The third HC categorised race is one for the stage racers in the Continental Tour and outside the Vuelta a Burgos, Volta a Portugal double header is perhaps THE stage race of the Tour. Saying that it does favour the climbers somewhat with two mountain top finishes and the time trial a little on the short side at 19km. The Trial is however pan flat and so will favour the power men.
Not too much can be read into last year's performance as the route was slightly different, but it was the mountain stage that was decisive with Rein Taaramae romping to victory on that stage alone. He had already put some time into his rivals on Time Trials but this years race is made up differently. Nethertheless if Taaramae rides he will be one of the favourites! We expect all the big hitters to be here, so it should prove a really good race.
Looking at the start list Taaramae (Ikea), Serpa (Pirelli), Kohl (UBS), Marquez (Sport Lisboa), Abal (Santander) catch the eye for the overall. Several sprinters are here with Griepal and Richeze will certainly be the fastest men in the peleton.
We have decided to send some of our best riders here with John-Lee Augustyn supported by Columbian trio Edwin Parra, Julian Rodas and Victor Orozco. We also have two of our sprinters here for the three flat stages on offer, and for Carlos Manarelli it will be a nice oppurtunity to race against some of the best sprinters around. However the stages on offer may suit Yuki Arashiro a bit better. Our team is rounded off with Roman Kilun and Adil Jelloul who will look for breakaways and to support other team members. Julian Rodas is on good climbing form from the Vuelta a Tachira where he finished 4th and of course Arashiro comes in on a wave of publicity. Though I doubt he will be able to make an impact until the last two stages.
Stage breakdown: Stage 1: Kicks off with a nasty eye-opening climb where we will get our first KOM, however stage flattens out and sprinters teams will look to control for a fast finish.
Stage 2: Again kicks off with a nasty climb and after this raise in altitude a break should go before the real action starts with about 80 km to go. Two testy ramps give way to one of the toughest stage climbs in the Continental Tour the Mirador del Potrero. This stage will produce some big gaps, look for the best mountain climbers to put the stage racers into trouble here.
Stage 3: The Time Trial around San Luis at 19km and pan flat should not prove too decisive, although some of the mountain climbers will be desperately trying to limit their losses.
Stage 4: Rated hilly, a really tough 155 km day with 4 climbs in the last 80 km and the last long climb finishing just 18 km from the finish - this stage will surely catch some of the GC candidates out. An early breakaway will have a chance of getting a significant lead and the strongest team may be the one to take victory here.
Stage 5: The second mountain stage, which at first will appear easier to the others, in reality at a length of 179 km will require a staying racer to do well. It is also the last decisive stage so look for some desperate attacks as riders try to climb the GC ladder.
Stage 6: Its a flattish criterium style stage that is not completely flat but should suit the sprinters.
Stage 7: The last stage is at 161km and whilst is rated flat will be a difficult one for sprinters who don't go over hills well. Its a slightly longer loop which includes a nasty little KOM bump on the way through.
John-Lee Augustyn
Edwin Parra Bustamante
Julian Rodas
Victor Hugo Orozco
Carlos Alexander Manarelli
Roman Kilun
Yukiya Arashiro
Adil Jelloul
Top stage racer Rein Taaramae of IKEA-Bianchi defended his Tour de San Luis crown over a top class climbing field. Taaramae was at the business end of the four key stages of the race and showed in particular on the mountainous stage 5 a determination to win. The epic climb of the Mirador was won by Sport Lisboa's Florentino Marquez who ended up finishing 2nd thanks to his climbing prowess, whilst Jose Serpa's win on stage 4 got him 3rd Overall. Red Bull's John Lee Augustyn had a good week finished 7th on the classification.
The opening stage of the seven stage race was one for the sprinters as Max Richeze of UBS comfortably sprinted away from Ruben Bongiorno and Andre Griepal. A number of teams attempted to form a sprint trian including our very own Adil Jelloul and Yuki Arashiro. Arashiro managed to get 4th from the slingshot and could be satisfied with that.
The second stage was one that promised to be a difference maker with the monstrous climb of the Mirador at the end of the day. The big attacks began in earnest with 5km to go with some nasty steep sections Sport Lisboa's top mountain goat Florintino Marquez put in a devistating attack. After he got about a minute Taaramae, Serpa and UBS's Berhard Kohl would respond as the gaps really began to open behind. Marquez would hold most of his advantage to win the stage 46 seconds ahead of Serpa and a minute ahead of Kohl and Taaramae.
JL Augustyn managed to follow the wheel of 5th place David Abal (Santander) most of the way and finished 7th at 1.42 behind Marquez. The rest of Red Bull's climbers fared less well and the three columbians Parra, Rodas and Ozozco finished over seven minutes behind deciding to save themselves for the coming days.
Stage 3 was a 19km flat Time Trial, where as expected Taaramae and Abal would be the best of the GC contenders. Whilst Dimitri Grabovski (Intesa) won the stage, Petronas' Manuel Lloret produced a fine performance moving himself up to 5th on the GC in second place on the day. Climbers Bernard Kohl and Florentino Marquez both lost about a minute, meanwhile Red Bulls JL Augustyn produced a gutsy 19th of the day 53 seconds down on Grabovski. Whilst Augustyn shone, others like Adil Jelloul and Roman Kilun didn't shine with mid pack results.
Stage 4 showed no let up on the riders with multiple hills to get over. Stage 3 winner Grabovski was clearly feeling confident as he was the strongest of the breakaway and probably would have won the stage but for riders with GC asperations. Perhaps surprisingly it was Pirelli's Jose Serpa who launched the move which was covered well by Rein Taaramae. The other contenders Abal, Kohl and race leader Marquez were not able to follow. On the final descent the three riders Grabovski, Taaramae and Serpa extended their advantage to take over a minute at the finish. Meaning that Jose Serpa by virtue of winning the stage was now the leader by a second on Taaramae with Marquez now 54 seconds back.
The last key stage would be a lengthy test with a steep climb about 60% of the way through before a long uphill mixed drag at the end. The impressive Taaramae launched hard with about 12km to go and whilst it was initially race leader Serpa who tried to respond it was ultimately only Marquez who was able to bridge up to the Estonian. As the climb moved on Serpa tried hard to reduce the gap but could not get away from the likes of Red Bulls Augustyn and Abal. Towards the finish Marquez came close to reeling Taaramae in but the Ikea man took the stage win and the overall lead on GC as Augustyn sprinted for 3rd just ahead of Bernard Kohl 44 seconds behind the winner.
The Red Bull teammates had done better on the last two climbing stages, Edwin Parra and Roman Kilun in particular had survived with the leading group to support Augustyn.
The last two stages were ones for sprinters, unfortunatly a tired Arashiro was not able to contest them. The first a dangerous criterium stage was won by Max Richeze from Andre Griepal. In the final stage of the race the sprinters teams got their calculations wrong as breakaway rider Riu Costa of Sport Lisboa just held off the sprinting Andre Griepal for the stage win. Adil Jelloul was freed up to do his own sprint and came a credible 8th.
Red Bull team boss Simon Moss was declared himself satisfied after the tough stage race. "I was not sure of what to expect from such a talented field, John-Lee (Augustyn) rode really well when you consider the company of riders". He continued to sing the praises of the South African "John-Lee has been wanting to go well in a top stage race for some time, he always felt that was his best discipline and showed in this week what a gutsy performer he is. Even in the last stage he went for some climbing points." The Mirador potero on stage 2 cost some of the teams better climbers higher GC placings however and the boss conceded that this had been disappointing. "The columbians and Roman Kilun did not climb the Potero particularly well. Rodas, I think was still feeling the Tachira but the main thing was poor positioning really. I was very happy with the way they responded later. I was hoping that we could involve ourselved in the later sprints but Yuki was bushed from the climbs. This is a lesson we must learn, Yuki should have saved himself in the gruppeto."
South African John-Lee Augustyn was not available for comment but American Roman Kilun was. "John was the shining light of inspriation for us and after stage 3 it was very motivating to have a guy in the top 10. We talked about attacking every day but it was only the last where I was feeling strong enough to go. I feel happy enough with my form going into Mt Hood later on in the month, we need to work on our Time Trialling a bit"
Red Bull have now lost their overall lead in the Teams Classification on the Continental tour. Sport Lisboa now take the lead from Wiggle with Red Bull still up there in third. In the individual Arashiro drops to third behind Bellis (Cillit Bang) and Taaramae, Red Bull's next best rider is Augustyn in 20th place.
Moss said on this "We never expected to hold onto the lead for very long, our goal remians to sneak into the top 10 on the team standings. John-Lee and Yuki are hoping to among the top 50 riders but we shall see there is a long way to go. Our next race in the continental tour is the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic which has attracted a strong field. I will be flying over to Barcelona where we have an exciting oppurtunity at racing a Protour race and also features the debut of Konstantin Siutsou in Red Bull colours!"
7th John Lee Augustyn (4th in mountains competition)
34th Edwin Parra Bustamante
35th Roman Kilun
39th Julian Rodas
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya - 17th to 23rd February
This begins the second phase of our season. This contains several important races for our team in Malaysia and South Africa. We also have two races in Spain the two excellent stage races in Castille y Leon and the high class Pro Tour race in Catalunya. We are absolutely thrilled to get the nod for this one and look forward to the early test at this level.
This is a seven stage race, which should go to a climber who can survive hills well. Strangely things should be decided on stages 2,3 and 4 with stage 5,6 and 7 set for sprint finishes. This is part of a trio of stage races with the Paris Nice and Tirreno Adriatico, so it may prove slightly less demanding then other Protour races. Nethertheless may well attract some attention from riders with half an eye on the Vuelta d'Espana.
Our team for this race is respectfully strong though we confess has half an eye on developing some of our talent. Two of our strongest stage racers Siutsou and Parra harbour outside GC hopes, though will modify their ambitions as the first four stages go by. Meanwhile Beppu and last years Vuelta KOM Orozco will look to go on the attack, Beppu on flatter terrian and Orozco on climbs. In the sprints we are hopeful that Chris Sutton and Manarelli can go well, it maybe that the other sprinting squads are a little weak. The opening ITT was not really factored in, it is too short to target and so we will not spend too much time worrying about it.
Stage 1: Its 5km and a very short Individual Time Trial should favour a rider that can blast the 5km distance. Siutsou and Parra are not too bad at this discipline they will hope to keep themselves honest for the next couple of days.
Stage 2: The first road race stage will not decide the race but will no doubt eliminate some of the contenders with a nasty little climb crested 23km before the end attacks may well stick. Siutsou will be observant here, we would like to see the Red Bull jersey in an early break.
Stage 3: We are building up towards the stage 4 crescendo, today the difficulty is higher. The climbs at the end will favour a punchy type, World Champion Alejandro Valverde is the obvious name to follow.
Stage 4: A day in the pyrennees, ends with a long attritional climb at the end of the day. It is one that we have talked about and our hopes are that Siutsou can maintain himself with the lead group for as long as possible. Its a bit too long for Parra and Orozco so one of the two should try to get in an early break if possible.
Stage 5: A long day in the saddle at over 200km, we would be delighted if we can get CJ Sutton to the finish but in Fumi Beppu we may have an alternative card to play. A GC favourite may attempt a last throw of the dice here.
Stage 6: Our best chance of a stage may come here and we would hope that CJ Sutton can at least make the front 10 in a sprint. But we fancy a breakaway.
Stage 7: Longish downhill 106 km stage. A bit short but may be a hard one to shut down once more.
Konstantin Siutsou
Edwin Parra Bustamante
Christopher Sutton
Fumiyaki Beppu
Luis Felipe Laverde Jiminez
Victor Hugo Orozco
Carlos Alexander Manarelli
Jianhua Ji
Honorio Machado of Cafe du Columbia sprinted home in the 2nd race of the Criterium Series in another battle of the sprint trains. The absence of the first races dominant Pokerstars quick man troupe saw a much closer sprint, with Festina looking like taking over from them as the lead out of choice. However it was the Cafe du Columbia team that came the quickest at the very death and Machado finished things off overtaking Danilo Kupfernagal (IKEA) and dragging Davide Vigano (Energie Diesal) up into 2nd.
At 62 km, the Turkey Criterium was shorter than the opener in China. Ikea's sprinter Kupfernagal was well favoured having come 3rd in China to deny a Pokerstars 1-2-3. To relieve the pressure of having to chase Peter Sagan went on the opening attack of the day dragging a couple of riders including Red Bull's Adam Semple with him. Ultimately seven riders would for the break of the day, unfortunately for Adam and his breakaway companions the gap was well marshalled by the main group. Energie Diesal were joined by surprisingly Ikea and Cillit Bang in leading the chase and the break was reeled in with about 15km to go.
Adam Semple had left something in reserve and decided to go for one last stab at a break win at this point.
It was a brave attempt but Festina and Ikea had their sights firmly set on a sprint, having spent most of their riders Ikea let their main man Kupfernagal sit on a powerful looking Festina train. However they had gone a bit too early and left the Ikea man exposed as he jumped with 2km to go. The Columbia team reeled in the powerful sprinter and launched their own man, Machado to take the win with Vigano not close enough to come around but finish a credible second with a late surge.
Red Bull once again had no-one placing anywhere in the sprint with Belmokhtar, Shalulnizam, Matthews, Ji and Semple back in the bunch. A tired but excited Adam Semple was chatty at the finish. "It felt great to be in a break again today, I felt the forces would be with us with Sagan in the group. But we heard that his team were chasing as well which broke the resolve of the other guys up here. I saved a bit for a second push, but Ikea and Festina were just too strong for me to hold out. Still the boss has just given me a call to congratulate me on a good job and I feel elated at that."
Speaking from Barcelona, the team boss Simon Moss found it difficult to hide his frustration "I feel for Adam here, he did his job superbly but the others in the team seem to be here just to ride around in the pack. Michael Matthews has the capabilities of finishing in the top 10 and we should have used the fact we had a man in the breakaway to prepare ourselves to best achieve that. That said the sprinters in these crits are a bit too strong and hold a bit more experience, so we will try our luck in the last two crits over hillier terrian."
Back in Turkey, we were trying to get comments from Michael Matthews but all we could get from him was "Just like China". Red Bull will continue its Criterium adventure racing the next one a more hilly affair in the US.
Team:
Abdalkader Belmokhtar (33rd)
Jianhua Ji (61st)
Michael Matthews (53rd)
Adam Semple (49th)
Mohd Che Shalralnizam (31st)
Our third race on the American continent and our first in the US. The first thing to take note of here is the hilly Team Time Trial on stage 4 of the race. Beyond that it's a tough race with two further mountain stages, a short prologue, a hilly little criterium stage and a final flat road stage. Team work is key and as such we have no real weak links with an experienced line-up.
We expect Roman Kilun and Scott Zwizanski's experience of these types of races to invaluable and it should suit Adam Hansen and Adil Jelloul's characteristics also. Tour Down Under champion Yukiya Arashiro is certain to have chances in stage 2 and 6 its Augustyn all the way for the GC.
Stage 1: 6km ITT The time gaps were not great last year and it was a big TTT that got much more race defining gaps. The main aim of this one is for a mini warm up for the TTT on stage 4. With so many good TTers present the competition will be intense for the first leaders jersey.
Stage 2: A tough little crit course of 141 km with 14 laps of about 10 km with little real flat terrain one for a tough sprinter though last year Viatkus couldn't quite nail back a breakaway. We will be targeting a win for Arashiro in this although it will be tough to set it up for him.
Stage 3: It's a long hard mountainous circuit race totalling 158km, with some nasty steep sections. It created all sorts of gaps last year and we will have to play our cards right. Augustyn will be looking to be in the right move and will hope to create gaps on more cautious riders.
Stage 4: The Team Time Trial, we have cobbled together a team as best we can, half decent is perhaps the best you can say compared to a lot of the other TTT sqauds on display.
Stage 5: This stage should be the one that separates a mixture of climbs on display here. The last a long drag of around 15km should give the oppurtunity for a true climber to shine. JL Augustyn showed some promise in San Luis and will need to be at his best here.
Stage 6: Its flat and on the short side and so should suit an out and out sprint. We shall see what Arashiro has left here.
Squad:
John-Lee Augustyn
Franklin Chacon
Roman Kilun
Scott Zwizanski
Yukiya Arashiro
Adam Hansen
Adil Jelloul
Cafe du Columbia favourite and World Champion Alejandro Valverde won the Volta a Catalunya in style winning the two toughest stages and comfortably taking the overall. He was tracked all the way by Vesuvio rider Rigaberto Uran who could not match the Spainard in the final straight. Ruben Plaza managed to complete the podium for Jack Wolfskin despite suffering a little on the queen stage of the race. Red Bull's Konstantin Siutsou showed himself well where it mattered and finished a highly credible 7th.
The Volta opened with a short time trial which was very tight with just 2 seconds covering the top 7 riders. Nespresso's Martijn Keizer edged out Ford of Vesuvio and Cornu of Jack Wolfskin. His lead would be short lived as a highly motivated Sam Bewley of Festina burst out of the bunch to reel in breakaway survivor Jacob Danecek of Sony Ericsson to sweep to stage win and GC lead in stage 2.
After stage 2 had whittled down the candidates to about 64 riders, it would be stage 3 that would see the GC switched again. Valverde would make his move here and only Plaza and Uran could follow and could do nothing in the subsequent sprint. Siutsou showed good awareness and strength to come in with Sergei Kolesnikov about a minute behind Valverde but crucially ahead of several good climbers.
The queen stage arrived and Valverde once again showed his rivals a clean set of heels timing his attack well to reel in dangerous columbian Walter Pedraza as the gusty Uran once again clung to Valverde's wheel. This earned the Vesuvio man 2nd overall. Behind this Plaza battled hard to maintain his podium, with grand tour men Pozzovivo, Arroyo and Menchov all going well. Siutsou suffered hard to maintain a good GC position and in this company managed a fine 9th place on the stage.
The last three stages Cafe Du Columbia were only too happy to give breakaways a chance to shine with Jesus Tendero (Energie Diesal), Hector Duenas (Domina Vacanze) and Rafael Rodriguez (La Gazzetta) the benefactors getting fine stage wins for their teams. The active Fumi Beppu of Red Bull managed to finally infiltrate a breakaway on the last day and finished 4th in the sprint.
Red Bull supremo Moss had this to say about the teams maiden ProTour outing "What an experience, mixing with some of the great teams of this generation. Despite good fields in France and Italy, make no mistake this race had some class acts, who better than the World Champion who was amazing." On his teams performance Moss was as ever upbeat. "I am probably sounding like a broken record, but I really couldn't ask for more of my riders. Konstantin lived up to his billing as team leader producing a real performance coming in just ahead of a rider like Menchov is fantastic when you consider how hard they were going on the queen stage."
He moved on to praise the other members of the squad "After San Luis I was looking for a bit more from the climbers, they seemed to fade a little early to support Augustyn there so to see Edwin Parra climbing with a lead group on the queen stage is great. Oroxco, Ji, Montana and Laverde also did a good job for Konstantin - you have to remember with Fredy Montana he was only a last minute replacement for CJ Sutton. Meanwhile the last three stages panned out as I thought it might with breakaways being the order of the day. It was unfortunate for Carlos Manarelli because he looked in good sprinting form and may have snatched a podium, Fumi's remit was to get involved in breakaways and he was very active all week and should be pleased with the last stage performance."
Beppu had this to say: "I wanted to show the Japanese champions jersey off and I got the chance on a number of occasions none more so than today. I was a bit slow to react in the final sprint, but La Gazzetta had two riders to play it was just too much."
7th Konstantin Siutsou
27th Edwin Parra
34th Victor Orozco
37th JianhUa Ji
38th Luis Felipe Laverde
50th Fredy Montana
IKEA's Jose Alarcon blew his rivals away on the climbs in the Mt Hood Cycling Classic. Simply irrasistable on the toughest stages, winning both he was helped out by a more than capable team who also won the Team Time Trial. The Team test would prove a decisive factor in the placings behind as Petronas consistent climber Manual Lloret nabbed 2nd, Red Bull's Augustyn 3rd and Tenelor's Rohregger 4th. These teams were the only ones who could live with IKEA on the Time Trial.
Red Bull's John Lee Augustyn continued his fine climbing form with a 5th and 3rd on the decisive stages. Meanwhile Japanese fastman Yukiya Arashiro managed a 4th and a 3rd in the field sprints, well led out by Adam Hansen and Adil Jelloul.
The short opening time trial proved a false dawn for Santander's David Abal. Nonetheless he managed to beat some fine riders and became the races first overall leader. Gustav Larsson (IKEA) and Thomas Rohregger (Telenor) gave some early indication of their teams Time Trial strength with a 2nd and 3rd here. The second stage proved a sprinters affair, with UBS Robert Forster, sneaking it ahead of Telenor's Thomas Vaitkus. Viatkus would now take the race lead going into the Mt Cooper circuit.
Stage 3 saw the first really decisive punch from IKEA as Yamaha breakaway specilist Landaluze almost upsetting the favourites and only caught by the rampaging Alarcon in the last kilometres. Petronas Manual Lloret showed good late sprinting to detach himself from 7 others towards the end to gain a crucial 10 seconds plus a small bonus. JL Augustyn finished alongside David Abal and Thomas Rohregger in this group.
The Team Time Trial exposed some of the contenders teams, with IKEA led by Gustav Larsson winning the stage from pre stage favourite Telenor by 15 seconds. Petronas's and Red Bull's solid squads came in a further 7 and 14 seconds back. Another 26 seconds back would be Mercedes followed by the rest. It would prove a bad day for contenders such as Abal, Perez Sanchez (UBS) and Montenegro (Yamaha).
Still stage 5 saw one more decisive day, as once again Alarcon was the dominent force with David Abal working hard and coming second to undo some of the damage from the previous day. John Lee Augustyn worked hard and managed to come in 3rd to leapfrog into 3rd position on the GC. The last flat day proved a day for Telenor's sprinter Viatkus who would gain the points jersey for his efforts. Mercedes Anthony Brea came second here ahead of Red Bull's Arashiro.
We caught up with late replacement Franklin Chacon at the end of the weeks racing "You know I didn't do bad for a retired man! The harmony was good in the team, I had met some of the guys in San Luis, it was clear then that JL Augustyn and Roman Kilun were going good. I am not surprised by their performance here. Yukiya Arashiro also impresses me, he got a great result in Australia and here he is working his butt off for minor placings on the sprint stages." Asked whether he would race again. "This really is it for me, I really suffered on the Mt Cooper stage and the second mountain drag I was in the red in the last 5km. It was a low key race here and I have kept fit so I suppose who knows, but I am not going to suddenly appear on the Genting Highlands!"
Roman Kilun was feeling reasonably happy with his work "Well, we were looking for me to finish in the top 15, but JL's podium place really exceeded expectations. In truth the TTT set things up, you had to be really strong to get away on stage 5 and I was not in that category." Roman added he was looking forward to getting away from the US circuit "It's been a while since I have done a race in another continent, I got a nice little race in Spain, before helping Yuki out in Japan. The big objective for me though is the Tour of America later this year, I am stoked to be in that one"
Results
3rd John Lee Augustyn
17th Roman Kilun
34th Franklin Chacon
43rd Scott Zwizanski
47th Yukiya Arashiro (5th Points)
49th Adil Jelloil (2nd KOM)
50th Adam Hansen
A five stage race in South Africa, perhaps a dry run for next month's worlds view challenge. A real mixed bag, with three hilly stages on stage 2 through to 4. Augustyn leads a mixed team with help from some Columbians, Ball and Arashiro - should be an interesting little race. The key will be covering the main moves and chasing down breakaways that dominated last year's race. The last stages TT may still prove crucial if earlier stages have not split things up.
Santander's David Abal and Augustyn will be familiar with each other having raced each other closely in Mt Hood and San Luis. Francisco Perez Sanchez of UBS had a shocker in Mt Hood and will look to put that right here. The biggest threat though will come from the El Al team, slightly below par in Mt Hood they have a strong team here. Pendletons hold a few cards, though it may be a bit much to expect veterens Wiggins and Millar to survive the hills. Seeldrayers of Yamaha is also worth watching in this smaller field.
Stage 1: 110 km and fairly flat with a tricky run in that will encourage attacks. Two climbs 22km and 15km from finish will have sprinters scrambling to get back on. Good chances for Arashiro, though we may play an early Augustyn card.
Stage 2: 121km of a longish circuit, requiring a good strength on hills, the finish is timed 7km after the 6th ascent of the hill. By then, surely the major players will assert themselves. JL will look to instigate.
Stage 3: Nothing too spectacular after an early ramp after 12km until the final ramp which is rated as a mountain though is not too steep and has not been completely decisive in the past. It is relentless however and would catch the unprepared out.
Stage 4: Last chance for the non TTers to put time in with a late kick after a fairly lumpy day on a 129 km route. The uphill sprint suits a strongman
Stage 5: a 6 km TT test on the short side, we do not really have a great TTer though Augustyn can handle himself okay as can Jelloul who will hope for a fairly high finish here.
John-Lee Augustyn
Yukiya Arashiro
Julian Rodas
Jamie Ball
Adil Jelloul
Luis Felipe Laverde Jiminez
Adam Semple
Our first season target, though in truth we had hoped to bring in a pure climber for the mythical Genting Climb. We settled for value for money with the all round talents of Siutsou and looked for strength in depth. We still target an unlikely win here, and Siutsou and Parra will go for this difficult goal. We do however have other possibilities for stage wins, Ahmad Haider Anuawar has experience of racing here and is very excited at the chance to race here for Red Bull. Fumiyaki Beppu, Jianhua Ji and KinSan Wu give our team a nice Asian feel, whilst Matthews continues to learn under Chris Sutton. These two should help Haider in the sprints.
Stage 1: 135km flat but just a little bumpy, we hope we can keep Haider in position, shall be interesting to see who breaks away plenty of reward on the circuit.
Stage 2: The nasty early climb will be but a memory by the time we come roaring into the finish. Again the organisers have placed some tasty hotspots including one 24km from the end. But most effort will be on the inevitable sprint finish.
Stage 3: The distance is ramped up again to a longish 186km stage which may suit a breakaway before the action begins. We have cards to play, but would prefer to set up sprint.
Stage 4: The longest stage of the race at 222km and one that may catch the pure climbers out with a nasty hilly section three quarters of the way through. We know that Siutsou's chance of a high GC placing will rest on following the right moves here to sneak out an advantage.
Stage 5: Here we go 30km climb of Genting, perhaps the most challenging climb of the continental tour and no doubt the best will gather here to have a crack at it. Its an additional battle, and Siutsou veteran of Grand Tour epics will look to use his experience to hold on. Parra has been around the climbers at this level before and will battle.
Stage 6: The penultimate stage looks like one for a breakaway, though once again we will not rule out trying to get it together for a sprint.
Stage 7: The KL circuit, it's not completely flat so we harbour no great expectations of an organised sprint.
Konstantin Siutsou
Edwin Parra Bustamante
Ahmad Haider Anuawar
Christopher Sutton
Kin-San Wu
Jianhua Ji
Fumiyaki Beppu
Michael Matthews
Preperations: Been here a month giving the Capo, Cape Argus and World's View courses a really good reccie! I have been here with young Australian Adam Semple who reminds me of myself 10 years ago, keen to take on the world. My form has been good, I am being called upon to be a road captain for our three South African races which I am looking forward to. Our squad here has some good all round riders, John Lee Augustyn is going to be the man we ride for, Adam and I will look after him mostly. He is coming over quite late with Adil Jelloul and Yukiya Arashiro for the US, those two should also be in good form. Finally we also have the two reclusive Columbians Rodas and Laverde, both have been professional since coming over a couple of days ago from Spain. Both can climb and have been attentive when I tell them of the course profiles. Both are only racing here in the Capo stage race and I think are looking to find a bit of form, Laverde seems in the better shape... we shall see.
Stage 1: With three mountain primes, I felt that it was important that someone got on the board here. Adam Semple looked after JL to begin with as we watched one of the young Cillit Bang crew try a lone break. I went for the first prime, but could not score as El-Al's Doi went to catch the youngster who couldn't really pull a significant gap. British team Pendletons pulled this back before the complicated finale. With two primes left and a downhill, I got most of the guys up toward the front of the pack apart from Rodas who got detached from the back towards the end. The guy just doesn't seem interested here, I managed to grab a point on the first prime but the big guns went for an attack on the second. Santader's Abal and Cillit Bangs Ben Nasser went on the attack and looked really strong. We kept calm as El-Al's strong team pulled them back. I had noted that final section was tricky and was very close to the downhill, you had to time you effort carefully. Laverde and Augustyn found themselves really near the front and both took their chances brilliantly to take a surprise one - two for us. A great chance for us in the overall as both can climb well.
Stage 2: A tough circuit day today, we decided early on to let a little break get away. With the GC leaders position in our hands we kept it under control until suddenly JL caught a puncture. Everybody but the Columbians went back, really irritated to see Rodas who was not even protecting Laverde. With us off the pace it was fairly easy to get back and when the action hit in the last 25km, JL was able to go with the attacks, Laverde just didn't have anything and things were splitting up. I sensed today was the day when the GC would be splitting wide open so I set as hard a pace as I could at the front of the peloton and suffered for it on the last climb. JL was going great, but couldn't quite make it up to the last move and faded a little in the last 2km to finish 40 ish seconds behind the winners and lost the yellow jersey.
Stage 3: Signal Hill today. The real controversy was saved till the end, but it was clear our tactics were to keep Augustyn safe and launch him at the end. We did this well today and Columbian Laverde rode nicely too. David Abal of Santander was the man to mark, JL knew he could probably keep with the Spaniard. But he kicked really hard in the last km and JL lost his wheel. Still JL came second with Perez Sanchez, Cillit Bang's Ben Nasser was well back but amazingly the connoisseurs gave everyone bar Abal the same time as Augustyn even me! It was an incredible situation which looked like it would keep Abal from winning the Giro and JL off the podium barring a miracle on the next day.
Stage 4: Yuki went in the break today and had a real ding dong battle with Tolleson for the stage win. There was no way we were going to do anything to help Cillit Bang and used that to advantage in the finale to place Jelloul in second place, Arashiro also moved into the top 20 with his breakaway. I got a 5th place which I was really happy with also.
Stage 5: A short TT, lots of good TT men here and was really difficult to do anything. A rode a little within myself, but JL rode flat out but it was no good he could not quite make the podium. Simmering frustration from the team really, Augustyn deserved a podium but at least got the points jersey. Great stuff from Arashiro and Jelloul, disappointing rides from the two Columbians. I have to give a few kind words to young Adam Semple he rode like a perfect domestique, I predict a great future for him!
4th JL Augustyn (wins points jersey)
15th Adil Jelloul
16th Yukiya Arashiro (2nd KOM jersey)
20th Luis Felipe Laverde Jimenez
34th Adam Semple
43rd Julian Rodas
50th Jamie Ball
Manager's note: We are pleased with the teams 4th stage win of the season, JL seemed a bit unlucky to finish off the GC podium but a well earned points jersey underlines a successful first half of the season for him. It was an active performance from the team, we are having a little trouble blending the differing cultures of the squad. A similar squad will be selected for the Cape Argus one day ride and also the key World's View Challenge stage race. These South African courses suit attacking rides, so seeing several or the squad attacking here shows we are in the right mood for these races.
UBS's Austrian climber Bernhard Kohl kept his cool and the big mountian showdown on the 5th stage of the race following the accelerations well and saving himself for the finale. Pipping Ikea's Jose Alarcon on the line the UBS man won the queen stage and kept in the pack on the six flat stages in a sprint dominated tour. Pirelli's Jose Serpa finished 3rd on the queen stage and 2nd overall both riders improving on high positions in the Tour de San Luis last month. Sport Lisboa's young climber Nazeret rounded out the podium with Ikea's Jose Alarcon dropping from 2nd Overall to 21st in a crash marred last stage.
Red Bull's Konstantin Siutsou could only finish 19th overall and Malaysian sprinter Haider Anauwar nabbed just the one podium out of the six sprints contested. This rounded out a lean showing from the team, one that will see them drop down the overall standings following they well recieved start to the season.
With 5 pan flat stages in the Tour of Langkawi, there was a race within a race with the sprinters early on. The opening stage was a fairly nervous affair with only a few riders braving a breakaway it was Highroad's Kirs Boeckmans who would nab the first KOM jersey of the race. The now legendary Pokerstars sprint train formed and plenty of riders looked to latch on the back of their lead sprinter Eric Mohs.
This however proved a mistake, as the team lost power in the finale... it would be experienced Mercedes man JJ Haedo who would romp away from the rest with perhaps surprisingly lightweight Yamaha man Priamo taking second ahead of the rest led in by Vespa's Gatto.
The second stage saw a similar profile again not a huge break was able to get clear and this was always going to be well marshalled by the sprinters teams. Particularly interested were Pokerstars(for Mohs), Quiksilver (for Davis) and UniCredit (for Napolitano). Igor Rovny (Tinkoff) was the pick of the breakaway nabbing the lead in the KOM comp. The break was caught before the last intermediate sprint and with bonus seconds available, JJ Haedo crucially took full bonifications which looked likely to gaurentee himself holding the lead. Unicredits Napolitano took second with yesterdays 3rd place man Gatto replicating that position.
The final sprint was less organized than the day before as Mercedes in particular struggled to get race leader Haedo well placed. Santander's Oscar Guereo went for a long one in the last km, unfortunately unliek yesterday he had two sprinters Napolitano and Davis on his wheel and as he faded he was overtaken in that order with teh Unicredit man taking a victory. Haedo finished 11th but narrowly held on to the lead ahead of Napolitano, the two men looking the best of the sprinters so far.
The third stage was yet another flat affair, but with the hills looming more riders were prepared to chance their arm in the breakaway including Red Bull's youngster Michael Matthews. Most of the bonifications on route were well contested with Matthews taking the opening sprint point. The pack were led by Pokerstars and Quiksilver who were still hunting a stage victory for their sprint men. Despite the extra numbers in the break it would come down once again to a sprint, which proved choatic with Bimbo giving the previously quiet Van Avermart a good lead-out as he stormed away to take the win. Red Bull's Haider Anuawar who had previously chosen the wrong wheels to follow took Loddo's wheel (Pirelli) which proved beneficial as Loddo would finish second ahead of the Red Bull man in third.
With a number of climbs on the route of the 4th stage some felt that we would see a classification shake up which was still being led by Mercedes opening stage winner JJ Haedo. However despite a fairly large breakaway, which included Red Bull's CJ Sutton, all the breakaway did was provide Tinkoff's Igor Rovny more points in the KOM classification. The pace was not sufficient enough to put any of the main sprinters under pressure with over 100 riders finishing together at the end of the day. It would be a determined Pokerstars team who were once again looking for German Eric Mohs to finish things off. This time their train worked well and delivered Mohs into a straight sprint out with stage 2 winner Napolitano and stage 3 winner Van Avermart.
It was the Unicredit Italian who would win however with Van Avermart second and Mohs could only manage 3rd. Napolitano now had the race lead going into Genting that he would surely lose, but also a comfortable 26 point lead in the points competition.
So finally Genting arrived....
.... a lot of teams would be looking to release their team leaders to slug it out on what was no doubt going to be the decisive stage of the tour. The break was allowed a fair bit of leeway in the early going, although eventually and confusingly it was Unicredit (without a real top name climber) who kept it under control.
Red Bull's Siutsou along with Tinkoff's Petrov and Petronas Carrara perhaps sensing they were not quite the best of the climbers would launch the opeing salvos with 21 km to go...
... but Ikea's Alarcon and Pirelli's Serpa did not wish to wait either and they go before the main section of the climb. These two worked together well and the rest of the riders, now catching the inital attackers Siutsou, Petrov and Carrara looked to respond. Here UBS' Kohl managing to claw his way up to the climbing pair of Alarcon and Serpa. These three looked the strongest and it was Alarcon who would try and accelerate away from the other two with 5km to go. But things began to regroup as the slope thinned, as Alarcon prepared one last salvo in the last kilometer once again dragging Kohl and Serpa with him. So close to the finish Kohl this time played close order and was able to round the Ikea man in at the line.
The gaps were small, but crucially the race organisers would recognize them nullifying previous countback on stage positions. Not that it mattered with the time bonifications for the top three, Kohl - Alarcon- Serpa. Behind these guys a group of three with Lego's Gil, Mercedes Stetina and Sport Lisboa's Nazeret. Then another group of three Petrov, Santander's Lopez Garcia and Telenors Kessiekoff, finally Carrara rounding out the top 10.
Red Bull's Siutsou could only manage 25th at the back of a nine man group 90 seconds back. The other Red Bull climbers Parra, Ji and Kin San Wu alarmingly rode up with the sprinters some 14 minutes back!
So with the GC, mountains and points classification sorted the last two stages would be all about stage wins. However both stages had crucial elements to the overall classifications.
First stage six in which Michael Matthews once again got in the BOTD, but the break was once again chased by Quiksilver, Pokerstars and points leader team Unicredit (looking for a third Napolitano stage win). After the catch the sprint trains formed in the usual way, however a tired peleton was struggling to remain together. There certainly seemed to be a definable gap at the end, but the race jury decided to keep the status quo in this case no gaps were awarded. At the front it was Santander who launched their sprinter Oscar Guereo perfectly to register an excellent stage win, with Loddo second again and Napolitano a consistent 3rd nailing down the points jersey for sure.
Then the last stage, sadly did see some bad fortune from highly placed GC men. The biggest disaster was for IKEA as Alarcon touched Bjellmark's wheel as both came down hard. Bjellmark had to abandon and Alarcon limped home a couple of minutes back. Once again Santander's sprint train was perfectly placed and launched Guereo again to a stage win ahead of Van Avermart and Loddo.
Red Bull's team boss cut a despondant figure at the end of a disappointing tour "We knew it would be tough in this one, but to finish with so little out of this one really bites. Haider was pretty consistent and Fumi worked hard to deliver him in a reasonable position but he was pretty outclassed in the sprints. His 8th place finish in the points classification probably sums it up, he is up there and maybe in the smallare Jelejah Malaysia tour he will be up there."
On Genting "Gee this race was loaded and everyone was nervous, Konstantin without much support went hell for leather early. We felt that on the initial climbing section we could get a bit of a buffer before the big men went. But it all exploded from there and when the second sort out went Siutsou was not there with the climbers. I must admit my heart sank, I have to be philisophical its the first time we have not been able to make a good impression in a race like this. As the climb went on Konstantin found a rhythm and at least was able to finish some way up there. Having concentrated so much on him, I was a little miffed that the rest of our climbers rode way within themselves. Parra, Ji and Wu could have pushed up into the top 50 and chose to rode in the gruppeto which was not really the instruction"
Kin San Wu explained "Haider struggled early and we decided to help him out, none of us were going to win other than Konstantin. So we decided to ride up as a team, perhaps next year we can give it a go."
Moss looked to emphasise the positives "I know the guys wanted to keep together and its our first year, thats probably the right way. I just would like for them to test themselves and hey I am greedy for classification points. Its disappointing to see some of our great riders have an anonymous race particualar as we are in Asia! Mikey Matthews showed good spirit, knowing he needed to get in a breakaway he tried twice. CJ is having a really tough time of it he got caught up in a crash on stage 6 and did well to make the break on stage 4. Its slowly coming for him, I hope he makes it because he is working so hard."
"Our next race is the Cape Argus Cycle Tour in South Africa, which is really a cobweb shaker for the World's View Challenge at the beginning of next month. CJ and Mikey will be there in support of Augustyn and Arishiro. Siutsou next races in Spain, which was a happy hunting ground for him in Catalunya and the Castille Y Leon suits him to go for a top 10 GC placing."
19th Konstantin Siutsou
75th Edwin Parra
78th Kin San Wu
81st Ahmad Haider (3rd Stage 3)
91st Jianhua Ji
122nd Fumi Beppu
139th CJ Sutton
140th Mikey Matthews
Team Telenor's Lasse Bochmann surprised a sprinters field in South Africa to take victory in the Cape Argus cycle tour. He took the chance to go away in an early three man breakaway, attacked his companions with 10km to go and held on for an excellent win. Red Bull took 3 of the top 8 places with Yuki Arashiro sprinting into 2nd place giving the team a welcome boost after a tricky tour in Langkawi.
It was a beautiful sunny day down on the South Western coastal region of South Africa. Red Bull Cycling seven man squad included five of the riders who rode in the recent Giro del Capo and they were joined by Australian duo Michael Matthews and CJ Sutton who would boost the sprinting ability of the group.
Jamie Ball and JL Augustyn took joint road captains role and both felt that the race whilst likely to end in a field sprint would be a difficult one to control with it being vital for the squad to get riders well placed in the last three km. A relitively small field of 60 riders were present at the start of the race, meaning only a small breakaway would be allowed to form. For that reason our seven man squad wanted to keep themselves deep into the peleton.
The breakaway that did go clear however took it upon themselves to build a big lead and some hesitation on the chasing teams parts led to one of the break taking the full glory. As the race entered the last 30km Telenors tactic became clear as hardman Tomas Vaitkus attacked the peleton to perhaps join teammate Bochmann in the lead group. This had the knock on effect of meaning Bochmann could stop working in the break saving himself for a possible last ditch attack.
This is what proved to happen, with Galdos and Drivi in the break unable to respond to his attack with 10km to go. Behind Vaitkus with two others was going to be unable to bridge and Red Bull, Petronas, Milka, Lego and 100% Me now leading a charging peleton. Bochmann had a lot left and it was clear the peleton had left it too late as he held on about half a minute ahead of the peleton.
In a confused sprint, Yuki Arashiro was best position of the sprinters and took a strong second with Jelloul also well placed with a 5th place. CJ Sutton actually followed another sprint train, which gave him his best placing of the season with an 7th place. Milka's Columbian sprinter Juan Forora completed the podium.
Red Bull's Jamie Ball was excited at the race's end "It was great to see so many good riders here in South Africa, though even better to see us out fox some of them in that sprint. We took a risk of not really working early, to keep our powder dry to get up there right at the end and it nearly fully paid off. But we are not disappointed a 2nd place is far above expectations."
When asked did local knowledge help Jamie was unsure "Sure I could say a few bits and pieces, like the finale is bendy so it can be a difficult sprint to judge. Possibly the best bit of advice I could give is that some of the little hills hurt and bits like that. But the roads are pretty easy and 100 clicks is not going to be long enough to hurt anyone. I am like everyone really surprised to see a break win, but we saw that in the Capo race with Ben Nasser so it wasn't that surprising"
Red Bull's 8th place man CJ Sutton was feeling a lot better about his form "This was a much easier race, but my top end speed has not been there at all in recent months. Today I felt a lot better and felt strong enough to have a go against the main guys so got on a few wheels. The lead out though wasn't timed that great, which was good for us coz Adil and Yuki had put themselves in a better place. Still top 10 for me is encouraging. Personally I feel stronger than ever and with Adil I think we can maybe push for something in Spain in a couple of weeks time at the stage race there. Two of the stages are sprints there and I think a stage win is a possibility."
Team Boss Moss was ecstatic "Eureka, absolutely fabulous effort from the boys. They pushed so hard in the finale to be in the right place and that they were. The sponsers were unhappy with things at Langkawi as we failled one of the season goals, but things look encouraging for the world's view now. Konstantin is in Spain now for our next one, which I expect some good stage racers in the Vuelta Castille y Leon. JL Augustyn and Yuki will remian here working towards the World's View race before taking a well earned break. Those two have been fantastic."
2nd Yukiya Arashiro
5th Adil Jelloul
7th CJ Sutton
25th Michael Matthews
32nd JL Augustyn
34th Adam Semple
47th Jamie Ball
Eight teams have signed up for this Spanish stage race which this year should suit all rounders. Last year we saw Fran Colarado hold off Alejandro Valverde for the win, the climbing stage is similar this year though contains an earlier climb which will make the chase even more difficult to manage. Santander will do battle with Sport Lisboa once again, whilst UBS and IKEA will be present with strong riders no doubt. Meanwhile Bacardi, Unicredit and ourselves will attempt to surprise.
Our team will be led by Konstantin Suitsou, who is our best all-rounder and mountain climber. He will be aided on the climbs by Kilun and Laverde though we hold no expectations of having to chase much it will be a case of medium level support. Jelloul as ever will be a faithful leiutenent. Chris Sutton knows this race well and will target potential sprint finishes in stage 1 and 5.
Stage 1: 168 km and should be flat enough for a sprint finish at the end. A break will no doubt go away, who will chase it on a day when no one will be in Yellow?
Stage 2: This lengthy TT should give the advantage to top TTers like Larsson, Abal and Kirchen will be here at 28km will create substantial gaps that some of the climbers will struggle to close in subsequent stages. Siutsou, Jelloul and Kilun will aim for a top 10 here.
Stage 3: 156 km fairly flat most of the way winding itself up for a hilltop finish that will be interesting to see as it suits more punchy riders as opposed to the real climbing specialists. The gaps should be small but may prove crucial for the coming queen stage.
Stage 4: 145km queen stage, the peloton will warm up with a climb at 86km before the mountain top finish at the end. A climb of around 20km it may prove difficult this year with the earlier climb bound to leave a few trailing. It will be noted that last year a rider from a breakaway took the win so look for good riders to go early.
Stage 5: A 152 km flat stage which may suit a breakaway as the leaders team will look to protect its leader. Nethertheless there should be a few teams eyeing up a sprint so it may come all together for a gallop at the end.
Konstantin Suitsou
Christopher Sutton
Roman Kilun
Adil Jelloul
Luis Felipe Laverde Jiminez
Carlos Alexander Manarelli
Adam Semple
Bacardi Colt took their second victory in March as Luxembourgs Kim Kirchen a select but quality stage racing field at the Vuelta Castille y Leon. Kirchen won stages 2,3 and 4 which showed off his strength in three disciplines Time Trialling, punchy hill climbs and long mountain climbs. It was a truly deserved comfortable victory with the likes of home talent David Abal (Santander) second and Red Bulls own stage racer Konstantin Siutsou third.
Red Bull had an active race with Siutsou climbing through the rankings to net a podium and sprinter Cj Sutton confirming his feelings of form with a stage win in the last stage dash for the line.
With only 8 teams starting this small Spanish stage race there was always an increased oppurtunity of high placings. But with the likes of Larsson (Ikea) and Perez Sanchez (UBS) here looking for points towards the promotion race getting good results were going to prove difficult.
The opening stage looked an oppurtunity for a sprint, however the small field knowing the difficult days were to come stayed compact until the opening sprint. Then bizarrely the 4 riders who went through the opening sprint decided to go for a breakaway.
Red Bull's CJ Sutton was one of them and he explained "Oscar Guereo got the sprint just ahead of me and we looked around and could see the peleton had really slowed with the wind which was blowing. So with a bit of a climb ahead we decided just to roll on a bit, after the climb the gap had grown and I felt as if we may probably get to the finish with a gap. It was a bit of a strange day with the wind, it didn't seem too bad in some sections then in others it was really tough. When it got tough I decided to go back to the peleton and wait for the sprint. But then we had a hard enough time keeping it all together"
Santader pulled it all back and drived on as Ikea suffered a meltdown with Gustav Larssonb tailled off GC dreams in tatters. Sport Lisboa quiet all day launched a surprise double move and caught everyone off gaurd as Rui Costa took a surprise victory with Mora and Westling unable to make and impact.
Stage 2 saw the TT stage and early on it was the Ikea team setting the benchmark as Larsson predictably set a very difficult benchmark. However Kim Kirchen went significantly faster than Larsson to win the stage, with Santander's Abal giving a good account one second slower than Larsson. Also going well was Unicredits Ortega, UBS Perez Sanchez and Youtube's Niemec. For Red Bull it was a tough day as Siutsou finished 90 seconds down on Kirchen knowing he had to attack in the hills.
This was exactly what Konstantin did on the third stage which ended in a short sharp climb. This was after a day where Red Bull would play the waiting game, young Adam Semple contributed instigating a break. However he struggled to maintain his position and fell back mid stage. This at least relieved the squad from early chase work, but following Semples demise the team worked with Santader and Bacardi to draw in the break and the later attack from the dangerous Valjavec.
In the late hills Siutsou put in a tough burst on the penultimate rise which brough Kirchen and the contenders out to play the tactical finale. No-one could live with the Luxembourger and the last rise, but Siutsou managed to claw back time taking second in the small group that had just distanced the main field by about 40 seconds. This lifted Siutsou firmly into the top 10 with sights set on a possible top 5 place.
The queen stage of the race was the 4th, once again would prove slightly tactical with Santander left to do much of the work with Bacardi as Laverde went on the first big climb of the day. The last climb with the finish on the mountain top was critical for the GC and so this time with lessons learnt from the Tour of Langkawi Siutsou would wait for the big move from Kirchen. The early attacks went with Perez Sanchez, Lasson and Niemec the significant names away. The other contenders stayed cool. With 5km to go this was reeled in and the big move came once again from Kim Kirchen with Siutsou now on his wheel.
Kirchen took the stage win and would be the GC winner, Siutsou nabbed second just ahead of Abal and Perez Sanchez but some distance ahead of other GC rivals Niemec and Ortega. This would leapfrog Siutsou up to 3rd overall, which was a great result for him and the team.
The last stage always looked a sprint as the break was well marshalled by the three teams with the best sprinters Ikea, Santander and Red Bull. In the sprint once again Sport Lisboa tried a sneak attack, Santander's Guereo jumped after them with Red Bulls Sutton and Ikea's Westling in tow. As Guereo faded Cj Sutton took Red Bull's 5th stage win of the season!
This rounded off a really useful stage race for the Red Bull Cycling team and the team boss was rightly proud "After the first two days, I questioned the choice of coming here to Spain. I wanted to get some races here in, before the two important stage races earlier in the year. Konstantin did well in the Volta a Catalunya climbs so I thought here was a chance for him too. However the TT was bit long for him and he really couldn't limit his losses. We still kept going for it and stage 3 was a real turning point and it was very strong day by Konstantin. We learned some lessons from the Genting Highlands and we played it much smarter on the big climb of the queen stage."
On the stage win and other good performances "It gives everyone a real boost when things go to plan, the Sport Lisboa attack on the last stage gave CJ a chance of a win as the Santander sprinter had to go for a long one. When you consider Oscar Guereo won two stages at Langkawi and CJ was nowhere it puts the stage win here into to perspective. I am thrilled for him, I also want to point out a really good performance by Roman Kilun who battled away to a top 10 placing after a good Time Trial."
Red Bull's Adam Semple was in a happy mood following his countryman and teammates stage win "Wow, to be part of a stage win was just great. I am having so many experiences this season and I am really beginning to feel strong enough to compete with these guys. The race well I was bit up and down, the team wanted someone to go in the break on the third stage and I drew the short straw but I did not feel right but yesterday I was better on the climbing stage and today I felt super. Adil Jelloul is the usual lead out sprinter guy but he was pretty tired trying to maintain a GC position so I got to help CJ and he was sensational!"
Red Bull remarkably are maintaining their high team position, however Simon Moss was quick to put down any talks of promotion "It's still too early to talk of that, we saw at Langkawi that we simply do not have the kind of riders to podium in the highest Category. We have the World's View Challenge in the next race and the kind of riders there will underline my point we cannot compete yet with the more experienced teams. Top 10? maybe... we will definately keep battling for that!"
3rd Konstantin Siustou
9th Roman Kilun
25th Adil Jelloul
34th Luis Felipe Laverde
46th Adam Semple
49th Christopher Sutton (Stage win)
52nd Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
Stage win for Christopher Sutton
Tinkoff rider denies craft Cafe du Columbia in the American crit
Aleksei Kunshin, one of Tinkoff's band of developing Russians made the decisive move and timed his sprint perfectly to take the third criterian of the season. In a final selection of 5 riders, Cafe du Columbia had 2 men, though neither had the energy to make their numbers pay. They were accompanied by Kangent of Pearl Adidas and Lobato of Bimbo Nutella who finished second and fouth respectively.
On the longest criterian race and certainly the toughest parcours so far the days racing would prove more tactical than in the past. Several favoured hilly riders struggled to make the expected impact as the days break of 10 riders dominated proceedings. Red Bull's Michael Matthews began the move from the gun.
The young Australian had this to say "The boss was here to watch this one, and the instruction was quite simple. You need to attack! I talked to Adam (Semple) and we decided I would go first and quickly a break stuck. The guys in the break were really well motivated, I think maybe I was too keen and burned myself out a bit. Nabbed a top 10 at the end which I wouldn't have expected before the day began"
Indeed the days breakaway was the place to be and it was clear that the peleton was not going to organised a proper chase the main guns would have to try and bridge. Just 5 riders managed it and one of those Cafe du Columbia's home favourite Danny Simmerhill carried on the attack with just four riders now able to try and pull him back. Breakaway rider Rodriguez also of Cafe du Columbia marked the move, but when the group of five established themselved the team could not make the numbers pay. Kunshin was definately best placed in the sprint and won the stage from a fast finishing Kangert, Rodriguez nabbing third. Michael Matthews stayed on for 8th place, giving Red Bull its first Crit points of the year.
Team Boss Moss was at the race and had this to say "Well we only have one more of these before the end of the year and I don't thing we will be in France to compete in the finale. Adam Semple and Michael Matthews have impressed me with their involvement, they have been putting some of the race skills learnt here into practice in the pro races. This was a fun race to watch, I didn't overload the boys with too much instruction and just watched how it panned out."
8th Michael Matthews
32nd Carlos Manarelli
38th Jianhua Ji
46th Abdelkader Belmokhtar
61st Adam Semple
We finish our races in South Africa with the main goal, it's Worlds View Challenge time. It is pleasing that there are indications of a high quality field here. Our squad is not dissimilar to the Tour Down Under, with Sutton and Arashiro once again for the sprints and Augustyn on the lookout for the overall with help from Hansen, Ball and Matthews. This time Adil Jelloul and Fumi Beppu are here to help and perhaps go on the attack.
This stage race is slightly unique in that there are no hotspot sprints to aim for, the five stages are also relatively short. It certainly is not the sprinters paradise it first may appear to be with numerous hilly sections to make organised sprints very difficult. Last year a breakaway on the second stage gave Dan Martin the chance of an excellent win that he duly took despite the pressure of the last two stages.
Stage 1: Early hills will encourage a break opportunity but the finale is really made for a sprint. We have Arashiro and Sutton here for that.
Stage 2: 131 km and after a mid stage climb there are several short sharp circuits which suited a breakaway last year. Beppu, Ball and Hansen will look to take this chance to get away hopefully
Stage 3: 115 km a little short and whilst there is a bit of a bump near the end should end in a fast sprint.
Stage 4: 133km and certainly a nasty little stage which goes up and down all day. JL Augustyn showed in the Bloemfonatin Classic he can live with the best that will be tested again today.
Stage 5: Should not be as hard as previous day but tired legs will make the last climb and subsequent uphill drag draining. Augustyn is strong enough to deliver a good result will it be a top 5 as set out on our season goal?
John-Lee Augustyn
Yukiya Arashiro
Christopher Sutton
Fumiyaki Beppu
Adam Hansen
Jamie Ball
Adil Jelloul
Michael Matthews
Petronas' Aussie punchaer Simon Gerrans took home a big win for his high flying team in the World's View Challenge. The South African based HC race saw an action packed last two stages which saw numerous hilts at nicking the overall crown. It was stage four's crucial move in in the finale instigated by 100% Me's Chris Froome that gave the decisive gap. Gerrans then won the 3 way sprint between the nationalised Brit and fellow escapee Kessiakoff of Telenor. These three riders would sweep the overall podium despite much action on the last stage to usurp them.
Red Bull's Yuki Arashiro worked hard throughout but unfortunately just missed on a top ten place. He did manage to sneak 3rd on the points classification. Team Boss Moss said 'He could not have asked for more effort from the team'.
The five stage top category stage race began with five flat stages. However Red Bull suffered a bittersweet opening stage, which suffered the disaster of team leader John Lee Augustyn crashing twice on a windy day. This resulted in the South African the best part of five minutes on the whole field. Michael Matthews came home with his leader and explained "JL was on the limit already after his fist crash and then the second time he was on the ground for quite a bit. With the break and peleton nip and tuck there was no way back". However the Japanese duo of Beppu and Arashire contrived to get 4th and 7th on the strange bunch sprint that just failed to reel in breakaway man Ziegler.
With the team leader completely out of the GC picture Red Bull allowed themselves to get in breaks through out. It was Beppu and Arashiro that would prove the men for these! Beppu went on stage two, but the sprinters teams and Yamaha marshalled the breakaway well. Deep in the peleton, Adil Jelloul brought CJ Sutton smoothly up to the front of the pack for a text book lead out. However CJ did not have enough kick to outlast Galdos of Santander, Richeze of UBS or Trusov of Tinkoff. Once again Red Bull had to settle for 4th and 7th.
With the sprints going okay for Red Bull, stage 3 would be more of the same. But once again the teams sprinters Arashiro and Sutton, whilst both in good positions still could not quite make the podium this time only making 6th and 8th respectively. Richeze of UBS taking a stage win and the overall lead.
CJ Sutton was disappointed he could not land at least a podium "The boys did great in getting me in position, but the class of sprinter here is pretty high and I found myself struggling to maintain their kind of top end speed. Would have loved to have given the team a bit more then a couple of top 10's!."
Stage 4, saw the first of the two tough race making stages. Red Bull's Jamie Ball was the man to point out getting in a break might be best. "The last hills climb has narrow roads and it will be difficult getting in position. UBS will be up there, as well every other man and his dog!" So the default team leader Yuki Arashiro went in the big break of the day and found going into the last climb some strength to attack to stay ahead of the bunch almost all the way to the top.
The favourites group formed with 13 riders and Arashiro was still there and actually tried to go with Froome when he made the big attack of the race. Ultimately this proved one attack too far for the Japanese tryer as he faded back along with most of the favourites group to finish with the now swelled again bunch.
Team Boss Moss felt Arashiro gave simply everything here "Yuki was awesome on this day, making and driving the break, attacking at the right moment to make the favourites group. We saw Froome going and communicated to Yuki if you have anything go with this. We knew it was the moment, but unsurprisingly Yuki had nothing. But still great ride."
Stage five was the last chance saloon, and the big guns well and truly went to play. Once again though Arashiro got in the early break by design, Red Bull were trying something different. With 20km to go it seemed to be working out okay with a reasonable gap back. Bit with the finale on a slight incline the favourites started to attack each other. Schumacher of UBS in particular makiing a big impact, though Petronas managed to get Gerrans up with the German by the finish.
Confusion reigned in the finale with no time gaps given, which was frustrating to some teams whilst good for others. Red Bull benefitted slightly!
Moss reacted sombrely to this "Not really happy with what happend on the last stage regarding the timing. Its the second time its happend in South Africa, and it reeks of unprofessionalism."
Regarding the race in general "I guess we snatched medicrity from the jaws of disaster. Augustyn's crashes on the opening day wrecked plan A, though it may have been tough to make it in the decisive moment for him. Yuki fought like a trojan for the rest of the race and deserved a top 10. So close to a podium on a number of days and if Yuki could have just made that big moment... maybe we would have satisfied our south African sponsers."
The teams failure to make quite as big an impact as hoped in the World's View Challenge will lead to a review of policy.
11th Yukiya Arashiro (3rd points Classification)
21st Adam Hanson
23rd Jamie Ball
92nd Adil Jelloul
98th JL Augustyn
103rd Fumi Beppu
117th CJ Sutton
137th Michael Matthews
Red Bull's two stage race leaders Siutsou and Augustyn are having their mid season break. They will return for the Philedelphia International, before preparing for their big stage race targets in the last third of the season.
In the meantime the squad have taken in two stage races in Malaysia and Japan. Columbians Rodas and Parra led the team in those races respectively for the big climbs that were there.
In Malaysia the sixth stage climb of the Genting Highland proved the decisive moment with Rodas making the front group. He also avoided a crash on a crash marred final day to finish in the top 10. Red Bull's sprinters CJ Sutton and Ahmed Haider Anauwar came close to a stage win on a number of occasions both managing to podium once each.
In Japan, Red Bull had an active race with team leader Parra losing time on the opening stage home hero Arashiro and Adam Hansen took the GC baton. Both performed admirably nabbing 7th and 5th places finishing ahead of a number of useful stage racers. Two stages marked out a highly successful race for the team victory in the TTT and a fantastic second place for Hansen on stage six securing his 5th place on GC.
Jelajah Malaysia
8th Julian Rodas
15th Kin-San Wu
41st Ahmed Haider Anauwar (2nd on stage 3)
51st Adam Semple
71st Fumi Beppu
89th CJ Sutton (3rd on stage 1)
104th Michael Matthews
Tour of Japan Victory in Team Time Trial
5th Adam Hansen (3rd on points, 2nd on stage 6)
7th Yuki Arashiro
16th Roman Kilun (2nd on last stage)
24th Fumi Beppu
25th Edwin Parra Bustamante
32nd Scott Zwizanski
41st Adil Jelloul
Red Bull Cycling snatched their 7th and 8th stage wins of the season in the mountainous Vuelta a Columbia stage race. Veteren Venezualan Climber Jose Chacon is pictured here after victory in one of the toughest stages of the race.
Victor Hugo Orozco win a close sprint on stage 11 to take a victory in his home tour also, as Edwin Parra Bustamante finished the highes Columbian on General Classification by the end of the 15 stage race.
Team Boss Moss was happy enough with the performance in South America but pointed out that his team still strived for greater consistency.
"We started off pretty badly in Columbia actually the first two road stages were horrible, clearly once again some of the climbers were not ready for the intesity of the race. I am not going to mention names but after a serious word we came back as well as we could to register some excellent results."
In Philedelphia the team battled hard against some of the world's finest punchaers but ultimately John Lee Augustyn could only manage 14th, slightly worse then his Bloemfontain classic performance. Again it was a mixed reaction for the team manager.
"It's okay, but not great and we are beginning to fade into the background a bit. The guys though are on a bit of a mid season break and we hope to come back hard for the big two stage races on the Iberian peninsula. Konstantin will go to Portugal and John Lee will go to Burgos, both will aim for a top 10 place in those ones."
"Following that there will be some low key races, but we shall begin to prepare for next year. Some new sponsers have registered some interest and whilst Red Bull wish to continue as the main sponser we could certainly do with expanding our portfolio of backers."
Columbia:
5th Edwin Parra Bustamante
12th Jose Chacon
16th Victor Orozco
18th Luis Laverde
35th Jianhua Ji
36th Julian Rodas
56th Carlos Manarelli
Philedelphia:
17th JL Augustyn
27th Konstantin Siutsou
49th Adam Hansen
64th Scott Zwizanski
76th Roman Kilun
86th Luis Laverde
101st Yuki Arashiro
125th Michael Matthews
The teams mid season break continues and the preperations for next season have begun in earnest. Jayco and Dodge have been added as sponsers of the team, it has also been decided that the team shall be riding Scott bikes.
As a prelude to this new venture the new Jayco-Red Bull package are sponsering an U23 squad out of Australia and New Zealand. The jersey above kindly designed by michiucf will be worn.
The riders:
Damian Drapac - a 23 year old sprinter from Australia
James Williamson - a 22 year old rouler from New Zealand
Stephen Vicelich - a 23 year old Time Trial specialist
Casey Munro - a decent 23 year old climber
Shane O'Neill - an attacking rider from New Zealand
Thimothey Roe - an decent all round attacking rider from Australia
The main objective of the squad is to look for qualification to the Tour de l'Avenir which is something both Michael Matthews and Adam Semple from the senior squad are hoping to ride in.
Matthews was looking forward to watching the riders in action "A number of us are looking to go to the U23 races to cheer the guys on, Damian is quick and has certainly handed me a few spankings from time to time."
Team Boss Moss was also looking forward to seeing the team in action. "We are giving Scott Zwizanski and Adam Hansen the chance to be the DS's in these ones, I am going to be on Commentary duty for the Tour. I have high hopes though, these Aussies are really getting their big shot and should look at this as an oppurtunity to show they can win races."
"Jayco are really keen to promote a professional cycling team and I think we have found them a good fit with the team ethic of uniting some underpresented areas of our team. There will need to be compromises which shall be announced in the coming months. We have a new jersey for next year ready for sale"
