Nemolito wrote:
Except for C2 we meet everywhere, and I'm looking forward to it! Little bit less looking forward to racing against Benoot in Viana, but maybe we can find some kind of agreement there to try and drop the others on the climb. I'll very gladly settle for second then.

Out cobbles season started with Ringheim, the Kuroedas and Havik leading the line for us. We stayed out of the limelight in the early stages. Ringheim stayed with the lead group till suffering a puncture in the closing stages. He did make it back to the pack. He missed the final move of three riders who went on the compete for the win. He finished in the second group and claimed 6th. Shiki and Saya Kuroeda were 18th and 19th respectively, with Havik in 24th.

Benoot went to Viana on the same with hopes of improving on last year's 5th place. First Tratnik and then Kozhatayev did excellent work in chasing and then setting the pace at the front of the pack. There were attacks from a long way out which were allowed to get. Then Benoot got going, and slowly but surely made his way to the the front. He then made the decisive move with just over 10 km to go, dropping everyone else and cruising to the win!


Kozhatayev was rewarded for his efforts with 18th.

Hayter joined the break in the rain.


We didn't have to work a lot as a result. We had three riders join the lead group when the attacks began. Seven riders then created a gap to the rest of the pack, including Ringheim. Ringheim was able to follow the decisve attack by Theuns, and although he couldn't catch the former, he was able to hold on for 2nd, ahead of the chasing group! A fantastic result for us.


Shiki Kuroeda finished in 28th.

We had an eventful race with Hayter, Mick Van Dijke, Leemreize and Shirota joining breaks on different stages. This though meant that none of them could pick up enough points to score in the KOM classification. Shirota finished in 8th on Stage 6. Leemreize was the best finisher in the GC at 17th, with Goh in 25th. Leemreize was 2nd in the U25 standings with Hayter in 3rd and Mick Van Dijke in 7th.

This was a very disappointing race for us with Vesely finishing 6th on Stage 3 and 10th on Stage 5, and those were the only results of note for us. He finished 16th in the GC. This was another sprint race which didn't go our way.

Van Dijke joined the break.


Shiki Kuroeda tried an attack from long range with Van Dijke still in the break till late. The former's move didn't work out in the end and he paid for his efforts bu getting dropped. Ringheim missed the decisive move of three riders but stayed in the chase group. He would pick up another 6th place finish. Saya Kuroeda finished 21st.

Choi starts his season in Colombia. He finished 5th here last and we'll be hoping he can repeat or come close to that again. We have a full support staff here, and have high decently high hopes of doing well here. This is our first goal race of the season and we do believe it is a feasible goal.

We go to Guadeloupe with Vesely looking to redeem himself after a poor Juarez. Our best possible flat support team is here along with him, and we hope that makes a difference and does not leave him fending for himself again in the closing kilometers of the stages again.

Benoot is 1 for 1 so far this season, and we hope he can compete for the podium at the minimum in this race. We have sent a strong support team, with a mix of puncher and climber skills along, and hope that helps put him into a good position before the finish.

The TTT in this race does not make it a very suitable one for us, but we're taking a chance hoping that Benoot can make some separation in the hilly stages and make up for whatever we lose on Stage 4. Our TTT is slightly better than last season, so hopefully the result will also be.

Ringheim has started the season very well and we're looking forward to that contuining in this, our only cobbles race in March. The Kuroedas and Havik should provide able support, and we do have a full startlist for a cobbles race this time.

Nemolito wrote:
Some great results for the team. Was glad to see that Benoot demonstration in Portugal from close, and also nice to see Ringheim performing magnificently in Kuurne and Samyn. Some great young action in Catalunya as well for sure, with Hayter already scoring a U25 podium place

Shame that Juarez went like it did. Hoping that Vesely can find his TDU legs again soon!

Stage 1 and 4 were flat and we did not have sprinters, so we didn't do anything on those.

Choi started off very well, finishing 4th on both Stage 2 and 3, staying in 4th in the GC as well. Leemreize joined the break on Stage 3 and picked up some KOM points.

Stage 5 saw the breakaway surviving and Choi lost one GC spot to the stage winner.

Stage 6 saw no time gaps for Choi and he ended up 5th in the GC. Shirota did join the break on this stage but couldn't hang on till the end.

Kozhatayev finished 34th in the GC, Leemreize 37th, Ahmad Zamri 55th, Shirota 60th and Carboni 63rd. Leemreize finished 6th in the KOM and 3rd in U25s. We finished 5th in the Teams classification. Choi's placing ensured that we secured the first Goal of our season.

Stage 1 wasn't great with Vesely only managing 19th. Saya did make the cut of 22 riders with a gap to the peloton along with his team leader.

Saya Kuroeda was the stronger sprinter for us on Stage 2, finishing 8th, ahead of Vesely. Both once again made the split ahead of the peloton.

Havik joined the break on Stage 3 and moved himself into 3rd in the KOM. Vesely finally showed himself on the slightly uphill finish. He launched early and was in the lead till the dying moments, where he was passed and ended up 3rd.

Vesely finished 9th in the sprint of Stage 4. He ended up 9th in the GC on the back of one good stage. Saya Kuroeda was 14th. Havik was 26th. Havik finished 3rd in the KOM. Vesely finished 9th in the Points. We finished a surprising 2nd in the Teams standings.

We had very hig expectations from this race but Benoot was very quiet all through and only managed a disappointing 14th.

The first three stages were not hilly enough for Benoot. He did take 10th on Stage 2.

The Team lost over a minute on Stage 4 in the TTT but they also lost Benoot en-route, who ended up losing more than 7 minutes, and with that our chances of a good GC placing.

Benoot finished 6th on Stage 5 but couldn't make up much time.

He couldn't do anything on Stage 6. Kozhatayev was the best placed GC finisher in 18th. Ahmad Zamri was 37th, Benoot 38th and Van Dijke 49th.

The cobbles team continued their solid season with Ringheim staying with the lead group throughout and getting 7th from the sprint. Saya Kuroeda finished 19th.

We didn't want to bring Vesely here so it's basically the cobbles squad trying to attack the first stage and then hang on through the flat stages. We don't expect much from this race.

The big race of the month for us, with Benoot leading the line with good support. We are hoping Benoot can leave the bad couple of outings from March behind and recapture his form in this race. We will need it too.

Carboni leads for the first time this season and we are hoping the harder climbs towards the end of the race can help him. It is unlikely though and our expectations are low once agian.

Benoot is back for his second race of the month He didn't do so well in this race lasts season, so we have tempered our expectations accordingly. Still, anything worse than a Top 10 will be very disappointing. A strong support team will also travel to this race, so we hope it translates into something worthwhile.

The lottery of the sprint is back and it's about time we get the luck of the draw in one of these. However, that's not how things work, so we will be hoping that the team do their work and deliver Vesely into a good spot for the finish. The full flat squad is here to support our leader.

Our cobbles riders didn't do that well on Stage 1 with Tim Van Dijke our best finisher in 13th.

No sprinters meant no other stage results of note. Alben joined the break on Stage 3 and then again on Stage 5.

Tim Van Dijke finished 24th in the GC with Ringheim 30th. Van Dijke was 4th in the U25s and we finished 4th in the Teams classification.

Stage 1 went well with Jungels finishing 3rd and Ocampo in 13th. Benoot lost a bit more than 30 seconds.

Benoot finished with the pack on Stage 2, getting 9th.

We didn't have a sprinter in the team and so Stages 3 and 4 were uneventful.

Benoot couldn't keep pace with the riders contesting for the win and finished 9th again in the front group on Stage 5.

Benoot didn't have the legs in the finish on Stage 6, ended up 10th, losing more than a minute. He did move up to 12th in the GC.

Stage 7 should've suited Benoot well, and while he did stay with the front group, he could contest for the win, finishing a lowly 14th.

Benoot stayed in 12th in the GC. Ahmad Zamri finished 49th.

We sent Carboni to this race as an experiment. He stayed out of the limelight for most of the race but ended a respectable 9th.

Benoot went into the race as one of the favourites, and also reached the climb to the finish in a great position. But he didn't have any energy left and dropped down the places to finish 9th. Another under-performance from him.

Vesely kept a low profile all race but found himself in the top five places when the sprint started. He held a good line and form and finished 4th, which we think is a good result in this field. Definitely our best result of the month.

Benoot finished 2nd in this race last season, and we've brought him here as leader one more time. He's not having a good season on the hills, but he did win Viana, so we're not quite sure what to expect from this race. Hopefully, he can turn around his form with this race.

Choi started off very well in Colombia and we hope for more of the same here. There is the not so small matter of a TTT as the first stage where we will once be at a disadvantage. Let's hope he can make it up on the MTF and the MTT. The support team is quite strong, so the mountain stage should at least be a good one for us.

A very experimantal line-up in this race sees Vesely target the two sprint stages, and a motley crew hoping to strike lucky on the hill stage. We don't have much strength for the TTT, so we don't expect a very high GC placing from this race.

Benoot won here last season but he's not coming back to defend his crown. Instead, Ringheim leads our line, along with the rest of the cobbles unit, who will try to keep their consistent scoring going. We might end up looking very smart, or very stupid, depending on how the result turns out, given the profile suits Benoot almost perfectly.

Our second even GT appearance, and our first after a gap of five seasons, when we went to the Giro in 2018. With the clash with Lithuania, neither our climbing nor our TTT teams are at full strength but this is a race where the results are made up and the points don't matter for us, even if we manage to emulate fellow wildcards Jura and Xero at the Giro! We hope to make some impact and have an enjoyable outing.