I thought of Majka, due to similarity of König/Contador situation, but Barguil is actually much, much closer (and cooler).
Vuelta News: Birt makes it the Double!
Empty but relieved we saw Mitchell Birt crossing the line. For the second time, the young Aussie did not have the power to celebrate or maybe Spanish Coverage is just too messed up and disorganized to show it properly. But honestly, we don't even mind at all. We are just happy.
A late attack alongside ever fighting Amets Txurruka put him up at the front of the race against german legend Jens Voigt and some others. As they climbed together in the Sierra, Birt wanted to enjoy the spanish masses for his own. Being possibly the best climber and in some fantastic shape, he attacked and went solo, as no one was able to follow him. Jens Voigt from Radioshack was his closest chasers, chapeau to his stunning ride as well.
Is Mitchell Birt the revelation of the Vuelta so far? Surely, his stage win in the USA as well as his solid GC ride in the Österreich Rundfahrt did not go unnotice, but a Grand Tour is a Grand Tour and the masses cheer for this charismatic rider by now. He was dealt a heavy blow at the start of the Vuelta: A bad Team Time Trial, caught up in the echelons, losing time, and finally having been sent back when König crashed. But boy, did he come back from that. Seems it only made him all the more willing to attack and be the man of his own fortune.
Leopold König keeps climbing the GC and is now only a second away from the Top 10 ahead of the Time Trial. His stunning climbing (4th of the GC riders on stage 10 after Froome, Purito and Horner) surely draws enough attention from World Tour teams, but for now he is focused on performing and representing NetApp Endura. Clearly, Peter Luttenberger's smile is all to obvious in the peloton. After a season of struggles and many near-misses, NetApp Endura performs in spectacular manner here.
To read more about Mitchell's thoughts check out the previous page.
Edited by Shonak on 04-10-2014 10:45
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
It's Mitchell Birt here, writing from my hotel in Madrid where I had minor surgery on a fractured shin which I sustained during Stage 13 of the Vuelta.
Everything was on track and I was thinking of attacking in the following stages but I got involved in a crash with two other riders, Castroviejo (MOV) and the one you see is Santaromita (BMC). He ever so nicely helped me up but I was not able to pedal so I told him to go on without me. I never got to thank him, so thank you BMC and thank you Ivan for your very friendly and much appreciated act of kindness.
Rather than get annoyed at myself for crashing with 8 stages remaining and leaving the Vuelta I am going to look back at what has been a good 12 days of experience, anger, frustration, bad luck and good luck. A really mixed two weeks.
The bad luck came early on in the race when I lost a huge chunk of time because of a split in the peloton and I was caught out because of my poor positioning. The furstration came when Konig crashed and I did my job and went back to help him but two teams kept the pace high in the peloton so we could not return, but I now understand the fact that there was still a race to be run.
And then the good luck and great parts of the race.
I won two consecutive stages leading up to the TT on stage 11. The first being stage 9 where I took a solid solo win.
By the way, that blonde girl to my right totally fancies me, notice the way she looked at me after I won stage 9. I'll have to come back next year and see her again.
And then stage 10 where again a later attack led to me taking another solo win.
Thank you to all those around the world for your words of support after my stage victories and for your sympathy following my withdrawal. It is much appreciated. Good luck to everyone who is still racing in the Vuelta.
After a whole lot of ups and downs I was forced to leave the race during stage 13 but hopefully Konig delivers that Top 10 GC that the team desperately wants and needs. I will be urging him on from my hotel room. It was a great experience racing alongside the best riders in the world and especially the great Jens Voigt who I had to attack against to get victory on Stage 10. It was also a great learning curve for a young cyclist like myself, at age 23 I have already faced highs and lows. I now know the punishment of bad positioning. And I know how nasty crashing and injury is and I definitely don't want to have to go through the anger at myself again.
Last but not least, I hope I can recover before my two Italian one day races, the Giro del Piemonte and Milano-Torino. Two race days left and hopefully I can bring in a good result for the team.
Vuelta News: König finishes 6th, Hard Goal Achieved
With great pleasure, Netapp Endura was able to announce that Leopold König finished the Vuelta on 6th place, completing our hard team goal. With some great riding, tacticel finesse and alerted senses, König and the team performed throughout the past weeks, which have been filled with ups and downs.
Birt caught in Echelon splits, König's crash, König's fight back, Birt's two stage wins, Birt's withdrawal, König bonking, König getting the result eventually... Now we have finished the race and the team really deserves to enjoy their success. It bitter that Mitchell Birt had to abandon after his two stage wins, but word is, he is eager to start racing asap.
Excatly what will happen with König at NetApp Endura, if he wants to stay or not, will be decided in the coming weeks. But it's obvious that wherever König signs or stays, he will deliver amazing results for any team
A shout-out to Purito, who is hopefully recovering from his withdrawal on the Angliru stage, whilst being the only one left to be close to Froome.
Downing wins stage in USA, whilst Voss remains 2nd in Tour of Britain
Great news from the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, Russell Downing took stage 5 from the breakaway in a stunning race, which is likely to be one of the best races ever to be covered since EPIC took over the racing circuit. Or at least, that's what I heard.
Meanwhile in Britain, Paul Voss puts in a fantastic showcase of talent by remaining second in the GC. Not sure how he did it, but with Adam Hanzen's string of success in the race and only 1 second behind Voss, it will be tough to remain second, whilst also gunning to overcome Ulissi in GC. However all in all, a 3rd spot up there would be well worth the trouble.
But as it stands, our sponsor goal is still a stage win in Britain. The team is hot to deliver on that front in the remaining stages and we hope we will have even more to celebrate in the coming weeks.
Also, Peter Luttenberger is still spending some quality exile time in a far, far away, remote desert mountain island in the Arctic without hardly any internet, but he'll be back in the coming weeks for realz.
Edited by Shonak on 02-11-2014 21:22
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
I'm back with a quick report. I was surprised, but pleased when I heard I was selected for the Tour de Pologne. I found Heimdal just ahead of me in a short downhill when he crashed in stage 1. I luckily could avoid him. It gave me a shot of adrenaline. I used it to attack later on, and only a winner of the Tour de France and a multiple stage winner of that race could follow.
Despite my efforts I only came 37th, but I am very pleased I could show our team's jersey. Unfortunately the rest of the race didn't go as planned.
I tried to do better in Italy, where my attack took place. Unfortunately Milano - Torino didn't go as planned either. My final chance to show myself this season will be in Burgos, where a mountain stage is yet to be done. I hope you'll see me there
Hi all,
I have not been particularly busy lately following my crash in the Vuelta but I made a small comeback riding in Milano-Torino and finishing 69th, it was more a training ride for me and I don't think Mr Luttenberger really minded. It was nice to be racing in Italy and gives me good race days going into the big races to come.
These big races I am talking about are the World Championships which are this year being held in Tuscanny. As a youngster it was a dream of mine to be representing Australia in the biggest race of the year. I will be riding in the U23 Road Race where I may be leading the team if the road gets too steep for others which will be an awesome experience. The other race I am riding is the Elite Road Race. It is an honour to ride in this alongside the best riders in the world and I shall do what I can while enjoying the experience.
It’s been a long time since I’ve written here. Sorry about that, but I have to admit that I’ve had a lot to do keeping track of my travelling itinerary going from one stage race to another and even getting my WT-debut!
Well actually I haven’t left Europe in this season part (yet) but still it becomes a lot to take in so far into my first season…
Some time ago I race the Tour de Wallonie. On the very first stage I was thinking about going in the break, but while I was thinking the break went away without me, so I spent most of the day quietly in the peloton. Until the final 5 km that is. When some of the bigger names started moving I decided to try sticking along and in the end I fought my way to a 6th place, though the media didn’t really cover what happened “so far” back…
Stage 2 and 3 went very quietly for us as my position in the GC made sure that no one would let me go anywhere…
On stage 4 we sent Huzarski out in front and after he was caught I tried helping set up the sprint for us. Without much luck I have to admit…
I tried to restore my GC on the final stage, but in the end I just wasn’t strong and awake enough to take the few seconds needed.
General Classification: 28th / + 1’53
Points Classification: 28th / 10 pts
Young Riders Calssification: 8th / + 1’22
Team Classification: 5th / + 1’15
After Wallonie I went a quick trip home to celebrate my moms birthday, which was really nice even though it only was a quick trip as I had to go to Italy where the Tour de Pologne started (don’t ask me why though). The boss had decided to give me my debut in a WT-race which is huge for a guy on my age!
But seems like not much has been going on with NetApp - Endura anyway lately.
Congratulations to Paul Voss 3rd final GC rank in Tour of Britain, valuable points to say the least and has shown in the fact that NetApp Endura is currently ranked 20th in the Rankings.
Edited by Shonak on 17-11-2014 09:44
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
König places 10th in Piemonte, but NetApp fail to achieve UCI goal
Since the goal was a Top 5 ranking in Piemonte, we had a good squad lined up. König wanted to show his talent for one-day racing but he remains a stage racer first and foremost. By coming 10th, he scored some nice points but ultimately, this hard goal set by the UCI, was set just a tad too high, seeing as how the competition was extraordinary with the likes of Sagan, Uran, Schroder et al. competing for victory. König surely not a man of sprinting legs, did his best eventually in this race but the progress points will have to be earned elsewhere.
With a Top 10 in Paris-Tours, there might just be a chance of getting a third completed goal this season.
Next to that, NetApp Endura shows a nice string of breakaways recently, so the team is definitely motivated for the season's finale races.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
As previously mentioned I had my WT-debut in Poland, which was huge for me!
So huge that I just couldn’t sit still and attacked as soon as the race began. Just as I did in my first pro race back then a long time ago now.
Had I been clever I would have saved my energy for a day without a massive summit finish though. I suffered on that final climb, but I hear Ioannis showed the jersey nicely after I was done even though there was no result for him either…
Stage 2 was the same kind of stage, but that day I was too beat up after stage 1 to do anything except stay on my bike. It really is a lot harder to race on this level than the races I’m used to!
On the 3rd stage we had finally come to Poland, which means no more huge mountains for now. Not that I wasn’t still affected by the first couple of tough stages, but I made it to the finish line in decent condition which is more than can be said about all those guys that was taken down by the crash! That was really scary to see how fast things can go wrong even among such great cyclists.
On stage 4 I found myself poorly placed as we didn’t really have anything to do apart from Mendes being in the break. Not that it matters how many minutes I lose in this race anyway…
For stage 5 and 6 we was back to craziness even though the climbs were a lot shorter they were ridden that more fiercely and even though I think I’m getting fairly decent at the hilly stuff I have nothing to respond with when the likes of Urán starts moving.
Stage 7 was an ITT, which was a good way to finish my first WT-race allowing me to fully take in the atmosphere along the way. A race where I learned a lot even though the results are less than impressive…
Congratulations to our young, swedish fighter-heart Heimdal Hägg. He took a close victory against the sprinters, namely infamous Carlo Calzone, by going - typical for him - into the breakaway. This time his fighting spirits really paid off, as he never gave up and only stopped riding with full force once he crossed the line. We hope that his numerous attempts throughout the year all paid off with the feeling of raising his arms there.
We are sure he will let you know more about his first victory as a pro, for now we can promise you though that Heimdal will surely take this as further motivation for the new season!
FUN FACT: With Dermot Walker, Ioannis Dimitriou, Mitchell Birt and Heimdal Hägg all being successful, we are proud to announce that 4 out of 5 EPIC youngsters took a stage win! Add to that Juarez' National Championship dominance and you know where your place should be if you're a great young talent. Unfortunately we can't sign everybody...
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
A lot have happened for little young me since the last time I wrote!
But one thing at a time. Before I tell you about that unbelievable day in China I owe you a recap of my time in GB.
The British have a stage race to my liking with plenty of small hills and no big mountains, so I was really happy to be sent here knowing that it means a lot to the British side of the team!
The ITT will make sure that I don’t have to worry about any sort of GC though.
On the very first day I did what I do best: Went in the break.
I had hoped to be able to fight for the KOM, but I have to admit that the legs just weren’t good enough.
I tried again on stage 2, but the break wouldn’t let me go. When the hills started getting tough towards the end I started feeling my legs a lot so I just rolled to the finish trying to save some energy for later stages. Don’t I sound grown-up now?
On stage 3 I mainly rolled through and then focused on cheering for Voss, who put in a really strong ride!
So on stage 4 I was back and ready for another break. We didn’t last (of course I’m tempted to say) but it was great to be out in front again.
On one hand I would love to say to you all that I tried getting away again on stage 5, but that would be a lie as it was my turn protecting Paul in the first part of the stage. He got a top 10 and moved to 2nd overall so a good days work for me. In fact that pretty much sums up all the final stages of the race for me.
I went to work for the team. I did my job and enjoyed it as Paul ended up on the podium.
Well, this has been some time coming but now it’s here. Season’s End. Give me some hot chocolate and we might as well look back at NetApp Endura’s past season.
The past year has been filled with ups and downs. Lots of training and discussing, following races, making races. Lots of fun, sometimes some… being pissed off. Peter Luttenberger took over this team in a moment of headless and leaderless crisis. Michael Boogert leading NetApp Endura, well - Dermot Walker still has nightmares of this guy apparently. Little results came in, only some of EPIC youngsters tried to keep the ship afloat. There were rumours that König wanted to terminate his contract right a few weeks into 2013. But lucky, Lutti came and things got… well, at least somewhat better?
Team Ranking 2013:
Spoiler
1
Sky
14212
2
Movistar
9965
3
Belkin
8523
4
BMC
7950
5
Omega Pharma
6962
6
Astana
6676
7
Cannondale
5984
8
RadioShack
5908
9
Katusha
5860
10
Europcar
5591
11
Garmin
5412
12
Saxo-Tinkoff
5358
13
Lotto
4135
14
Argos
4022
15
Orica-GreenEdge
3594
16
Euskaltel
3217
17
AG2R
3214
18
Champion System
1974
19
Androni
1788
20
Vacansoleil
1642
21
Lampre
1592
22
NetApp
1510
23
MTN
1459
24
FDJ
1339
25
Cofidis
1149
26
Bardiani
1033
27
Colombia
975
28
Topsport
921
29
Crelan
793
30
Bretagne
747
31
IAM
665
32
Vini Fantini
597
33
CCC
540
34
RusVelo
422
35
UHC
318
36
Accent Jobs
154
37
Novo Nordisk
52
38
Sojasun
49
39
Caja Rural
7
On the rankings of the teams, NetApp Endura has ultimately finished 22nd. That’s an alright score for us. Surely, more had been possible but in the end, the points rarely lie. We had memorable moments, we had some big points in la Vuelta, Tour of Britain and Tour of California. But mostly we rely on breakaways and this is shown in our roster and in our results. Our best rider is Leopod König, finishing just outside the Top 50. He could not celebrate any win this season, which is disappointing but his overall stage race results make up for that fact.
- Victories 2013 -
One-day races
Australian Road Race Championship, Zakkari Dempster
German Road Race Championship, Paul Voss
Mexican Road Race Championship, Jose Alberto Juarez
Whilst our Road Race Championship wins may have come as a surprise to some (most of all, us ourselves) and we are proud of them, the stage race victories are the ones where our daily bread is to be earned. Notably all stage wins, except for the one by Paul Voss in Tour de Romandie and Downing's in America, were achieved by EPIC youngsters. So give a round of applause to yourself guys, you deserve it!
We’d like to especially congratulate Heimdal Hägg who we watched throughout the year closely and who tried it so many times, just to be finally rewarded in the last race of the season. We did the iconic Becker fist when you won in Hainan! But the best victories must be Birt’s double strike at la Vuelta, which shocked the cycling world and left quite some surprised. As a result, he will join Orica GreenEdge. Mitchell, you’ll be missed!
But we at NetApp Endura are a young team and we like to give people room to develop, we like for them to be their home, even if it’s just for a while. And we like to see it when they succeed and may move on to achieve bigger things in bigger teams. Seeing Mitchell taking the step onto World Tour is therefor quite great! We will remain a team with unique and great EPIC youngsters though. Hopefully Walker will return early on to winning ways in 2014 and we'll see more of Mexican RR & TT Champion Juarez in the peloton. Some breakaways would be lovely. For the mountains, Ioannis Dimitriou may continue to surprise us here and there. We share quite some memorable stages with him like in Tour of California or Österreich Rundfahrt. New additions to the team will be Mathias Von Triesenberg and Thomas Schwabe. Welcome to you guys!
-Soo...?-
So, well - what's have to said about 2013? Peter Sagan, Chris Froome and probably Vincenzo Nibali were the three big names of 2013. Then some Quintana and Valverde and World Champion Joaquim Rodriguez but what about our riders? Well, I can tell you: 2013 it was not always easy.
We have been quite happy with the breakaway spirit of our team. Leopold König achieved some great results, such as at La Vuelta, at Pais Vasco or Tour of California. Paul Voss surprised us with his 3rd place at Tour of Britain. But little else GC results have been obtained by us. We lived on scraps and what was left over.
Goal-wise we had a decent run. In the early season part, we achieved 2 goals out of the 6. Walker's stage win in Oman as well as a Top 10 result in San Luis by König. Those goals were set by Boogerd back then.
We had a bit more luck in the mid-season part. Pais Vasco was easily achieved by König, that Top 15 was really easy for him in the end. It was similiar in Trentino, where we had to rely on König again. Rund um Köln Top 10 was a surprise as Hägg finished within the Top 10 thanks to the breakaway! Unfortunately the GC win in Tour of California was missed, despite a great (team) performance with several days in the leader's jersey. The stage wins in Tour of Turkey and Bayern Rundfahrt wern't accomplished either.
The last season part then had the Vuelta as a big goal. It was quite a rollercoaster ride, that Grand Tour, but König performed and delivered. The other fulfilled goal was the easy goal of a Top 15 in Austria. Achieved by Birt. The Countered Goals by the UCI all were set too high for us and the team couldn't achieve any of them. However König came close to the Top 5 by finishing 10th, and Voss had a 3rd place in the overall ranking in Britain but unfortunately no stage win.
Like we said, it was a decent run with achieving a total of 7 goals out of 18. Certainly most teams done better than us but we are alright with our goals, especially as we wern't happy with some of them in the selection. It's obvious that we are quite dependant on Leopold König when it comes to achieving goals, so we will have to work on that: What's the solution? More quality on the squad or better fitting goals for the team? We have seen how MTN used breakaways as a goal and that may be viable for us as well.
Our big goal for the next season is obvious though: We will want a true, great GC, so this our personal goal of 2014. Make it Tour of Hainan or Tour de France, any of them. This is a tough goal for us a team but we'll try to make it happen.
Similiar throughout the season we have shown a weakness in one-day races. I don't know why we keep even selecting them when it's apparent that we suck at them. Either way we choose to ignore them next year or we succeed in improving in them. Maybe some extra training camp?
All in all, NetApp Endura is happy. Our sponsor is alright and proud with the team, the staff is satisfied. The riders feel like at home I'm told. 2013 season was a welcome opening to our little HQ, from here on out we want to develop and grow though. With hard work and determination, we shall succeed in that, whilst keeping true to our roots.
-Outlook 2014-
With the transfer season being up next, it'll be mighty interesting for you guys to follow the activities of NetApp Endura. We'll try to keep you updated throughout the off-season on all transfer activietis, possible signings and rumours. We hope to improve on our squad and give it a greater depth. Riders who have been lieutnants in WT teams, who have underperformed or are no longer happy at their team, are of real interest to us. Also, young hopeful talents and Free Agents are always, really always appealing to us.
So see you on the road and cheers to everybody who has made it through (and survived *wink* ) EPIC in 2013!
Edited by Shonak on 08-12-2014 20:09
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Long time, no speak I know, but I've been trying my hardest with a busy schedule in the last few months.
Sadly, despite some great support from the teammates I've grown to trust and like over the past ten months, I was never quite quick enough to deliver a great result. I very much enjoyed racing on home soil for both RideLondon and the Tour of Britain but the route and riders present made the race too hard for me. I'm very aware of my weaknesses as a road cyclist and the brutal route in ToB was not great for me.
In most races I took part in this season, I was dropped early on just as the pace was starting to rise and despite the team often dropping back to help me, it was always too little, too late as I gave them too much to do. As an 18 year old, this is to be expected but naturally, as a competitive sportsman, I hate letting the team and myself down.
At the very end of the season, I managed a small repayment with an 8th place in an incredibly strong sprinter's field in Hainan, which I was pleased with but all in all, this season begun and ended in Oman for me but the exposure I gained there in the leader's jersey has definitely helped me.
The rest of the team have done their bit as well, with a great Vuelta from Birt and Konig despite more crashes than in the average Pastor Maldonado season. Voss also did well in Britain and my young friend Heimdal finally got his deserved win in China last week.
I shall now disappear to eat much food over the Festive period and come back in January ready for another of the boss' crazy training camps. Already looking forward to seeing the new signings and my schedule.
Thanks for a great debut season.
Dermot
Manager of Bunzl - Centrica
ICL's World Tour Champions and Talented Bottlers
