Ripley wrote:
The team is nothing without Noah, looking at the other results.

Lotto - Kern Haus decides to stay back in the pack today, hoping the Noah can do something on the stage with the late cobbled sectors. Two riders form the breakaway, that are easily controlled by the pack.

It is a very fast last 40 km in pouring rain and selection begins slowly reducing the leading group to about 30 riders. With about 4.5 km left a late attack from Jake Stewart Groupama - FDJ Continental forces Noah to accelerate. The leading group disintegrates.

At this point everyone is at their absolute limit and slows down a bit to regain some energy for the sprint, Moritz Plambeck comes to the front, just in time to open the sprint from pole position with 1.4 km left. No one fast enough to overtake the Lotto - Kern Haus rider and he wins the stage in front of Jake Stewart and Sébastien Grignard Lotto U23, Noah 4th.

Kim Heiduk first from Team Lotto - Kern Haus he would lose 1’17 today as 44th
Then Noah Takaima, having great legs Noah would only lose 37� finishing as 13th
Sven Zurawski also with a fine ride lost 54� as 22th
Finally Moritz Plambeck having a very bad day losing 1’33 finishing 64th of 75 riders at todays race.

With his good result in the ITT Noah finished 9th in GC as best from the team.

The race was won by Gleb Karpenko from Jumbo-Visma Development Team he also won the GC.

Points: Sébastien Grignard Lotto U23
KoM: Gauthier Navarro Groupama - FDJ Continental Team

After Le Triptyque des Monts et Chateaux Noah had no races until Liège–Bastogne–Liège U23 18/4.

He was allowed to take a plane home to Denmark visiting friend and family. On the surface Noah acted happy and satisfied, telling everyone about his races and the life in Germany.



When he was alone, riding on the many cycle friendly track in the Copenhagen area or walking mother’s dog at the coast or in the woods he felt lonely and had second thoughts about his life.

His friends often had new girlfriends, but he had little time in Germany finding new friends and besides Jan Kuhn, who was a very dear friend, he had little contact with young people outside of the cycling circus, not to mention girls.

Also the racing bothered him, training like mad to become a climber, seeming without much result, and even at his natural talent and passion the cobbles he had few good results….Yes he had some top 10’s, but…everyone wants to win not to be in top 10 and seeing little to no progress was demotivating…..but maybe he was just being silly, maybe time would change everything?...he was also missing that wonderful dog so much, when he was not here in Denmark.

Noah flew in last night and came to the headquarters early this morning to do performance test with Christian Henn, after the test he was having a 75 km training ride with the Liège–Bastogne–Liège squad. Now back at the headquarters a short break chatting with the other riders and then on to a meeting with Florian Monreal



A bit surprisingly also Henn was at the meeting, usually only Florian attended those talks about the coming calendar and race selections.

After the usual greetings and chit chat Christian Henn opening the meeting:
“The performance test we did this morning shows very good results compared to the last test we did Noah, you are improving in climbing, you punch is better, you keep a higher speed on the tempo bike over both short and long distance, and I also see some signs of better restitution. Most of what we need to make you a stronger stage racer.

But and there is a “but�. You also show clear signs of mental and physical fatigue, you are dedicated and that is great but with too many races and too intense training you will wear yourself out. I have talked with Florian about this and we have to cut down on both racing and training for a while, Florian will get back to that and I will leave you now. Keep up the great work but also look after yourself and take more time off.�

Noah was thinking that this all make a lot of sense, and was very happy with his good performance at the test bikes.

Christian Henn left and Florian Monreal took over the meeting.

Florian: “Although I understand and respect that you can’t race as mush as before, the schedule for the 2nd period of April was done some time ago, you will actually race quite a lot on those few days left after Tr. Città di S. Vendemiano that we already talked about on the last meeting, Florian hands over the papers with time table, route, profiles, etc.

Florian: "A nice selection of races for you, I’d say."




There will be no bonus in the adult races, but DirtySox got something for the U23 Race:
GC : Win €500 – Top 5 €200 – Top 10 €75
Stage: €250

Florian: “I can see that I have forgotten the papers about the May races in my car, will be right back……….�

Florian came back with a pile of roadmaps, timetables, technical guides and profiles for the entire may month. Sorting out the races that would be interesting for Noah and handing them over to Noah while giving a brief description of the races. Where it was, rider that he was expecting to include, last year winners, possible competitors and so on.

Florian finished the speech saying: “Classica Aldeias do Xisto you will race under all circumstances as usual DirtySox has some bonus as it is a U23 race without prize money:

Classica Aldeias do Xisto Bonus: Win €350 – Top 5 €175 – Top 10 €40�



Noah: Sounds great, time to test what my improved climbing can do in a U23 race.

Florian: “The remaining races will be split in two options you can chose from, either six race days in one day races with a cobbled focus:
As there is no prize money in Paris – Roubaix Espoirs again a good little bonus from DirtySox.

Paris – Roubaix Espoirs bonus: Win €500 – Top 5 €200 – Top 10 €75

In the other one-day races there is prize money but we still got some small bonuses from our sponsor TWXK.de

Adult one day races: Win €230 – Top 5 €110 – Top 10 €30�

Alternatively skip the one-day races and attend the Tour d'Azerbaidjan, a very diverse race with mountains, hills, flat and even a few cobblestones on the last day. Our sponsor BELL have donated some fine bonuses for this race.

Tour d'Azerbaidjan bonuses:
Win: €600, Top 5 €250, Top 10 €110
KoM/Points win: €110
Stage win: €110 – Stage Podium €30



Noah: "Dear oh dear! That was a hard choice, both options sound great."

Florian: "Think about it, just need your answer a few days before the end of April, now you have to excuse me, have the next rider coming in 5 minutes."

The morning breakaway formed into a group of 11 riders during the first 40 hectic kilometers of the race, strongest Mathieu Humbert from Lotto U23, otherwise a rather weak group. The breakaway lasted to Côte de Sprimont with 34 km left.

The pack reduced to 30 riders, with Noah Takaima the only one left from Lotto - Kern Haus as they climbed the next obstacle Côte De du Sart Tilman, with less than 20 km left.

Four strong punchers Thymen Arensman from SEG Racing Academy, Kevin Vermaerke Hagens Berman – Axeon, Marius Mayrhofer Development Team Sunweb and Jarrad Drizners Hagens Berman – Axeon made a late attack a few km prior to the finish line.

Noah attempted to counter and that was a mistake, he could not follow but lost most of what energy he had left to sprint.

Marius Mayrhofer won the race in front of Thymen Arensman and Steven Pattyn Lotto U23, Noah finished 22nd.


The was no bonuses or prize money for the team here.

Ripley wrote:
He'll learn from that.

12 riders made out the breakaway, no one standing out as particularly dangerous. They were caught at the last group of hills.

At the last passing of the very steep “Muro di Ca' del Poggio� Noah was isolated in a group of about 20 riders, with 12 km left.

A small group with Lotto - Kern Haus sprinter Leslie Lührs and teammate Frederik Raßmann came back in last minute to be part of the sprint.

Noah Takaima scarified himself for the teammates, burning what he had left to position the team and open the sprint, everything worked to perfecting and Leslie Lührs finished 4th, Frederik Raßmann 7th, both great results considering the opposition. Noah finished 11th.

Olav Kooij Jumbo-Visma Development Team won the race in front of Niklas Märkl Development Team Sunweb and Tom Van Vuchelen Wallonie-Bruxelles Development Team

This hard cobbled race was clearly a mouthful too much for Lotto - Kern Haus. All inexperienced in riding this amount of difficult stones.

Christian Koch went into the morning breakaway but soon was sitting in the pursuit.

About half way into the race Noah was isolated in the pack but soon also he had to let go and fall back to a group with Leslie Lührs and Christian Koch, the three Lotto - Kern Haus riders already 5’05� behind the stage leaders, with another 30 km to go.

Not much more to say about Lotto - Kern Haus race, they just lost more and more time.

The race was won by Jelle Mannaerts À BLOC CT in front of Fabian Lienhard Team Sapura Cycling and Jarno Mobach BEAT Cycling Club

Best from Lotto - Kern Haus Leslie Lührs 38th, Noah 40th.




The was no bonuses or prize money for the team here, but we can hope they learned something about minimizing losses in Northern Classics.

A huge breakaway of 17 riders formed over the first 30 km of the race, they got about 4 minutes quite fast, but the pack already reduced it to 2 minutes before the first cobbled sector still with 140 km left.

Over the next 100 km the pack kept the gap in the 2 minutes area and we saw riders from the breakaway crack one by one.

On the double cobbled sector about 50 km from the finish Leon Eduard Brescher had a puncture at a critical point of the race, he would not be able to help the leaders in the final. Left in the pack Lotto - Kern Haus has Jan Kuhn, Kim Heiduk, Christian Koch and Noah.

As the breakaway was over there was an attack from stronger cobblers over the last cobbled sector, this time the Lotto - Kern Haus leaders did not react but decided to await the situation, a good decision as the gap was closed, with only little effort from the team.

As we were getting close to the finish and Christian Koch was the better sprinter, Noah disregarded own ambitions and took the lead for the teammate.

Noah did everything right today, opening the sprint at the right moment and Christian rewarded his endeavors with a race win.

Clive Gavin Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling 2nd and Mikel Aristi Ssios Miogee Cycling Team 3rd, Noah finished 15th.

Ripley wrote:
...

I'll pick option A, otherwise he misses Paris-Roubaix Espoirs.