The first World Tour event is always an exiting one, the Australians teams and riders are trying to show themselves to the world while most other riders are using this race to either start their season on a good note or to start preparing for the spring. We started here with Christian Schroder as teamleader for the GC/stage wins while new Europcar rider Andrea Guardini is also for hunting for stage wins. Guardini isn’t the only new rider at the start as Francis Mourey, Florian Senechal and Andreas Klöden are all at the start as well. Yohann Géne is together with Schroder the only veterans at the start.

Unfortunatly our sprinters did not live up tot their name in the first stage as Verhelst was the best sprinter in 44th place, Guardini was even lower in 83th. To make things even more embarrassing for our sprinters got outplaced by Christian who finished 14th.

Second stage was for the GC guys so if Christian managed to repeat his high finishing position it would be a good first step towards a good GC placing. However the stage wasn’t ridden hard enough to drop sprinters like Kristoff, Bennati, Greipel and the likes. Schroder eventually finished 8th place, giving us our first points of the season.

Third stage was for the breakaway to take the stage, while Schroder finished in 16th place which was also in current position in the general classification. Christian was one of the last riders to try and get clear from the peloton and he was succesfull. He gained a minute on the peloton but he wasn’t able to catch up with the breakaway and the riders that attacked earlier.


Schroder on the attack, following Bernard, Gasparotto and Bakelants

Stage number four was an improvement in pretty much all factors, Guardini improved on his sprinting placing by finishing 28th, Schroder didn’t lose time and while the breakaway won the stage again we had someone in the break. Senechal was the one that got in the break and finished an amazing second place. Huge result for the neo-pro.


Florian, Mohoric and Parisien fighting for the win but Mohoric is stronger

The queen stage was obviously for Schroder to try and win the stage. He was the first to start the final climb at 3.0 km. Only Gerrans, Vichot, Bernard, Moreno, Gasparotto, Kakhi, Kristoff, Gesink, Weschenbach, Izagirre, Bakelants and Vanendert could follow. This group was together at the top of the Willunga Hill and Gasparotto proved that he was the strongest today as he won the stage. Side Schroder finsihed 11th, just outside the points. Christian is up to 12th place in the GC.


Schroder leading Gerrans and Vichot towards the top of Willunga Hill

We started the classics season in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, which features some cobbles and hills. This was Khamse Khamphan first race of the season and together with Jérôme, Pichot, Senechal and Veilleux they make up part of the team that will also start in Paris-Roubaix. They are joined by Bernaudeau, Sebastian Chavanel and Quemeneur.

The race started with Veilleux and others trying to put some stress on other teams. However they weren’t allowed to go clear so in the end only a 5 man breakaway got clear. Nobody from our team. Some other teams tried some mid race attacks from the peloton but we didn’t join in these mid race attacks and that turned out to be the wise decision when the breakaway was caught 42km from the line. The classic P-R favorites Cancellara and Vanmarcke attempted to attack in the last 10 km but they were unable to do so. Alf Pedersen however was able to get a small gap and in response, Khamse Khamphan got a gap with Stybar and Haussler not long after. However under the flame rouge it was all together again although Khamse Khamphan was able to hold off most of the sprinters coming from the peloton he was unable to beat Stybar who had dropped back. Khamse Khamphan finished 6th while Pichot finished 17th


Khamse Khamphan attack with 4 km to go, not trusting his sprint



The next classic was the momentum Milan-San Remo and we had three arrows on our bow for a good result here. It the race is raced easily then Andrea Guardini was our main sprinter in this race and if it was raced a lot harder then Sylvain Chavanel or Christian Schroder.

The race was didn’t start for us until late in the race, on the transition from the Cipressa to the Poggio. Guardini wasn’t feeling to good and Sylvain said that he was feeling really good so he told him to go for it. He attacked and nobody was able to follow him, he quickly found himself in 1st position after catching what was left of the three man breakaway. He had some trouble going up the Poggio but he was able to keep his lead over the top, keeping the peloton lead Cancellara, Vanendert and Tony Martin off.

Sylvain uses his downhilling abilities to increase his gap towards the peloton, he’s just outside the pelotons vision but the sprint trains of Belkin, Cannondale and Lotto are making huge pace. Bennati’s leadout for Sagan is other worldly and Sylvain’s lead does down very rapidly. With barely only 200 meters to go Sagan overtook Chavanel and he had to watch Kittel, Sagan, Hanzen, Greipel and Goss pass him to make up to the top 5. 6th place is a consolation price for the French veteran, who had trouble meeting the press after finishing.


the heartbraking moment for Sylvain Chavenal, only 200 meters short of a monument victory

Dwars door Vlaanderen

Chavanel however is professional enough to start 3 days later in Dwars door Vlaanderen. He is joined by Paris-Roubaix goers Jérôme, Khamse Khamphan, Senechal, Veilleux and Gaudin. Cousin and Lamoisson are also in this race.

We took a more hidden approach in this race so there is not a lot to write about. This was contrary to Luca Paolini how was hard to avoid this race which resulted in him winning the race. Khamse Khamphan finished in 3rd which is our best result in classics so far. He seems to be in from for Paris-Roubaix.


We start in E3 with the usual riders for classics: Khamse Khamphan, Sylvain Chavanel, Cousin, Gaudin, Jérôme, Senechal, Veilleux and Voeckler. Khamse Khamphan and Chavanel are the leaders here but

We tried to put Veilleux in the breakaway again but again feel short. So we didn’t make our first move until late in the race when Khamse Khamphan and Chavanel together were in a group that that got some distance. Not really notable except for the fact that Boonen and Cancellara weren’t in this group. Perhaps they are not as awake as expected.

Our duo stayed alert and where consistently in the first peloton group. When Vanmarcke went on the attack just before the Oude Kwaremont, Khamse Khamphan saw the danger of the attack and together with Sagan, Boonen and Cancellara they make up the new first group. Chavanel stays with the rest, spreading our options.

Vanmarcke tried multiple times to go solo but Khamse Khamphan wasn’t allowing him and was consistently on his wheel, consistently being on his wheel. The group Chavanel joined up with the Khamse Khamphan group, where Boonen later attack with Vanmarcke Khamse Khamphan, and Cancellara following. Chavanel tried to follow but he wasn’t able to stay on Cancellara’s wheel. He makes a group with Pedersen.

However when we entered the last 20 kilometers it became clear that Khamse Khamphan’s unexperience has caught up with him. He wasn’t able to follow Boonen/Vanmarcke/Cancellara but with Offredo he makes the 2nd group and would make out 4th-5th place, a fight in which Offredo would come out victorious. Chavanel used the same tactic as Offredo used against Khamse Khamphan and let Pedersen do all the work, to the same effect. We take a 5th and 6th place here.


Offredo beats Leo for 4th place


Gent – Wevelgem

Same squad as at E3, with one exception. Sylvain Chavanel starts in Criterium International and he’s replaced by Lamoisson, who also raced Dwars Door.

We spend no time trying to get in a breakaway and because of that, our race report doesn’t start until the peloton goes over the Kemmelberg. That’s where to first important move of the race happened Boonen, Vanderwalle and Cancellara got clear without any of our riders in range of following. This story continued throughout the race and if it wasn’t for Andrew Fenn (BMC) our race would have been over. He brought Khamse Khamphan back up to the leaders. However Leo fell into the same mistake and he soon found himself way behind again. He did caught up with a group before the finish but it only resulted in 16th place. Quite a disappointing final result to finish our Part 1 classics season that have been really good.

Khamse Khamphan being brought back to the leaders by Andrew Fenn (BMC)