So ... This race had six stages that ended in downhill or flat finishes after several difficult hills. One was won by a breakaway, one by a late attack from a favorite and the other FOUR by Guillaume Martin. He really established himself as the best finisher among the top pucheurs and climbers, even after a scary crash on stage 4 – not least thanks to fantastic lead-outs by an equally quick Jesús Herrada, who was absolutely vital. It’s no coincidence that the two stages in which Guillaume didn’t win the bunch sprint were those in which Jesús fell behind and wasn’t there to guide him.

Despite losing some time on the sole mountain stage, the bonus seconds were enough to vault him to another podium finish, the third in a row – all three stage races were won by Geraint Thomas, who’s having a fantastic season so far. Of course, with four stage wins also comes the points jersey, which is another nice addition.

Guillaume’s season now pauses until he starts his Tour de France preparation. Jesús Herrada takes over as the leader in the Basque Country and the Ardennes. But there’re also a couple of cobblestone classics in between all of that …

I indentified this race early in the year as one that we could do well in. Laporte is decent over cobblestones and I knew that if we’d get him to the line, he’d easily be among the fastest riders. And that’s how it turned out. After a terrific lead-out by Vanbilsen, Laporte held off a late charge by our good friend Giacomo Nizzolo to take our first classics win of the season.

Our first race without a final Top 10. Laporte wasn’t positioned well enough in one or two key spots so he lost too much energy to keep up to the end.

I had hoped for a bit more and as you can see, Laporte was very close to more. Part of this was that Laporte was alone in this group, so a stronger cobblestone team will be a goal for the future.

A couple of good results on French terrain, always good for the image in our home country. Consonni continues to shine, although the competition wasn't very stiff.

In a very weird race that got blown up super early without any team really in control, Dimitri Claeys made the right moves and held on in the end to a strong fifth place, making the most of a pretty weak field.

Claeys put in way too much effort to stay with the first group for as long as he could and paid the price. He was overtaken by a lot of riders on his way to an ultimately disappointing finish. MVDP made my prophecy come true at the earliest possible date and celebrates his second monument of his career.

Again a less than ideal performance by Claeys. A bit frustrating that Piet Allegaert, who was in better shape for De Ronde and showed some promise but was ultimately hindered by his subpar abilities on the hills did not have as good a day this time. But he’ll be someone we can hopefully rely on as we improve this part of our roster in the future.

Another pretty successful race for us. Jesús Herrada finished in the Top 10 in every stage but the opening time trial, which limited his chances in the GC, but a strong performance on the only uphill finish on stage 5 brought him into the Top 10. He also won a stage and the points jersey! Both stages 2 and 3, while classified as flat, had a pretty steep finish.

Anthony Perez was very active in breakaways in pursuit of the mountain jersey. He got to wear it for three days and even came close to a stage win when the breakaway succeeded on day 4, but on the final stage, he lost it again to, to be honest, just superior riders. Still, his effort was much appreciated, not least by our sponsors.

Wow! Another phenomenal performance by a puncheur of ours, again it’s Jesús Herrada who almost takes it all but way exceeds expectations! Helped very much by José Herrada, who pulled him over the mur and delivered him in great position for the final sprint to the line, and even held on to finish 12th himself!

Herrada pulls off his second Top 5 finish of the week! Without help in the final climb this time, he managed to find Valverde’s wheel and clang onto it all the way. Alaphilippe is two thirds to the treble crown of the Ardennes, his compatriot Cosnefroy has the best day of his career.

Both Herrada and Alaphilippe were caught in a crash with about 60 kilometers to go and had no impact on the result. Instead, Alejandro Valverde made the most out of this opportunity while Anthony Perez, the rider designated with the lead role after a few others including José Herrera and Nathan Haas were sent back to assist Jesús Herrada, didn’t. But it’s only a small downer on what was otherwise a great week.

Viviani is showing some great pre-Giro form, Sabatini as well. And Marco Mathis makes his first appearance of note with a good time trialing performance.