Today, we would like to announce the first of our Marquee signings for next season. This rider, while no longer a young rider at 26 years of age, will be joining our squad to offer his years of experience at the top level with teams such as Astana and Quickstep. He is an accomplished climber and is developing some fairly reliable Time-Trial skills. So it is our pleasure today to welcome Belgian Kevin Seeldraeyers into our team for next season. He will lead in some races, yes, but as we are still primarily a development team the majority of other riders still will also.
A hilly course, much suited to our team. With the season coming to a close, many of our top riders are out of form, and we'll be looking to a a rider such as Tim Roe to try something different. We also have defending champion Nathan Haas
in the team today.
After a non-eventful morning, a break finally forms with 70km remaining. Marc De Maar (UHC) and teammate Frattini are joined by Martias (Saur). The rain just keeps on pouring down all day.
Approaching the 50km to go mark, Team JB-HIFI move toward the front of the main group.
50km left
Ivan Gutierrez (MOV) attack out of the peloton. It is a short-lived attack though, as he is swept up just a few kilometers later.
33km remaining
Hoste (VW) crashes heavily on his right side due to the heavy downfall. To everyones surprise, this is the first accident all day.
24km remaining
The peloton has been whittled down to no more than 24 riders. We've still got a strong presence here with 4 riders: Rafael Valls,, Tim Roe,Stefan Denifl, and Nick Van der Lijke.
Roe, after feeling great all day, was given an oppurtunity to break away, and does so almost immediately. He gains an easy 30'' on the peloton, and is now another 30'' behind the leading trio who seem to have been forgotten about today.
Roe didn't get very far, and as he was hovering in front of the main group, Spilak (KAT) launches an attack off of his wheel. He is followed by Konig of NetApp, Klimov (RUS) and by Roe.
3km left
Nathan Haas makes a late move from the small chasing group. The 2 United Healthcare teammates are still 26'' up the road and have a chance at making it all the way to the finish.
Haas quickly bridges the gap to De Maar and Frattini. not long left now.
The sprint begins! Haas gets caught along with De Maar as Frattini sprints ahead. Caruso, Vicioso (KAT), Callegarin (TT1) and Ascani (FAR) are coming up quickly from behind.
The line is now firmly in sight. Frattini now only has a slight lead over a rampaging Ascani who after a quiet day is finishing phenomenally.
Frattini takes the win! Ascani second and Caruso third. Haas finishes comfortably in fifth.
Scott McGrory: "We rode well as a team today. It was the last race of the season, and a few of our guys weren't feeling great. I told them to go out, support each other and look for opportunities. If you think you have a chance, go for it. Not a lot of chances really came up during today, though. Not a whole lot happened until the final 10km, and still then not a lot happened. Over all, i'm happy with their efforts today helping Nathan to a nice 5th spot in the race he won last year."
So, as the current season draws to a close, we'll take a brief look back at what was season 2012.
A Word From The Manager
"What a successful first season it has been! After a blistering start to the year we had some fantastic wins! By far the most exciting to watch was Rafael Valls' gutsy overall and stage victory in the Vuelta a Mallorca against the likes of Igor Anton and Robert Gesink. It was at this point that I realised that I had really made something special. Everybody was working well together, everybody was happy, and we were achieving some great results in races.
There was a dip in our form though, around the time The Grio di Italia was being raced until the time the Tour started. During that time, many of our main goals for our inaugural season fell and we struggled to even get wildcards into these races. We didn't perform to the extent I thought we would after witnessing our great first 4-5 months, but it was by far acceptable. We then moved on into the final few months of the year taking each race as it came. A win or two inside the final month and some good results in otherwise helped cap off a fantastic first season for our young and growing team.
I happily and excitedly look forward to next season. I cannot wait to see what our team can achieve!
And now onto our rider's achievements..
Nathan Haas
1st - Trofeo Laigueglia
1st - Giro del Friuli
3rd - Gran Preimo Miguel Indurain
4th - Strade Bianchi
4th - GP dell'Insubria-Lugano
5th - Japan Cup
5th - Tour du Doubs
6th - SEB Tartu Grand Prix
6th - Tour of Langkawi, overall
10th - Cholet - Pays de Loire
10th - Vuelta Mallorca, overall
11th - US Pro Cycling Challenge overall
Manager's word
Nathan enjoyed a good year in his first professional team based in Europe. He came to us from the Australian NRS 2011 winners Genesy's, and has performed on a level which we though would have been impossible for him at first. He enjoyed a fantastic start to the season, and a fairly impressive end as well. He raced to his full potential, and gave it everything he had each time. As a result, he achieve many wonderful results throughout the season.
Rafael Valls
1st - Vuelta Mallorca, overall
1st - Vuelta Mallorca, Stage 5
1st - SEB Tartu Grand Prix
1st - Tour du Doubs
4th - Tour of Langkawi, overall
7th - Route du Sud, overall
8th - Tour of Norway, overall
12th - Giro del Friuli
14th - Giro del Trentino, overall
15th - Volta Portugal, overall
- Overall young rider rankings in: Tour of Langkawi, Vuelta Mallorca, Route du Sud.
-Overall points rankings in: Vuelta Mallorca
Manager's word
Rafael was brought into the team as he had previously raced with a number of semi-successful European teams and thus we felt his combined experience and riding ability would be integral wherever he may have ended up. Luckily, he was interested in our offer and excited at the prospect of leading a promising young team. We're lucky we did, because he had a stellar season. He won the Vuelta Mallorca against riders who would then go on to contest for the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. He had a few other nice wins and places, and collected some white jerseys along the way. We are happy at the way and manner in which he performed this season, and with a stronger team for next season, are excited to see what he can then do.
Jonathan had a very consistent year. He rode well throughout the entirety of the year, and was unlucky not to have won a race. This means that he has a bit of work to do during the off-season, to rethink his strategies etc.
As the oldest member of our team, he led from the from the front and provided fellow riders with vast years of experience. He will definitely be back next season, looking for his first win for the team.
Stefan Denifl
1st - G.P. Camaiore
2nd - Tour d'lAin, stage 4
7th - Trofeo Laigueglia
8th - US Pro Cycling Challenge, overall
15th - Route de Sud, overall
- Overall young rider rankings in: Vuelta Asturias.
Manager's Word
Stefan had a fair season with the team. He achieved some satisfactory results, what we would have expected from him nonetheless. He proved to be a handy and capable rider, and could get himself out of tight situations with ease. We hope that he can continue to improve over the coming years and to continue achieving good results.
David Cimolai
2nd - Memorial Rick van Steenbergen
5th - Classica de Almeria
6th - Cholet - Pays de Loire
7th - Tour de Langkawi, Stage 1
8th - Tour de Picardie, Stage 2
13th - Tour de Picardie, overall
Manager's Word
David had a mediocre year at best. He achieved some nice top tens, and performed at a satisfactory level. I feel he didn't quite have the confidence in himself to achieve better results, something he has to work on in the future. He performed exactly as we thought he would this season. He has also chosen to leave our team after just 1 season with us, to join Team Colnago, as he wishes to be closer to home. We hope he enjoyed his time here, and wish him all the best.
Japan Cup
Scott McGrory: "We rode well as a team today. It was the last race of the season, and a few of our guys weren't feeling great. I told them to go out, support each other and look for opportunities. If you think you have a chance, go for it. Not a lot of chances really came up during today, though. Not a whole lot happened until the final 10km, and still then not a lot happened. Over all, i'm happy with their efforts today helping 
Trofeo Laigueglia
Gran Preimo Miguel Indurain
Tour du Doubs
SEB Tartu Grand Prix
Tour of Langkawi, overall
US Pro Cycling Challenge overall
Tour of Norway, overall
Mémorial Frank Vandebroucke
Tour de Rijke
Stefan Denifl
