After a good performance in Lillestrom, we have similar high hopes in this race. We realize that the profile might not suit our rider as much as the last race, but we still expect a good performance.

Kelderman pulled up his socks in Milano Torino and comes into this race in good form. The profile is similar to Izola, where Kelderman won earlier in the year. We expect a good race but we don't expect a repeat of the last one.

We hope for more Boev overperformances and for some Dumoulin consistency. we're not getting our hopes up too much though.

Van der Sanden haven't done anything at all this season, and so we don't have high hopes once again. Could this be a repeat of our Krieger moment from 2017? Looks unlikely at the moment.

Keinath leads us for probably the last time, and that too on home turf. With this race being in the PCT, there is no way we can get our hopes too high for this race. We are hoping we can be consistent and get Keinath into a good spot for Stage 3.

Surprise! Surprise! Kelderman leads another PCT race, skipping Zuri and leaving it for his chief lieutenant. Can he go again against tougher opposition. We certainly hope so.

Chief lieutenant Watson leads for the only time this season, and that too to close out the season. Let's see what he can do as a leader. A decent support squad is here, so we've tried to help Watson out as much as possible. Let's hope he delivers.

The last month started with our last cobbles outing of the year. We didn't join the break but concentrated on staying safe in the pack. We missed the winning move but Paprstla kept himself in the top positions, finishing our best in 7th.Van Lerberghe and Bovenhuis finished 22nd and 23rd respectively.

1	Jerome Baugnies	Los Pollos Hermanos	5h39'27
7	Tomas Paprstka	Philips	+ 7'11
22	Bert Van Lerberghe	Philips	+ 9'10
23	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 10'54
44	Gorazd Per	Philips	+ 29'54
69	Marten Kooistra	Philips	+ 1h06'11

Another race with all three of our cobbles riders scoring. We had hoped for a little more from this race, but it did not best suite our team. Can't have too many complaints though with our trio over the course of this season.

Kelderman's last outing in C1 had seen him win in Milano-Torino. We knew this race didn't exactly suit him, especially the finish. But we were still hopeful.

No breaks for us as it all about keeping Kelderman safe. Schelling did some of the early pace-making along with others. Storer then took over in the second half as Kelderman remained in the leading positions all through. The final hills were not very selective and the reduced bunch sprint at the end meant Kelderman could only get 15th.

1	Pascal Ackermann	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	5h11'25
15	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	s.t.
50	Philips	s.t.
51	Romain Bardet	Philips	s.t.
67	Michael Storer	Philips	s.t.
113	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	+ 2'41
114	Cristian Scaroni	Philips	s.t.
115	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	s.t.
126	Ide Schelling	Philips	+ 3'21

We misjudged how the race might play out. The finish did not suit Kelderman and we probably shouldn't have come here at all. Nevertheless, still soe points gained.

Boev finished really strongly on Stage 1 but just ran out of road and had to settle for 2nd.



Boev was positioned well at the start of the sprint on Stage 2 but fell away afterwards.

Stage 3 didn't have anything of note for us.

We were hoping Dumoulin would end the year on a high with this being his last race targeting the GC. He has come close to a win many times but had not got one before this. He out in a fast time on Stage 3 being one of the early starters. The wind direction changed for the late starters and Dumoulin won by a big margin. Henttala was 13th and Watson was 23rd which moved them up in the GC.

The final stage went to the break. Dumoulin and the rest finished safely in the pack.

1	Tom Dumoulin	Philips	15h48'10
10	Joonas Henttala	Philips	+ 1'17
22	Calvin Watson	Philips	+ 1'44
87	Marten Kooistra	Philips	+ 4'51
130	Igor Boev	Philips	+ 8'21
132	Ide Schelling	Philips	+ 9'01

AN unexpected victory for Dumoulin but one which has been due all season! We had an excellent race with two more riders scoring GC points and finishing 2nd in the Teams classification!

Bovenhuis joined the break. He picked up second place in the only intermediate sprint of the day.



Van der Sanden didn't start well, not featuring at all in the sprint on Stage 1.

Our sprinter improved his form on Stage 2, finishing off a good sprint to take 3rd on the day.



Paprstka joined the break on Stage 3. He took 3rd and 2nd in the two intermediate sprints.



Van der Sanden sprinted extremely well once again to finish 2nd.



Van der Sanden had no sprinting legs on Stage 4 and finished outside the Top 10.

His exploits on the two previous stages ensured 6th in the GC. Time gains made by Bovenhuis and Paprstka in their breakaways meant that they finished 20th and 19th in the GC, respectively.

1	Alexander Krieger	Tryg - Ritter Sport	16h48'57
6	Geert Van der Sanden	Philips	+ 17
19	Tomas Paprstka	Philips	+ 47
20	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 48
47	Bert Van Lerberghe	Philips	s.t.
51	Michel Kreder	Philips	s.t.
107	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	+ 2'31

We had almost zero expectations from this race, given the form Van der Sanden has shown previously this season. What we got was a very good haul of points. This was a very good way to end the season on a high for Van der Sanden.

Dumoulin was our best finisher on Stage 1 in 13th. Keinath lost just under 2 minutes to the best time.

Boev sprinted to 3rd on Stage 2!



Cepeda Hernandez and Bardet joined the break on Stage 3



Bardet won the first KOM sprint and finished 5th in the second to be tied at the top of that standing at that moment.



Four riders attacked from a long way out and were not caught. Keinath remained in the group of favourites, finishing 12th and moving himself up to 10th in the GC. Henttala was also up to 16th in the GC.

Keinath did enough to defend his GC position on Stage 4.



Dumoulin was once again our best result in 13th.

1	Justo Tenorio	Desigual	10h58'37
10	Nico Keinath	Philips	+ 2'38
17	Joonas Henttala	Philips	+ 3'59
21	Tom Dumoulin	Philips	+ 5'18
58	Ide Schelling	Philips	+ 11'25
84	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	+ 15'52
92	Igor Boev	Philips	+ 17'31
96	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 18'39

10th, 17th and 21st in the GC, with 5th in the KOM and 3rd in the Teams standings is an excellent return for us from a C1 race.

We protected Kelederman till the closing stages with Cepeda Hernandez working on the front as well. Kelderman remaining in the leading positions in the closing stages and was the first to accelerate for the win. He couldn't hold on but finished in 3rd.

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1	Oleksandr Prevar	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	5h10'23
3	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	s.t.
56	Michael Storer	Philips	+ 3'41
64	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	s.t.
113	Michel Kreder	Philips	+ 8'43
114	Tomas Paprstka	Philips	s.t.
124	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Philips	+ 9'46
127	Tom Dumoulin	Philips	s.t.

Another impressive ride from Kelderman among the PCT elite gives him a great finish to the season. Our decision to bring him to this race over Zuri in the CT pays off.

Watson could not stay with the attacks and accelerations when they happened and finished in 27th.

Anonymous race from us and we ended the season with a 0 pointer. Watson's only leadership role this season is unsuccessful.

Race	Category	Goal	Result
GP Yekaterinburg	C2HC	Win	1st
Rio Vista Chinesa	C2	Win	3rd
Euskal Bizikleta	C2HC	Top 5	16th
CT Individual Standings	CT	Top 5	2nd
CT Team Standings	CT	Top 5	3rd

*Green means Goal Achieved. Red means Goal Failed.

I think we set up mostly reachable goals and managed to get 3 out of 5. Juarez was particularly disappointing but given how most of the season went, we were perhaps lucky to get out win goal in Yekateringburg.

We were very good in C2HC, despite the four zero scores, and handled our bread and butter races with aplomb. The HC category turned out to be a jackpot with especially the decision to go to Emelia paying off brilliantly. We did well in the hills in C1 and decently in the other races of that category. C2, as expected, gave us less points, but we were mostly consistent throughout.

We started off really well and then played catchup a bit which saw us fall to 6th in the table as the lowest. We picked up the pace again from September and got that podium spot in the end, just 23 points off the top spot.