A race on the cobbles and the flat and we have a perfect leader for these kinds of races. Saber has been performing well so far this season and we hope this would be another similar result. He has decent support in Per on the stones and in the forms of Te Brake and Krieger in the sprints. This was identified as one the key races for us this season.


The hard first stage was ridden extremely hard. We stayed out of the break. We managed to reach the final 10 km to go with both Saber and Per in the elad group behind a couple of surviving breakaway rider and the attacking Vanbilsen,



Some more attacks followed. Per kept Saber out of trouble and continued to chase down everyone ahead. Being the only rider with a domestique (unfair on Per!) at this stage payed dividends for Saber. Although they could not catch the attackers, they kept the gap manageable, with the duo ending up 5th and 6th on the stage.




We stayed out of the break once again. The pack was split up in the later stages with the wind and the rain making conditions hard for those at the back. We got a sprint train going for Saber, with Krieger and Te Brake leading him out.



Krieger dropped off, but Te Brake's acceleration took him to the front. Saber launched his own sprint and came around the outside to win the close-run sprint. Te Brake payed the price of going too early but still claimed 4th.





Saber moved up to 4th in the GC.


We kept to our strategy of staying out of the break. Once again, we got a sprint train going. This time however, Saber did not quite have the legs to hang on to Te Brake in the final kilometer.



For awhile Te Brake was the furthest forward but he ran out of steam once again. Saber gained ground to just pip his teammate at the finish for 4th. Te Brake finished 5th.




Same strategy once again. This time however, the our train started off too far back and needed to make up a lot of ground. A lot of jostling for position meant that despite getting a leadout from Te Brake, Saber could not launch his sprint until late and ran out of room. Finished 5th with Te Brake rounding out the Top 10.




Another cobbled stage. The going wasn't so good this in the closing stages, with Per dropped with 5 km remaining. Saber, too wasn't on best form, and found himself in the third group on the road with less than 3 km remaining. And that is more or less how it ended with Saber and Per losing more than 2 and 3 minutes respectively on the stage.

Saber dropped to 6th in the GC with Per finishing 9th. Saber finished 2nd in the Points classification. Per won the U25 classification.

Jerome Baugnies won the race.

1	Jérome Baugnies	Kulczyk - DMTEX	21h17'25
6	Lahcen Saber	Philips - Continental	+ 2'47
9	David Per	Philips - Continental	+ 4'18
77	Patrick Müller	Philips - Continental	+ 29'26
80	Remco Te Brake	Philips - Continental	+ 31'19
82	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	+ 32'29
87	Ha Jeon Jung	Philips - Continental	+ 35'19
90	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Continental	+ 36'56
119	Lennard Hofstede	Philips - Continental	+ 54'13

A great race for the team and a much needed one too. This comes off a the Philadelphia surprise which is a momentum that we are building up. Per, once again, the star of the show, putting everything on the line to protect his team-leader on the first stage. His and Saber's exploits, along with a couple of cameos from Te Brake give up a decent haul of points from this race.

An experimental outing for the team, with Henao leading on a hill-heavy course, with just the MTT in mind. He had good support for both the hills and the mountains, but after the previous experience in the Middle East, we were not getting our hopes to high.


We didn't have any riders who could be competitive in the Prologue. Henao lost 16 seconds on the stage, which wasn't really a cause for concern.


We were not able to get anyone into the break. We stayed focussed on the sprint finish and got Te Brake into a good position in the lead-out. Having surfed some wheels in the lead-out, Te Brake got past a couple of tiring sprinters to claim 4th on the stage.




The first hill stage. Once again, no representation in the break. As soon as the acceleration was made by the peloton on the hills with 45 km to go, Henao was dropped and there was no recovering from this. He would go on to lose 8 minutes on the stage, giving us flashbacks of ToME. Ruijgh provided our best finish on the stage.


The MTT suited Henao perfectly and he was on form to claim 4th on the day. It wasn't enough to move him up considerably in the GC.




Another hard hilly stage. Henao would attack to try to join the break.



He ended up spending too much energy in the process, got dropped very fast and never got back to the break. He would once again lose a lot of time.


The final flat stage saw no breakaway involvement either. Te Brake was too far down when the sprint trains formed and couldn't make up the ground. He finished 17th, ending our poor race on a similar note.

Michal Kwiatkowski won the race.

1	Michal Kwiatkowski	Netia - Vonin	14h35'28
81	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	+ 16'15
82	Sergio Luis Henao Montoya	Philips - Continental	+ 16'25
93	Jarlinson Pantano Gómez	Philips - Continental	+ 17'27
99	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 19'15
120	Remco Te Brake	Philips - Continental	+ 24'24
133	Christoph Mai	Philips - Continental	+ 27'39
142	Lotto Petrus	Philips - Continental	+ 31'56
152	Lennard Hofstede	Philips - Continental	+ 34'50

The less said about this race the better. This was a planning mistake to be honest, and we probably wouldn't have come to this race if we could decide our planning on a month to month basis, after the experience in ToME. A couple of 4th place stages finishes is what we take away from here, and act like this race never happened

With some good results on the cobbles so far from Saber, and helped by Per, we were hopeful of something similar once again in this race. This is not a route that suits the former much, with multiple ascents.

Jung managed to join the early break but only lasted till the first climb before being caught by the pack.



Dieteren was dropped on the second cobbled section, continuing his poor season.

The attacks started in the pack on the hill after the 12th cobbled section. Saber didn't put in a counter. The break and the attackers were reeled in on the 13th section. The peloton was just 19 riders strong, with Saber still in there. Per, unfortunately, was not having a good day.



Nine riders got away beyond the next hill, with Saber in a 6 man group chasing. Things changed again on the penultimate cobbled section, with the lead group down to 5, 4 riders in the gap and Saber still in the 6 man group.

With just over 2 km to go, Saber found himself in the third group on the road, with just four riders out ahead now. He dropped the others in his group on the final cobbled section and claimed a brilliant 5th place.



Pieter Vanspeybrouck won the race.

1	Pieter Vanspeybrouck	Carlsberg - Danske Bank	5h34'39
5	Lahcen Saber	Philips - Continental	+ 2'19
35	David Per	Philips - Continental	+ 8'49
80	Patrick Müller	Philips - Continental	+ 19'11
106	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	+ 31'02
111	Ha Jeon Jung	Philips - Continental	+ 32'14
113	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Continental	+ 33'22

Another great ride from Saber, this time on his own, to ensure another better than expected result on the cobbles. We fail to pick up any minor points once again but we can't really complain too much about this race.

This was a race we did have high expectations from when the calendar was revealed and finalized. We felt that the off-season training received by Navardauskas made him the perfect candidate to lead here, with a smart combination of hill, TT and sprinting prowess. Van Zandbeek was his chief support across terrains. Dieteren had a free role to express himself on the hills.


No breakaway action as we decided to concentrate on Krieger and Navardauskas for the sprint. Come the end of the stage, our riders were nowhere near the front with Nava in 19th as our best finish.


A bit more undulated, but a similar profile to the last stage. Again, no attempt to get into the break. A late attack from Ignatiev was successful, as the peloton failed to respond in time. Once again, our sprinters failed to make a mark, with a slightly improved 12th place finish from Navardauskas our best.


The first of the hilly stages, but this was more-up and down than a climb to the hill-top. No breakaway involvement here either. A lot of attacks took place from the peloton starting from 16 km remaining. Our riders stayed in the pack but didn't help with the chase either! The break was caught but five riders among the late attackers took time to the peloton, with stage winner Bilbao now leading the GC. We had to be content with 14th and 15th on the stage.


Almost a copy of the first two stages. Nothing from our sprinters with Krieger in 30th as our best.


We were hoping for a big result from Navardauskas in the TT, and with Van Zandbeek also at the same time after four stages, things were looking good for us to reach our goal. Van Zandbeek finished 1'24 down on stage winner Viviani, a bit slower than our expectations.



Navardauskas disappointed, with a much slower time than his similarly abled teammate. He lost over 2 minutes on the best time!



Matthias Brandle won the race.

1	Matthias Brändle	SPAR - Shimano - SCG	14h51'33
9	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	+ 1'22
18	Ramunas Navardauskas	Philips - Continental	+ 2'09
51	Lotto Petrus	Philips - Continental	+ 5'08
65	Jan Dieteren	Philips - Continental	+ 6'20
85	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	+ 7'27
111	Lennard Hofstede	Philips - Continental	+ 9'50
114	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Continental	+ 10'00
119	Ha Jeon Jung	Philips - Continental	+ 10'26

Another disappointment from Navardauskas in a season that promised so much. Van Zandbeek with a good ride to 9th overall, getting us some much needed points, and some sort of return from this race. The less said about Krieger and Dieteren the better. The latter was in the points scoring U25 positions throughout the race but fell out after the TT. We keep under-performing in races which seem to suit us. Looks like there's no end to this pattern.

We had huge expectations from this race, coming in with both Rui Costa and Navardauskas as co-leaders. A strong support cast of the other Costa, Per, Van Zandbeek, Petrus, Muller and Hofstede were also here. The idea was to have Navardauskas go for the possible punchy sprints and Costa attack or stay at the front on the harder hills. Our team was nearly at full strength for the TTT, where our goal was to keep both our leaders in contention.


Same old story with no one getting into the break for us. Come the end of the stage, both Costa and Nava were in the front group but nowhere near the front to mount a challenge. They finished a long way down but thankfully avoided getting dropped.


No action for most of the race but Costa did find himself at the front for a short time with less than 2 km to go.



His effort to launch Nava was unsuccessful as the incline proved too much for the latter. Costa too, ran out of energy for the uphill sprint. Perhaps he should've been looking after his own interests having got into such a great position.


No break for us. As the attacks came in towards the end, there was no response from our team and we stuck with the pack till the finish.The breakaway survived the stage, with Hamilton taking over the leader's jersey.


We were listed as one of the pre-stage favourites which surprised even us. We had brought a team to ensure that our leaders stayed in contention post the TTT, but we weren't expecting to be fighting for the stage win. We were surprised even further when we finished with the fastest time at the line.



We were later beaten by one team - Fablok, but 2nd place was a much better result than we were expecting. Navardauskas and Costa were up to 5th and 6th in the GC, respectively.


The hard stage 5 has the makings of a classic. Once again, no one joined the break for us. Navardauskas was suffering on the course and was dropped rather early, putting paid to his GC chances. The late attackers managed to hang on for the win, with Costa in the chasing group. He finished 7th on the stage and also moved down to 7th in the GC.



Ulissi moved into the GC lead after winning this stage.


A milder final stage but still with a lot bumps. When the first split of 11 got away from the peloton in the closing stages, Rui had missed the split. Jaoa worked hard to chase down the group of leaders.



Further attacks at the front split up the group and they eventually lost momentum to be caught by the pack in the final kilometers. One rider from the break survived to take the stage win. Rui finished safely in the pack to hold on to his 7th place in the GC.

Diego Ulissi won the race.

1	Diego Ulissi	Generali - EDF	22h43'07
7	Rui Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 1'00
36	Ramunas Navardauskas	Philips - Continental	+ 11'29
49	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 14'04
71	David Per	Philips - Continental	+ 19'28
85	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	+ 24'53
118	Lotto Petrus	Philips - Continental	+ 39'25
120	Patrick Müller	Philips - Continental	+ 39'58
139	Lennard Hofstede	Philips - Continental	+ 53'43

Our hopes of a double result were ended with Navardauskas' strugles on stage 5. There was barely an attack from any of our riders all through the race, with some dicey decision making on stage 2. The only time Rui looked to be offensive was when he was part of the chase group on stage 5. Having set ourselves up brilliantly in the TTT, to have the plans fall apart in this fashion is disappointing. Navardauskas' poor season continues, while Rui himself has not regained his Pais Vasco form since. Per gave us some minor points with a 6th place finish in the U25s.

Another home race, this time with Saber leading, and with our full sprint support in Krieger, Te Brake and more. Saber has brought a calmness a surity with him this season and we were hoping for more of the same in this race. High winds were expected on the course, which doesn't exactly suit our leader.

A four rider break was allowed to get away. Te Brake was having some trouble in the opening half of the race, being dropped twice even before the peloton got up to full speed. He did make his way back on both occasions.

The pace picked up with 20 km to go and immediately the high winds resulted in the pack dramatically splitting and re-splitting. 15 riders formed the front group with 12 km to go, with Saber flying our flag in it. Holloway attacked after a few more kilometers with Rowe countering and nearly reaching him with 5 km to go. More attacks followed in the pack but they were caught before the line. The leading duo would not be caught, with Rowe in 2nd a nice result for our friends over at Xero.

Saber sprinted to 7th place in the bunch sprint for the final podium spot. Par for the course. Te Brake recovered enough to finish in the points at 25th.



Dan Holloway won the race.

1	Dan Holloway	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	4h56'59
7	Lahcen Saber	Philips - Continental	+ 1'49
25	Remco Te Brake	Philips - Continental	+ 3'29
90	Wout Poels	Philips - Continental	+ 4'36
118	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Continental	+ 5'53
120	Lotto Petrus	Philips - Continental	+ 6'16
136	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	+ 6'32
164	Patrick Müller	Philips - Continental	s.t.
169	Ha Jeon Jung	Philips - Continental	s.t.

Saber continues his steady and important accunulation of points, which are extremely important for us at the moment. He really has stepped up to take on the role of the top leader for our team. Kudos to Te Brake to recover from his early race troubles and get some minor points. Krieger continues to disappoint.

Positives:
Rui Costa has four races which should suit him well. Our season's success going ahead could depend on how he performs.

Henao has a couple of suitable races, including Kenya, which is similar to Pico Basile, which he won in January.

Per's 21 remaining RDs could see him continue the good work done so far.

Negatives:
Saber has only 8 RDs and 3 races remaining.

Four races have Dieteren as leader or co-leader. We cannot expect a big return from those races.

Navardauskas needs to rediscover his Philadelphia form to be able to live up to our expectations.

We didn't have expectations for the ITT. Our only hope was for Henao to not lose too much time to be able to mount a challenge in the GC on stage 3. Poels turned in our best result, 58th. Henao was nearly 4 minutes off the pace.


A stage to recuperate for our climbers, as the fast men would get a shot. Allegaert tried to join the break but didn't succeed. Nothing from us in terms of chasing. As the trains formed, Te Brake found himself on the end of the Euskaltel train, which was the furthest forward.



Some moments of discomfort followed as the trains lost their bearings and it was a free-for-all. Te Brake managed to stay out of trouble and got himself into a good position once again in the lead-out. He was up into 2nd place as the pack took the final turn.



I turned into a three-way battle for the lead inside the final 500 meters, with Ulanowski and Meyer the others in fray.



Te Brake hung on for 2nd place in the lunge for the line, a good result for us.




All our hopes of a decent GC finish hung on this stage. Mai joined the break of the day, as a possible help for Henao late on in the stage.



Mai picked up consistent points in the KOM sprints but it wasn't to take the lead. The pack stayed together till 9 km to go. Henao was the first rider to attack, with Nazaret in tow.



Further attacks followed in the pack, but Henao was quite some way ahead already. He dropped Nazaret after a few kilometers of co-operation, the duo having already overhauled the break.



No trouble for Henao in the closing stages as he took a comfortable win. He moved up to 6th in the GC, 3rd in the Points and 4th in the KOM standings.



Pantano finished 15th on the stage.


The ITT was once again not going to go well for us. Poels once again the best finisher, and this also meant that he claims his first points of the season via 29th in the GC. Henao lost almost exactly 3 minutes, and slipped to 10th in the GC.

Martijn Keizer won the race.

1	Martijn Keizer	Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ	10h18'44
10	Sergio Luis Henao Montoya	Philips - Continental	+ 3'08
29	Wout Poels	Philips - Continental	+ 6'56
73	Jarlinson Pantano Gómez	Philips - Continental	+ 12'44
79	David Per	Philips - Continental	+ 12'59
90	Christoph Mai	Philips - Continental	+ 15'38
137	Remco Te Brake	Philips - Continental	+ 24'20
186	Patrick Müller	Philips - Continental	+ 35'25
195	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Continental	+ 45'48

We got what we came for in this race, with Henao's 10th place and a bonus stage win to boot. Te Brake 2nd place on the flat stage is also useful. Poels and Mai picking up their first points of the season adds to the feel-good factor. A good start to July.

With a startlist missing a couple o the top climbers, we were hoping for Henao to continue his climbing form from Bayern Rundfahrt and meet our race goal.

Initially, we let some of the other teams to control the pace and bring back the break. We took over control with 15 km remaining with Pantano and Poels leading the peloton.

Velits was the first to attack, with Pantano trying to chase him down immediately.



Our domestiques kept the gap to Velits to just 20 seconds, and with 6 km remaining, Henao took over the chase himself. Denifl and Keizer followed him in a acceleration initially, and they were later joined by four other favourites. They caught up to Velits with 3.5 km remaining and it was clear that this group would battle it out for the win, given the gap to the next group.



Velits kicked off the final sprint as well, with Denifl in tow, and Henao close behind.



Henao kept making up ground over the climb, and with less than 50 meters remaining was past Denifl and on Velits' tail.



The final lunge was enough to take Henao past an unlucky, commiserations to our friends over at Xero, and earn him back-to-back wins in this race!





The hard work of Pantano, Poels, Ruijgh and Mai earlier on was rewarded with all of them finishing in the points.

1	Sergio Luis Henao Montoya	Philips - Continental	4h48'43
2	Peter Velits	Xero Racing p/b Octagon	s.t.
3	Magno Nazaret	Euskaltel - Elior	s.t.
21	Jarlinson Pantano Gómez	Philips - Continental	+ 3'22
22	Wout Poels	Philips - Continental	s.t.
23	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	s.t.
30	Christoph Mai	Philips - Continental	+ 6'31
132	Lennard Hofstede	Philips - Continental	+ 24'36
146	Ha Jeon Jung	Philips - Continental	+ 25'21
180	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Continental	+ 30'54

Two for two for Henao in mountain classics this season, and back to back mountain top victories following Bayern Rundfahrt. There was a point in the season when it seemed that he wouldn't perhaps live up to his reputation, but he has surely brought everything back with recent results. A huge shout-out to the climbing team for their excellent work in controlling the pack and the pace once Velits attacked initially, and provide the perfect platform for Henao to go on and win the race.

The third and final C2 outing for the team, and so far it's been a disaster! Just three points collected, which is a poor showing considering the couple of races we entered. Once again, we were a little lucky with the startlist here, and were hoping that Pantano could take advantage of the same. He was one of the pre-race favourites.

Early on, Muller tried to join the break but wasn't strong enough to get a gap. We helped out with the chasing in this race, sending Mai and Poels to take turns at the front.



Pantano and Mai was in a group of 5 riders that joined up with a single rider surviving the day's break. We were the only ones to have two riders at the front.



Mai couldn't hang on with 20 km remaining, as also the breakaway rider.



The lead group, with Pantano still in it, was down to three riders at the top of the final climb. Mai was a minute behind, still in 5th on the road.

Rodriguez attacked at the summit, and Pantano was attentive enough to follow. Campero made his was back to the chasing duo with 8.5 km to go. Mai was now being caught and passed by some of the stronger, and fresher riders.

There was no catching Rodrigues on the downhill as he claimed victory. Pantano just beat Campero for 3rd on the line.



Mai got a Top 20, with Poels just behind him.

Vitor Rodrigues won the race.

1	Vitor Rodrigues	Banco de Bogota	6h10'54
3	Jarlinson Pantano Gómez	Philips - Continental	+ 33
20	Christoph Mai	Philips - Continental	+ 2'08
21	Wout Poels	Philips - Continental	+ 2'15
69	Lennard Hofstede	Philips - Continental	+ 11'06
73	Patrick Müller	Philips - Continental	+ 13'38
90	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips - Continental	+ 19'39
121	Riccardo Minali	Philips - Continental	+ 33'34
130	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Continental	+ 33'45

Our best result in a C2 race all season, and Pantano's best showing too. A great couple of mountain classics for the team, with the most satisfying aspect being our ability to live up to our billing. Another strong showing by our domestiques to help Pantano get into a position to challenge for the podium.

A lot has happened since the last update! Out Team HQ unfortunately took a backseat to other activities as the team sorted out some other pressing concerns. We'll take a look at how things have unfolded in the 9 races completed since the last update.


Saber put himself into an excellent position in the final sprint, latching on to the tail of the best placed sprint train, but then lost steam and ended up 14th. It wasn't a bad result in a packed field, but it was disappointing return after having worked so hard in the build-up.


Te Brake achieved the only stage points scoring stage result, 6th on Stage 2. Our best GC performance came from Costa, who finished 12th.


Not a profile which suited our riders. Saber struggled to stay in touch once the pressure was on. Per was our best finisher at 23rd.


Henao picked up two Top 5 and two Top 10 finishes in this race, including a 9th place in the ITT. His best stage finishes were two 4th places on stage 2 and 4. Pantano and Krieger both had a Top 5 finish each, the former on Stage 1 and the latter on Stage 6.

Henao finished 4th in the GC, to wrap his season in a good way. He finished 4th and 3rd in the Points and KOM classifications as well. Pantano finished 22nd in the GC.


Te Brake won Stage 3, after a slow start to our race in the first two stages. Rui Costa finished 5th on Stage 4 and 9th on Stage 6. He wrapped his last home race at his peak with a superb 2nd place finish in the ITT on Stage 11.

Costa was our best GC finisher, but could only manage 31st, meaning we meant our Top 10 goal in this race. Costa also ended up 8th in the Points standings. Dieteren sneaked into 7th in the U25 classification.


A race we had high hopes for petered out to a moderate showing, as we failed to deliver any high finishes on the stages, besides Rui Costa's 7th place on Stage 1. Costa managed 7th in the GC with Navardauskas 15th.


A race where we had minuscule expectations and delivered microscopic results! Dieteren finished 7th from the breakaway as our only stage result of note. Dieteren's 58th place our best GC result, with Jaoa Costa in 73rd, the only other point-scoring result.


Our flat/cobbles squad put an end to the doom and gloom by delivering a positive result in our home race. Saber battled his way to a 6th place from the bunch sprint. Per, having supported his team captain ably all day, finished in a commendable 17th position.

We started off the season with a goal of a Top 10 finish in the PCT. We were being tipped for a promotion push by a lot of the reviews. We were fairly happy with the team we had built in the transfer window, despite some difficulties in getting our top targets.

The last rankings update had us at 14th place, with just 4 races and 11 RDs left. The rest of the races are not ones where we expect to score high; Saber leads in Barbados, which is our biggest hope, but it's the Navardauskas/Dieteren duo leading in the other 3 races, and that's where we're likely to fall behind even further. We are perhaps looking at a battle to hold on to a Top 15 place, and that is a disappointing outcome to this season.

Having re-invested massively to bring in several marquee names after our promotion, we have not lived up to our sponsors' expectations. While Philips have confirmed that they will continue for the coming season, Continental have still not confirmed their continuation. This is mainly because of two reasons; not enough German riders in the team, an issue which was relevant even in the last season, and the fact that the likes of Krieger and Dieteren have not really performed as expected. The team management is waiting to hear back from Continental as soon as possible so that we can start our preparations for the off-season and the next season.

All things considered, we are now keeping all four options open. If Continental agree to continue, we'll be going ahead with them as our sponsor for next season. If they don't, we will look to stay in Germany as one of our primary focus nations. The third option is to look for a new sponsor from a different geography, given the already diverse composition of our riders. The fourth option, and depending on the backing we receive from our incumbent title sponsors, could be to just have them for the journey forward. Philips is a company with worldwide appeal, and it should not harm us too much in terms of the brand and it's visibility.

We hope to have made a decision by the time the last race is wrapped up this season. The management is excitedly looking forward to the rest of the regular season, the Tour de l'Avenir, the National Championships and the World Championships.

Vien wrote:
Philips - Pro Continental incoming?