We didn't put any rider in the break and focused on keeping our riders safe in the pack. Van Lerberghe lost contact with the peloton less than 30 kilometers to go along with a couple of other favourites. They were able to get back. Van Lerberghe missed the winning move but finished 3rd from the lead group of seven which got away late.



Paprstka in 14th and Bovenhuis in 25th also picked up points for us.

1	Jerome Baugnies	Los Pollos Hermanos	5h07'16
3	Bert Van Lerberghe	Philips	+ 17
14	Tomas Paprstka	Philips	+ 4'10
25	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 6'19
39	Michel Kreder	Philips	+ 10'29
52	Ide Schelling	Philips	+ 19'11
64	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	+ 30'31

We came here with a modest target of a Top 10 finish with good depth points, so the podium from Van Lerberghe is an excellent result. He did really well to recover from getting dropped. The support from Paprtska and Bovenhuis was great once again.

We did not join the break on Stage 1, something which is a common theme for us by now. A late puncture made life difficult for Van Lerberghe but he did manage to stay with the lead group behind the stage winner. Paprtska, Bovenhuis and Boev also finished in the lead group.

It was more of the same before the sprint finish on Stage 2. Boev wheel-surfed in the closing stages and launched his sprint with half a kilometer to go. He held on for the win to give us much needed points on this stage.



Boev moved up to 2nd in the GC and tied for the Points classification lead.

The hard Stage 3 lived up to its billing! Van Lerberghe was in the lead group throughout with Paprtska and Bovenhuis playing catchup early on. However, Van Lerberghe tired towards the end but Paprtska ended the stage immensely strong, claiming 3rd on the day and clinching 5th in the GC as a result.



Bovenhuis and Van Lerberghe finished 11th and 15th on the stage and 11th and 16th in the GC.

1	Jerome Baugnies	Los Pollos Hermanos	9h16'36
5	Tomas Paprstka	Philips	+ 1'17
11	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 1'32
16	Bert Van Lerberghe	Philips	+ 2'33
43	Igor Boev	Philips	+ 21'28
84	Ide Schelling	Philips	+ 45'15

A stage win, a stage podium, Top 5 in the GC, 4th in the Points and a tied win in the Team standings is a very good return from this race.

Van Lerberghe was dropped early once again but excellent domestique work once again from the team got him back. He was not in contention at the front but rode a solid race to finish 19th, with Paprstka finishing 29th.

1	Marcos Altur	Podium Ambition	6h03'16
19	Bert Van Lerberghe	Philips	+ 3'19
29	Tomas Paprstka	Philips	s.t.
52	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 8'00
79	Geert Van der Sanden	Philips	+ 11'56
89	Michel Kreder	Philips	s.t.
128	Ide Schelling	Philips	+ 23'13
161	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	+ 45'29

We didn't have high hopes from this and we're happy not to return empty handed from this race. It is important to keep the points coming in, even from races where we are not expected to do well, and we achieved that here. A slightly worrying trend this month with Van Lerberghe getting fropped quite often but luckily it hasn't hurt us yet.

No breakaway action but a lot of chasing for us in this race. Inexplicably, Van der Sanden was dropped on the sixth climb! We did make his way back but he didn't have the legs in the final sprint. In the end, it was Paprtska who finished in the highest position for us, that of 8th. Inkelaar in 11th, Storer in 20th and Cepeda Hernandez in 22nd were not exactly the points scorers we were expecting before this race started!

1	Wouter Wippert	BNZ Cycling Team	6h26'06
8	Tomas Paprstka	Philips	s.t.
11	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	s.t.
20	Michael Storer	Philips	s.t.
22	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	s.t.
26	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	s.t.
29	Geert Van der Sanden	Philips	s.t.
34	Michel Kreder	Philips	s.t.
66	Bert Van Lerberghe	Philips	s.t.

The results probably indicate that the climbs had quite an impact on the sprinters. Perhaps we made a mistake in sending Van der Sanden here and not Boev. However, we are quite happy with our return from this race. Kudos to the youngsters for stepping up when our leaders faltered.

Keinath returns after a bit of a break to lead the team again in the TT heavy climbing race. We are not crazy about the TTT on the final stage, but hopefully Dumoulin, Keinath and Henttala can pull the rest of the team to a good result. We also hope to be in a decent position before that stage to be able to have something to protect. Boev has done well in Stage Races so far and is here again for the three flat stages.

Provided he can stay safe for the first four stages, this is perhaps the first real opportunity for Dumoulin to target a high placing in the GC with the moderately long Time Trial on the final stage. Boev is here once again to try to take advantage of the undulating flat stages. Watson is here to try to challenge is the hills rated stage 3 becomes selective. Overall, we have a well-rounded unit but we don't have very high hopes from this race as far as the GC is concerned mainly because of the unpredictable nature of this race.

Keinath rides again this month, and once again, we don't believe this race suits his capabilities too well. We are hoping to get some depth scoring going here instead. We are also hoping for Bardet to kickstart his season with this race.

Kelderman comes back to riding after a break as well and he should be one of the top favourites for this race. He didn't quite get the job done the last time a similar profile showed up, but we expect a podium at the minimum. The hills support has been a little hit and miss so far, so we hope for more consistency here.

Race	Category	Goal	Result
GP Yekaterinburg	C2HC	Win	1st
Rio Vista Chinesa	C2	Win
Euskal Bizikleta	C2HC	Top 5
CT Individual Standings	CT	Top 5
CT Team Standings	CT	Top 5

*Green means Goal Achieved. Red means Goal Failed.

We have raced in one goal race so far, a win goal, and achieved that. Our other goals are coming up later in the year and we hope to achieve those as well. Currently, we're also on course to meet the Individual and Team Standings goals.

C2HC has brought us most joy, with an impressive PpRD and three of the top four scoring races belonging to this category. We have been consistent more or less, but we do need a few more standout performances to improve our position in the table.

	January	February	March	April	May	Total	Projected
Points	178	242	100	139	176	835	2237
RDs	14	13	10	10	9	56
PpRD	12.71	18.62	10.00	13.90	19.56	14.91
Rank	2		2		5

Recently concluded May has been our best month of the season so far, with March being a let down. we need to keep achieving 15 or more PpRD going ahead to be able to challenge for the title.

Rider	Points	PpRD	CT Ranking
Wilco Kelderman	265	20.38	4
Nico Keinath	118	7.38	23
Bert Van Lerberghe	115	4.26	24
Tomas Paprstka	115	3.97	25
Jasper Bovenhuis	60	1.62	58
Calvin Watson	53	2.79	64
Igor Boev	49	2.13	72
Kevin Inkelaar	11	0.46	148
Michael Storer	8	0.24	163
Geert Van der Sanden	7	0.39	173
Ide Schelling	2	0.05	235
Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	1	0.02	257
Michel Kreder		0.00
Romain Bardet		0.00
Tom Dumoulin		0.00
Joonas Henttala		0.00

**Scaroni, Per and Kooistra are yet to race.

As expected, Kelderman is our top scorer by far, but he's still 4th in the CT standings. He does have more than 60% of his RDs left, so that should boost his scoring. Keinath has been consistent while Van Lerberghe has underperformed. Paprstka has been the signing of the season so far. Boev too, has been excellent. Bovenhuis has done well while Watson has been solid. Our depth has been good with seven riders in the Top 75, but there is a big drop-off after that. Van der Sanden has been poor while Bardet, Dumoulin and Henttala not scoring yet is a bit of worry now.

Rider	Points	Wage	Wage/Points
Igor Boev	49	0	0.00
Tomas Paprstka	115	50000	434.78
Bert Van Lerberghe	115	90000	782.61
Jasper Bovenhuis	60	50000	833.33
Calvin Watson	53	50000	943.40
Nico Keinath	118	140000	1186.44
Wilco Kelderman	265	425000	1603.77
Michael Storer	8	25000	3125.00
Kevin Inkelaar	11	50000	4545.45
Geert Van der Sanden	7	50000	7142.86
Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	1	25000	25000.00
Ide Schelling	2	50000	25000.00
Michel Kreder	0	0	-
Romain Bardet	0	50000	-
Tom Dumoulin	0	50000	-
Joonas Henttala	0	50000	-

**Scaroni, Per and Kooistra are yet to race.

No one compares to Boev's returns for us, being a free rider signed from the draft. Paprstka is taking home just over 400 Euros for every point he scores.

redordead wrote:
I think your rider analysis should have a CT ranking, unless you're already predicting for next season

Also I think Scaroni, Per and Kooistra won't be riding for you this season

A few more results from Nico and Wilco and you should be back in contention for the title. The race goals also look very much achievable

We got off to a decent start with Keinath claiming 8th place, 26 seconds off the pace, in the uphill TT on Stage 1. Inkelaar in 20th and Bardet in 22nd was a good minor result for us.

Storer, Boev and Henttala joined a huge breakaway on Stage 2. The breakaway whittled down as the stage went on but Boev stayed with the front group to claim 2nd on the day. The pack did finish a minute behind but were awarded the same time!



Stage 3 ended in a bunch sprint but Boev could only manage 9th this time.

Stage 4 was the first mountain stage with Keinath staying with the group of leaders till the attacks started. He couldn't quite follow, finishing 6th and losing just under and minute on the day but moving up to 6th in the GC.

Stage 5 was flat again. Boev started the sprint from a long way and although he managed to make up some ground, he finished 6th this time.

Stage 6 was the second and final mountain stage of the race. No breakaway appearance for us once again and all hands were working to keep Keinath in a good position. Keinath was among the first three riders to put in an acceleration and made great strides towards catching the break.



Keinath stayed with the front group till the end and even launched the acceleration to the line. However, he wasn't strong enough to win the stage, losing out to Ranaweera in the closing stages. He finished 2nd, gaining time on his rivals and moving up to 3rd in the GC.



Stage 7 was a TTT and this is not a strong discipline for us. However, the team put in a solid ride to claim 5th on the day and secure Keinath's GC podium.

1	Thibaut Pinot	Project: Africa	22h15'04
3	Nico Keinath	Philips	+ 1'06
24	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 8'53
39	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 14'39
47	Joonas Henttala	Philips	+ 20'35
57	Michael Storer	Philips	+ 23'07
61	Calvin Watson	Philips	+ 23'47
80	Igor Boev	Philips	+ 31'14
107	Tom Dumoulin	Philips	+ 42'32

Keinath once again beat the odds to climb onto the podium to keep his good season going. Bardet scored his first points of the season with a 24th place in the GC. A couple of 2nd places, and some minor classification points means we come away with a good haul from this race.

Stage 1 and like always we didn't join the break. We set up Boev well for the sprint, or he set himself up well, however you like to put it and went wheel-to-wheel with Mezgec at the finish. He had to settle for 2nd though.



More of the same on Stage 2 as Boev got himself another 2nd place, albeit not as close this time, but this result meant he now held both the GC and Points jerseys in this race!



On Stage 3, we worked to protect Boev in the initial stages. There was a split in the closing stages however, and Boev fell to the second group. However, Watson was in a good place to follow the attacks. Watson followed through to finish 3rd on the stage. He moved up to 3rd in the GC.



The Boev group would make it back, which meant we were now 3rd and 4th in the GC and still holding on to the Points jersey.

Stage 4 followed the script of the first two stages but Boev didn't have the legs to compete this time. Van Lerberghe chipped in with a cheeky 8th place. Boev lost the Points jersey though.

Stage 5 was an ITT and for a change Dumoulin was among the top favourites in a Time Trial, which is probably the first time something like this has happened. However, it wasn't the greatest ride from Dumoulin, who finished 6th on the day and 4th in the GC. Boev lost too much time and fell out of the points scoring positions. Watson lost time but still got 16th in the GC.

1	Jan Ghyselinck	Carrefour - ESPN	16h04'39
4	Tom Dumoulin	Philips	+ 17
16	Calvin Watson	Philips	+ 1'55
35	Joonas Henttala	Philips	+ 3'29
67	Michael Storer	Philips	+ 4'59
74	Tomas Paprstka	Philips	+ 5'15
75	Bert Van Lerberghe	Philips	+ 5'19
84	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 5'41
93	Igor Boev	Philips	+ 5'58

We did better than we expected but it was still disappointing for Dumoulin to miss even the podium. I guess Boev compensated for that. Getting the Points and GC lead for a while was a major coup. Boev goes home with 2nd in the Points classification. Watson too stepped up and delivered for the role we brought him to this race for.

We did not particularly have high hopes from this race, as Keinath is probably a better stage racer than a one-day rider. We proved right in this as Keinath missed the winning move and had to lead the chase. This tired him out and he ended up 10th, thereby just about meeting our expectations. Bardet finished 17th.

1	Suranga Ranaweera	Sauber Petronas Racing	7h43'23
10	Nico Keinath	Philips	+ 3'13
17	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 8'27
39	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 14'09
56	Joonas Henttala	Philips	+ 20'03
93	Ide Schelling	Philips	+ 58'51
96	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	+ 1h00'03

An ok race for us without any great achievements to report. Good thing is Bardet seems to have his legs at an important part of the season. We hope to see Keinath back in Stage Races again.

We concentrated on chasing the break and getting Kelderman into a good position for the closing stages. First Storer and then Bardet did a stellar job of the same. Kelderman followed the first attack and stayed in the front group, dropping all but one rival as they reached the final kilometer.



All that work caught up to him, as he didn't have the legs to counter Hoelgaard when attacked for the win. Kelderman finished 2nd.



Bardet finished a creditable 12th.

1	Daniel Hoelgaard	Tryg - Ritter Sport	4h59'50
2	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	s.t.
12	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 3'05
35	Michael Storer	Philips	+ 4'18
81	Calvin Watson	Philips	+ 8'29
82	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	s.t.
83	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	s.t.
114	Ide Schelling	Philips	+ 11'25
128	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 16'32

Once again, Kelderman fails to finish off the good work done by the team and then himself in the setting up for the finish. It is disappointing that he just doesn't seem to have the legs to dominate the hills. More good work from Bardet is a pleasing thing. Shoutout to Storer as well, who took over Watson's role quite well, with the latter struggling here.