Pure sprints haven't gone well for us barring Barcelona, so we did not have high hopes from this race. We were hoping for Krieger to be competitive in the sprints, with support from Bogdanovics.


Scotson tried to join the break but was not successful. We didn't do much work in the chase. We were not able to form a train but Krieger kept himself in contention bu riding on others' wheels. He eventually finished 6th, which meant a decent start for us.


Matzka joined the break and won a intermediate sprint and a KOM sprint. He would end the day as the joint 2nd position in the KOM. This time we did try to set up a train but were not successful. Instead, Krieger took the wheel of the Sauber train, who were the furthest forward. Krieger till the last moment before launching his sprint, but it wasn't enough to claim the win. He did produce his best result of season so far, 2nd place. He moved up to 2nd in the GC.




A 'boring' stage for us in the most part. Krieger wasn't so successful this time, as he finished 7th. He moved a spot in the GC, but we were still on the podium.


Another relatively uneventful race became disastrous for us. Krieger was caught up in a mass crash with 12 km to go, which ruled him out of contention for the stage, and the timing of the crash meant that he would not make it back to the peloton.



He lost more than 3 minutes and we lost a potentially great GC position. Matzka was now the highest placed rider in the GC, in 14th place.


Matzka joined the break once again, and even picked up maximum bonus seconds available in the intermediate sprints. He secured 2nd place in the KOM competition too.



That's where the good news ended. Once the break was caught, Matzka couldn't keep up with the pace and got dropped, which meant, for a second stage in a row, our best GC placed rider lost time! Bogdanovics sprinted to his season best 6th place at the finish, a scant consolation!

1	Jaime Alberto Castaneda	World Cycling Centre	17h18'32
18	Jos Van Emden	Philips - Continental	+ 58
22	Jempy Drucker	Philips - Continental	s.t.
34	Dmitri Grabovski	Philips - Continental	s.t.
51	Ralf Matzka	Philips - Continental	+ 3'11
54	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	+ 4'19
55	Maris Bogdanovics	Philips - Continental	+ 4'43
92	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	+ 7'56
118	Miles Scotson	Philips - Continental	+ 13'04

WTF Part Deux. Those are my exact thoughts!

We didn't expect a lot from this race. We didn't even meet our top 15 expectation! Two riders who did well in this race for us, were both victims of circumstances. Time to dig deep and move on I guess. Krieger did very well for as long as he was upright. Was starting to think this would be where he saves his season...

And PCM owes us now. One crash with Drucker at Lillestrom was forgivable. But two in a row to riders in the best positions is something else! Unless the game delivers Bardet to a stunning Andorra result, I don't think we'll be even

Benn some time since we were racing...

After the double nightmare regarding crashes earlier this month, we were hoping for a clean race from our guys in Andorra. This race isn't best suited for our squad as neither of our climbers can time trial. It would all come down to how well they did going uphill.


Van Zandbeek tried to get into the break but wasn't allowed to do so. The team settled into protecting our leaders till the end. There were no attacks till the final climb. Bardet couldn't follow the initial attack but made his way into the chasing group. As the climb progressed, he fell a little way back from this group but still managed to finish 9th on the stage. Battaglin managed a top 25.




We again decided to stay with the pack rather than venture into the break. Battaglin tried to attack with a couple of others with 50 km left but the attempt failed. Bardet was able to stay with the lead group till 3 km to go on the final climb before the finish. He couldn't follow the decisive attack but was able to get a gap to the others in the group. He joined up with two others and that's where he finished, 5th on the stage, moving up two places on the GC. Battaglin ahd a bad day and fell out of the point scoring positions.




Same story in the first half, we sat in the pack. The pack were going at a high pace, with Repsol chasing down everything. We conserved our energy. Once again, Bardet missed the decisive attack, but was in the chase group. He stuck in there as the group got smaller up the final climb. The chasers nearly joined up to the lead group. Bardet stuck top the wheels of Valls and got a gap to the rest of the chase group. That's as far as they climbed as the earlier move saw Cataldo taking the win. Bardet finished 4th and moved up to 5th in the GC.




The ITT was always going to be Bardet's weak point. And it went according to script. He finished 1'45" off the best time and slipped to 9th in the GC.




The brutal stage was promising some fireworks. Our tactics remained the same. Persevere and put Bardet into the best position. A couple of our GC rivals suffered some bad luck on this stage. We had three riders, the most of any team aloing with Reddit, in the lead group of twenty five, with 30 km left. Bardet didn't attack when the others did, but stuck to his attrition game which has been successful so far. Soon, the chase group was just four riders and Bardet was in it. There was more action up ahead and in Bardet's group. He rode away with Cataldo from the other two others and took 4th again. He moved up to 5th in the GC!



Ruijgh and Battaglin rode a good stage to back into the points in the GC.

1	Rafael Valls	Repsol - Honda	21h32'09
5	Romain Bardet	Philips - Continental	+ 08'01
22	Enrico Battaglin	Philips - Continental	+ 22'16
23	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	+ 22'19
66	Albert Timmer	Philips - Continental	+ 52'36
108	David Per	Philips - Continental	1h43'42
151	Jos Van Emden	Philips - Continental	2h51'39
DNF	Miles Scotson	Philips - Continental

After a couple of cruel twists of fate (Matt Hardy style), we had a race free of any crashes. Bardet repeated his ride in Tachira and finished 5th, which was way above our expectations! 15th was probably a conservative expectation but 5th was way above what we could've expected.

This result saves our month to some extent. We will still be down around 8th or 9th place. And that's why the next month will be crucial once again.

It has got to the point now that our hills line-up no longer seems to have two leaders and instead it is just Wyss pulling the weight up the hills. Costa has been disappointing and unless he can turn it around soon, his season will become a flop. Our support squad for this race is strong. We'll also be taking riders to target the Time Trials. However, we don't have a sprinter here and that will probably lead to some lost points.

Drucker's last cobbled classic of the season. This race takes on a very important status for us given the disappointment of Lillestrom. Our cobbles support is strong like always and we just hope we get a clean race this time. No slip-ups are allowed anymore.

Similar to our hills squad, our dual leadership in the mountains has been reduced to just Bardet. After a very strong outing in Andorra, we will be hoping for more of the same in this race. However, the difference lies in the face that the TT is flat here. The climbing is also a lot less, meaning there will be less time for our Frenchman to get back time lost in the TT. The support is quite good once again and we'll be hoping for some more good news from this race.

As has become the norm recently, July is another important month. The hills of San Luis kicked things of for us. We were not among the top favourites going into this one, but we were hoping to be competitive nonetheless.



Grabovski ensured we started the race well with a 5th place in the ITT.





Costa made an early attempt to breakaway but he wasn't successful. However, he did win the only mountain sprint of the day, ensuring we kept the KOM jersey for the night.



Eventually, Per joined the break of the day. The break first built up a nice lead but the peloton cut it down to just over a minute at the 20 km mark. Per then attacked again to drop his companions. His solo ride over the last 20 km bore fruit as he held on from the pack to take his second stage win in his debut season!



At the end of this stage, we held the lead in the GC, Points, U25s and Teams classifications! Per was second in the Points classification.



Costa, wearing the KOM leaders' jersey, joined the break and picked up three firsts and a second on the four climbs.



Per would take 2nd place from the pack in the second intermediate sprint to take the lead in the Points classification. Costa would be caught by the pack. Per would be dropped in the closing stages to lose his GC lead, which was expected. Wyss finished in the lead group to move up to 9th in the GC.



Costa joined the break again, winning one classification, missing out on the next and coming third in the last one. He still had a comfortable lead in the KOM standings. Boily made the winning move without any challenge from the pack. Wyss was safe in the pack again, but slipped to 12th in the standings because of time gains by others.



The ITT was always going to be a struggle for Wyss. However, he did decently well to not lose any positions in the GC and still be just 49" off the lead. Van Zandbeek finished 6th.



Grabovski a little disappointing in 15th.



Costa joined the break again, despite there being no intermediate KOM points available. The break was caught 10 km before the finish. Wyss decided not to atatck and stuck to a larger group till the finish. He ended up 9th on the day, moving up to 10th in the GC.



Surprise, surprise, Costa joined the break again. And was dominant again. He confirmed his KOM jersey on this stage itself, picking up 24 points.



He would be caught inside the 10 km mark. Wyss would miss the imporatnt move of the day, and finished in the second big group to make it to the line. He would lose around 30 seconds to his rivals, losing one position in the GC.



Wyss crashed early on to send shivers down our spines. Thankfully, he recovered with the help of his domestiques and finished safely in the pack. Costa did not join the break for a change and enjoyed a leisurely ride.

1	Anthony Roux	Xero Racing p/b Octagon	20h58'07
11	Marcel Wyss	Philips - Continental	+ 4'01
51	Tom Leezer	Philips - Continental	+ 13'08
56	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 13'49
90	Dmitri Grabovski	Philips - Continental	+ 22'01
93	David Per	Philips - Continental	+ 23'02
96	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	+ 23'48
150	Albert Timmer	Philips - Continental	+ 39'46
158	Miles Scotson	Philips - Continental	+ 43'04

A lack of hill depth meant we did not score big in the GC. However, Per's stage win and Costa's dominance in the KOM meant we picked up a fair amount of points in this race. A good start to July. Hopefully we can keep this up.

A big congratulations to our friends at Xero for a long overdue victory! Next up for us, Tour of the Battenkill.

A big congratulations to our friends at Xero for a long overdue victory!

AbhishekLFC wrote:
Costa and Per the unlikely heroes here for sure. And Battaglin is far behind Costa when in it comes to contribution so far. So you are right. Hoping for atleast one big race from the former. Too bad we can't keep Per permanently

Croatia14 wrote:
I am genuinely sorry but it's awesome to see how amazing he rides for you - also Costa finally stepping up

After a couple of failed attempts, Matzka joined the four man break.



The curse of the crashes isn't leaving our side as Per and Wyss went down just before the halfway mark.



They would recover back to the pack.

Matzka held on at the front as the others started getting dropped and were caught by the peloton. He was finally caught with 10 km left. Per's crash was starting to take it's toll and he lost contact with the front group, along with Matzka. 36 riders remained in the front group - Drucker, Van Emden and Leezer being our representatives.

The pack was slow from there on till the finish. Drucker found himself in 8th as the sprint started with Van Emden further back. Drucker made up a few places to find himself in 4th place inside the final 100 meters. He could not hold on to that position and was pipped by Thwaites at the line, having to settle for 5th. Van Emden, too, made up positions and finished 9th.

1	Tyler Farrar	Goldcorp - Nordstrom Rack	5h12'07
5	Jempy Drucker	Philips - Continental	s.t.
9	Jos Van Emden	Philips - Continental	s.t.
35	Tom Leezer	Philips - Continental	s.t
37	Ralf Matzka	Philips - Continental	+ 1'29
39	David Per	Philips - Continental	s.t.
83	Maris Bogdanovics	Philips - Continental	+ 12'51
98	Albert Timmer	Philips - Continental	+ 14'22
115	Marcel Wyss	Philips - Continental	s.t.

We would've expected Drucker to finish ahead of those who beat him on the hard cobbles. However, nothing much to complain about with Van Emden also getting a top 10. We do feel that Per and maybe even Wyss would've stayed in points-scoring contention without their crash. We've been on the receiving end far too often recently.

We're off to Bulgaria next with Bardet and Battaglin leading. Hoping for another good show in the mountains.

Grabovski tried to get into the break but it did not materialize. We switched our concentration to protecting Bardet for the rest of the stage. It was a quiet stage in general with the break being caught inside the final 10 km. The first attacks happened just 1.4 km to go. Neither Bardet did not try to counter and instead stayed with the larger group. Battaglin was already dropped from this group! The former rode to 8th on the stage, losing just 8".



We knew the our GC contenders would lose time in the ITT and they did. Grabovski finished 6th. Ruijg had a good ride and was now our best placed rider in the GC at 13th place.





In a very surprising move, Bardet was allowed to join the breakaway.



While he did pick up some points, he was dropped from the peloton soon after being caught, further ruining his chances of a GC improvement. Ruijgh too, was dropped, with only Battaglin, our worst palced GC contender after stage 2, being able to limit his losses on this stage. Our GC hopes were more or less ruined on this day.



A quiet day for our team as we failed to join the break which would eventually survive. The whole point of bringing Krieger to this race so as to take advantage of this flat stage turned out to be futile. No changes at the top of the GC after this stage. We were looking at a very poor points haul from this race at this point!



Bardet joined the break on this stage as well, in search of the KOM points on offer. The breakaway would swell to 13 riders. He would come second and first in the first two climbs, putting him into second place in the KOM race. The middle section of the course was uneventful. Bardet was one of those from the break who was still looking strong. There were no attacks from the peloton till 3 km to go. The remaining breakaway riders still had nearly a minute's lead. Five breakaway riders went into the final kilometer together, in contention for the win. Bardet kicked off the sprint for the line and was too strong for the others in the group.



It was a much needed stage win for us, also securing the KOM standings win in the process for Bardet. Bardet also moved up to 5th in the Points Standings.



Ruijgh and Battaglin both lost time once, with the latter falling out of the points scoring positions as a result of this stage.

1	Jaime Suaza	Eddie Stobart	14h08'40
17	Romain Bardet	Philips - Continental	+ 6'44
21	Enrico Battaglin	Philips - Continental	+ 7'09
31	Rob Ruijgh	Philips - Continental	+ 9'36
53	Albert Timmer	Philips - Continental	+ 17'23
61	Dmitri Grabovski	Philips - Continental	+ 22'30
62	Jaoa Costa	Philips - Continental	+ 23'08
96	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	+ 56'48
117	Ralf Matzka	Philips - Continental	+ 1h13'42

The mountains squad is leaving too much of the work to be done in the hands of Bardet. We will need all of our team depth to come into use if we are to sustain out challenge towards promotion. Bardet once again was brilliant, single-handedly turning our race from a disaster to one that is average at worst.

With that July racing ends for us, and it's been a mixed-bag of a month. Some brilliant individual performances interspersed with quite a bit of team failures. Hopefully we can cout out the mistakes going ahead. Only two races coming up for us in August but they'll play a big role in how we shape up in the promotion chase.

The first of two races for us this month and it's huge! Our last goal race of the season is also the most important one remaining for Drucker. We have not taken any half measures in this race and have thrown the kitchen sink and then some into the startlist. Hopefully they will complement each other rather than get in each other's way.

We're also excited about the prospect of having our stagiares starting off. Looking forward to see how they perform.

A difficult race to call given the profile. We believe this race could go either way for us. With a little bit of luck and good timing, our riders could gain massively on this terrain. However, a little bit of lax and it will become very difficult to chase down riders in this undulating terrain. We don't have huge hopes but look to see some depth scoring, given our squad.