We had a lot of expectations from our first goal race of the season.

Unfortunately, our sprinters struggled hugely in the high winds, even getting dropped around the 30 km to go mark. Although they did make it back, they never looked comfortable. In the end, they missed the decisive move and failed to get into position in the sprint. The team missed a trick by having the flat specialists wait for the sprinters, otherwise they might have been able to get a higher finish. We ended up with a top 20 and a top 25.

1	Marco Haller	In-n-Out p/b Carrefour	4h23'10
18	Albert Timmer	Philips - Continental	s.t.
24	Dmitri Grabovski	Philips - Continental	s.t.
49	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	s.t.
76	Maris Bogdanovics	Philips - Continental	s.t.
77	Jempy Drucker	Philips - Continental	s.t.
78	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	s.t.
91	Jos Van Emden	Philips - Continental	s.t.
104	Marcel Wyss	Philips - Continental	s.t.

We failed to realise our first goal of the season. The sprinters failed to show up for the sprint and our tactics restricted the progress of our flat specialists. Not a good start to our flats campaign, a terrain which would would go a long way in determining where we end up this season.

We unleashed our full sprint train in this race for the first time this season. The sprinters needed to bounce back from their disappointing outing in Australia to get our season back on track.

Leezer attacked from the pack and made the gap to the day's break with around 40 km to go. His sojourn at the front was short-lived, as the break was swept up soon after.



When it came down to the final sprints, our train did not form, but Krieger found himself in a decent position, with Kreder not too far behind. Bogdanovics helped in chasing down late attacker Kneisky, who was caught inside the final kilometer. Although our guys couldn't quite feature at the front of the sprint, they managed to grab 7th, 9th and 11th spots at the line. Drucker finished 16th.

1	Yoeri Havik	Kulczyk - DMTEX	4h33'48
7	Michel Kreder	Philips - Continental	s.t.
9	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	s.t.
11	Maris Bogdanovics	Philips - Continental	s.t.
16	Jempy Drucker	Philips - Continental	s.t.
35	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	s.t.
36	Tom Leezer	Philips - Continental	s.t.
62	David Per	Philips - Continental	s.t.
97	Ralf Matzka	Philips - Continental	s.t.

A much improved performance from our sprinters. Kreder continued his fine form to take yet another top 10. Krieger and Bogdanovics made up a bit for Barcelona, claiming 9th and 11th, respectively. In his first start, Drucker finished in a strong 16th place, in a race which is not his forte. This is a very good sign for us, if he can carry this forward into the cobbled races.

The team management would like to see our sprint train forming and us being able to challenge for the win going ahead. But for this race, we actually exceeded our points-scoring expectation despite not meeting our individual expectation of a top 5 finish.

Our plans were in turmoil when Drucker was dropped from the leading group with 57 km to go. He did play it smart and hopped on to the Isostar bunch as they chased down the split. But that was basically his last good move of the race, as he became anonymous thereafter. He finished in a woeful 43rd place! Both him and our support failed miserably in this race.

1	Alexandr Nepomnyachsniy	SPAR - Shimano - SCG	5h33'03
43	Jempy Drucker	Philips - Continental	s.t.
64	Jos Van Emden	Philips - Continental	s.t.
69	Ralf Matzka	Philips - Continental	s.t.
73	Tom Leezer	Philips - Continental	s.t.
76	David Per	Philips - Continental	s.t.
97	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	s.t.
98	Maris Bogdanovics	Philips - Continental	s.t.
164	Miles Scotson	Philips - Continental	s.t.

Nothing much to say except that this was a total waste. We were never even in with a shot at the minor placings. The only positive thing, and we're just clutching at straws here, is that we have mostly chosen to stay away from C1 races this season. Drucker and the cobbles team needs to buck up in major way for the next cobbles outing. Which incidentally, is our Win Goal race!

Another stage race in the mountains, and once again our expecations were quite low. Perhaps even lower than Tachira. The team is similar is to the one that raced in Tachira.


We had high hopes of a good showing by our TT pair on this stage. Van Zandbeek registered a time 31 seconds slower than the best time of Rosas. Grabovski did better, but was still 27 off Rosas's time, who ultimately was the surprise winner of the day. Our best was Grabovski in 12th. Van Zandbeek was 16th. Both Bardet and Battaglin lost a lot time, but that was expected.




This stage did not suit our leaders. They were never in the thick of things as the main GC contenders showed their strength. Our best was Battaglin in 27th, with Bardet 31st.



We had brought Krieger to this race with the hope that he could pull off something special on this stage. For the first time this season, our sprint train formed in the closing stages.



Just as soon as they did, they lost their position and Krieger found himself boxed in. He only managed 8th place, after starting the sprint from a long way back.


Grabovski joined the break but he wasn't strong enough on the climbs to collect of the KOM points available. Bardet did a good ride, making the decisive group of GC contenders when the selection happened. He followed this group as they chased another group out ahead, containing a couple of the favourites. He made it safel to the line in 8th place, rapidly moving up to 15th in the GC. Battaglin was 17th, to also move up a handful of places in the GC to 25th.


Ruijgh joined the break this time, but like Grabovski on stage 4, he couldn't get any KOM points. This time, Bardet and Battaglin were together in a group chasing two groups of favourites ahead of them. As the lesser capable riders kept getting dropped from up ahead, our duo kwpt plugging away and getting back some positions. Bardet would finish very strongly, eventually ending up 8th again. 11th would be his spot in the final GC. Battaglin come home in 22nd, to jump to 19th in the GC in his home race.

1	Pierre Paolo Penasa	Kulczyk - DMTEX	19h07'54
11	Romain Bardet	Philips - Continental	+ 12'40
19	Enrico Battaglin	Philips - Continental	+ 15'44
35	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	+ 20'41
75	Albert Timmer	Philips - Continental	+ 34'50
82	Dmitri Grabovski	Philips - Continental	+ 37'31
101	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 48'56
152	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	+ 1h36'14
173	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	+ 1h55'02

Bardet once again showing his class in the mountains. A race which started off disappointingly ended well as we met our expectations and got another top 20 in the process. Our domestiques and sprinting were perhaps the only negative to take out of this race.

We had earmarked this as our Win Goal race of the season. Naturally, we had huge expectations from Drucker who is our leader for the cobbles this year.

From Drucker's point of view, this was his third race of the season after Barcelona, where he did well to finish in the points, and Gent - Wevelgem, which was a forgettable outing. We were hoping for a huge high after those up and down performances.

After the team decided not to send anyone into the break, our task centered around making sure our captain reached the closing stages of the race in safety. Race favourite Guillame Van Keirsbulck attacked from distance, with 25 km left. Drucker and Van Emden palced themselves safely in the 12 man chasing group. The Goldcorp rider took the win untroubled but back in the group, there was still work to be done. And it went to the line with the sprint for 2nd. Drucker narrowly edged out Hugentobler and Bush to claim 2nd.



Slightly further back, Van Emden rolled in for an incredible 6th place, to make it a great day of racing for us.



We even had riders finishing in 25th, 26th and 27th places with Per capturing the last points. Finishing 26th and 27th showed our depth but we could've have got a few more points if things had turned out slightly differently.

1	Guillaume Van Keirsbulck	Goldcorp - Nordstrom Rack	5h09'26
2	Jempy Drucker	Philips - Continental	+ 32
6	Jos Van Emden	Philips - Continental	+ 1'03
25	David Per	Philips - Continental	+ 2'34
26	Michel Kreder	Philips - Continental	s.t.
27	Tom Leezer	Philips - Continental	s.t.
40	Ralf Matzka	Philips - Continental	+ 4'53
60	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	+ 8'46
91	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	+ 12'22

We missed our Win Goal by a single position but we have no complaints with the result. The team did an excellent job ensuring Drucker was well placed and out of trouble. We were especially impressed with van Emden's excellent ride. David Per keeps putting in eye-catching performances for such a young rider and is staking a claim for the best loan signing of the season.

The hills don't really have a bright foresight for us this season, given a slightly weaker line-up. As in San Cristobal, Wyss and Costa led the line, but Bardet was also present, fresh off his commendable showing in Trentino.

We stayed away from the breakaway once again, to some consternation of the management. With 12 km to go, the attacks started. Our leaders decided not to follow and instead concentrated on maintaining their rhythm on the closing slopes.
With 2 km to go, Wyss found himself in an elite group of four rider, chasing five more out in front.



After some changes, with 1 km to go, Wyss was in the second group of riders on the road, with the lead group having four riders - Roux, Boily, Monfort, Bennett. And it would be those four riders, joined by a charging van der Hugenhaben, who would contest the sprint for the win. Bennett emerged victorious. In the sprint for in the chasing group, Wyss managed to be fourth across the line and finished 9th.

1	George Bennett	Xero Racing p/b Octagon	5h33'03
9	Marcel Wyss	Philips - Continental	+ 25
34	Romain Bardet	Philips - Continental	+ 1'06
58	Tom Leezer	Philips - Continental	+ 2'48
78	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	s.t.
93	David Per	Philips - Continental	+ 4'48
97	Albert Timmer	Philips - Continental	s.t.
105	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	s.t.
106	Enrico Battaglin	Philips - Continental	s.t.

We wanted a top 15 and ended up with a top 10. The team management is quite happy with the outcome of this race as Wyss continues his good start to the season. This, alongwith Geraardsbergen, was a good end to the month for us.

Our first home race comes around in March. This month sees us riding in just two races and so this will be an important one for picking up points. We have sent our full flat outfit to put on a show in front of the home crowd. Michel Kreder will share sprint leadership duties with Alexander Krieger. The Dutchman has started off the season relatively better than his faster teammate. The management is hoping he can keep up this form. Krieger needs to put up better results now if he is to justify his place in the team. The management ensured that the lead-out train has riders capable of riding on pan-flats as well as through the wind. Grabovski and Van Zandbeek will be looking to get good results in the ITT, which will hopefully boost their GC chances.

Our high-priority race for the month sees Drucker take on the cobbles leadership duties again after a good performance in Geraardsberger-Bosberg, where he finished 2nd. The full cobbles support line-up is here to support him. We have also factored in the small possibility of the race coming down to a bunch sprint. For this reason, Krieger and Bogdanovics are present. We have the arsenal available for surviving after attacks from distance as well. The expectations here are very high, especially as we see cobbles as the races where we will have the best average scores throughout the season.

When we registered ourselves for this race, we had high expectations, both because it was a home race and also because we felt that we had a good team to tackle the stage profiles. On a second glance of the startlist, we felt we had over-estimated ourselves and reduced the expectation on the team. Top 10 was a minimum...



Krieger was able to get into the sprint action when the sprint trains started forming, but lost his way before the finish, ending up 19th on a day which shouldn't have been the hardest for him.



Grabovski was a disappointment in the ITT, finishing in 23rd place, nearly a minute off the best time. Van Zandbeek was a little better, crossing the line in 14th.



An inexplicable slowing down of the peloton just as the sprint trains were being formed allowed our rivals at Sauber to whitewash the stage podium. Krieger was in a good position before the goof-up and could only manage 7th, still his best finish of the season.





The break spoiled the sprinters' day. This time it was Kreder sprinting for us but he could only manage 11th. Somehow, we had three riders in points scoring GC positions after this stage.



Our sprinters put on another no-show as the break took a second win in a row. Worse still, both Van Zandbeek and Van Emden got caught up in a late crash and lost two minutes to the peloton. Grabovski survived the carnage, ensuring he moved up the standings. So did Kreder. But the outcome was that we ended up losing 2 points on this stage. Van Zandbeek ended up 26th, just one position off the points. We finished 4th in the team standings and missed out on points there as well.

1	Richard Laningo Laizer	Andorra Cycling Project	18h58'34
13	Dmitri Grabovski	Philips - Continental	+ 45
23	Michel Kreder	Philips - Continental	+ 1'43
26	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	+ 2'07
39	Maris Bogdanovics	Philips - Continental	+ 2'35
40	Jos Van Emden	Philips - Continental	+ 2'37
54	Tom Leezer	Philips - Continental	s.t.
89	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	+ 5'31
137	Jempy Drucker	Philips - Continental	+ 10'10

A very disappointing race for us at home. We gave up a lot of ground to some of our promotion rivals, which makes this even worse. Our sprint train has not worked out at all this season, barring one occasion, and it is a worry. It is unbelievable how no one even attempted to get into the break. We needed the points from this one but the team couldn't deliver. We do not expect to have a good April, so all eyes are now on the next race - Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, after this disappointment. Our promotion hopes depend on having at least one good race out of the four we ride in March and April. KBK is our best chance.

After a disappointing showing in Bayern Rundfarht, all eyes were on Drucker, to see if he could deliver a good result for us here. As always, we had high hopes from him, with a podium finish being the target for this race.

Bogdanovics joined the early break but their strength was their downfall as the peloton chased them down quite soon. None of our riders joined the eventual breakaway that was allowed to stay away and they got down to concentrating on protecting our leader.
The team did a commendable job leading the peloton over the cobbles, with help from World Cycling Center and Kulczyk.



With 18 km to go, both our premium sprinters were dropped, which meant we lost one part of our attacking strategy for the finish. It was all up to Drucker from here on in.

With the breakaway finally caught with 7 km left, it was a surprise that none of the cobbles specialists tried a late attack to distance the sprinters. Thus, it was the sprinters who would lock out the podium positions. For some time, it looked like Drucker might sneak in there, but he had to settle for 4th, just missing our target for this race. Matzka surprised us with a 6th place finish, hanging on till the end and doing a brilliant job of protecting and pacing Drucker. This more than made up for our podium miss.



We had riders finish just outside the points once again with Per in 27th and Van Emden in 29th. This is turning into an annoying habit!

1	Sam Harrison	World Cycling Centre	4h29'46
4	Jempy Drucker	Philips - Continental	s.t.
6	Ralf Matzka	Philips - Continental	s.t.
27	David Per	Philips - Continental	s.t.
29	Jos Van Emden	Philips - Continental	s.t.
49	Tom Leezer	Philips - Continental	s.t.
52	Maris Bogdanovics	Philips - Continental	+ 3'40
63	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	s.t.
94	Miles Scotson	Philips - Continental	+ 8'30

Matzka made up for a missed podium to ensure a double top 10 finish, similar to what Van Emden achieved in Geraardsbergen-Bosberg. We would have liked another couple of guys to be in the minor points, given how strong the team was over the cobbles. But we can't really complain. An excellent race from our promotion rivals World Cycling Center, who look to be coming into form now. The battle for the top of the CT will be very close when the March standings are announced!

As always, we are neither favourites to win a hilly race, nor do we expect to set the world on fire with our performance in this race. Wyss has been over-performing to an extent this year, and we hope he continues with that form. Costa hasn't delivered a result yet and needs to step it up now. With longer climbs than the previous hilly classics, it might give our climbers something to target.

Neither of our climbers are near the best in the division, nor are they good against the clock, so they're not likely to be close to being top favourites for this race. Bardet has done really well so far and he needs to pull another blinder out of his hat if we are to achieve a high GC position. The only saving grace for us is that the Prologue is very short. Krieger and Bogdanovics will get four chances to get it right in the flats, and we hope that they can better their joint best seventh place so far this season. We're not sure we have the riders to get into the breaks here, not that we've been trying that route much this season anyway!

Having performed better than expected in both the hilly classics so far, we were hoping for Wyss to manage the same in this race.

The race turned out quite different from what the big-guns were hoping for. The early breakaway was not caught, resulting in the first win for Campari, via Rocchetti. Wyss had an anonymous race mostly. He couldn't follow the more powerful late attackers but managed to get a gap to the larger peloton with around 5 km to go and held onto that advantage till the end.



He finished 14th to meet our expectations, but there wasn't much else to write home about.

1	Federico Rocchetti	Campari - Super Dry	4h52'14
14	Marcel Wyss	Philips - Continental	+ 3'07
49	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 4'13
62	Romain Bardet	Philips - Continental	+ 5'48
64	Albert Timmer	Philips - Continental	s.t.
79	Tom Leezer	Philips - Continental	+ 6'58
80	Enrico Battaglin	Philips - Continental	s.t.
82	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	s.t.
134	Miles Scotson	Philips - Continental	+ 29'51

Wyss maintains his consistency in the hills but we really were hoping for something more from the others. The team should've been able to dictate the pace some more, given how strong the line-up was. Costa remains an under-performer and at the moment, he looks to be a disappointment for the season.

This result, while not entirely a failure, means that we're be falling off the pace in the promotion race, something which was expected this month, but still annoying.

We aren't the ebst going uphill, so we sent the team here to achieve a top 15 result in the GC. With the startlist we had, we were hoping for some breakaway excursions too.



We were hoping for a top 10 from van Emden, given his Prologue skills, but he only managed an anonymous 14th place on this stage.



Costa joined the BotD and managed 3rd place on the only KOM climb of the day. At the end, Krieger got his first chance to shine. He left himself too much work to do when the sprint trains were formed. He ended up 8th.





After the early break was caught on the 1st category climb, Bardet took the chacne to attack and went over the top in the lead. He was reeled in soon after. However, our French leader showed himself to be the most aggressive rider of the day, attacking again when the favourites went away. Although he could not catch up to them, he finished in a good 5th position. Unfortunately for us, the race decided not to award any time splits from 3rd position on wards, meaning Bardet's initiatives bore no fruit in terms of challenging for a high GC placing. Albert Timmer had a good stage to finish with the group and was now our highest place rider in the GC with 11th place.





The breakaway spoiled the day for the sprinters. Krieger finished 6th on a day which turned out to be his sprint performance of the season so far. It could've been fourth place but for the surviving duo.





In an inexplicable move, Bardet decided to join the break on this stage! He was among the last two from the break to survive but was caught with around 10 km to go.



Battaglin attacked with three others a couple of kilometers later. Although they were able to distance the peloton, they were eventually caught by the GC favourites and left behind. Battaglin finished in a respectable 10th, while did not feel the ill-effects of his breakaway sojourn, and limited his losses well. Timmer lost a lot of time and fell out of the point scoring positions.





Costa joined the break and won all three mountain sprints to move up to joint 2nd in the KOM standings.



The break did not survive this time. Krieger finished 7th, to show that perhaps these positions are where his peak lie.






This stage was expected to be one for the breakaway and that's how it turned out! Costa joined the breakaway but for some reason beyond comprehension, decided not to challenge in the only KOM sprint available and settled for tied 2nd in the standings. He did not have the legs to challenge for the win either, settling for a decent 4th place.

1	Rafael Valls	Repsol - Honda	21h45'46
14	Romain Bardet	Philips - Continental	+ 2'35
20	Enrico Battaglin	Philips - Continental	+ 4'12
27	Albert Timmer	Philips - Continental	+ 5'13
43	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	+ 8'27
53	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 12'13
106	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	+ 34'51
108	Jos Van Emden	Philips - Continental	+ 35'30
134	Maris Bogdanovics	Philips - Continental	+ 42'59

Romain Bardet tried his heart out to achieve a good result and was perhaps a judges ruling away from a top 10. His 14th place ensured we met our expectations. Battaglin's battling performance meant we secured another top 20.

Costa did well in this race to claim a high KOM position. This was his first notable contribution to the team, so let's hope this becomes a habit. Krieger was consistent but not as high up the sprint field as we would like. Bogdanovics was completely absent in the sprints, which could be a bad sign for future races. Let's just hope that it's a form/injury thing and not an ability thing.

To be honest, we're just glad March and April are over! These two months have been less racing and more frustration as we our rivals pull away slowly. It is always easier protecting a lead than chasing because of the pressure involved. We hope we can handle that pressure and get back to challenging for promotion soon. May will be an important month in that cause.

To be honest, we're just glad March and April are over!