Yeah, PCM knows to be very annoying often, but we still all loves it , do we?

Anyway, I'm happy with result from guys, as they're all still there + Andy has now chance to get 4th!

And, here we are, in front of the first UWT Spring Classic in this season - the almighty E3 Prijs Vlaanderen - Harelbeke. What can be said about it, except that it really is one of important races in our whole calendar, as we're (Spartacus precisely) trying to justify the name of 2013 champion. Let's hope Fabu will repeat that!




Talking about profiles, the guys knows these cobblestone sections very,very good. Firstly, they're passing throught the city of Brugge (KBK) and then the first real challenges are starting. After many short, steepy hills, riders head the Kapelberg and they have 5 more cobbles sections from that point. After that, Paterberg and Kwaremont, 2 probably most popular cobblestone sections in Belgium, are following as the real plot of this race. Knokteberg and Tiemeberg are 2 last COB sections and the race is going to be decided there, most likely. After that, riders have about 25 kilometers of flat, asphalt terrain before the race finishes. The route is great and it promises alot!

As this is first UWT classic of the season, what would you expect? All best cobblestone riders are here, including last years winner and our leader, Cancellara, Vanmarcke, Boonen, Stybar, Van Avermaet, Offredo and many others. It's surely going to be great race and perfect preview for what's coming in G-W, RvV and P-R later this season.



As this is one of most important races for the team and Fabian, we tried to bring strongest squad for this kind of terrain. Devolder, Roulston and Rast will be 3 main supporters of Fabian, while Styuven, Vandewalle, Hondo and Popovych will be used earlier in this race.



We're not planning to send anyone in attack, as we want to focus our all energy and strenght to Cancellara. Our goal is clearly defined and we'll give our all to achieve it. It will be very hard, we know it, but let's hope Swiss machine will once again left all others behind himself. That was all for this preview, see ya on the road.

DS of Trek FR - admirschleck

Thanks guys. I won't say anything now, read the report firstly!

Race is about to start, we're in hurry so I'm just going to say that we're well prepared and everything is ready for this event. Wish us luck, we'll definitely need it!




The break is, as that's usual on these type of classics, created early this morning and 6 guys were in front. Coquard is biggest name and best cobblestone rider here, which talks about how weak these guys are on this kind of terrain.



Just before first cobbles section today, Leberg, Nuyens, Rast and Iglinskiy made a move. We decided to change the tactic and send out 3rd best cobbles rider in front, so he can help Fabian later. Can be great tactic at the end.



They soon caught up with first group. Less than 100 kilometers to go now, they do have about 7 minutes of advantage. Everyone's going on relay turn, so this looks promising.



Not much after that, Luca Paolini saw that the guys succeeded to catch the group in front quickly, so he decides to tries his luck here. He makes a move and is on his own now!



Meanwhile, Cannondale set high pace in the peloton. Seems like there's no one else that wants the win so bad. They now halved the peloton and their plan is clear now - All for Sagan.



Guys from BOTD struggled to keep the pace of 3 newcomers in E1 group and slowly, one by one, they were dropping. 50 kilometers to go and only Coquard and Mangel are managing to stay with Nuyens/Rast and Iglinskiy trio.



Although they worked hard, the lead of breakaway group was slowly decreasing. Then, something expected happened. Boonen attacked on the downhill, just before Oude Kwaremont. Race can be decided here!



Cancellara, of course, couldn't just let that go and started chasing. 33 kilometers to go, riders finished all but 1 cobbled section and we're currently in most exciting part of the race.

E1 group	E2 group	E3 group	E4 group	P
Rast	Mangel	Boonen	Devolder	Sagan
Nuyens	Coquard	Paolini	Cancellara	Van Avermaet
Iglinskiy	Rest...			Vanmarcke

And finally, after few kilometers of chasing, Cancellara and Devolder managed to catch up with Boonen/Paolini group. Tommeke looks exhausted, while Devolder did the job for Fabian. Perfect situation for us.



After they merged, the guys suddenly stopped working. We definitely didn't want to chase Rast in front, neither Boonen want to exhaust himself even more. Sagan used that and joined that group. However, that didn't mean stop of the action, as young Slovakian attacked immediately.



Of course, no one would let that go and Devolder once again caught that. 8 kilometers to go now and this is situation.

E1	E2	P
Rast	Cancellara	Vanmarcke
	Boonen	Van Avermaet
	Sagan	Stybar
	...	...

Rast is still in lead and that makes Boonen and Sagan chase. Cancellara is just waiting behind, without burning his energy. What a great situation for us. It's basically win-win situation.



5 kilometers to go, Boonen and Sagan are giving their last atoms of power and energy to catch Rast. Swiss still has around 10 seconds of advantage. Cancellara is looking great behind and he's now waiting for his chance.



And ,after long and strong relays, E2 group somehow managed to catch Rast. But, Cancellara attacks in the same moment! He looks so, so powerful.



As the guys behind were too exhausted by chasing, they just gave up. Cancellara attacked 2 kilometers to go and there were absolutely no space for catching up with him again. Sprint behind started, Sagan is definitely and expectedly the best one there.



Meanwhile, few hundred of meters in front, Fabian Cancellara gets another classic win this season. It couldn't be better!



Rast was weakest in the sprint behind, while Devolder dropped. Both of them are heros of the day, for us!

1	Fabian Cancellara	Trek Factory Racing	4h51'52
2	Peter Sagan	Cannondale	s.t.
3	Tom Boonen	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	+ 42
4	Maxim Iglinskiy	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
5	Nick Nuyens	Garmin Sharp	s.t.
6	Grégory Rast	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
7	Jürgen Roelandts	Lotto Belisol	+ 1'45
8	Luca Paolini	Team Katusha	s.t.
9	Greg Van Avermaet	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
10	Lars Boom	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 2'22

And once again, Spartacus found his name in newspappers next morning. What a great feeling when the Swiss is main character in Belgian medias.



That was all for E3 Prijs Vlaanderen Harelbeke, see ya on Catalunya report and Gent - Wevelgem (very soon)!

Indeed, we had great plan that worked out really good at the end. Cancellara's now on 2/2 in UWT classics this season. Let's hope he'll continue this great streak and repeat what he did in 2013!

After 2 mountain stages, climbers in Catalunya have chance to rest a bit, before last challenge, the 6th stage. This stage is like made for successful breakaway attack, but if that doesn't happen - Van Poppel is in great form.




Ludvigsson, De Marchi, Rosa and Clarke decided to create a break group and try something from far way out. As none of them are threats for GC and peloton doesn't look interested in chasing them, they might even get the win here.



As nothing happened in big part of this race, between the attack of break and final few kilometers, we'll just skip it. 12 kilometers to go, breakaway is still in front and they have 1'21" advantage. They're now entering city of Girona, final destination.



5 kilometers to go and their advantage is around 40 seconds. It's getting clear that peloton won't catch them today and that the winner is one of them. Ludvigsson is trying to attack and use his TT abilities to keep in front. But can he really make it?



Nah, that wasn't really serious attack and De Marchi catches that easily. Sprint for the guys in front started and there was only one favourite here - Simon Clarke. At the end, he managed to take win in front of young boy from Giant and Alessandro De Marchi.



Only few seconds after peloton arrived to the finish line. Our main sprinter, van Poppel won the mass-sprint there. Shame this wasn't sprint for 1st position, but 5th is still pretty good.



We can be only satisfied with this result from Boy! Nothing changed in any other classification.

1	Simon Clarke	Orica GreenEdge	2h48'05
2	Tobias Ludvigsson	Team Giant - Shimano	s.t.
3	Alessandro De Marchi	Cannondale	s.t.
4	Diego Rosa	Androni Giocattoli	s.t.
5	Boy Van Poppel	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
6	Tony Gallopin	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
7	Ramunas Navardauskas	Garmin Sharp	s.t.
8	Ariel Maximiliano Richeze	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
9	Samuel Dumoulin	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
10	Julian Kern	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.

GC	Nairo Quintana [Movistar]	18h12'18
Points	Joaquim Rodriguez [Katusha]	83 points
KoM	Luis Leon Sanchez [Caja]	59 points
U25	Nairo Quintana [Movistar]	18h12'18
Team	Trek Factory Racing	54h44'40

Thanks guys, it couldn't really be better race for us. I am very satisfied with results so far, I hope this will continue!

And, last mountain stage in Catalunya and definitely last stage that can change something in final classifications is in front of us. We hope to move in GC a bit and get 2 guys in Top 5.




Few guys created an early breakaway with a clear target - winning the stage. Their names are Brambilla, Santaromita and once again, Rosa. Pretty good group for a mountain stage.



On the middle of first rated hill, Rui Costa, World Champion attacked to get some points. Somehow, peloton didn't want to chase him and that turned out to be 'real' attack. He realised that he has good chance here now and is setting good pace.



Somewhere on the middle of the stage, at around 65 kilometers to go, Costa joined first group. They still have big advantage and it looks like peloton's going to let them go.



Nothing really happened in peloton, so we're going to focus on first group. On the bottom of last hill, Costa was first to attack. Rosa and Santaromita were trying to follow that, while Brambilla calmly set the pace from his seat.



As that was expected, Costa easily made some advantage and he's now in lead 5 kilometers to go. Seems like Brambilla's tactic was superior, as he's 2nd currently.



At the same time, down the road, most of the guys started to drop off the peloton and only the strongest ones kept their places on the front. Porte is setting the pace and all the favourites, including our 4 guys Zoidl, Schleck, Kiserlovski and Zubeldia are there. No one makes a move.



In the meantime, Costa passed above the finish line and celebrated the win. Totally unexpected (definitely deserved), but I guess he'll take it.



Around a minute after, E2 group arrived. Quintana was clearly the fastest, while Schleck finished on 3rd place.



These 2 guys had so superior finish that they even made a gap. Kiserlovski, however, finished as 5th on this stage, today. Great result for us, once again.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Rui Costa	Lampre - Merida	3h41'38
2	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	+ 35
3	Andy Schleck	Trek Factory Racing	+ 53
4	Gianluca Brambilla	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	s.t.
5	Robert Kiserlovski	Trek Factory Racing	+ 1'09
6	Joaquím Rodríguez	Team Katusha	s.t.
7	Richie Porte	Team Sky	s.t.
8	Alberto Contador	Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
9	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
10	Bauke Mollema	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 1'24

GC

1	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	21h54'25
2	Joaquím Rodríguez	Team Katusha	+ 1'53
3	Alberto Contador	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 2'17
4	Andy Schleck	Trek Factory Racing	+ 2'45
5	Riccardo Zoidl	Trek Factory Racing	+ 3'20
6	Robert Kiserlovski	Trek Factory Racing	+ 3'30
7	Rui Costa	Lampre - Merida	+ 3'42
8	Daniel Moreno	Team Katusha	+ 4'09
9	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	+ 4'13
10	Daniel Martin	Garmin Sharp	+ 4'19

Points	Joaquim Rodriguez [Katusha]	93 points
KoM	Luis Leon Sanchez [Caja]	62 points
U25	Nairo Quintana [Movistar]	21h54'25
Team	Trek Factory Racing	65h53'00

Only 2 days after E3, Gent Wevelgem is on schedule of worlds best cobblers. Once again, we're in Belgium, basically the land of spring classics and cobblestones. Once again, we hope to get some good result here, just as we did in previous few classics. Wish us luck!




The route, opposites to every other spring classic, suits more to sprinters than to classic cobblestone riders and this race is known for that. Riders start in city of Ghent and finishes in Wevelgem, just as the race name says. Only more or less 2 serious cobblestone sections called Caselleberg (2 times) and Catseberg. Few steepy hills aswell, such as Kokeleberg, Baneberg, Monteberg, Kemmelberg - all in all alot of bergs. Once again, the route should suit more to some cobblestone-orientated sprinters than to classic cobblestone riders.

Startlist is, as it is expected, full of the top names of cycling. Boonen, Cancellara, Vanmarcke, Van Avermaet, Stybar, Terpstra are all here, but I really think they won't be main favourites for winning this. On another side, we do have some world-class sprinters such as Roelandts, Nizzolo, Greipel, Boasson Hagen, Bozic, Degenkolb. You can never know what's going to happen in this kind of races, but the sprint is most logical option with this competition.



As you probably noticed previously, we made few little changes in our squad here comparing to one that started in Harelbeke. Nizzolo and Sergent are names of these changes. Nizzolo is here with one clear goal - sprint if big group comes to finish together and Sergent is here to help with his TT abilities for chasing.



The rest of squad is same - Spartacus as well as Devolder, Rast, Roulston, Styuven and Hondo are here. As you can see, we have 2 options here - Cancellara and Nizzolo. We'll wait to see how is the race going and then decide who's going to be our leader. That was basically all for this preview, hope you enjoyed it. See ya soon.

DS of Trek FR - admirschleck

Thanks, guys!

Good weather! 14°C today here and it's clear, which promises great day of cycling today. Let's hope there will be alot of action and that Fabian or Giacomo are going to get the win here. We start in a minute, so bye. See ya after the race!




Huge breakaway group was created early, with some pretty strong names in it. Hondo is there, defending colours of Trek Factory Racing. He's in absolutely great shape, at the moment. If this gets to the finish line, he's definitely main favourite.




Riders in front got huge lead real quick and after 100 kilometers it was more than 10 minutes, which was bizzare for this big group and this kind of race. Will they really let them go like that? Anyways, somewhere around 100 kilometers to go 3 riders decided to join the breakaway. Their names are: Minard, Guarnieri and Tuft.



Suprisingly, they joined breakaway group after only 15-20 kilometers. And, once again, black hole in cycling. Nothing really happened between 133rd kilometer (100km to go) and 203rd kilometer (30km to go). Then, surprising and sneak attack from favourites. Boonen, Nuyens and Vanmarcke are there. Breakaway's still in lead.



25 kilometers to go this is situation on the road:

E1	E2	P
Hondo	Nuyens	Cancellara
Break...	Vanmarcke	Stybar
	Boonen	Greipel

Greipel and Roelandts quickly organises their guys and they starts chasing E2 group. Sergent and Styuven are chasing there for us, too. No one wants to let E2 & E1 group win this.



Guys in E2 struggled alot and tried to stay in front, but peloton was just stronger. Now, 10 kilometers to go and only few guys from break are still up there. Ignative attacked and he's in lead now. Brave move from a Russian!



Just few meters behind, 4 guys are trying to catch him. Their names are Kern, Hondo, de Weert and Veuchelen. They still have few tens of seconds advantage over peloton. And this is the situation right now:

E1	E2	P
Ignatiev	Hondo	Favourites
	Veuchelen
	Kern
	De Weert

5 kilometers to go and peloton finally caught E2 group. Now it's only Ignative versus peloton. The guy is really hero of the day.

And, after brave fight, at around 2 kilometers to go, Ignatiev couldn't really keep his pace up and gave up. Peloton caught him easily and they're now focusing on sprints. No way that anyone can make a sneaky move here, it's definitely sprinters race. Degenkolb, Nizzolo, Roelandts, Bozic are all there.



Most of the guys started sprinting early, while we waited for perfect moment. Cancellara was the final lead out for Giacomo. They're both on very top of the race and it looks great for us, so far. The sprint started!



5 guys are now in the line and, with 2 of them being guys from Trek Factory Racing. One of these 5 guys will most probably get the win here. This is the current situation:

Van Avermaet

Nizzolo

Stybar

Roelandts

Cancellara

Absolutely perfect sprint from Roelandts and Nizzolo and it was really close fight at the end, but thanks to peak of the form, Belgian took the win. We didn't have a chance to celebrate 3rd in a row classic, this time.



However, even in this bad form, Nizzolo got 2nd place, which is absolutely great. To make situation better, Spartacus had a great sprint here and finished as 3rd. Even when we miss the win, the Trek fill the podium like a boss!

1	Jürgen Roelandts	Lotto Belisol	5h25'35
2	Giacomo Nizzolo	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
3	Fabian Cancellara	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
4	Greg Van Avermaet	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
5	Zdenek Stybar	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	s.t.
6	Philippe Gilbert	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
7	Borut Božic	Astana Pro Team	+ 13
8	Matti Breschel	Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
9	Tom Boonen	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	s.t.
10	Sep Vanmarcke	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.

That was all for this Trek's coverage of Gent - Wevelgem, see ya on Ronde van Vlaanderen soon!

Indeed. Shame to see alot of viewers and comments disappear in this period where it gets more and more interesting, but nothing can be done against it.

The last stage of Volta Ciclista a Catalunya is in front of us. After tough 6 stages, riders are going downhill to the city of Barcelona, where the race will be finished.




Rainy day in Catalunya. 5 guys are in breakaway group, including our Julian Arredondo. He didn't feel good past few days and he lost some time in GC, but he's fresh once again and he tries something from a far way out. Fingers crossed for this brave move.



Just classic chasing in huge part of the race without any kind of sneaky attacks, so we'll just skip on last few kilometers. Group had a great lead in the middle of the stage and they're still somehow managing to keep it 5 kilometers to go. Arredondo decides to attack!



Julian kept his lead. Guys entered last kilometer and peloton is really close, but can they really catch breakaway of the day group? Arredondo still somehow manages to keep the overall lead.



What a close finish. Peloton caught up with the peloton, but they couldn't overtake them. That meant winner is someone from BOTD group, but who? It was Johnny Hoogerland at the end!



Really close sprint there. Gautier got 2nd place, while our Julian Arredondo finished as 3rd. Shame that young Colombian spent his all energy on late attack, but nothing can be done. Nothing changed in GC, which is the same as it was in previous stage.

1	Johnny Hoogerland	Androni Giocattoli	3h46'20
2	Cyril Gautier	Team Europcar	s.t.
3	Julian Arredondo	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
4	Cameron Wurf	Cannondale	s.t.
5	Ramunas Navardauskas	Garmin Sharp	s.t.
6	Samuel Dumoulin	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
7	Tosh Van der Sande	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
8	Ariel Maximiliano Richeze	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
9	Pim Ligthart	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
10	Aidis Kruopis	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.

GC	Nairo Quintana [Movistar]	25h40'45
Points	Joaquim Rodriguez [Katusha]	93 points
KoM	Luis Leon Sanchez [Caja]	62 points
U25	Nairo Quintana [Movistar]	25h40'45
Team	Trek Factory Racing	77h12'00

And, that was all for Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2014! See ya soon on the preview and report of Volta Limburg Classic, our next race.