With the Volta oa Algarve done, our second stage race of the season is over. We send Smukulis there as a team-leader, but the succes came from someone else. Our sprinter, Jean-Patrik Nazon managed to win the second stage on an impressive way. Count that on with some bonus seconds from stage one and he managed to take over the leader jersey and the point jersey!
The other stages proved to hard for Nazon though, but we are happy that he did an excellent job on the first two stages. On stage 3 Pacheco went with the daily break, and for a moment it looked like he might make it as he was alone in front with only 15 km remaining. But after a whole day in the break, he was tired, but nonetheless, he still finished 22. Even ahead of Smukulis.
In the time-trial we didn't hope for much, but Bagdonas did manage a good tenth place and Smukulis moved into the top 30. The last stage was the hardest 'flat' stage in the race. Nazon was dropped on the hill, but managed to come back to the peleton. He didn't have enough left to sprint however. Instead, in a sprint among non-sprinters, it was one of our other French riders who surprised us. Mathieu Perget managed to sprint to a third place! Pacheco managed yet another top 10, in 8th followed by Smukulis in 9th.
In the overall, Pacheco finished 21th and Smukulis 26th. In the points standing Nazon finished 6th and Pacheco 9th. Although Smukulis did perform under our expectations, we are very happy with the out-come.
Nazon impressively winning stage 2 of the Volta oa Algarve
The Tour Meditteraneen was our second HC race of the season and we send a strong line-up here in the hope to achieve atleast a top 5 with last years winner Kirchen. For the sprints we had Goss. And pretty much our best time trialists for the TTT.
The first stage didn't turn out very well. Kirchen and Smukulis already lost more then a minute because of a split in the peleton. And the other 2 main favorites didn't.
The TTT was okay, only losing 34 seconds and finishing 7th. Stage 3 turned out a little bit better with a 9th place from Kirchen. Stage 4 was quite disappointing aswell with only a 18th place from Goss.
Then we headed into the last 2 stages. And they turned out to be the best stages of this race. Goss won stage 5 with Kirchen finishing 3th. With this Goss moved into the top 10 of the GC. Then we had the final stage, finishing on top of Mont Faron. Although we did not win the stage, Kirchen finished 6th and moved into 9th overall. But the biggest surprise was Goss. He was going with the big guns and finished 8th in the stage and managed a 5th overall in the GC! He would have made the podium if he didn't lose those extra 4 seconds in the TTT when he couldn't keep up.
But overall this is certainly great. Goss won one stage, 5th in GC, young rider jersey and 4th in the points competition. Kirchen finished on the podium in a stage, managed 9th in the GC which is a very good result after the time loss in stage one. He also finished 3th in the points. And as a team we finished 3th in the team classification!
A few days after the 8th place of Kruopis in the KBC De Panne Tour, we traveled to Spain to take part in the Clasica de Almeira. A flat one-day classic. We had our hopes on Goss for a podum or even better, the win.
The only hills in the race are in the middle of the course, and shouldn't make a to big of a difference for the sprinters. Except for Gajek, who got dropped the second they hit the hill ...
Anyways, the break was formed on those hills, and with 45km to go, the break still had more then 3 minutes lead. Smukulis decided to launch an attack, but got caught with 20km to go. The last escapee was caught at 3km from the line, when the sprint trains where forming.
There was only one real train, and had most of the favorites in it. To quote the race report:
One notable sprint train emerges: Bozic, Van Heerden, Croket, Goss, Chicchi, Ciolek, Davis and Swift
Bozic was leading out his teammate Van Heerden, another big favorite for the win, so Goss decided to make it a long sprint, setting of first. Only Chicchi and Ciolek followed Goss, while the other favorites were waiting for Van Heerden to set in his sprint. Unfortunately for them, Goss made the winning move, with Chicchi ending second and Ciolek 3th.
Congratulations to Matt Goss! A great victory for him. He is also our best placed rider in the Continental Ranking, moving up closer to the top-10.
We have just come back from the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, a 5 day stage race in Spain, and have achieved more then expected. Our leader was Kirchen, who was the ideal man for the race; good in time-trial, punchy hills, and the mountains. While on paper, Larsson and Abal were the favorites for the win, Kirchen should easily get a top 5 here. Let's see what happened.
The first stage was completely flat, not a single bump in the road. So Gajek might actually have a chance. But no, he went in the break, and lost all of his chances. The stage was surprisingly won by Rui Costa, who even gained an 18 seconds gap. But stage 1 also marked the loss of one of the main contenders. Larsson had a very bad day, and just had to let the peleton go. He lost 1 minute and 40 seconds, raising Kirchen's chances on a podium finish.
Stage 2 was a 28 km time-trial. The main favorites were Larsson and Abal. And indeed, Larsson set a very good time. Abal only lost one second compared to Larsson. But to everyone's suprise, Kirchen beat Larsson's time by 13 seconds, taking the stage and the overall!
Stage 3 has a tricky uphill finish. This was the stage that Kirchen marked, but with his surprise win yesterday, he can't complain. When we got to the final km, we had a group of 5 with Kirchen, Siutsou, Niemiec, Abal and Larsson. Instead of looking at the others, Kirchen took the lead in the sprint, and never gave it away, even making his winning margin bigger. He now had 34 seconds ahead of Abal in the GC. Would it be enough for the queen stage, Abal's playground?
Stage 4 was the queen stage of this race, with a mountain top finish. When the peleton hit the final climb, Perez Sanchez, Niemiec and Larsson launched an attack. But they are caught again with 5 km to go. After this, we have some new attacks. Kirchen and Siutsou quickly move in to the race lead. Abal, Perez Sanchez, Larsson, Kilun, Ortega and Niemec do the same. At the beginning of the final km, Kirchen drops Siutsou and he wins his 3th straight stage in a row. In the overall he has more then a minutes lead on Abal. He also leads in the mountains and points classification.
The last stage, was another flat stage. Sutton won the stage, getting Red Bull one win closer to their goal of winning 15 stages throughout the season. Passeron got 6th and Gajek sucked again.
So, Kirchen won the overall, the points jersey, the mountains jersey, and 3 stages. A great race for Bacardi, the most successful one so far!
After very good results by Kirchen, it was time for Ricco to shine. The Giro del Trentino was Ricco's second race of the season, and he was hoping to come out on top after a more or less disappointing Corsica International. The 4-day mountainous stage race in Italy might have had one of the most loaded fields in this years CT. Almost all top climbers were here; Serpa, Alarcon, Kohl, Taaramae, Abal, Cataldo and many more.
The first stage was a short time-trial over 17 km. Abal won the time-trial, with most of the main contenders coming in close. Serpa, Ricco's main rival in the moutains, only lost 14 seconds while Ricco lost 37 seconds. Bagdonas came in 15th and was the best Bacardi-rider.
The second stage was the first mountain summit finish. Ricco and Serpa were the main favorites. Serpa decided to attack early on the climb, while Ricco was in a group with most of the other favorites. But the group didn't make up time to Serpa. He even had more than a minute lead, so Ricco decided to go alone with 3 km to go. Ricco came very close, but it was to late, Serpa won the stage. Ricco finished 24 seconds back, but was 55 seconds behind in the GC.
Stage 3 was won by Damiano Caruso, who was in a 2-man break. The peleton finished more than 2 minutes back, where Ricco sprinted to 5th place, taking over the points jersey in the process.
The final stage was the queen stage. Although the final climb was a bit shorter, the stage itself was harder. Ricco had to make up 55 seconds to Serpa, who is in very good shape. As we hit the final climb, there was still one rider in front from the early break. Bertagnolli from Wiggle. He had about a 3 minutes lead back to the pack, which would probably not be enough to withstand the favorites. As soon as we hit the final climb, Ricco attacked, joined by Cataldo. However, Cataldo was quickly dropped, and Bertagnolli was caught aswell. With 10 km to go, Ricco already had more than a minute lead on the favorites with GC leader Serpa. And instead of closing the gap, it only became bigger, even when Serpa placed an attack. Ricco totally destroyed the opposition and won with over 2 minutes on second place Serpa.
The final stage turned everything around, and it favored us. Ricco won the GC with 1'19" on second place Serpa after his stage win. He also won the points competition and had a joined first place with Serpa in the mountains classification. Another good race for us!
After Ricco's win in Trentino, it's Kirchen leading the team again. First in the Euskal Bizikleta and a bit later in the Subida al Naranco. He should be able to achieve good results in both. Especially after what he showed in Castilla.
Euskal Bizikleta is a 5 day hilly stage race with a very strong contender field. The favorites? Schumacher, Kirchen, Cobo, Ponzi and so on. The first stage was won by the breakaway, while stage 2 and 3 were won in a sprint by a group of favorites. In those sprints Kirchen showed his good legs, ultimately winning stage 3. At that point he was also leading the overall and the points competition. Stage 4 was a hilly time-trial won by Schumacher. Kirchen placed second and retained his leader jersey. In the last stage however, Kirchen and Schumacher might have looked a bit to much at each other, as Cobo won with 36 ahead of them. He took the overall. Kirchen did get second in the GC and the point jersey, but Schumacher did mis out on the podium and all other prizes. Overall, a good race. Not as great as Castilla, but certainly good.
In the mean time there were also some other races with out team in, but no notable results were achieved there. Just some far honor places. But then Kirchen made his return after a little bit of rest in the Subida El Naranco. A race made for him, but guess who's there? Cobo. If you look at it, Cobo and Kirchen are almost completely the same except for their nationality, which might give Cobo an extra boost here. But the awaited duel didn't come. Cobo crashed and didn't make it back in time for the final. So Kirchen responded to another favorite, Alex Efimkin. Good choice it seemed, as togheter they pulled to a lead group of favorites. On the final climb, with a little more then 5k to go, Kirchen attacked, and got away. A deserved win, but we do feel bad for Cobo.
After Kirchen's Subida win he got a little rest, and we rode a few flat races. Goss wasn't in shape yet, and didn't get any result. Gajek however did do his best and even got a second place in Bayern! But now it's time for Kirchen again, and this time on homesoil. A race that is designed for him, but unfortunaly, other riders meet the requirement to, like A. Efimkin, Ponzi, Kiryienka.
The race started of good though, as Kirchen immediately won the prologue, followed by a podium and a 11th place. On the 4th stage however, Efimkin just destroyed everyone, including Kirchen, putting him on 1 min+ in the GC. But on the final stage, Kirchen took revenge by winning it and almost geting a big enough gap to win the GC as well. But Efimkin defended his jersey with all his might, saving it by 26 seconds. Still, 2nd in the GC, points and 2 stages by Kirchen is very nice. We also got 6 riders in the top 25 and got a podium on every stage, making us the highest scoring team. Good race.
Next it was time for Ricco to shine again, in 3 one day classics. One mountainous, and 2 hilly races.
It was the first time that the Transfagarasan GP was ridden, and Ricco was clear favorite. But on the monster climb, Ricco cracked and had to let Alarcon go. Ricco did end up second after a good downhill. A good hard-fought race, and if you can ride away from Ricco, with a deserved winner.
Next up was a HC race in America. Originally one of our goals, but this was changed afterwards. A hilly race with a flat run-in, which isn't really in Ricco's favor. He did get away on the final hill with Cobo and Gilbert, last years winner. But Gilbert was to strong on the flat and neither Cobo or Ricco could hang on to the Belgian champ. In the background, Schumacher closed the gap to Cobo and Ricco, and unfortunately for us, he didn't leave Ricco's wheel anymore, eventually beating him in the sprint. Ricco did get 3th, a result above our expectations considering the flat run-in.
And than, finally, our first sponsor goal of the season, the Tre Valli Varesine! And we needed nothing less than a win here, so we sent both Ricco and Kirchen. Ricco was the favorite here with the steep uphill finish, but you never know, look what happened in the Transfagarasan GP. However, Ricco didn't disappoint and after a hard-fought battle with Simone Ponzi on the final hill, he finished a wheel in front of Ponzi, achieving our first goal of the season!
So a 1st, 2nd and 3th place in 3 consecutive classics, scoring us a good amount of points! Next up is out last PT race. The Criterium du Dauphine Libere. Ricco should get a good result here, with 3 mountain stages and a hilly TT.
Ricco won the race, but the battle with Ponzi was beautiful
With the current season being past his halfway mark, more and more changes towards next season are getting announced. In a meeting this morning a few decisions have been made, but first a short notice on where we are so far.
The first season of our team has certainly been a successful one so far. 9 stage wins, 3 classic wins, 2 overalls and 7 KoM/Points leaders jerseys have brought us in a good place in the continental rankings. At this moment we are in 13th place, but with a little math there is a possibility of finishing around 7th place in the final standings, although nothing is sure yet. If we do manage 7th place, then promotion seems likely, which would be great for our team. But at the moment, we are pleased as it is.
Now, back to the main item. In a meeting this morning with the team management and the sponsors the following has been decided; Colt will stop with sponsoring the team after the end of this season. It's not that the management of Colt is unhappy with out performances, not at all. But Colt doesn't see a lot of marketing improvements from cycling sponsorship. "It was a wild gamble before the season. But well, weapons and cycling doesn't really go well together. We are happy though, to see the team do so well in it first year of existence and we hope they there are many more years to come and wish them the best.", said Colt-spokesman Frederick Hall.
That's it for now, more will be announced shortly. We would however like to thank Colt for sponsoring us in the first place and giving us the resources possible to build a strong time.
Our first race since the Dauphine Libere, where Ricco won the KoM, was the Tour of the Channel Islands. We went here without a clear leader, and every point we would score was a bonus. 4 stages; 3 pan-flat and a prologue.
We started of with the 9km prologue. Ignatiev was the favorite for the stage and the race, but the Russian tank got defeated by 2 Brits: Stannard and Wiggins. Bagdonas finished 20 seconds behind and Kocjan lost 24 seconds.
The second stage; a criterium which might have included a road bump. Munoz Giraldo was the sole-attacker, sparing us the work in the pack. When the sprint started no one was out in front. Clarke from Falcon was leading out Guarnieri. Pacheco noticed their speed and got Guarnieri's wheel. Clarke gave it his all and when he was out of energy the sprint train had a small advantage on the pack. However, Guarnieri got in the lead to early, but instead of waiting he continued riding. It speaks for itself that he ran out of energy before the sprint even started. But by that time it had already happened; Pacheco and Kocjan had gotten a gap thanks to this, and Pacheco didn't waste to much energy yet. He put of Kocjan perfectly and we made it a 1-2 in the stage. The best part? We got handed a 34 seconds gap back to the pack lead-in by an empty Guarnieri. We now had the 2 top spots in the GC.
Pretty boring stage, except for a split halfway through. Pacheco was in the second group, but so were most of 100% ME and Ignatiev. The gap got closed again by them. Cavendish won the stage, Kocjan got 5th and Pacheco 16th. We didn't lose our top spots in the GC. Kocjan kept the leada in the point classification aswell. Pacheco did lose a few spots there.
Last stage, and if we could stay with the pack we would have a great result. When the preparation for the sprint started, their was a fall in the pack. It was our own Kuchinski almost dragging Kocjan with him. Luckily, Kocjan could avoid the crash but did lose a lot of positions for the final sprint. He was around 10th-12th position when it started. Dall'Antonio won the stage, which would mean that Pacheco would lose his second spot in the GC. However, that didn't happen as Pacheco finished second just holding of number 3. And who was number 3? Kocjan: who was probably the fasted in the final sprint. However, another 2 guys on the podium is good aswell.
So, where we expected nothing, we got everything. A stage (1-2), a 1-2 in the GC, another 2 riders in the top 10 (Bagdonas - 8th and Kruopis - 10th). 1-2 in the points classification and the win in the team classification. For Kocjan and Pacheco this are their best results of their carreer. For Bacardi, it turned out to be our best scoring race so far.
It's been some time since we had our last update, so here's one. A lot of races have taken place since the Channel Islands. First, the stage races we were in; Post Danmark Rundt, Vuelta a Burgos, Tour of Ireland and Tour of Missouri.
We didn't do a lot in Denmark as we didn't have really strong squad there. Bagdonas finished 16th in the GC, Smukulis 5th on stage 1 and Kruopis second in the KoM ranking, but that's about it.
Then we had Burgos, where we had high expectations with Ricco. It started off good, as Nazon won the first stage in a sprint. On the second stage Ricco even went on the attack, so everything was looking pretty good. The third stage, a TT, was a small blow for Ricco though, losing more then 40 seconds. We did think that he would make up time on stage 4, a mountain stage. We were wrong, he waited way to long and because of it, only managed 4th in the GC. A good result, but not good enough for Il Cobra.
The Tour of Ireland, 5 flat stages, so the best sprinter is likely to win. We have Goss here and hoped for a stage win and a podium in the overall. Goss finally delivered after some disappointing results in the middle of the season. But when we look at the point rankings from this race, it's clear that Goss still isn't consistent enough.
Last but certainly not least, the Tour of Missouri. We need a top 5 here, and so we send Kirchen here. With a TT and 2 hilly stages, he should certainly be able to deliver. But he didn't. He was in good place after the TT. He almost won the first hilly stage, but ran out of energy 500m before the finish. That stage ruined it for us, as there was a clear gap that would have put Kirchen in 4th place, but the gap wasn't awarded. On the last stage Kirchen didn't even bother, even losing his top 10. Really disappointing race.
Our second part of the Post-Channel Islands run. Nine classics have we taken part in, with mixed successes. Instead of writing short reports, it's much simpler to just show our best man .
It's been 3 months since Colt announced their withdrawal from cycling, and since then a lot has happened. Overall, we are still on track for promotion, and with this the rumors started coming, as to who would replace Colt as co-sponsor. As of this morning, one thing was sure though, Bacardi would extend their sponsorship with at least 1 year!
The rum-producer is very happy with their first adventure in cycling. With the possible promotion to the Pro Tour, Bacardi decided to lengthen the contract. If we do end up promoting, Bacardi promised us a bonus for next year!
While we have extended with Bacardi, we did lose Colt. But there are already quite a few rumors about a possible successor. Among them; Mapei, Saunier Duval, Ignis, A2A, Cofidis and ONCE. The future shall make things clear!
In the last few months, the sprinters have been going add it quite a few times. We weren't always present, but if we were there, Goss did score from time to time. First he went to Ireland, where he finished third behind Swift and Rowe. He did win one stage. In Missouri, he did disappoint, but he only had 2 chances, so not a lot of harm. Those 5 race days might have been better spent somewhere else. But, in the end, it doesn't matter a lot. Especially after winning the Vattenfall Classics in a millimeter sprint with Juan van Heerden!
Now, just before the worlds, we traveled down to Belgium for the Circuit Franco-Belge. Goss being our leader again. ALL other top sprinters were here, so a good result would be hard to get.
The first stage was the hardest. It did have something special. The only KoM of the race, so whoever would win it, would hold it for the rest of the race. Bagdonas got in the break, but only got over the top second. Still, every points are welcome. The sprint was disappointing though, as Goss was probably following Mohs or Swift, causing to end outside the top 30. A missed chance, 3 shots left.
Goss finished 4th in the second stage, after waiting to long. A good sign though that he was getting up there. First stage was probably just bad positioning.
Stage 3. Gajek went in the break, and picked up some bonification seconds along the way. This put him 7th in the GC at the end of the day. In the sprint, Goss was following Vanderaerden who was being lead out by Casper. Casper pulled our train away from the rest of the pack. Vanderaerden takes off with 1300m to go and Goss times his sprint perfectly, to win with one bike length! Great victory, which puts us 3th in the GC. The last stage will decide everything though. 10 riders still have a chance of winning the GC.
In the last stage, Goss decided to follow Haedo. The train was up there, but the Milka train was faster. Vanderaerden was getting a perfect lead-out and only had to finish it off to take the GC. So Goss went from FAR out, flying in to the lead still far from the line. At this point, Vanderaerden moves out of Casper's wheel. Goss was fading a bit in the last meters, but still wins with 2 bike lengths! So he takes the GC!
A good race for us, which brings us one step closer to promotion. This was Goss his best race of the season, edging out Vattenfall, point wise. Gajek also had a good race, finishing 7th in the GC. Promotion concurrent Milka, also scored well here, but as long as we score more, it isn't a problem .
One month left, and may the best team win! In other news, Ricco wants to snap back after his non-selection for the Worlds, he still has 3 races left.
The void that was left behind by Colt has now been filled. Colt decided to pull the plug when the season ends due to cycling sponsorship not giving extra economical advantages. There were quite a few rumors about possible successors and we did have talks with a few of them; Ignis, Mapei, ONCE and Saunier Duval.
Saunier Duval and Mapei weren't ready to make a return just yet, or at least not with our team. They both demanded to be lead sponsor, but that was something we couldn't offer them, as we just had resigned with Bacardi and we're happy with Bacardi.
ONCE and Ignis both looked ideal. They practically offered the same budget, same guarantees, ... One difference though, ONCE wanted a more Spanish focus, while Ignis wanted the Italian program. As Ricco will still be our leader next year, we personally opted for Italy. We proposed it to ONCE as well, but this is where they hooked off. Understandable, the Spanish lottery doesn't have a lot of advantages from being in Italian races.
So, without further ado, let me introduce Ignis, who will be co-sponsoring our team for the next season. Ignis is an Italian company, making home appliances. Why they are going to sponsor our team? One reason, according to their PR-man; Riccardo Ricco. They want to help Ricco win the Giro d'Italia!
Also, some further changes in our team. Next year, the team will be riding Colnago bikes, going back to more Italian roots. Nalini will remain our clothing sponsor. Finally, Campagnolo will take a more prominence role in the team, upping their sponsorship, becoming a co-sponsor of the team.
With all of this, we went to a designing company. Although Will007 did a fantastic job last year, we decided to go to Michiufc. He didn't disappoint us, as he delivered a beautiful jersey. The Bacardi logo still has his spot on the back, so we can be seen from high in the sky. It should be clearer now, with a white backgroung. Nothing more to be said really, just enjoy the jersey and leave behind a comment if you want. (The black edges aren't part of the jersey btw, there was something wrong with the background, and had to fix it this way.)
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