did not expect to be challengers, we were hoping for a decent ride into mid-table.



However, it wasn't the best rider from our TTT team as we managed a lowly 18th place, losing 55 seconds on the day.


The hills greeted the riders in what would become par for the course for the rest of the race. After a couple of failed breakaway attempts, Jaoa Costa got into the break that survived, won three of the five KOM sprints available and ensured the KOM jersey for himself after this stage.



Jaoa was caught with 19 km to go, as the last surviving breakaway. The attacks started soon after, as Rui ensured that he stayed with the larger chase group which had most of the big names. These moves are closed down repeatedly by the pack. Bakelants eventually gets away with Sagan chasing. While Rui stayed away from the attacking action, he did keep himself in touch with the favourites on the final climb.



And that's where Costa finished, in 15th, as he safely negotiated the downhill. Dieteren with a flying finish for 21st, pushing both of them up in the GC.


No breakaway appearance this time for Costa. Van Zandbeek joined it instead, which was a rather large group of 14 riders.



He was dropped on the first climb itself and couldn't make it back. Dieteren got away from the peloton with Mehr-Wenige, and they did build a gap as the pack broke up behind them.



They had joined up with the stragglers from the break but were brought back eventually. Dieteren attacked again with 20 km to go, with Mehr-Wenige once again his companion.



They were joined by Caruso, passed the break and took the intermediate sprint points for themselves. The pack accelerated after a couple of attempted moves from the favourites and they were all back togetehr with less than 5 km to go. De Bie launched a decisive attack half a kilometer later, with Bibby and Sagan on his tail. Costa, and every other GC contender, is able to follow.

As the splits started to form in the group, Costa kept himself in the front positions, with just De Bie getting a gap out in front. Skuijns was the next to get away and there was no response from the pack. Under the Flamme Rouge, Costa was in a pack of five riders who got a gap.



Not much changed after that, with just Gastauer getting a few meters ahead of Costa et al. Costa himself was in a three way sprint for 5th, but wasn't enough and settled for 7th on the stage.



He moved up to 8th in the GC.


A less demanding stage before the ITT on Stage 5. No breakaway appearance for us this time, with Costa apparently very confident of keeping his lead. The first attack came a long way out with 50 km still to go. Bobridge the aggressor, with Sagan, Bakelants and Kolar tagging along. Van Garderen and Geniez too got away. They caught the dropped riders from the break, while more attacks happened out of the peloton. After that, Boom took over and brings the race back together. More attacks followed, both in the break and from the pack. Only a couple get away, and the break are now slowly getting caught.

With 10 km to go, Bakelants attacked, caught and passed the break. His moved lasts till 2.5 km to go, with Skuijns making the catch. Dieteren found himself on fourth wheel on the final downhill.



Soon, with 1.5 km left, it was Rui Costa on fourth wheel as the pack negotiated the tricky turns before the finish. Costa maintained this all the way to the line, but just ran out of road, finishing 4th and narrowly missing out on the bonus seconds.




The Time Trail was supposed to be Costa's time to shine but he had a disappointing ride, losing 42 seconds to stage winner Bibby and making up only one place in the GC.



Perhaps the hard days in the hills were catching up to him now. He finished 17th on the stage with Navardauskas 27th.


Jaoa costa joined the break one more time, well aware that his four point lead in the KOM would be wiped out if he didn't do so. He won the first KOM sprint ahead of Stachowiak.



He kept picking up points over the other climbs, and with Stachowiak running out of steam in the later climbs, picked up enough points to comfortable seal the KOM win. He eventually sat up and waited to be caught by the pack.

Speaking of whom, Gastauer and Skuijns got a gap, but were brought back. Bibby got dropped from the break and this was Costa's chance to gain a position. Gastauer attacked again some time later, and while most of the GC Top 10, barring Bibby followed, Costa and Trofimov were caught off guard.



Costa sensed that Trofimov was on a bad day, and sped away from the Russian, but was still quite some way down on his other rivals.



After this, it was all about Costa limiting his losses. There was a time where he was down to 9th in the GC,. with both Skuijns and Gastauer having passed him on time, but while the former kept the gap, the latter fell away at the end, meaning Costa could hang on to 8th in the GC. He ended up losing more than four minutes on the day and came home in 13th place.

Bobridge won the stage and got enough time on De Bie to win the GC.

1	Jack Bobridge	Bennelong - Mitchelton	15h53'55
8	Rui Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 5'53
32	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 16'57
40	Ramunas Navardauskas	Philips - Continental	+ 18'42
43	Jan Dieteren	Philips - Continental	+ 19'22
102	Wout Poels	Philips - Continental	+ 32'15
138	Jarlinson Pantano GÛmez	Philips - Continental	+ 44'45
139	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	+ 45'03
142	Lotto Petrus	Philips - Continental	+ 45'35

An excellent GC result for us, with Rui achieving our Top 15 hopes quite easily. Jaoa added some important points for us with the KOM win and leading the standings for four stages. We were 2nd in the team standings till Stage 5 but the last stage was just too hard for the team to hold on to it. Dieteren picked up some minor points in the U25 race.

All in all, this race exceeded our expectations and consolidates our very good start to March. The races keep coming thick and fast, so let's hope we can keep it up.

March had started off very well for us with the first two races. We had higher hopes for this one, than for Roma Maxima earlier in the month when we made our monthly previews, so we were expectant.

Krieger joined the five man break for us.



They went away to get an eight minute lead but once the pack started chasing, the gap was brought down very fast. They were eventually caught with 27 km to go. The first major attack from the favourites came on the penultimate cobbled sector with around 11 km to go. Saber couldn't follow the nine man in the front group and stayed with the peloton, which too had recently split! Saber remained in the front position throughout the chase, as the situation out in front changed a couple of times, with riders forming and breaking up groups. With the riders ahead of the peloton having gone up to twelve at one point, it was down to an elite group of eight riders at the front. The others were soon picked up by Saber's group, which had 20 riders.

The gap to the front group had opened up to about a minuteas the second cobbled sector started, but they lost some seconds, but were never in trouble to get caught. Saber led the second group over the final cobbled sector.



Those eight riders would fight it out for the win. Saber would go on to win the sprint in the second group, which saw him finishing 9th in this race.



Baugnies won the race, edging out David and Thomas in the sprint.

1	Jérome Baugnies	Kulczyk - DMTEX	4h38'36
9	Lahcen Saber	Philips - Continental	+ 35
48	David Per	Philips - Continental	+ 2'21
93	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	+ 4'21
101	Remco Te Brake	Philips - Continental	+ 5'53
119	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Continental	+ 6'57
132	Patrick Müller	Philips - Continental	+ 7'26
156	Ha Jeon Jung	Philips - Continental	+ 9'35
165	Lennard Hofstede	Philips - Continental	+ 11'46

It wasn't a result at the level of Roma Maxima, but it was a good outing nonetheless for Saber. Per had an off day, so there was no one to back up Saber with minor scoring. March's good form for the team continues and it's a welcome sight after the horrors of February.