As a start we have focused on hills and avoiding cobbles while we have also decided to take a chance by going to Tour of America where Anacona will get the chance to shine.
We are also very happy to once again have a very international calendar.
Tour of America for Anacona is a very interesting gamble considering that he his the top climber in CT, but there are a lot better than him in PCT. Have to wait and see on whether it pays off or not.
Not sure on the ToA Ancona decision Atlantius, it ain't the most mountainous race and there are plenty of TT kilometres. I would have thought 2 or 3 c2 stage races would have been a better bet for the tops in the CT mountains. You may prove me wrong though!
I already expect Anacona to struggle in C2 races to be honest.
So sending him to stronger competition in ToA might make it very difficult for you to score in those 21 race days. Wouldn`t be surprised to see him quite outside of top10 there.
Huge gamble, which I like though and I hope I am wrong with him.
Sometimes a bit of a gamble is needed for the fun of it. Really felt like going to ToA and didn't particuarly feel like sending a crap team so this is how it ended up. As for the TT's only one id flat-rates. The others are hilly and mountanous so they shouldn't be as much a disadvantage as ordinary TT's.
Really it was a choice between ToA and Middle East. Middle East was terrible for us last year - even by Live Nation standards - so my gut feeling made me decide not to make that a priority. Will be exiting to see what the startlist looks like though.
Would've have sent Anacona to ToA if I were you. I think he'd score better with a C2-only strategy. Nonetheless, a podium is definitely possible at the least in ToA. Unfortunately for you Berhane is going...
I was hoping Augustyn would be in for a podium, but it is becoming very unlikely now.
As a new thing this year the season kicks of with continental championships and we've had several riders in action.
The European B Road Race was where we had our main focus as well as biggets hopes as this is where the Finnish team came in action.
Since only one of the riders isn't on contract with us they all got to ride in a version of our Finnish NC-jersey
Jukka was kept near the front and as awake towards the end even though Pliushkin was just too strong for everyone. In the end Vastaranta finished third getting him and us a spot in the A-race as well.
The ITT's were as unempressive as expected for both Khalifa and the Mexicans.
Essa did solidly in the Asian road race as he finished in the first big group includin the 15th place finisher and his captain. He is turning into a very solid helper and we look forward to having him come back to the team in August.
In the American road race Bernardo found his way into the early break only to just disappear and not even feature in the final results list.
We did see a very strong effort from both Winner and Ignacio though so some good signs from our riders nonetheless.
The European A race became largely uneventful as Jukka was still a bit tired after the B race compared to the other riders in here so he didn't have that last bit to make a real kick for it and with some disappointing support he missed it when the peloton cracked in half as well.
— DeLaval - Kiitokori (@Atlantius_PCM) June 6, 2015
Just wanted to share a few images of all the boys gathered for a training trip before the season kicks of for real. Obviously TT-champions were encouraged to use their NC-jerseys for this since they won't get as many chances to really show it throughout the year.
The CT season kicked of with a hard hilly classic in Cuba where we had brought our strongest line-up dedicated to getting Jukka a good start on our team.
He was kept near the front and when people started moving so did he.
Specifically he tried following Rabon but couldn't quite match him on the uphill sector.
That cost him a bit in the final sprint, but it was good to see him try nontheless.
4 riders on points-giving positions is reason for optimism as well.
We had low expectations going into this race and yet somehow the riders found a way to disappoint.
The only good thing to say is that they generally stayed togther. The bad thing about that is that it meant that every single of our riders were caught behind when the peloton cracked.
Just not good enough. There we next to no chance of beating the B World Champion but it would have been nice to at least had given it a go.
As it appears Matt won't grant us the top spots of his preview it's time to sum up how different people rank us.
Let's just say that considering that only 3-4 of our rider wasn't part of the team that finished dead last in last season people have quite high expectations of us.
Can DeLaval – Kiitokori go from bottom in the rankings to the very top? Well, we don't think so, not quite, but we certainly think they are shoe-ins for automatic promotion. Want to finish high up the rankings in the CT division? - Then get the top climber! That is exactly what DeLaval – Kiitokori have done in acquiring Anacona, who we predict will win the CT individual rankings at a cake walk. Last season there was Rodrigues, Arroyo and Iglinskiy - this season Anacona looks a class apart from the other climbers in the division. Rodrigues, almost single-handedly, enabled Siam Cement to move into automatic promotion last season with more than 50% of his team's points.
However, DeLaval – Kiitokori are not just Anacona. In Vastaranta they have, arguably, an improved version of Geshcke (4th in the CT rankings last season) who will be a force to be reckoned with in any hilly/flat stage - despite an increase in quality of hilly quick-men in the CT division. With the likes of Sørenson and Samoilev looking like great options for stage races, the fact they won't really score in cobbled races or pan-flat sprints doesn't matter. Surely 2nd place is the minimum for DeLaval – Kiitokori.
Having collected the prize of being the worst Man-Game Team last season Atlantius will be hoping and expecting better things this time round. The team that was woeful last season has learnt a thing or two and become one of the better teams in the division on paper. They have the CT's strongest climber in Colombian Anacona but whether or not he will be a winner this season is yet to be seen, along with Dane CAS they should fight hard for victory in the mountains. Anacona could dominate the whole division but then again he may not. When they acquired Vastaranta for a wage of only 60k they must have thought they were dreaming because he also could conquer the whole CT with his ability to climb hills and sprint, there is no doubt he will be a great leader. Pökälä and Renäng (have fun with those names) should be a useful TT duo especially the first one who's hill stat could help him bring in the points. This team on paper should really be able to promote but race selections are vital so we will only know at the end of the season, either way, anything less than a Top 10 would be bitterly disappointing.
The Good: Extremely competent climbing team, a manager that should be applauded with a bold move for Anacona which balances the books. Snapping up a Red Bull alumni helps and Samoilev is a another decent guy if a bit of a whiffy wage, which Smowz must take the blame. Vastaranta and Sorenson are great climbers and Pokala has plenty for the time tests. I feel manager has scraped of the best of what he had as Live Nation and made a startling improvement. Rivals Compal for a real turnaround.
The Bad: Still that faint air of LiveNation utter cruddyness hang over the team a bit. Best climber in CT can be a bit of a curse too - Anacona has that heavy mantle to hang over his small frame.
The Ugly: This team feels like those South American climbing teams last year so you feel as if it could well be promotion success for deLaval. This marks a real leap frog from Atlantius, pleased for the guy actually he is a great asset to the game on a reporting side I think.
(...) Though it has to be said that Vastaranta was one of the bargains of transfers, and will serve DeLaval very well.
Stage Races
1
DeLaval - Kiitokori
:
Anacona
Samoilev
Colex
A lot of attention rightfully goes to Anacona for DeLaval but Samoilev could also prove an important signing as while many pure climbers hit CT this year, the amount of true all rounders is fewer (...)
Sprinter
17
DeLaval - Kiitokori
Time Trials
4
DeLaval - Kiitokori
:
Pökälä
Samoilev
Renäng
(...) Pökälä, Bauer and AramendÃa could make important contributions to their team too (...)
Northern Classics
17
DeLaval - Kiitokori
Climber
2
DeLaval - Kiitokori
:
Anacona
Sørensen
Samoilev
There's no doubting the strength of Indosat's pure climbing unit of Atapuma and Signorini, even if DeLaval's Anacona is the better rider (...)
All in all we are flattered that people expect us to finish that high, but we are also humble after last season and doubt it will go down quite as easy as some of these previews suggest...
Every month we'll give you some cow related music to play while reading the newsletter.
We'll start with an old track from Denmarks arguably biggest rock band D-A-D recorded back when they called their genre cow-punk.
Alternate/updated version:
Spoiler
Loaned-Out Riders
Olli Kulppi, Evonik – ELKO
Olli spent January in Australia.
First he rode Down Under Classic where he finished inside the peloton after helping Boonen to an 8th place behind team mate Dzamastagic, who took the win from a late attack.
In Tour Down Under he was appointed helper of Geschke in stead of boonen to boost his hill-skills. Nothing much came of the early stages though so later on they tried with attacking. No attacks from Olli though.
On the final stage Olli showed his beautiful attacking spirit by going into the early break, which lasted just long enough to only get passed by a few of the sprinters finishing as best Evonik rider on the stage.
Olli's Results
Race
Result
Team
HC
Down Under Classic
-
111th
WIN + 8th
C1
Tour Down Under
GC
134th
32nd
Tour Down Under
St. 1
135th
29th
Tour Down Under
St. 2
101st
22nd
Tour Down Under
St. 3
85th
26th
Tour Down Under
St. 4
116th
3rd
Tour Down Under
St. 5
117th
27th
Tour Down Under
St. 6
12th
34th
Philip Lindau, Swedbank – PEAB
Philip started his season in Tour Down Under, where he did some solid work helping from the start of stages and getting rewarded by several good stage results for the team as well as a nice GC podium.
Philip's Results
Race
Result
Team
C1
Tour Down Under
GC
115th
2nd
Tour Down Under
St. 1
76th
3rd
Tour Down Under
St. 2
66th
2nd
Tour Down Under
St. 3
75th
11th
Tour Down Under
St. 4
113th
2nd
Tour Down Under
St. 5
115th
11th
Tour Down Under
St. 6
73rd
6th
Gökhan Hasta, Red Bull – Huawei
Hasta started his season in China for the hard hilly classic around Badaling, where he should support Skujins in the start of his campaign to continue his good last season on the highest level.
In the end the race was far too tough for him and being one of the first Red Bull riders put to work he was also one of the first to crack. A solid 10th from his leader though.
Gökhan's Results
Race
Result
Team
PT
Badaling International
-
161st
10th
Paavo Paajanen, Vesuvio - Accumalux
Paavo also started his season in China. Since he is much more fond of hills and rode in support of two potential winners in Fränk Schleck and Gastauer we had high hopes for him and his team.
With a 4th to the aging legend it didn't go too bad even though Gastauer on 18th is less than expected from him.
Paavo's Results
Race
Result
Team
PT
Badaling International
-
111th
4th
Bull of the Month
The Bull of the Month award will each month be handed out to the most valuable and/or impressive rider from the last month.
This month only one rider made himself noticed so there's not much to discuss really:
Jukka Vastaranta
Not the biggest result but a nice attacking spirit and the only Delaval - Kiitokori rider to be mentioned for something else than getting dropped.
Good read You still need to earn your keep for getting Top 3 in the rankings, but the season has just begun and you'll never know what lies ahead. Good luck in Benelux with Vastaranta
Class previews, great read. Not the best start for you but certainly solid, and the pretty steep hill finish wasn't ideal so overall not bad at all for Jukka.
Badaling International
