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The Oz Cycling Project #PCT14
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 31-12-2014 13:42
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Directeur Sportif
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sutty68 wrote:
Congratulations on the Win for Rogers in Denmark 
Thanks, mate! Will post our usual race review most probably tomorrow 
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 31-12-2014 14:17
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Directeur Sportif
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| roturn |
Posted on 31-12-2014 14:26
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Team Manager
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Rumors are talking about more doping tests for Oz riders in the final part of the season.
Spoiler Congrats though. Would be brilliant to see you promoting with a rather average squad, by what I mean no real superstar. I always like them going up by having depths over stars.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 31-12-2014 14:40
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Directeur Sportif
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How can you doubt guys like Rogers are clean? 
But thanks! Guess it's paying off to have a few threats in every terrain bar mountains. Plus we of course have some luck with our best riders delivering right now.. ProTour though would be one tough challenge with our setup. Rogers won't be a factor anymore. Riders like Koren will struggle more. Visconti or Del Nero likely to leave after a solid season this year.. Time to bring in Morton then
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 01-01-2015 20:17
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Directeur Sportif
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Rogers wins Danmark Rundt - Goss fails this time
One of our key races this month and season finished yesterday: the Post Danmark Rundt was a HC-race to loose with three possible GC-threats and one of the division's premium sprinter at the start.
Things didn't went too well right from the start though: Miles Olman got dropped on first day and Matthew Goss appeared to be completely out of shape over the first four (sprinters) days, too. Our sprinter was never a real factor in those four bunch sprints and could just score a 6th place once. A pity, but no complete disaster, as our two best TT-specialists survived the first days to attack the GC in the concluding timetrial.
Michael Rogers proved his current top-form and rode to an impressive and comfortable stage-win to take out the GC in style! Our second GC-win this year and Roger's second for Oz after taking the Herald Sun Tour last season.. Michael Ford struggled after four tough days, but added a decent 7th place in GC. So despite Gossy's failure, another great race for Oz!
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 23:46
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 03-01-2015 08:53
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Team Leader
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Really liking the Oz Cycling Project at the moment. Your team has had very good success so far this season and it would be awesome for you to pronote, even if it is difficult for you in the Pro Tour. Also really like how your HQ is considerably up to date compared with many other teams and someone like you who does a lot for the Man-Game deserves it even more.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 03-01-2015 21:20
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
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@LLS: Thanks for the kind words, mate! Guess both our teams do pretty well at the moment, your most recent jump in the CT-rankings speaks for itself! Nice to know, we have some support though 
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 07-01-2015 08:12
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Directeur Sportif
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Three hilly classics - 7 is the magic number
The Oz Cycling Project - flying to a 3rd place in the PCT's latest rankings from July - came back to earth in it's three most recent hilly classics: with Giovanni Visconti and Jack Bobridge leading our team to solid, but no special results, it's time to remember, that we still have a way to go this season.
Things went quite well in our latest showing in July, where we just had minor hopes for a great result in the Taldykorgan GP: our Italian puncheur Giovanni Visconti played it smart to save all his energy for a somehow expect sprint by small group to finish as a good 7th eventually. The winner came from Italy, too: Ulissi!
A more packed HC-classic in San Sebastian saw Visconti chanceless in a more challenging race and our veteran this time had to settle for a 22nd place. Some minor points, where we might have had a shot at the Top-20 at least.. must be said, that Visconti is riding a good season for Oz though.
The team was then heading for South Africa: the country, where Jack Bobridge scored his first ever win for Oz Cycling back in 2012. Our captain really tried in the Nelspruit Classic, launching a few attacks (see picture below). Empty-handed efforts though and he had not much to left to really challenge for the podium on the finishing climb. His 7th place, plus a solid 14th from Jiao, ain't too shabby: it's been our fifth 7th place in Oz's most recent showings!
#Results Taldykorgan GP
| 1 |  Diego Ulissi | Bacardi Limited | 5h38'02 | | 2 |  Carlos Betancourt | FCB - Polska | s.t. | | 3 |  Maxime Monfort | Gazelle | s.t. | | ... | | 7 | Giovanni Visconti | Oz Cycling Project | s.t. |
#Results Clasica San Sebastian
| 1 | Cesare Di Maggio | Venchi - Ferranti | 5h44'55 | | 2 |  Francisco Ventoso | Team CSC-Orbea | s.t. | | 3 |  Mikhail Ignatiev | Metinvest-Emirates | s.t. | | ... | | 22 | Giovanni Visconti | Oz Cycling Project | + 46 |
#Results Nelspruit Classic
| 1 | Cesare Di Maggio | Venchi - Ferranti | 5h12'56 | | 2 | Maxime Monfort | Gazelle | s.t. | | 3 | Diego Ulissi | Bacardi Limited | + 12 | | ... | | 7 |  Jack Bobridge | Oz Cycling Project | s.t. | | ... | | 14 |  Pengda Jiao | Oz Cycling Project | + 1'11 |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 09-01-2015 22:37
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Tour de France Champion
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Great start from the guys in Portugal |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 10-01-2015 13:01
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Directeur Sportif
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sutty68 wrote:
Great start from the guys in Portugal
Thanks, sutty!
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| Jesleyh |
Posted on 10-01-2015 21:35
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Tour de France Champion
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Very impressive!
Feyenoord(football) and Kelderman fanboy
PCMdaily Awards: 12x nomination, 9x runner-up, 0x win.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 20-01-2015 13:01
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@Jesleyh: Yes, thanks. It was a great start into a rather quiet stage race
Ford takes prologue - O'Brien finishes 15th in Portugal
The HC-race Volta a Portugal just finished yesterday and it turned out to be one of Oz's more disappointing races in the past months. While we had no huge expectations prior to this 11-days-event, the management had hoped for Kristjan Koren to play his hill/timetrial-combo for a decent GC-result.
The tour kicked off in style: Michael Ford took out the prologue for a 1-2-3 ahead of Kristjan Koren and Michael Rogers. It would have been the last sign of strength from the team for the next week in Portugal though. After losing yellow quickly, our squad never really found a way to make any further impression on the road.
Mark O'Brien took over the leader-role on the several hilly and one crucial mountain stage, while Koren unfortunatelly lost all hopes for a good GC-result on this queen stage in the second week. He did at least show his potential in the second ITT, where he finished 2nd behind Bibby to jump onto 21st in the GC.
But it wasn't his race, as he dropped down to 30th place on the final tricky flat stage. O'Brien though avoided any drama and rode his way to a nice 15th in the final GC: a solid race from him, lacking outstanding stage-results, but performing quite consistent overall.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 27-01-2015 11:56
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Directeur Sportif
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Koren and Rogers both in Bayern Rundfahrt's Top-10
After his rather disappointing showing in Portugal, Kristjan Koren was once again our leader for a hilly stage race with a timetrial: the Bayern Rundfahrt featured just one hilltop finish and a decisive 26km ITT, so we had hopes for Koren to deliver this time.
And he did not let Oz down this time: Koren's strong performance on the hilly stage brought him a nice chance to attack the GC's Top-5 in the timetrial. His 5th place and some valuable gaps on the whole stage were pretty good news. Even better: also Michael Rogers climbed fairly well to remain in striking distance for a Top-15 or even Top-10!
And things went well in the TT later on: while Rogers closely missed out on the stage-win (by one second), Koren jumped onto 5th in GC. Our in-form veteran Rogers made a huge jump onto 9th there, which is definitely more than we expected from him.. the team then avoided any drama in the final stage and completed a good overall result (2nd in the team's classification).
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 27-01-2015 21:54
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Directeur Sportif
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Del Nero delivers in Denmark - Bennett shines in France
Two challenging one day races concluded the month for Oz: the cobbled classic Kobenhavn Byrundtur and the partly hilly, partly flat GP Ouest France - Plouay. For both races, we brought Jesus Del Nero as our leader, hoping for his strong allround skills to pay off.
They did in Denmark: while Quickstep continued to dominate the PCT these days (and the whole season), Del Nero didn't waste energy with attacks and kept it cool to the finish, where a somehow expected bunch sprint from a reduced group battled for the runner-up spot behind Baugnies. Our Spanish veteran lunged in for a strong 5th: a tight decision, as he could have go for the podium if Cavendish hadn't such a great finish.
Our month just finished off today, when George Bennett would again go for a stunning result in a one day classic: after winning the Berlin ProRace out of a breakaway, our Kiwi talent also made it into the break in Plouay. But things went different today: the group got caught by the bunch, which wouldn't hinder Bennett from coming back in style to launch an early sprint up a challenging finishing stretch! A minute behind solo-winner Bellis, our best climber delivered with an outstanding and unexpected 2nd place. Well done, George!
#Results GP Ouest France - Plouay
| 1 |  Jonathan Bellis | RBC Pro Cycling | 5h31'14 | | 2 |  George Bennett | Oz Cycling Project | + 1'01 | | 3 |  Marc De Maar | Quickstep | s.t. |
#Results Kobenhavn Byrundtur
| 1 |  Jérôme Baugnies | Quickstep | 5h42'29 | | 2 | Gert Steegmans | Gazelle | s.t. | | 3 | Mark Cavendish | BelarusBank Pro Cycling | s.t. | | 4 | Tom Veelers | Team Hornbach | s.t. | | 5 | Jesus Del Nero | Oz Cycling Project | s.t. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 08-02-2015 22:26
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Directeur Sportif
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Strong team performance in Ljubljana - Phelan for 5th
While our team is currently racing the more importan Tour of Britain (with Jack Bobridge holding on to a 2nd place at this point), the Oz just scored some unexpected points in yet another hilly classic: a tricky profile for Zagreb - Ljubljana made us going for Jesus Del Nero as our captain.
It did pay off, in a way. Adam Phelan did well to join the crucial break of the day, which did benefit from the peloton struggling to pull this group back til the finish. Our young gun, who tried a solo attack late in the race, couldn't really challenge for the win, but held on to a pleasant 5th place eventually.
Jesus Del Nero would then lead home a bigger group to score another Top-10 as 8th here. And our whole team made this race quite a success, with also George Bennett and Pengda Jiao finishing inside the Top-16 in the end. Given the rather weird race, that's some good and lucky points for Oz Cycling.
#Results Zagreb - Ljubljana
| 1 |  Yousef Mirza Banihammad | Compal-Merida | 3h51'48 | | 2 | Julian Alaphilippe | Team Nordeus | + 9 | | 3 |  Marcel Aregger | Venchi - Ferranti | s.t. | | ... | | 5 | Adam Phelan | Oz Cycling Project | + 35 | | ... | | 8 | Jesus Del Nero | Oz Cycling Project | + 50 | | ... | | 13 | George Bennett | Oz Cycling Project | s.t. | | ... | | 16 | Pengda Jiao | Oz Cycling Project | s.t. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 11-02-2015 22:24
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Directeur Sportif
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First missed win goal - Bobridge 2nd in Britain
The Tour of Britain was one of Oz's most important races in this late season: with Jack Bobridge as our undisputed leader, the route with several hilly stages and a crucial timetrial was obviously a perfect setup for him to shine.
It did not exactly go as we hoped though: even though Bobo did pretty well to finish amongst the best GC-favorites in all those hilly stages, he had no chance against a stunning Mikhail Ignatiev and thanks to many breakaway wins, we also missed out on a stage-win. Anyway, Bobridge's 3rd place on second day (plus a solid TT-performance) made him gain valuable time on any other riders but Ignatiev. His 2nd in the GC ain't bad at all.
It was then a rather quiet tour for our team, in which our second GC-hope Kristjan Koren dropped from 11th (after the timetrial) way down the rankings. It was Giovanni Visconti, who survived all stages pretty well to finish as 16th eventually. It could have been better if those breakaways hadn't lift up several escapees up the Top-10/15 here.
With also teams like Bacardi, Venchi and CSC scoring good points, the Oz definitely missed a chance to score big time. Anyway, the TT (four riders inside the Top-6) and a strong overall team performance (2nd in Teams) plus the white jersey for Bobridge added some valuable points.
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| roturn |
Posted on 12-02-2015 08:17
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Team Manager
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Bobridge is a great rider to have in the MG. As partly shown in this season already, he should be good to lead you in the PT as well. Eventually 1-2 training points and he could be awesome. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 12-02-2015 08:31
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Directeur Sportif
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He surely needs some training, 80 HI is the minimum If we go up, that will be a tricky challenge, as we certainly need a huge roster update, too. Thinking of all this money plus his new wage, i'm getting some serious headache
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| Heine |
Posted on 12-02-2015 08:52
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Goss and Bobridge are a good start for leaders for a PT team, then you have quite some riders who can score here and there (and a great TTT team). Just need to find 1-2 good leaders and you will have a shot at staying up
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 12-02-2015 19:04
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Directeur Sportif
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Hope you are rright, Heine not too sure about the rest of the team, but anything's possible in transfers
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Jaroslav Popovych
Dan Craven
Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy
