A step in the right direction for Leopard in the rankings, though Fiskars and Achieve are far far away already.
3rd spot might be decided on how dominant Demare will be this year...
Our youth project on an amazing second place at the moment, due to the sexy performances of Laas & Budyak...pretty sure we will go far back in that ranking but it looks great for now
Damn. 6th in Pais Vasco is certainly less than I expected from Kwiatkowski.
By the way, thanks again to bikex for the rapid speed.
Third place for both Kwiatkowski and the whole team is quite ok, I hope we'll be able to hold on to that.
And all the favourites are behind us
Now that's gonna be hard to keep over March
Bad luck on the final day in Canberra, I would have liked to see Bos, Kruopis and Palini have a proper duel for the points classification. Johnny didn't drop back from 3rd which is an excellent result, but worse luck for Sevilla with Taaramae losing his top 10.
No points yet for our American recruits which is a bit disappointing, but far more races coming in the middle of the year for them.
Fiskars are just cutting the CT to pieces right now![/badjoke] Their strategy of good depth is what I'm trying to use too, but it's not working out so far.
March starts off with Omloop, Clasica Iberica, Clasica di Tirreno - Adriatico and for the U23 Cote Picarde. All posted now. For Omloop I've made a video:
If you watch the video before the results, you'll find in the spoiler a list of riders that are in the big select group towards the end:
Spoiler
Favilli, Greipel
Dibben, Stannard, Thomas
Eisaks, Sagan, Senechal, Van Avermaet
Degenkolb, Drucker, Jungels, Zabel
Ghyselinck, Van Keirsbulck
Orbe, Stybar
Roelandts, Vanmarcke
Rajsp
Boonen, Robert, Van Asbroeck
Terpstra, Veelers
Cancellara, Goss
De Bie, Oss
I'm thoroughly disappointed by my team's results here. Colbrelli had to at least top 5 Classica T-A and we came back home with a 13th place by De Bie as best result... Less disappointed by Oss but still, 16th place at OHN could have been so much better.
We'll have to make up for this disaster of a start of a month as soon as possible.
Omloop looks like the four breakaway riders survived to get decent results which annoys me slightly that Rajsp was the worst of them but 20th is a decent effort.
Tao is really letting me down at the moment in the youth team and will really need to pick up his game because I believe he is a very good talent and I would like for him to show that.
Robert! In that one race he scores more than 200% of his first two seasons' points! Guys in the break must have taken it very easy and had plenty of gas left at the finish. Getting someone in the break with Boonen/Langeveld in the team bodes very well for the cobbles to come. Well, yeah, that more than makes up for the Basque fall!
Expected much more from Korup. Vanthourenhout has to win a cobbled race this season or he is out of dodge.
Italo looking very strong. Title contenders for sure! If Cymru Wales don't peek up they may struggle to reach the 1000 point mark.
great result for Laas at Cote Picarde, first podium of the season and such consistance...
Gasparotto with an ok race at Clasica Iberia, could´ve been better though...
next stop is Paris-Nice, let´s see if captain Wilco can deliver