Well suddenly here we are, with the first two Grand Tours behind us. The team, lead by Vincenzo Nibali in both races, was very successful and I couldn't be happier with our performance. In short, Nibali has found his form that made him a GT contender in the past, and with a strong team behind him was able to take 4th at the Giro and 2nd at the Vuelta! It would have been a podium in both races, but a lapse in focus on stage 2 caused Vincenzo to lose 1'30 after being caught behind a split in the finale.
At the Giro, the team raced aggressively and we featured a rider in several breakaways. Chritophe Riblon came painfully close to a stage win in the mountains on Stage 8, but was caught by the favorites in the final kilometer to finish 3rd. This day also saw him take the King of the Mountains jersey, which he held for almost a week after, ultimately finishing 3rd in the competition. Johann Tschopp also saw success in a breakaway, taking 4th on a stage. Maximiliano Richeze was noticeably absent in most of the sprints, but when he did contest the sprints he was in the middle of the top-10. And of course, Nibali finished 4th in the GC and featured prominently in the mountain stages.
Vincenzo Nibali sprints for the final podium spot at the summit of the Zoncolon on Stage 20 of the Giro d'Italia.
Perhaps in the background of the Giro d'Italia was the Tour of California, although it was an excellent race for us. To start off, youngster Sebastien Reichenbach displayed his class by taking the King of the Mountains jersey for a day via a breakaway on Stage 2. When last we spoke, I said that we would be looking for our first win of the season. While it didn't come in the Giro, I was thrilled when Thomas Frei got this out of the way by winning the prestigious Big Bear Lake stage from a breakaway! For the GC, Matthias Frank was given the leadership role in the absence of our Captains, and he finished a respectable 22nd. I'm ecstatic with how our Swiss riders stepped up and performed while our foreign stars were absent.
Thomas Frei wins the Big Bear Lake stage of the Tour of California from a breakaway, UBS - BMC's first stage win of the season.
The Vuelta a Espana was perhaps our most successful race of the season, with Vincenzo Nibali displaying impressive form to finish 2nd overall (fractions of a second ahead of Contador) after obtaining several top stage results, including a couple stage podiums. UBS -BMC veteran Michael Albasini also had a huge performance on Stage 7 where he won the hilly stage from a breakaway, much to my and the team's delight. Once again, we brought Maximiliano Richeze for the sprints, but he could only manage 2 top tens, while not contesting several of the sprints finishes. I've talked with him, and we both are hoping he can find some form before the end of the year.
Michael Albasini wins from a breakaway on Stage 7 of the Vuelta a Espana to grab UBS - BMC's first Grand Tour stage win of the season.
And we can't forget the Strade Appia Antica. Danilo Wyss headed our fledgling cobbles department once again, and finished 50th, while the climb in the middle of the course admittedly did not suit him.
Now our eyes are on the Tour de Suisse and the Criterium du Dauphine. The sponsors have targeted the Tour de Suisse as it is one of our home races, and we are expected to achieve a Top-10. We've sent superstar Andrei Amador to lead the team, so I would expect a lot more than a Top-10 from this one. Our team is oriented towards the team time trial, which I think will be crucial, so I unfortunately couldn't send most of our Swiss climbers. Andrei will have strong support from Matthias Frank, however. As for the Dauphine, the team will be lead by UBS - BMC veterans Michael Albasini and Christophe Riblon, and we will be looking for stage wins.
Hopefully I'll be able to bring another update before the Tour de France, so I'll see you then!
It's been an eventful couple of weeks for the team in France and Switzerland, and probably our most successful weeks of the season. Andrei Amador grabbed his first wins of the season, and the first general classification win for UBS - BMC, at no other race than the Tour de Suisse!
I'll start with the Criterium du Dauphine though. The team was lead by Michael Albasini and Christophe Riblon, who finished 26th and 43rd respectively, which is about what we could have expected in the absence of our superstars. Our biggest highlight here was first year UBS - BMC rider Ivan Santaromita making his mark by winning the Queen stage in the high mountains and securing the King of the Mountains jersey in the process. This was a huge result considering our ambitions, and I'm thrilled that our lesser known guys came through in the absence of our usual leaders.
Running concurrently with the Dauphine was our home race, and a race we had been eyeing since early in the year, the Tour de Suisse. Our ambition here was to place Andrei Amador in the top-10, but with an impressive performance from the team, we ended up winning the race!
Andrei started with an inconspicuous result in the prologue, placing him just outside the top-10. The race immediately went to the mountains the next day, and the team came out in dominant fashion, with Andrei taking the stage win, and home favorite Matthias Frank taking 3rd on the climb, the Serfaupass. This put Andrei in the leader's jersey, which we defended the next day, but surrendered to Edvald Boasson Hagen in the hilly stage 4. Andrei then looked for time bonuses in the sprints on stages 5 and 6, where he took 5th and 2nd respectively in the bunch gallops. In the TTT on stage 7, the team rode well considering the competition, only conceding 43 seconds to the winners. We came back to the high mountains on stage 8 and once again, Andrei displayed his strength by outsprinting an elite group on the climb to Arosa to take the stage win, with Matthias Frank holding onto the group to take 10th on the day. This put Andrei in 2nd by 1 second, which was made up on the final stage, stage 9, when Andrei powered away on the final climb to put over 30 seconds into all of the favorites to take the overall win! Matthias Frank also ended up finishing in a very respectable 11th overall.
Andrei Amador storms to finish line in Arosa to claim victory on stage 8 of the Tour de Suisse, on his way to winning the general classification.
Next on the calendar is, of course, the Tour de France. Andrei Amador will lead the team while Vincenzo Nibali takes a break from racing after his Giro-Vuelta bid. We're sending a balanced and versatile squad, with support in the mountains as well as the flats, with an eye for the TTT. In the mountains, Andrei will have Frenchman Christophe Riblon as his main lieutenant, with support from Johann Tschopp and Thomas Frei. Both Christophe and Johann supported Andrei in the Tour last year where he finished 6th, so their ability and experience is invaluable. Thomas Frei earned his spot by getting our first win of the season in the mountains of California. For support on the flat roads and the TTT, we are sending Rafaâ Chtioui, Dimitri Champion, and Florian Stalder. We're also sending youngsters Silvan Dillier and Johan Le Bon. Silvan will be useful in the TTT, and Johan will be a domestique in the mountains, while both will be primarily gaining experience for their progression. Here is the final Tour de France Squad:
Andrei Amador Christophe Riblon Dimitri Champion Johan Le Bon Johann Tschopp Thomas Frei Florian Stalder Silvan Dillier Rafaâ Chtioui
See you at the Tour!Edited by Bushwackers on 28-06-2013 04:16
Well the Tour de France is officially over, and I can report that we've had a successful race. We went into the race with high hopes for Andrei Amador as a podium contender, and he finished not far off in 6th after a bit of bad luck.
Early on in the race, Christophe Riblon, who was supposed to be Andrei's main mountain support, crashed hard. With help from the team doctor, he was able to keep going, but the injury continued to bother him for the next several days. This left Andrei isolated in the early mountain stages, but Andrei is a true champion and was able to look after himself and not lose any ground. We also lost Silvan Dillier and Dimitri Champion, who were time cut on Stage 5, Florian Stalder, who crashed hard on Stage 11 and could not finish Stage 12 due to his injuries, and Rafaâ Chtioui, who was time cut on Stage 13.
With a half functional team, we went into Stage 15 with Andrei sitting exactly where we wanted him, in 4th. Unfortunately, a massive crash in the finale took out all of our remaining riders, and Andrei lost almost 6 minutes, dropping him down to 9th. It was Andrei's 2nd crash of the race, and I guess we're all lucky he wasn't seriously injured in either. The rest of the Tour was playing catch-up in the mountains and making back the lost ground. We were successful in this, and Andrei pulled enough time out on all the riders that were close enough to pass in the GC, and he ended the race in 6th overall, equaling his result from last year.
So I guess I can't be disappointed. 4th overall would have been nice, but in the end 6th is a great result. We also walked away with two Stage podiums, two Stage top-5's, and a few other top-10's, all from Andrei, and we featured riders in breakaways 4 times.
Andrei Amador is nipped in the sprint to the finish atop the Col du Minier by Aleksander Pluchkin on Stage 8.
So the Tour is over, but our season is certainly not. Next up is the Tour of Norway, where Stefan Schumacher will continue his preparation for his home race, the Deutschland Tour. Andrei Amador will lead the team at the Vuelta a Colombia and we hope he can hold his Tour de France form and finish the season strong. Vincenzo Nibali will also make his return since racing the Vuelta at the GP Liechtenstein as preparation for the Giro di Lombardia. Finally at the flat one-day races, we will have Maximiliano Richeze contesting the sprints if it comes down to it.
I'm confident that the team can finish the season with a bang, but I'll see you all at the races!
I couldn't be happier to announce that Matthias Frank has won the Tour of Norway! This is huge time for the team and the sponsors, and it is a major breakthrough for our project's goal of bringing Swiss cycling to the forefront of the professional peleton. Not only was this our second ever World Tour GC win, but it also the first Swiss general classification win since 2011. The atmosphere around the team is one of elation and morale is at a season high.
We started the race with Stefan Schumacher as the leader, and after the first two hilly stages he was sitting in 5th. It became apparent that the stages were not decisive enough for Stefan to distance the competitors, so we took a gamble on the last day and sent Matthias, who was sitting only around a minute back, up the road in the break of the day. The breakaway stayed away and Matthias took 3rd on the stage, but with the time gaps moved into 1st on the GC. Stefan was bumped back to 8th, but we all couldn't be happier with taking the win.
Matthias Frank on the podium in his first ever GC win after Stage 8 of the Tour of Norway.
Stay in touch as there will be more updates while the season winds down!Edited by Bushwackers on 10-09-2013 00:52
It's been a great month here. After two hard weeks of racing in Colombia, Andrei Amador has come away with the biggest win of the UBS - BMC project's history. We were also able to grab the points jersey, as well as two stage wins along the way. This is one is huge, and I'm thrilled with everyone's performance. It's a great show of the progress that the team has made as we are finally putting everything together to become a force within the ProTour. I have big plans for the future, seeing as things are winding down, but I'll address that later.
The team rode exceptionally well, keeping Andrei safe and controlling the race, and this is perhaps the best race we've ever had. On top of Andrei's stage wins, Maximiliano Richeze took a podium and a top ten in two sprint finishes. I'd especially like to recognize Matthias Frank, who placed in the 20's overall even after shepherding Andrei through the mountains.
Andrei Amador wins the mountain top sprint on Stage 7 of the Vuelta a Colombia to take his first of two stage wins on his way to claiming the overall title.
Aside from Colombia, we also had a great result in the GP Liechtenstein with Vincenzo Nibali, who placed 4th overall in a stacked field. Vincenzo stuck with the biggest names until the final climb, but just barely lost out on a podium placing on what's probably the hardest one day race on the calendar.
Transfer News
Shifting gears a bit, let's talk about the transfer season. I'm glad I can say that all riders on the team will be resigned. Everyone has made their own contribution to our success, and in my eyes everyone here has earned a spot on the roster. Going into transfers, I can say that the team will most likely remain exactly the same, with only Edoardo Girardi leaving as he will be returned to Cisco Cycling in exchange for Patrick Schelling to conclude our loan deal.
That being said, there are a number of riders who I have transfer listed, including Stefan, Nibali, and Richeze. This is because our sponsors consider signing Swiss riders to be our priority. All offers will be considered for these riders, but they will most likely remain with the team.
Transfer Listed:
Stefan Schumacher
Vincenzo Nibali
Maximiliano Richeze
Christophe Riblon
Johan Le Bon
Dimitri Champion
Rafaâ Chtioui
Chu Thien Sinelobov
As for new riders, I have several on my list. All are Swiss and I've had my eye on them for a while, so they will be the focus of the coming transfer season. There are also a few youngsters that I'd like to bring into the professional ranks to develop for the future. I'll be reaching out to the managers of the other teams as the transfer season approaches.Edited by Bushwackers on 09-02-2014 23:17
cio93 wrote:
Le Bon might be becoming of interest later on, but I guess someone else is definitely going to go for him earlier.
Schumacher would be great, but that'd just be another old leader.
Good to hear you are going for Swiss riders considering we have the current NC
Oh do you? I hadn't noticed
The transfer listed guys aren't guys I'm actively looking to get rid of, but they're the guys that I'm taking offers for. I'm pretty content if the team stays the same, but I also can afford to do some restructuring, especially around the bigger names.
Well that's the year. It was a great one, and while I don't like to see it come to a close, I'm eagerly looking forward to the transfer season. There's been a few races since my last update, so I'll just give a brief overview of how we performed there.
Stefan Schumacher was 10th overall in his home race, the Deutschland Tour, after grabbing several top-10's along the way. Not bad considering the climbing was a bit out of his range. Stefan also took 3rd in the points competition, while our youngster Sebastien Reichenbach was 2nd in the KoM competition.
Stefan then went on to have one of his best races of the year at the Tour of Northern Europe, where he nearly missed to stage wins on the way to securing third overall. He finished his season at the Tour of Tasmania, taking 9th overall.
As we all know, the season ended at the Giro di Lombardia. We had Vincenzo Nibali representing us, and he managed to just crack the top-10 in a tough field.
So that's how it ended. Overall, I consider it a massive success and by far our best season yet. We accomplished 4/5 of our sponsor's initial goals, and finished 6th overall (just barely missing the top-5 in the final race). Here is an overview of goals.
Goals
Win
Tour of Romandie - 12th, Amador
Top 10
Il Giro d'Italia-4th, Nibali
Top 10
Liege - Bastogne - Liege-4th, Schumacher
Top 10
Tour de Suisse-1st, Amador
Top 10
ProTour Team Rankings-6th
With the backing of new sponsor Swisscom, 2014 is set to be a big year. I have big plans for the transfer season, and there will likely be several major changes in the team lineup. While I can't comment on any free agent targets, I will release a list of riders currently signed to other teams that our sponsors have insisted we make an effort to sign. There's no real surprises here, this is just to serve as a heads up to the rider's managers that we will be in contact when the transfer window opens.
We'll certainly have talks about Schwab, he's a great rider for his wage, but we need to become younger and get some money in to compensate the salary cap fee.
Pure money might be preferred from my side, but again, Le Bon sounds interesting for a swap, so we'll see what deal would be the best for both sides.
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