At the moment we are back home in the Netherlands, but on the other side of the earth the next race has already started:

The first half of the Tour Down Under is over. It was a great race for us so far!
Our line-up was headed by our three Australians. Because Matthews won the NC a week ago the DS decided that he would be the leader in the sprints for now. The opposition really wasn't that strong this year, I think no real top sprinter participated in the race.
So the chances for a nice result were quite good for our team.


Stage 1

Giving the leadership role to Matthews worked out very well. He knew how to use this chance and sprinted to a nice victory in stage one.

Matthews already getting his second win of the season

The second stage featured more hills and even finished on a short uphill finish, but Michael again showed his full potential. Only Xavier Florencio was a little stronger than him that day and took the stage win in front of Matthews.

Stage 3

The third stage was a real sprint stage again. Our team worked hard to not let any breakaway group get through. Coming into the last kilometre our train proved to be the strongest yet again. Matthews took another stage win and Renshaw was even able to stay in second place.

Matthews is on fire

Michael just has a great run at the moment - he will certainly be a world class sprinter in only a few years time I think. Hopefully the team can continue this kind of racing in the next days. This is really a good thing for the whole team, because we don't have to race with the pressure of finally getting this first season win soon in the next few weeks.

The next stages will be very interesting, especially the one to Willunga hill. It's an uphill finish again, but a lot harder than the one on stage 2 and it will be exciting to see, if Matthews is able to keep up with the best there.

Bye for now
- Steven -

Here is the second part of the report from the Tour Down Under:

Stage 4

Another flat stage and we again organized a mass sprint. Matthews got a great lead-out from Brown and, as the last-man, Renshaw again. He was able to bring home another win - it looks like Matthews is doing it the Greipel-way in Down Under, but we are the last to complain.

Matthews seems unbeatable at the moment

This was the deciding stage for the overall classification. We worked hard to keep everything together until the final „climb“. It was the first day that Matthews didn't feel too got from the start.

Heading into the last kilometres Matthews was very well positioned near the front, but in the sprint on the last few hundred metres he lost quite a few places. Three riders on the front were sadly able to create a small time gap.

...

There was still a small chance for Matthews to get the overall win, if he wins the stage and gets at least two bonus seconds at one of the two intermediate sprints.
After missing out on the first sprint our team worked hard to catch the break before the second sprint, but they didn't make it, because the plan was also not to waste all the energy before the final.
The break was caught eventually and it came down to a mass sprint again.
Guess what - Matthews put aside all the dissapointment of not winning the overall and took his fouth stage win!

Well great race for the team. The season could not have started much better, although Matthews is still a little dissapointed to miss the GC win by two seconds. But he already announced to be back next year and fight for the overall again. A great sportsman.

We will soon leave for another training camp on Mallorca, which will directly be followed by my first race - the Vuelta a Mallorca. I will try to get in shape there and probably assist Co-captain Luis Leon Sanchez.

Bye for now
- Steven -

So this is it - my first race of the year. Luis Leon Sanchez will be the team leader in the Vuelta a Mallorca. The stages suit his abilities most and his form is already pretty good as he is preparing for Paris-Nice. Also Matthews will be here as our main sprinter. Our goal for this race is to achieve a top 3 in the GC or at least a stage win. The first two stages were flat so they weren't too exciting except for the final kilometres. Here's the report:

Our team of course participated in the chase of the escapees today, because the most succesful rider of the season was part of our line up. Matthews had to jump a little from wheel to wheel as we did not build an own sprint train, but it all worked out for him anyways. He took another nice win - this time even against a few good sprinters.

Matthews continues his run in Mallorca

Stage 2

The second stage also ended in a mass sprint. This time Matthews picked the wrong wheel to follow and sadly wasn't even able to reach the top 10, because he was boxed in. Tyler Farrar won the stage.

Farrar wins stage two in a mass sprint

We already achieved half of the team's goals in the first stage, now we are all focused on helping Sanchez to get a good result in the over all. I hope to get in a break in one of the next two stages, but that will depend on the team's strategy.

Bye for now
- Steven -