We were quite disappointed here. Ulissi tried his best, but other riders were just better. Puccio did an amazing attack and he was a deserved winner. None of our pre-race goals were done.
Team goals for this race: (Clasica Iberica)
Top 3
✘
Three riders in the top 25
✘
Personal goals:
Diego Ulissi
Top 3
✘
Mateusz Nowaczek
Top 10
✘
Diego Ochoa
Top 25
✘
Daniele Dall'Oste
Top 25
✘
Komisarek did his job really well. Top 10 was just "I hope so" goal. And he finished 7th.
Team goals for this race: (Clasica di Tirreno - Adriatico)
Top 10
✔
Personal goals:
Patryk Komisarek
Top 10
✔
Ulissi did not have a good month so far. This time an unlucky 13 for him. Nowaczek again overperforming as he was 5th!
Team goals for this race: (Roma Maxima)
Top 5
✔
Two riders in the top 25
✔
Personal goals:
Diego Ulissi
Top 5
✘
Mateusz Nowaczek
Top 20
✔
Ever Rivera
Top 30
✘
Vuelta a Tachira - Well... We didn't expect anything, and we didn't get anything. Only positive about this race is Ever Rivera being in the breakaway three times during the race. Giro d'Italia doesn't look to good now.
This race always was really fun to watch. This time we had not only Ulissi but also Chamorro. Expectations were high... And it was an okay race. Alafaci and Ochoa surprisingly in the top 10 on one stage. Ochoa was also unlucky because he could have had a great top 10 place at the end, but we all know what happened on stage 6.
Team goals for this race: (Paris - Nice)
Two riders in the top 8 of final general classification
✔
Personal goals:
Juan Chamorro
Top 8 in final general classification
✔
Top 3 on stage 5
✘
Diego Ulissi
Top 5 in final general classification
✔
Top 10 on four stages
✘
Mateusz Nowaczek
Top 15 on three stages
✘
Diego Ochoa
Top 25 in final general classification
✘
Oh man... How great this race could have been. Ulissi tried his best for a stage win and it was really close as he managed to be 2nd twice. Nowaczek also showed his class. A bit disappointment as Komisarek was only once 10th.
Team goals for this race: (Istrian Spring Trophy)
Three riders in the top 15 of final general classification
Our first race this month is also our first goal race, the Tour of South Africa. We take the three CT GTs very seriously and are bringing strong teams to all of them. Defending champion Fuglsang, Poels and Schorn will be leading in South Africa. The course offers five flat stages, more than the other two, and Schorn might survive the hilly stages in the top group, too. Nominally he's the fastest sprinter in the field, maybe he has a chance to win the points jersey. On paper Fuglsang and Poels share the GC podium with Henao, so we're hopeful this will be a successful goal race.
Team Tour of Africa: Fuglsang, Poels, Schorn, Monsalve, Bertilsson, Lowsley-Williams, Bibby
__________________________________________________________________
Next are the Three Days of De Panne with Stannard and Dowsett. Sadly, there are only a few cobbled sectors in this race, on the first stage, and we fear they might not have enough impact for Stannard to profit. The specialists will have to work together to make the race hard. In case we see three mass sprints we'd still have the chance to secure a top 10 in the GC with a good result from Dowsett in the ITT.
Team Three Day of De Panne: Stannard, Dowsett, Van der Sande, Bertilsson, Van Winden, Christian, Birch
__________________________________________________________________
Four days after the Tour of South Africa Fuglsang will have hopefully recuperated for a real climbing feast, the Giro del Trentino. A short ITT, then a tough hilly stage which pretty much ends on a mountaintop followed by three proper mountaintop finishes. We might as well declare the winner in advance, it'll be Fabio Aru, the only world class climber in the race. Behind Aru, there is a strong field of equally adept riders with Fuglsang in the mix.
Team Giro del Trentino: Fuglsang, Denilf, Monsalve, Lowsley-Williams, Simon, Bibby, Minguez.
__________________________________________________________________
The Rheden GP suits Stannard perfectly, with a fair amount of cobbled sectors and undulating terrain without brutal climbs. With the climbing squad in Trentino he has the best help we can offer him for such a race and are hoping for a top 10 result.
Team Rheden GP: Stannard, Van der Sande, Bertilsson, Van Winden, Christian, Birch, McCluskey
__________________________________________________________________
Geraint Thomas is skipping the 4 Jours de Dunkerque, giving mere mortals a chance at a win. Stage 4 is bound to decide the GC, will the puncheurs or the cobblestone specialists prevail? We hope it'll be Stannard. The other four stages are flat and for that reason we're bringing along Schorn.
Team 4 Jours de Dunkerque: Stannard, Schorn, Van der Sande, Van Winden, Christian, Birch, McCluskey
Edited by Ripley on 19-02-2018 20:03
It seems it might be really fun race. Komisarek is one of the best sprinters in the startlist, he also have decent TT ability. Top 8 in the final GC would be awesome. Also as it's a flat race... Bodnar, there is your chance!
Our team for this race:
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
ST
RS
RC
Age
Patryk Komisarek
74,7
74
68
72
70
71
72
76
75
74
70
71
25
Paweł Poljański
74,4
72
66
74
68
69
68
68
72
74
68
71
28
Maciej Bodnar
73,8
73
65
68
75
75
69
67
68
69
69
74
33
Eugenio Alafaci
71,6
70
64
68
63
66
65
73
73
70
66
67
28
Adrian Tekliński
71,5
71
65
67
64
67
64
73
72
70
67
69
29
Kacper Frąckowiak
67,9
62
69
66
60
58
56
57
64
65
60
64
24
Tomasz Brzeziński
66,5
66
56
59
58
64
58
68
67
64
64
65
21
Team goals for this race:
Top 5 on all stages
???
Two riders in the top 10 of final general classification
???
Personal goals:
Patryk Komisarek
Top 5 on three stages
???
Top 8 in final general classification
???
Maciej Bodnar
Top 5 on the ITT stage
???
Top 10 in final general classification
???
Giro del Trentino
04.16 - 04.20
Our first main goal this season. And we will be going full craziness! Chamorro, Anacona, Morton, Ochoa, Dall'Oste, Silin... Is there anything I have to add?
Our team for this race:
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
ST
RS
RC
Age
Juan Chamorro
76,3
70
78
75
70
67
61
64
71
71
66
72
27
Winner Anacona
75,5
69
77
75
67
65
58
61
73
70
68
72
30
Lachlan Morton
75,0
73
75
73
72
72
60
61
72
71
68
74
26
Diego Ochoa
74,6
69
75
74
65
63
59
63
71
71
66
72
25
Daniele Dall'Oste
74,4
69
75
73
65
65
59
65
73
71
67
71
27
Egor Silin
74,4
69
74
73
72
71
57
64
71
73
68
73
30
Konrad Tomaszewski
69,2
66
70
67
62
59
58
61
67
67
63
66
27
Team goals for this race:
Stage win
???
Two riders in the top 10 of final general classification
???
Five riders in the top 25 of final general classification
???
Personal goals:
Juan Chamorro
Top 3 of final general classification
???
Winner Anacona
Top 8 of final general classification
???
Lachlan Morton
Top 25 of final general classification
???
Diego Ochoa
Top 25 of final general classification
???
Daniele Dall'Oste
Top 25 of final general classification
???
Amstel Gold Race
04.23
We start the Ardennes in the "Beer Race"! Who wants some Amstel? As Diego is our only hope, we would really like to see him doing top 15 in all of those classics.
March has been largely focused on one man's performances: Carlso Betancur. Liberty Seguros' new signing got into full swing this month, racing Strade Bianche, Roma Maxima and Vuelta a Tachira as the captain of the squad.
The premier hill World Cup race Strade Bianche, just a few years of age but already an instant classic and fan favourite, saw Warren Barguil of Allianz take the win. Bananito just came 7th, fairly below expectations and with a first set-back in the universal goal of a solid World Cup performance.
The answer to his performance came the next day. On the road to Rome, none of the prime puncheurs in attendance could distance the peloton significantly. In fact, in the last 10 kilometers it was increasingly looking like a race for sprinters, decided between the likes of Sagan and Van Poppel. Stage entry, La Ronca. With a sharp acceleration, Betancur put seconds between him and the peloton within a few hundred meters. In the bunch, the teams looked at each other and partly confused, parlty determined to catch La Ronca. The Colombian however clearly won Roma Maxima with a nice gap, adding another Classic to his palmaeres.
The focus on La Ronca continued to be center stage. In the 10 day race Vuelta a Tachira, Betancur took the win on the first day and kept the leader's jersey to a large part until stage 10. With numerous podiums and a great stage win on day 5, La Ronca finished the race 3rd. On the penultimate day, Betancur lost heavily time to Quintana and Bardet. Thanks to the support Alex Domont however, Betancur saved his podium spot. With a guy performance on the last day, Betancur showed that his will was still unbroken and that he is motivated to win all the more. His next goal will be the Ardennes classics.
Besides this great races for Liberty Seguros, there were also a host of WT classics going on. In Omloop, the team secured a 8th and 9th spot by Tony Gallopin and Sander Cordeel. A nice surprise that we gladly take. The other two pavéd classics saw none of our riders inside the Top 25. The same applies to Milano-San Remo, the first monument of the season, which was won by Sagan.
Overall the team is still on a good course and looking forward to the upcoming weeks and the first Grand Tour of the year.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
With no Degenkolb starting for us, which turned out to be a major blunder. GVA could only manage 12th place as the race came down to a reduced bunch sprint. Only Honigh was able to hang on to the front group otherwise.
1
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
Filliers - Mora Pro Cycling Team
4h24'21
12
Greg Van Avermaet
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
32
Nino Honigh
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
61
Johannes Windischbauer
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 4'13
63
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
68
Phil Bauhaus
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
96
Julien Vermote
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 6'26
97
Lutz Berg
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
Clasica di Tirreno - Adriatico
Another race which we were hoping to be selective turned into a reduced bunch sprint. We could manage 19th as our best result with Bauhaus.
1
Zdenek Stybar
Sugoi - Xanterra
5h16'46
19
Phil Bauhaus
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
23
Greg Van Avermaet
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
27
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
64
Emil Ritter
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 1'43
114
Johannes Windischbauer
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 3'59
139
Julien Vermote
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
155
Klaus Gießner
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 11'49
Strade Bianche
Intxausti suffered in a race we were hoping would suit him. Brambilla tried to make up for it but he just isn't strong enough to compete with the best. A very disappointing result for us.
1
Warren Barguil
Allianz - BMW Cycling Team
5h22'10
36
Gianluca Brambilla
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 4'53
95
Beñat Intxausti
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 7'30
110
Jeroen Meijers
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 9'26
136
Julien Vermote
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 15'07
138
Martin Jansen
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 15'17
144
Martin Springer
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 25'27
146
Jürgen Reuter
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 26'40
Roma Maxima
By this time we were hoping against hope for a turnaround in fortunes but we couldn't catch a break! Our best in this race was a lowly 44th place from GVA which was light-years away from our expectations. We were starting to get very worried about our season at this point.
1
Carlos Betancur
Liberty Seguros
4h19'56
44
Greg Van Avermaet
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
71
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
89
Johannes Windischbauer
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
118
Phil Bauhaus
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 5'32
124
Nikias Arndt
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 6'05
158
Klaus Gießner
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 14'13
161
Emil Ritter
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 17'54
Vuelta a Tachira
Intxausti started the race well, staying with the top GC contenders till stage 4, and in 11th place. He lost 5 minutes on stage 5 but recovered on stage 6 to still stay inside the top 20. He recovered some more ground after stage 7. Disaster struck on stage 8 as he was involved in a crash with Rolland. He was clearly injured, losing 19 minutes on the stage! There would be no recovery on the last two stages. We came away with a near zero score from this race. Last place in the team standings accentuated our performance here!
1
Nairo Quintana
Grupo Argos - Quala
28h18'20
56
Beñat Intxausti
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 51'05
81
Martin Jansen
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 1h11'50
83
Hans-Georg Nentwich
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 1h12'40
115
Carl Ilsanker
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 1h47'00
116
Martin Springer
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 1h49'10
118
Denis Kathmann
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 1h51'20
119
Jürgen Reuter
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 1h54'37
Milan - San Remo
We had kept our options open regarding how this race would pan out. If it turned into a reduced bunch sprint, Degenkolb was our go to guy. If it turned into a puncher race, GVA would be the guy to lead us. The race developed into the former and Degenkolb delivered 4th place in the first monument of the year. GVA was a little disappointing.
1
Peter Sagan
CarbonSports Cycling - Lightweight
7h06'37
4
John Degenkolb
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
49
Greg Van Avermaet
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
73
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
85
Martin Jansen
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
125
Julien Vermote
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 4'03
138
Nikias Arndt
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 6'23
159
Hans-Georg Nentwich
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 9'01
Dwars door Vlaanderen
GVA continued his supremacy in this race, remaining the only ever winner by claiming the win and giving us a much needed boost. Too bad the points won't count for the WT standings which didn't make for pretty reading at the moment.
1
Greg Van Avermaet
Lufthansa Racing Team
4h18'55
30
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 3'22
56
Nino Honigh
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
80
Emil Ritter
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 6'15
98
Johannes Windischbauer
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 8'01
111
Lutz Berg
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 9'01
124
Julian Runge
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 10'46
E3 Prijs Harelbeke
Our first Target Race of the year came around with the team under tremendous pressure. Our Northern Classics squad replied in great fashion. We picked up a top 5 and a top 10 to pick up some much needed WT points and relieve some of the pressure on the team.
1
Peter Sagan
CarbonSports Cycling - Lightweight
4h47'11
5
John Degenkolb
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
9
Greg Van Avermaet
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
63
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 9'37
87
Johannes Windischbauer
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
96
Nino Honigh
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 12'43
111
Lutz Berg
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 15'10
135
Denis Kathmann
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 20'31
Gent - Wevelgem
Another race where we had to keep Degenkolb because of other sprinter duties. As it would turn out, the race was selective with a small group of cobbles specialists and sprinters reaching the line together. GVA suffered a rare bad day on the cobbles, missing the decisive moves and finishing way down in 40th place!
Denifl made his debut for our team in the Clasica Iberia, riding in tandem with Poels we were hoping for a top 10 result. However, both of them missed the decisive move and sadly made no effort later to bridge the gap. Instead, as a team we were just pulling the remains of the peloton and were outsprinted by a few more riders. Four of our men actually finished 12th to 15th, Christian was 18th and together they scored just about as many points as a podium finish, so it was quite a successful race, after all, and a good team performance.
Clasica Iberica
12
Van Winden
2'53
13
Simon
s.t.
14
Denifl
s.t.
15
Poels
s.t.
18
Christian
s.t.
38
McCluskey
s.t.
52
Birch
4'03
A few days later Fuglsang started his first race in our jersey in Paris-Nice and what a brilliant start it was. He rode an excellent prologue, ahead of many better time trialists and was only beaten by Rui Costa. Stage 5 was the queen stage and once again Fulgsang excelled. He came 2nd once again, this time behind Berhane, but it was enough to slip into the leader's jersey by 6 seconds.
His team mates worked tirelessly to control the final three stages and so Fuglsang wins Paris-Nice ahead of Berhane and Ulissi. Tosh van der Sande was the sprinter in this race, he doesn't have the speed of Schorn and many rivals but surprised with several good results, including a 2nd place on stage 4, narrowly beaten by Vangennechten. Sadly, he crashed on the final stage and couldn't finish the race.
Paris-Nice
1
Fuglsang
29h35'19
13
Monsalve
3'31
19
Bibby
5'13
24
Denifl
6'35
47
Lowsley-Willams
14'56
82
Van Winden
27'13
Van der Sande
DNF
Thankfully, Van der Sande's injuries were minor and he could start the Istrian Spring Trophy. We have to report a poor performance in this race. Valgren and Denifl lost valuable time on stage 2, preventing a better result. Valgren finished 25th overall, Denilf 33rd, Dowsett 38th.
Istrian Spring Trophy
25
Valgren
1'13
33
Denifl
1'18
38
Dowsett
2'15
70
Birch
2'21
85
Van der Sande
2'23
104
Bibby
2'26
110
Minguez
2'28
In contrast, the Dwaars door Vlaanderen was a positive surprise. The last of our leaders, Ian “Yogi” Stannard, started his season with an excellent 8th place in a race with top competition. The decisive split seemed to happen on the Paterberg with 30 km to go and Stannard was left behind. But together with Thomas and Dibben he managed to catch the top group again 6 km from the finish line. He was utterly exhausted, had nothing left for the final sprint, but was very happy nonetheless.
Dwaars door Vlaanderen
8
Stannard
s.t.
46
Valgren
3'22
55
Christian
s.t.
68
Van Winden
6'15
100
Simon
8'01
121
Lowsley-Willams
10'46
By mistake we had booked the København Byrundtur on the same day and could only send a reduced squad to Denmark. We correctly bet on a mass sprint and Van der Sande did well to come 17th.
København Byrundtur
17
Van der Sande
s.t.
37
Bertilsson
s.t.
46
Birch
s.t.
76
McCluskey
4'32
85
Minguez
s.t.
Fuglsang was leading the team again in the Criterium International. In an odd mass sprint on stage 1 Dowsett surprised with a 5th place. Our specialist rode his best time trial so far a day later, finishing 4th. Fuglsang couldn't quite match his P-N performance and lost time to Herklotz. On the queen stage he once more showed he is one of the best climbers in the CT, once again ending 2nd only behind Berhane, but Herklotz finished right behind him and thus wins the race 12 seconds ahead of Fuglsang. While he enjoyed strong support from the team we would have liked to have seen one of our climbers join the breakaway of the day and compete for the mountain classification, but that remains a problem, in three months we've still only been able to place one man in the early breakaway.
Criterium International
2
Fuglsang
0'12
29
Monsalve
6'36
34
Minguez
6'58
44
Denifl
9'40
56
Simon
11'59
79
Lowsley-Willams
14'32
129
Dowsett
26'09
Summary: We couldn't be happier! Fuglsang has proven to be a great CT captain, immediately winning Paris-Nice for our team and following it up with a 2nd place in the Criterium International. Stannard, too, rode brilliantly in his first race. Our puncheurs aren't quite up there with the best and we have trouble joining the early breakaways, but those are minor complaints. After all, we have now collected 1366 prestige points, which ranks us 4th in the CT and 12th overall in the ICL.
Our season goal was clear: we wanted to win at least one Monument, and it became two. Not just any two, we achieved the Ronde - Roubaix double with Guillaume Van Keirsbulck winning both races. There's not a lot of riders who can say that. There's even no rider who has ever did the Omloop-Ronde-Roubaix triple, showing how consistent Guillaume has been from the start till the end of the cobbles.
Both races had the same story, Filliers - Mora pushing hard at the front, the best cobblers attack and Guillaume finishes it in the sprint. The team was there to support him and his sprint training made sure Vanmarcke and Senechal couldn't pass him at the line.
May is a pretty quiet month for us. We signed up for the University of Lincoln GP, a World Tour race near our headquarters, where we just want to show our colours. Five of our British riders will attend, but we didn't nominate Stannard despite some cobblestones, Valgren is our only realistic chance of scoring a prestige point or two. Though we have to point out Bertilsson, too, he is a previous winner of this race, back in 2015!
AVG
FL
M
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
DH
FT
ST
RS
RC
Valgren
75.6
73
68
75
71
71
71
71
72
71
73
76
69
71
Dowsett
74.7
73
64
71
76
76
64
67
71
69
67
75
70
70
Van der Sande
73.4
72
66
70
66
68
66
74
76
74
68
73
70
71
Bertilsson
72.6
74
65
70
66
67
70
73
73
74
71
72
70
70
Christian
71.6
72
62
69
67
68
72
70
73
71
69
71
68
69
Birch
69.7
72
64
68
63
67
65
70
70
71
65
71
68
69
McCluskey
68.9
69
64
67
66
69
68
67
68
74
68
71
69
69
Our only stage race of the month is the Tour of California. Despite several flat stages we aren't taking any sprinter to the USA and are concentrating on Fuglsang's GC ambitions and possibly a breakaway or two. The course should suit Fuglsang, the aim is a spot on the podium behind Herklotz and Henao, though expectations are slightly dampened by his performances last month.
AVG
FL
M
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
DH
FT
ST
RS
RC
Fuglsang
77.3
71
77
77
73
73
63
61
72
74
72
73
72
74
Valgren
75.6
73
68
75
71
71
71
71
72
71
73
76
69
71
Denifl
74.1
69
71
75
68
67
62
67
69
66
73
72
66
71
Monsalve
73.9
69
76
72
66
65
59
66
72
69
70
70
66
70
Bibby
72.1
69
72
73
67
67
66
69
70
70
69
69
66
66
Christian
71.6
72
62
69
67
68
72
70
73
71
69
71
68
69
McCluskey
68.9
69
64
67
66
69
68
67
68
74
68
71
69
69
We finish the month with the Copenhagen-Malmo ITT. Probably the shortest startlist of the year, just 36 riders will turn up. We'd be happy if Dowsett could break into the top 10, which even on paper looks difficult.
We selected the Tour of South Africa as a goal race which made the CT GT even more important. Sadly, it didn't go quite as well as expected. After the first mountain stage Fuglsang were 3rd and 4th in the GC, but that would change on the decisive stages. Poels suffered an untimely puncture on stage 7, just after the peloton had picked up speed for the finale, and lost a lot of time. Fuglsang was suffering a stomach bug and was faring little better – in small groups the other climbers left him behind and he even had trouble following the wheels of his team mates. He still could have made it back onto the podium, but stage 8 was only marginally better, Poels set him up beautifully and dropped a few rivals, but others were stronger than the Danish champion. The ITT went just as badly, Fuglsang was only 23rd and lost more time, nearly relinquishing his 5th place in the GC.
Schorn also struggled in the mass sprints. Against the manager's advice the team kept forming a slow sprint train for him, Schorn would surely have done better following the wheel of an opponent. At least the final stage ended in celebration as Schorn managed to win the last mass sprint after those disappointments earlier.
Poels, unlike Fuglsang, had a great ITT on the penultimate stage, he was 4th, and jumped from 18th to 12th overall. Hopefully taken altogether it means that this goal race wasn't a complete bust.
Tour of South Africa
5
Fuglsang
11'11
12
Poels
16'59
23
Lowsley-Willams
22'20
28
Monsalve
25'44
33
Bibby
29'51
44
Schorn
37'35
58
Bertilsson
53'12
The first stage of the Driesdaasge De Panne seemed to set us up for another slight disappointment. The few cobblestone sectors weren't enough to prevent a mass sprint, Stannard's skills seemed to be wasted. Van der Sande sprinted solidly into the top 10 three stages in a row. Dowsett was our hope for the final ITT, but he had an off day and was only 12th. However, Stannard rode a brilliant time trial, he was 4th, which was enough to finish 5th overall. Van Winden also impressed, he was only a second slower than Dowsett, and the duo ended 13th and 14th overall, making this a successful race.
Driedaagse De Panne
5
Stannard
0'13
13
Dowsett
0'29
14
Van Winden
0'30
30
Van der Sande
0'54
45
Bertilsson
2'39
64
Christian
5'45
72
Birch
8'09
Fuglsang only managed to come 12th overall in the Giro del Trentino. The competition was tough, other teams had more depth and Fuglsang never found the punch to follow the decisive attacks. We got some TV time from riders in breakaways, first Lowsley-Willliams, then Simon twice, who picked up a few prestige points with his 7th place in the KoM ranking.
Giro del Trentino
12
Fuglsang
8'26
27
Monsalve
13'21
58
Simon
23'31
62
Lowsley-Willams
24'47
68
Minguez
27'34
74
Bibby
29'36
76
Denifl
31'19
Ian Stannard was the most active rider in the Rheden GP. He launched two serious attacks, but as a group his competitors caught up to him again and in the end he couldn't follow Cancellara and Lavery. But we're very happy with his 3rd place, Van Winden also had a great day and finished 9th.
Rheden GP
3
Stannard
0'26
9
Van Winden
1'21
18
Christian
s.t.
28
Bertilsson
5'35
37
Van der Sande
7'06
39
McCluskey
s.t.
57
Birch
8'13
Schorn ended the Tour of South Africa with a stage win – and started the 4 Jours de Dunkerque with his next victory. He even added another stage to his palmares two days later, his 5th win of the season.
Most experts expected that the general classification would be decided on the difficult and partly cobbled stage 4. However, the specialists held back. With 15 km to go the peloton was still 76 riders strong and included Schorn as well as race leader Siskevicius and other riders even less suited for cobblestones, including Amel Božić (COB 59), who had the energy for a late attack and finished ahead of the peloton.
Schorn dropped to 4th after that stage, but climbed back to 2nd in the final GC. Our team worked hard on the final stage in the crosswinds to drop the trio that had escaped on the previous day. Schorn was 5th on the final stage, he ends 2nd overall and wins the points classification.
Another fantastic result for our team, though we are a little sad about Stannard's behaviour. With Thomas skipping the race and Cancellara losing a lot of time early on he was the top favourite for overall victory but refused to attack on stage 4.
4 Jours de Dunkerque
2
Schorn
0'10
11
Van der Sande
0'30
28
Stannard
2'08
41
Van Winden
3'33
48
Birch
3'40
50
Christian
s.t.
102
McCluskey
15'58
Summary: Fuglsang's star shone bright in March but dimmed somewhat in April with two sub-par performances. Stannard jumped into the limelight with two strong performances in De Panne and the Rheden GP, though he then disappointed in Dunkerque. But thankfully we also have Schorn, who had his best performance so far and is currently our best rider in the prestige ranking with 589 points. As a team we climbed another place up to 3rd in the continental ranking and two places to 10th in the prestige ranking, more than we even dared to imagine when we created the team.
April has always been a month about one thing for us: The Ardennes. With a history of one Amstel win (Purito 2014) - three wins at Fleche Wallone (Purito from 2014 to 2016) and two wins at La Doyenne (Contador 2014 and 2017), the team is proud to look back at being a premier contestant for the wins.
Amstel:
1
2
3
2014
Joaquím Rodríguez
Peter Sagan
Philippe Gilbert
2015
Philippe Gilbert
Carlos Betancur
Joaquím Rodríguez
2016
Vincenzo Nibali
Philippe Gilbert
Robert Kiserlovski
2017
Carlos Betancur
Philippe Gilbert
Michał Kwiatkowski
La Fleche Wallone:
1
2
3
2014
Joaquím Rodríguez
Nairo Quintana
Daniel Martin
2015
Joaquím Rodríguez
Sergio Henao
Philippe Gilbert
2016
Joaquím Rodríguez
Philippe Gilbert
Jelle Vanendert
2017
Philippe Gilbert
Carlos Betancur
Daniel Martin
Liege - Bastogne Liege:
1
2
3
2014
Alberto Contador
Alejandro Valverde
Daniel Martin
2015
Philippe Gilbert
Carlos Betancur
Sergio Henao
2016
Bauke Mollema
Joaquím Rodríguez
Rui Costa
2017
Alberto Contador
Bauke Mollema
Philippe Gilbert
Our new signing Carlos Betancur is no stranger to the Ardennes either. As the previous winner of Amstel Gold Race, the Ardennes have been a number one priority in this season's schedule.
Leading up to the Ardennes campaign however, we first had to face our most dreaded part of the season. In the cobble monuments, there was next to to nothing to gain for Liberty Seguros, although Roberto Romero Martinez showed some of his talent by making a Top 25 placing in Paris-Roubaix.
In the Giro del Trentino, Liberty Seguros was the defending team after Benat Intxausti took a win last year, backed up by the strong team time trial performance.
This year, a solo time trial opened up the race and after stage 2, Rubèn Fernandez was doing well enough behind Fabio Aru. Alongside later GC winner Aru and Patrick Konrad from Austria, Fernandez escaped over the mountains in Trentino and put in a huge time gap between him and other GC riders. This daring escape guaranted a spot on the podium early on, since stage 4 saw no time gaps despite a grueling mountain finish and stage 5 saw Fernandze in top shape again, securing 2nd overall.
Coming into the decisive week, Trofeo Campania saw Victor Campanerts take a surprising 3rd place for Liberty Seguros. With a 9th place of Dmitriy Gruzdev, the team scored some additional and unexpected points. Race winner Tom Dumoulin was +21 seconds faster than our belgian TT champion.
Lastly, the Ardennes were around the corner. Fleche Wallone was our target race but we hoped to do well in all three. Liberty Seguros started off motivated with Alvaro Cuadros in the break of the day on the way to the Cauberg. This allowed to relinquish Liberty Seguros of chasing duties. When Barguil and Bardet attacked however, we wern't decisive enough in the pursuit of them. Betancur suffering from some bad positioning, lost the connection to the attacking riders in the main bunch, and finished outside the Top 10. However Alvaro Cuadros, last year's winner of the Tour de l'Avenir, hang onto the leading duo of Bardet and Barguil and snatched a 6th place.
With two classic win at Strade Bianche and Amstel Gold Race, Warren Barguil was also the favourite for Fleche Wallone. He showed it's not for nothing, as he claimed another win. However, Betancur came back from his underwhelming performance at Amstel, and was aggressively in pursuit of the win. Betancur was part of an early attack leading up to the Mur alongside Barguil, Bardet and Yates. With enough confidence, Betancur lead them into the Muur de Huy but in the decisive gradients, he made room for the others. With a strong late kick, Bananito tried to still get on the podium, but 4th was the best he could come up with. Still, it was a welcome sign after the classic results so far.
The fourth monument of the season and conclusion to the Ardennes campaign was naturally Liege - Bastogne - Liege, which Alberto Contador won last year for us. Michal Kwiatkowski, somewhat performing far below the expectations this season of several managers, signaled that he was ready to fight for the win with a daring solo attack from 30k out. Carlos Betancur, also eager to make up for the missing podium spots so far, saw an opportunitiy and joined later on Kwiatek. The ride up to the Pole cost him a lot of valuable energy and Bananito surely could have done well with some additional help. Over the final 15 kilometers, Bananito instead left Kwiatek to himself and pushed over the hills around Liège. Up to the 5 kilometer banner and going into Liège, Bananito was caught however by a selective group of favourites, including three riders of Grupo Argos, Moreno Moser of Willier, Daniel Martin of Peugeot as well as previous winners Bauke Mollema and Alberto Contador, now riding for Betancur's old time CarbonSports. Luckily for Bananito, none of the favourites dared to push too hard, worrying that they would lose valuable energy for the final sprint. This allowed La Ronca to recover in time to deliver a glaring and impressive sprint to the finish line, claiming his biggest win of his career and the third win of La Doyenne for Liberty Seguros.
Coming out of the month of April, Liberty Seguros ranks 2nd in the World Tour Rankings and 3rd in the Prestige Rankings. With Jesus Herrada about to enter racing in May and the first Grand Tour - the Giro d'Italia - coming up, the rankings are about to be reshuffled. Our leader at the Giro will be Rubèn Fernandez, whilst our goal is to gain some points by being in breakaways and fighting for stage wins.
April started off much better than March with Van Avermaet claiming 6th place in this weird and wonderful profile.
1
Pieter Serry
Filliers - Mora Pro Cycling Team
6h10'57
6
Greg Van Avermaet
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 1'12
23
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 4'03
44
Nino Honigh
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 5'20
61
Julian Runge
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 8'22
98
Johannes Windischbauer
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 13'57
116
Lutz Berg
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 25'06
117
Emil Ritter
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 25'52
Ronde van Vlaanderen
Our cobbles delivered the goods in a big way in this legendary race. A top 5, two more top tens and a top 25 meant that this was our best team performance so far.
1
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
Filliers - Mora Pro Cycling Team
5h53'53
4
John Degenkolb
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 1'03
8
Greg Van Avermaet
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 4'43
10
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 5'53
24
Nino Honigh
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 8'46
34
Nikias Arndt
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 10'47
71
Julien Vermote
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 15'24
123
Lutz Berg
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 26'16
Ster ZLM Tour
Our best stage race of the season courtesy of Degenkolb. Two stage podiums and a top 5 in the GC made for a successful race.
1
Arnaud Demare
Team Alitalia
21h45'14
5
John Degenkolb
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 23
79
Julien Vermote
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 17'10
92
Nino Honigh
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 18'14
93
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 18'29
130
Hans-Georg Nentwich
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 38'48
132
Emil Ritter
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 43'47
135
Lutz Berg
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 53'01
Paris - Roubaix
Our second goal race of the year. Van Avermaet did a great job to finish in the top 5 of this race. We were expecting Degenkolb to be up there as well, in what should've been a repeat of our performance in de Ronde. But he could only manage 17th.
1
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
Filliers - Mora Pro Cycling Team
5h46'38
4
Greg Van Avermaet
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 1'35
17
John Degenkolb
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 9'52
39
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 12'50
64
Nikias Arndt
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 18'07
83
Nino Honigh
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 22'15
88
Lutz Berg
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 26'42
Rheden GP
Youngster Honigh got his first chance to lead the team in the CT.2 races. He would miss the decisive move, finishing in the 3rd group and in 16th place.
1
Philip Lavery
An Post
4h36'15
16
Nino Honigh
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 1'21
34
Emil Ritter
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 5'35
79
Klaus Gießner
Lufthansa Racing Team
+13'21
82
Lutz Berg
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
88
Johannes Windischbauer
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 15'28
99
Carl Ilsanker
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 19'23
Trofeo Campania
This was a write-off as we didn't send any of our better Time-trialists here.
1
Tom Dumoulin
TVM Cycling Team
59'22
51
Julian Runge
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 3'38
53
Martin Springer
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 3'46
55
Carl Ilsanker
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 4'02
Amstel Gold Race
We have given up on expecting good results in the hills. This race did not improve on that feeling.
1
Warren Barguil
Allianz - BMW Cycling Team
6h27'25
37
Greg Van Avermaet
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 4'05
50
Heiner Parra
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
51
John Degenkolb
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
73
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 5'04
121
Jeroen Meijers
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 12'02
125
Julien Vermote
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 15'13
141
Hans-Georg Nentwich
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 31'18
4 Jours Dunkerque
Another chance for Honigh to lead a race, this time a stage race. We got nothing to show for from this race other than a 7th in the KOM classification.
1
Evaldas Siskevicius
Santos - Euskadi
20h02'22
78
Johannes Windischbauer
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 8'42
91
Nino Honigh
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 13'45
96
Klaus Gießner
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 14'46
107
Carl Ilsanker
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 18'27
116
Emil Ritter
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 22'07
117
Lutz Berg
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 23'05
121
Martin Springer
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 23'57
La Fleche Wallone
Slightly better result in the hills but nothing to write home about.
1
Warren Barguil
Allianz - BMW Cycling Team
4h49'50
19
Greg Van Avermaet
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 1'38
103
Heiner Parra
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 8'17
108
Matthias Frank
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
115
Jeroen Meijers
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
123
Hans-Georg Nentwich
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 10'08
127
Julien Vermote
Lufthansa Racing Team
s.t.
139
Jürgen Reuter
Lufthansa Racing Team
+ 16'23
Liege - Bastogne - Liege
more of the same in the hills, gotta get someone in next season! Frank our best finisher this time. Our team leader finished in 135th position!
VDK was an okay race. Komisarek scored few points here, and Bodnar was fine in the last ITT. We were hoping for something better but it's fine.
Trentino was our first goal race this season... And it was also fine, but we're seriously hoping for something better. Three riders in the top 10 is of course really nice, especially in the goal race. But our second tier riders ended this race outside of top 25. Ochoa again in the breakaway, Anacona again below our expectations, Morton surprisingly good, Chamorro was fine, but lost some time on last stage.
Ardennes and Ulissi. He was our only hope for a decent results there. We're saying about top 15 in all those races, which would have been amazing results for us... AGR was a bad race, Wallonne was much better but still 17th place and LBL which was much more over our expectations. 6th place by Ulissi is great result and we are really happy with that!
CCC Sprandi Polkowice - May preview
Giro d'Italia
05.09 - 05.29
This race will be very important for us, as we will see if our team is at least trying to be ready for the WT. We are not saying we will ride in the highest category races next year, but current ranking standings looks promising. We are sending our biggest guns. Whole Colombian squadron is here to prove WT teams that CCC can do something more than just show their orange shirt. As Ochoa and Rivera already shown their capability of doing breakaways and some of them were successful, we are hoping they will do it more than once here. Chamorro will be our leader. Looking at the just "mountain stats", if he will have some luck - top 10 is quite possible performance. Top 15 would be solid. Anacona? Well, at the Vuelta a Tachira he didn't show anything, so he will probably stick to a "gregario" mode. Rest of our team is to help our mountain train on flat stages. Let the party begin!
Our team:
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
ST
RS
RC
Age
Juan Chamorro
76,3
70
78
75
70
67
61
64
71
71
66
72
27
Winner Anacona
75,5
69
77
75
67
65
58
61
73
70
68
72
30
Diego Ochoa
74,6
69
75
74
65
63
59
63
71
71
66
72
25
Ever Rivera
74,5
67
75
73
65
64
60
62
71
70
66
70
27
Daniele Dall'Oste
74,4
69
75
73
65
65
59
65
73
71
67
71
27
Maciej Bodnar
73,8
73
65
68
75
75
69
67
68
69
69
74
33
Adrian Tekliński
71,5
71
65
67
64
67
64
73
72
70
67
69
29
Kacper Frąckowiak
67,9
62
69
66
60
58
56
57
64
65
60
64
24
Tour des Fjords
05.25 - 05.28
This can be yet another quite good race for us. Nowaczek I would say is one of the favourites. If Patryk will prove his skills, he can do a top 10 in general classification too. Two riders in the final top 10 is a must here.
Our team:
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
ST
RS
RC
Age
Mateusz Nowaczek
75,9
71
67
76
69
67
69
69
72
75
69
71
27
Patryk Komisarek
74,7
74
68
72
70
71
72
76
75
74
70
71
25
Paweł Poljański
74,4
72
66
74
68
69
68
68
72
74
68
71
28
Eugenio Alafaci
71,6
70
64
68
63
66
65
73
73
70
66
67
28
Konrad Tomaszewski
69,2
66
70
67
62
59
58
61
67
67
63
66
27
Konrad Kott
69,0
64
64
65
65
67
68
67
69
68
68
67
25
Tomasz Brzeziński
66,5
66
56
59
58
64
58
68
67
64
64
65
21
Race Horizon Park
05.30
Flat race for our sprinter. Top 8 would something we will be happy with.
Our team:
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
ST
RS
RC
Age
Patryk Komisarek
74,7
74
68
72
70
71
72
76
75
74
70
71
25
Eugenio Alafaci
71,6
70
64
68
63
66
65
73
73
70
66
67
28
Adrian Tekliński
71,5
71
65
67
64
67
64
73
72
70
67
69
29
Konrad Tomaszewski
69,2
66
70
67
62
59
58
61
67
67
63
66
27
Konrad Kott
69,0
64
64
65
65
67
68
67
69
68
68
67
25
Kacper Frąckowiak
67,9
62
69
66
60
58
56
57
64
65
60
64
24
Tomasz Brzeziński
66,5
66
56
59
58
64
58
68
67
64
64
65
21
GP Moscow
05.31
Another flat race, but this time much harder. Not with the route but the startlist. Few really good sprinters are here. If Komisarek is capable of doing top 10, that would be stunning.
When Ripley formed his strategy to build a competitive CT team, he soon became certain he needn't approach young riders with high potential, especially not Herklotz and Mohoric. Valgren, however, seemed more realistic. 26 years old, not among the youngest free agents with potential 6, and Danish, a nationality nobody seemed to focus on. A successful minimum wage bid seemed possible and would look good, considering age and potential.
The thought process was put into action and soon Valgren was one of the first riders to sign with Aviva. At first, Ripley was happy having him on the team. But after depleting most of the team's budget in the FA Round 1.2 he realised Valgren would have to (co-)captain a lot of races and struggle to make it into the top 10.
So far his season has been underwhelming even despite these low expectations, he has been absolutely anonymous. While planning we shied away from hilly races with steep slopes, which should have helped him. The first of these races was La Tropicale and already on the moderately hilly opening stage he failed to arrive in the top group. Valgren finished 29th without a single prestige point to his name. He was invisible in the Volta ao Algarve, too, though he did enough to finish 17th and score 9 points, his best result so far. He added just one more point by finishing 25th in the Istrian Spring Trophy. In the Dwaars door Vlaanderen he was only 46th. He didn't race in April, recently he achieved what could be considered his best result so far, a 34th place in the WT race Lincoln GP. With 14 prestige points he still only ranks 12th even in the internal team ranking.
He'll have a lot more chances this season to reach better results, he's co-leader in the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt, the Tour de Pologne, the Tour of Britain and the one-day races Tour do Rio, the Canadian GPs and the Japan Cup. He has a supporting role in the upcoming Tour of California and later the Tour of Vancouver, before the start of the season the manager was hoping he might use those races to hunt for stages, but has since given up on the idea.
Currently, it looks like a lost season for Valgren. There's still hope his signing will pay dividend in the future. If he gains one more point in his core HIL stat, his versatility might make him more of a threat. But Ripley'd really like to see at least a couple of noteworthy results this season to offer him a new contract next year.
Our team has recently been competing in one of the most prestigious races when it comes to showing off strenght in mountain depth, the Colombia Team GP, and has been rather successful!
In the hour long ride up a steep mountain, the team consisting of Roman Kreuziger, Jan Hirt, Leopold König, Patrik Simek, Anatoliy Budyak, Mykyta Sklar and Anatoliy Sosnitskiy finished the race in first place, beating quality teams like Grupo Argos, Allianz and Sugoi.
Needless to say, we are very much pleased with this result, despite the race not being a part of the ProTour. We have shown our depth is excellent, and with only 2 new riders in our team, we have proven our base as a CT team was good enough to build on, at least to significantly improve.
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
The Giro d'Italia has gotten off to a flying start for us with a rater comfortable win in the opening TTT. Sadly we managed to drop our kind-of-GC-leader Leopold König in the process, however he kept his damage limited to a mere 9 seconds, still ahead of most of the other riders. Timofey Kritskiy, one of our additions to this years' team has earned the right to be the race's first pink jersey wearer,
and supertalent, Patrik Simek has moved into the U25 lead.
Stage 2 was just as amazing though! After some rather dull racing, the stage came down to a sprint with a pretty big group of riders being in contention for the win. In the sprint the rider who basically took care of a lot of the process of moving up to the ProTour last season, the ever to versatile Edvald Boasson Hagen, won and claimed pink that way!
Here's some hope we may be in for quite a race!
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
What a race for us this time out. Finally the quick italian Andrea Guardini lived up to all the hype. The Italian won both the opening stages and in the process managed to hold on to a 2nd overall. A great race on our home turf.
Again, just three race for the Aviva Cycling Team in June. We start with the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt, five stages with gently rolling hills. Considering his performances so far, Daniel Schorn might not only be our designated sprinter, but also our best GC hope, it's feasible he'll be in the select group on all stages. We have two back-up options with Valgren and Denifl.
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
DH
FT
ST
RS
RC
Valgren
75.6
73
68
75
71
71
71
71
72
71
73
76
69
71
Schorn
75.2
75
66
73
64
63
67
77
75
72
73
70
67
70
Denifl
74.1
69
71
75
68
67
62
67
69
66
73
72
66
71
Van der Sande
73.4
72
66
70
66
68
66
74
76
74
68
73
70
71
Simón
72.2
68
73
70
66
67
58
61
71
70
72
69
65
71
Birch
69.7
72
64
68
63
67
65
70
70
71
65
71
68
69
McCluskey
68.9
69
64
67
66
69
68
67
68
74
68
71
69
69
Our next stop is Andorra. The Tour of Andorra features four very tough mountain stages and we are bringing all our climbers bar Fuglsang. Poels would like to make the top 10, Monsalve the top 20, we hope the others will fight for stages and KoM points.
AVG
FL
MO
HI
TT
PR
CB
SP
AC
DH
FT
ST
RS
RC
Poels
76.7
68
76
76
70
69
61
61
75
69
77
74
71
74
Monsalve
73.9
69
76
72
66
65
59
66
72
69
70
70
66
70
Lowsley-Williams
72.5
68
73
70
64
63
59
62
70
69
75
69
66
69
Simón
72.2
68
73
70
66
67
58
61
71
70
72
69
65
71
Bibby
72.1
69
72
73
67
67
66
69
70
70
69
69
66
66
Mínguez
71.7
66
74
71
61
59
57
59
66
66
69
67
64
68
Birch
69.7
72
64
68
63
67
65
70
70
71
65
71
68
69
Nearly the same team – only McCluskey replaces Bibby – will tackle Le Géant de Provence, it needn't be said this one-day race finishes atop the Mont Ventoux. A top 10 would once again be appreciated.