It's been a season full of ups and downs for the Garmin boys and the Tracker itself. From Hesjedal at the Giro, to Martin at the Vuelta, from multiple leadership in the cobbles to our aim for fame in the hilly classics, we had great results and poor ones. Originally we had planned to take you throught the poor ones as well as the good ones, but since the issue is long enough as it is (2109 words for those that care), we focused on our best moments. From the Trackers point of view, we completely failed on regularity, but we brought to you many a special edition for the biggest races, and I hope we could bring you some insight in to custom riders and the mechanics of the game too. Please feel free to post any critique or suggestions below.
Anyway, here it is, the last officially counting edition of the Tracker for the season:



Ryder entered the 2013 Giro as the reigning champion, but also as a huge outsider. Things had changed a great deal in the year since his epic duel with Rodriguez, and he was no longer seen as a top climber. We sent him here to reach a Top 5 for us, but even in January we found that a bit optimistic. We had decided to focus on Dan Martin and the Vuelta, so he had little support. Alongside him we sent Nicky Strömberg for the sprints, in which he got some Top 10s, which was of course nice for him. But our real battle was always going to be the mountains.



Ryder started well, securing a third spot going in to the first rest day, only 52 seconds off Maglia Rosa Betancur. He dropped back a bit after the time trial, but immediately made that up again on the hilly stage afterwards.
On the first real mountain stage on day 10, Ryder already showed that he wasn't quite on the same level as the top guns, but managed to hold on to third by 2 seconds. The day after that, he managed to be the best of the favourites, immediately silencing the critics. On the flat stage that followed, Jakob Rathe pulled off the unthinkable, just about holding on from the breakaway to take the stage. This was the absolute high point of our Giro, and I dare say Jake's career. On stage 14, Ryder managed to stay with the favourites group again, but sadly Porte took the stage from a well timed attack, pushing rider back to 4th. On stage 15 the Giro reached France, where one of the toughest mountain stages of the race was held. The question was - could rider hold on? The answer was - no. In what was one of his worst days of the race, he lost two minutes to the favourites and his 4th spot to Kreuziger. Luckily, there were still some mountains to take some time back on. Stage 16 was a typical breakaway stage, but surprisingly, the GC candidates went for it as well. Ryder found himself in the right group and took back 4th. The day after we were lucky that no time gaps were given to Quintanas and Kreuzigers advantage, but hey - that's cycling.



Over stages 18 and 19 he managed to keep his 4th place, but on the eve of the decisive mountain stage in to Tre Cime, he was only 1 minute ahead of Quintana and Kreuziger. He could afford to let one of them pass, but not both, if we wanted to reach our goal. Scaling the Passo Giau, things looked bad for Ryder, who was caught out by attacks from nearly all favourites. Luckily, the peleton came back together in the descent. Now he only needed to hold on for one more climb, the Tre Cime. As the final ascent started, Quintana attacked away, but Hesjedal and Kreuziger stayed together. This would do to secure 5th. Then, 9km from the finish, tragedy struck: Ryder got dropped in the descent. For a while it looked like he could limit his losses, but eventually he finished nearly 2 minutes behind Kreuziger. In the end, Ryder arrived in to Brescia 12'45 down on Nibali, but only 44 seconds behind Kreuziger. Still, for someone who was considered such an underdog, putting up such a fight for 5th is a huge achievement.



For us as a team, promoting young talent is one of our most important objectives. Allthough both riders are forced to retire, they had some good times with us, too. Both of them took a win at WT level, which is of course some achievement for a first year pro. We'll start off with Nicky Strömberg, a tale of talent and corruption. He was easily the most talent Nordic since Edvald Boasson Hagen, and in the end, he was destined to be even more tragic. After showing some promise as a youth rider, he got in contact with drugs, cocaine especially, and nearly killed himself. Cycling was part of his rehab, so by the time he was sober, he was 23, without a job, and one of the most talented riders in the world. We signed him with full confidence in his abilities both on the road and as a person, in the hope that he wouldn't relapse. He started slowly, but steadily, getting Top 10s or Top 15s in nearly every sprint that he entered, and already came close to victory in the Tour of Catalunya. Then came the Giro. Had Brouwer and Hanzen not had such a spectacular race, he would've been in the limelight a lot more with his constant points scoring. More good races followed, until he finally got his first win at the Swedish NC. It wasn't against any sort of real competition, but it was great to see the pride with which he wore the blue and yellow, and it did his confidence the world of good. But still, it looked like he would go winless throughout the season. In his last race of the season (and as it turned out in his last ever pro race) he took a stage win, in the Tour of Beijing. To make things even better, he managed to hold on to a 5th place in the GC, eventhough the race included a mountain stage. A few days after that came the sad news. He was found by his brother in his old room in his parents house in Sweden, where he was visiting, lying unconscious on the floor. It looked like he wouldn't survive. Without knowledge of anyone close to him, he had relapsed, and overdosed on a new drug. He is still lying in hospital in Malmö, and it is not known wether he will ever be the same again. One thing is certain - he will never be a cyclist anymore.


Robbie Andrews story is simple in comparison, he was just a young lad from Cornwall setting out on an adventure in cycling. He didn't score points for us as consistently as Nicky did, and you could see how it got at him. As he joined us, he was a high-sprited young guy, always joking, always having fun. But as the season progrssed, and he failed to make any sort of impression in the flanders classics, you could see it get to him. By the time he was at the Giro, the smile had all but vanished off his face. By the time he was riding at the British NC, he was a mental wreck. I talked to him as best I could, and after his breakaway win at the Eneco Tour, I thought he may become the same again. But as he failed to repeat that win, his state of mind worsened once more. As we sat down to talk about his future at the end of the Tour of Britain (where he briefly held the KoM jersey), it was evident that there was no future for him. He just wasn't cut out for cycling at the top level. He might still write pieces in the Tracker from time to time, now that he has inscribed at the University of Plymouth in the field of journalism.



Of course we also have other young talent that has been around longer than just one year. Like Jake Rathe, who won a stage at the Giro this year, or Rohan Dennis, who has been stellar all season in time trials. But the real talent, albeit not that young anymore, is Andy Talansky. He is our crown jewel, and has been great all season. He narrowly missed out on time trial gold in the continental championships, he was our leader at the Tour de France (where he sadly only managed to finish 14th), but the race I want to focus on here is the Tour of California, arguably the most important American race. We went there with the goal of a Top 3, but hopes of winning it outright. Things didn't start off too well with Andy losing over a minute on the first uphill finish to NetApp's König, but we knew we could make that up on the TT. As the flat stages passed, the few low key sprinters that we could afford to bring eventhough we were gunning for the GC got a few top tens, so that was nice. In the long time trial with an uphill finish, Andy managed to pass König in the GC, only to be about 40 seconds behind reigning Tour champion Bradley Wiggins. On stage seven, the only real mountain stage of the race, we knew Andy would have to pull of something special. And my oh my did he pull it off! He attacked as soon as the roads started to rise, and he was never to be seen again. Overtaking breakaway member by breakaway member, he got himself a massive gap of nearly 2 minutes to Wiggins as he crossed the line to take stage and victory at our home tour.



How could we not mention the performance of our absolute captain, puncher extraordinaire Dan Martin. Of course his main ambition was the week of the Ardennes, but he would also get leadership in stage races, the highlight of these being the Vuelta. He started his season poorly, failing to get a real score in the Stage races he entered. In the early hilly classics, things were already better, like Strade Bianche, where he took 2nd. Still, nervousness prevailed as Dan lined up at the start of the Amstel Gold Race. As the race heated up here, he reacted just seconds too late, leaving himself in the chase group rather than the main group. He tried what he could in a chaotic finish, but in the end he finished 6th, 36 seconds behind Purito Rodriguez. At the Fleche Wallone, things already looked a lot better, with Dan putting in a huge attack up the Mur de Huy. In the end, he was leading a select group of favourites in to the finale, and only got passed by Sagan and Gilbert to take a well deserved podium. At the big one, La Doyenne, Dan got caught behind eventual winner Sagan but still managed a respectable 5th place. After that, it was all for stage racing and the Vuelta. Aftr a great team time trial, Rohan took red with Dan on the same time. The stage after, he lost it again right away to Valverde and wouldn't regain it again. From then on it was keeping the position. Our aim was a Top 5, but maybe a podium.....
In the end it was not to be. For the sake of the readers I won't take you through Dan losing place after place before finishing fifth, so if you're interested, read back on Luigis fantastic reports. He actually was about as far behind Froome as Talansky was, but he still managed to do outstandingly well. Other highlight of the race was when Vande Velde won stage 18 in to Peña Cabarga, doubling our stage count.

Thanks for reading it all (if you did ), and as I said above, if you've got any suggestions at all for improvements, just post them below.

Well, of course the most controversial happening in the EPIC world must be covered by the leading magazine. In this special for covering #CycleGate, we reveal the rider involved in the deal, sum up what happened in an article and try to understand the whole complexity of it through a timeline. After that, you can hear opinions from other managers as well as from Cycleman himself, allthough sadly both Knockout and Ollfardh declined to comment. And to round things off, we have a bit of humour from guest writer TMM. I've taken special care in making sure the info is accurate, that's one of the reasons it's only out today.


In the monumental cock-up that was #CycleGate, Orica – GreenEDGE manager Cycleman got himself in to trouble by breaking transfer rules and trying to arrange a pre deal. Though it is not as simple as that – there are doubts wether you could really count it as a pre deal. In material that the Tracker has exclusive, everything is revealed. It becomes evident that he instigated negotiations about riders as early as August 13th, and had something more or less resembling a deal for Matthews in exchange with..... Benat Intxausti. Yes, you got that right. All this fuss about Intxausti. It is important to determine what sort of a deal this was, and it is pretty hard to do so. It was at least a gentlemans agreement, allthough nothing seems to have been set in stone. From then, very little happened, until they picked up negotiations again on December 16th, started by Cycleman. From here on, Cycleman got himself caught up in a net of lies, and was eventually fined half of his riders natural progression.




13/08, 11:48 GMT: Cycleman enquires about the availability of Intxausti

13/08, 17:05 GMT: Knockout replies, stating that a deal involving Matthews and/or Impey would seem possible.

14/08, 12:59 GMT: Orica list Matthews as "Not Available. Like Don't Even Try", to the confusion of Knockout. Talks, allthough no deals were arranged, followed, with names like Valverde being mentioned.

15/11, 7:00 GMT: Cycleman claims to have a deal for „a VERY good rider“, assumingly Valverde.

15/12, 21:58 GMT: Orica release a list of their riders future - Matthews is listed "Definitely Leaving"

15/12, 23:42 GMT: Cycleman proposes a "straight swap" between Matthews and Intxausti pending natural progression.

16/12, 00:09 GMT: Cycleman responds to surprise sparked by Matthews listing, explaining that "Some dealings are in progress which may well require Matthews to move the other way".

16/12, 1:36 GMT: Cycleman denies having a pre-deal for Matthews, stating that "a pre-deal would be an agreement with another person for me to give them Matthews in exchange for someone else.", which is effectively what he had proposed to Knockout.

16/12, 5:43 GMT: Cycleman posts in the Orica HQ explaining that he never mentioned him to anyone - a lie.

16/12 16:07 GMT: Secret info concerning the Matthews ↔ Intxausti deal is passed on to the EPICUCI through an „anonymous informant“.

16/12, 19:53: He edits the post, now stating that "it's not a pre-deal because I've only mentioned Matthews to anyone in reply saying he is available." which frankly makes zero sense.

17/12, 8:56: EPICUCI states they are investigating, "getting a bit annoyed that it always comes back to the same few people breaking the rules" and "need some time to think on how to deal with this".

17/12, 11:22: Cycleman writes in his HQ that listing Matthews "could just mean" that he only has plans to sell him, without having a deal in place. Note that he does not state that it means that, but that it "could" meant that.


"I kinda like Cycleman and Matthews, but this was shit! Ollfardh has proven himself unworthy to lead EPIC, while TMM should take over EPIC. attach his punishment ideas .Or does Ollfardh have an australian fetish? I don't know. And I don't want to know. My suggestion for a fair punishment would be, that we use all TMM's punishment ideas at once. Thank you for listening and wasting your time." - Paul23, OPQS

„It's shocking that this could happen. I, and with me probably all others, had thought that with the new UCI these practices would disappear. I feel like a harsh punishment should be in place to deter anyone else from ever doing this.“ - Selwink, MTN

"Orica-GreenEDGE have been in contact with the UCI and I can assure that the situation is working to be resolved. Unfortunately the problem arises from a misunderstanding between the team's management and that of another unnamed team a couple of months ago, which arised in a problem that was solved. Unfortunately the management of FDJ misunderstood a statement I made, saying "There are some deals in progress which require Matthews to move the other way." While I mistakenly used the word deal instead of negotiation, which in the case would even be too strong. Notice the use of the word may. The name of Matthews has only been made in the case of an enquirie made by another team, and I can assure you that only enquiries have been made and the problems have arisen from misinterpretation of poor wording on my part.
Of course people don't think the punishment is harsh! They don't know the full story! I'm not sayin it's a bad punishment, as I said, I'm cool with it. But can people please just mind their own business. Especially TMM, what right does he have to suggest punishments? I'm really frustrated with him just thinking he has any sort of authority in this matter, because he doesn't. He's the one who started this whole thing by not bothering to actually read exactly what I said and if not for him there wouldn't be any "Cyclegate"" - Cycleman, Orica


And last but not least, TMM of FDJ has contributed a list of other possibilites for punishments.

Can be used solo or in combinations:

1) Halve his budget
2) Full transfer embargo
3) Not allowed to sign anyone under 25
4) Death
5) Dismemberment
6) Relegation
7) Only allowed to buy Aussies
8) Must buy Evans (the worst of all punishments)
9) Must pay Belkin
10) Must give Belkin Matthews
11) Must give Novo Nordisk 50% of all progress points for the whole season
12) Must report all three GT's
13) Start the season with -500points
14) Can't upgrade riders in Break 1
15) Team bikes must be girls tricycles
16) Must sign Horner
17) Excluded from Tour
18) Excluded from TDU and Aus/Nzl Nationals
19) Looses all of sesaon 1's progress/upgrades
20) Must listen to Justin Bieber for the entire duration of Transfers

8) Must buy Evans (the worst of all punishments)