Oz Cycling's third race in 2013 would be the Tour of South China Sea - part of the Asia Tour and therefore another important race for our team.

Most people had expected a mass-sprint here, while OZC had hopes for the rather tricky route (with a steep climb) leading to a surprising outcome. Eventually, this hopes should come true: a group of early escapees was joined by a group of late-attacking riders, including Oz's fighter William Ford and puncheur Giovanni Visconti: "Both sensed the weakness of the peloton and I'm glad that Visconti joined Ford's attack", said manager TS Moha. While both suffered a bit in the end, the group maintained their lead and saw two Ozzies finish within Top-10.

"William had a decent year in 2012 and I'm so happy to see him in good shape so early in this season. And Giovanni proves to be a good addition. He may not win too many races due to the heavy competition in PCT, but we definitely love to see his aggressive racing."

Visconti launched his attack late in the race, joining a group with teammate Ford.

Tour of South China Sea/

1	Tomas Vaitkus	airBaltic - Endura	3h31'47
2	Nariyuki Masuda	Japanese - Korean Cycling	s.t.
3	Phucong Sai-Udomsin	PFG-Armavia	s.t.
4	Kristian Dyrnes	Risa - Ergon Cycling Team	s.t.
5	Romain Feillu	Team BPost	s.t.
6	Tomohiro Kinoshita	Meiji - Cannondale	s.t.
7	Pieter Vanspeybrouck	Team BPost	s.t.
8	Giovanni Visconti	Oz Cycling Project	s.t.
9	William Ford	Oz Cycling Project	s.t.
10	Peter Kennaugh	Team Vueling Airlines	+ 2'04

Oz Cycling Project recently made it's only "visit" to ProTour with the TT Chrono des Herbiers. Our TT-world champion Michael Rogers was aiming for at least a podium there, heading a battle against defending champion Jerome Coppel and Simply Red Bull's Fabian Cancellara.

Things went well right from the start: Oz's Miles Olman and Michael Ford proved to be good TT-additions by eventually finishing 16th and 10th. A great result for Ford, entering the Top-10 here.

While Rogers couldn't compete with both Coppel and Cancellara, who took a significant win, his 3rd place (+ 53 seconds on winning time) is still a sign of strength: "I knew it would be one tough challenge here, but I'm glad to start my season with a podium in ProTour."



Chrone des Herbiers Final Result/

1	Fabian Cancellara	Simply Red Bull	1h05'01
2	Jerome Coppel	Milka - AVG	+ 21
3	Michael Rogers	Oz Cycling Project	+ 53
4	Jacob Fiedler	Koenigsegg	+ 1'06
5	Taylor Phinney	Wikipedia	+ 1'11
...
10	Michael Ford	Oz Cycling Project	+ 2'23

Oz Cycling entered another home race without high expectations: the Emerald Race didn't look like a perfect suit for our sprinter Damion Drapac, but as the race eventually ended with a mass-sprint, the team still had hopes for a decent finish.

But in the end, there's only one thing to say about Oz: team spirit. Our Mongolian fighter Sonomtseren Delgerbayer (known as one of Oz-manager's most favorite riders) crashed halfway through the race and 4 of 6 Ozzies decided to fall back and supporting their team mate (including Drapac's sprint-domestiques Jens Keukeleire and Tom Scully).

They didn't manage to bring him back though, eventually finishing more than 5 minutes behind the peloton, where Tiziano Dall'Antonia (Mobil-Castro) sprinted for victory and Oz's Drapac for 20th place. TS Moha: "While it's somehow cute to see a team spirit like that, we definitely expected some smarter tactics here..."

Emerald Race Results/

1	Tiziano Dall'Antonia	Mobil - Castrol Cycling	5h37'00
2	Blaise Sonnery	Evian-MIAT	+ 8
3	Arnaud Demare	Magna-Ryanair	s.t.
4	Manuel Belletti	Magna-Ryanair	s.t.
5	Leonardo Duque	Die Berg Komt Er	s.t.
...
20	Damion Drapac	Oz Cycling Project	s.t.

To be honest: we didn't expect to win this race, once the transfer season was over. But a sponsor-goal is a sponsor-goal and therefore Oz Cycling had to win the Gisborne GP in New Zealand. A tough goal, as several of the best PCT/CT-puncheurs subscribed for this race.

Things went well for our team right from start: Kin-San Wu (picture above) was the first to break clear and managed to be a part of the BOTD, which was eventually caught relatively early in the race though.

Anyway, Oz's riders continued to be aggressive: Simon Gerrans and Giovanni Visconti launched attacks late in the race. Especially Gerrans proved to be competitive by trying more than once. The top-favorites appeared to be too strong though, but our riders still did their best.

Gerrans launching his first attack on a descent: a first sign of what to be seen later in the race!

Pengda Jiao not only finished 7th, he also closed a gap to a group of top-favorites attacking. Our new addition proved to be a reliable rider when it comes to the hills. Matthew Lloyd finished 10th and our most aggressive riders Gerrans (16th) and Visconti (19th) completed a decent result.

Oz's were quite prominent in final sprint, while top-favorite Ginanni was already claiming his win 38 seconds ahead!

Gisborne GP Results/

1	Francesco Ginanni	Vespa-Aprilia Racing	5h52'42
2	Aleksandr Efimkin	Cisco Cycling Team	s.t.
3	Chris Froome	Jaguar - Eritel	s.t.
4	Tommy Zaini	Meiji - Cannondale	+ 38
5	Nicolas Roche	ING Cycling - Project	s.t.
6	Jérémy Roy	Alstom-RBC	s.t.
7	Pengda Jiao	Oz Cycling Project	s.t.
8	Patrik Sinkewitz	Team Vueling Airlines	s.t.
9	Fabio Taborre	Cisco Cycling Team	s.t.
10	Matthew Lloyd	Oz Cycling Project	s.t.
...
16	Simon Gerrans	Oz Cycling Project	s.t.
...
19	Giovanni Visconti	Oz Cycling Project	s.t.

French veteran Jean-Christophe Peraud made his debut for Oz Cycling at Le Tour de Langkawi and the team had hoped for a Top-10 or even a Top-5. Thanks to his decent all-round abilities, the route looked like a good fit, as the opening TT could have suit him better than some pure climbers here.

Peraud did well in the opening timetrial, raising Oz's hopes for a decent GC-position

The promising start with Peraud finishing 4th and Adrian Laidler 5th in the TT was just an exception for Oz, though. The team was pretty invisible in the flat stages and Peraud eventually lost almost 6 minutes in the decisive Genting-stage.. he did not even lose those minutes but also dropped outside the GC's Top-15.

Delgerbayar and his breakaway-companions Gyung Gu Jang and Moris Possoni, who eventually won this 8th stage out of this BOTD.

There were also some better news in the end: Peraud managed to grab a Top-5 in stage 7, which appeared to be selective and made him jump onto GC's 12th. And our fighter Sonomtseren Delgerbayar finished 3rd in stage 8, our first and only podium here in Langkawi, making it a total of 43 points for the Overall Rankings. Manager TS Moha: "Definitely a setback for Oz", which continues to score on low-average.

Tour de Langkawi Final GC/

1	Carlos Castaño	ING Cycling - Project	35h08'36
2	Maxim Iglinski	LukOil-Rostelekom	+ 11
3	José Serpa	Evian-MIAT	+ 54
4	Jianhua Ji	Meiji - Cannondale	+ 2'09
5	Vadim Ratiy	VolksWagen-Mapei	+ 2'35
...
12	Jean-Chris Peraud	Oz Cycling Project	+ 5'52
...
18	Roman Kilun	Oz Cycling Project	+ 11'24
...
25	Kin-San Wu	Oz Cycling Project	+ 17'05

Our loanee Jens Keukeleire just came back from Belgium, where he rode the Crits Series Profronden van Belgie, and just wants to express his feelings:

"Hey guys. Even though I couldn't score any points in the Crits Series, I have to say it was fun to meet so many of my Belgian friends there. The races were tough and fast. I spent some interesting hours with my teammates there (I was riding for Accent.jobs, with Klaas Sys being our best with 6 points). From my personal point of view, I now feel that I could have done slightly better in the sprints, to be honest. Finishing 16th in both flat races, well..

I really enjoyed the final day in Antwerp. I managed to be part of the break of the day, accompanied by overall winner Igor Abakoumov. Our group worked well and for a few moments it looked like we could reach the velodrome as the leading group. But in the end, the cobblers were too strong, but I loved the Northen Classic-feelings there.

My DS already said, that I may get the chance to race the dutch Crits as well, which would be great. It helps me getting better on the bike, as those fast circuit are really challenging."

3 is a magic number?! Well, for Oz Cycling Project 3 ain't the magic number, it's 6(7)-10-16.. a few weeks after Gisborne GP, where Jiao (7th), Lloyd (10th) and Gerrans (16th) did fairly well against the division's top-puncheurs, our team just managed to finish on the same positions in Olympia's Tour.



Timetrials were the key here in the Netherlands, as two stages featured the fight against the clock. Miles Olman (4th, 10th) and Michael Ford (5th, 2nd) did both well in those stages, even though we had hoped for a stage-win.. anyway, Michael Ford could have finished on podium, but lost minutes in final stage, the toughest of all seven.



So in the end, our team finished 6-10-16: Miles Olman (6th) did a good job securing his Top-10 in final stage, same goes for one of Oz's leaders William Ford (10th), who also grabbed the white jersey as best Young Rider. Alex Rasmussen (16th) refused to participate at the sprints, but had two decent TT's.. a pity that we had almost no chance in the five sprint-stages: Damion Drapac's best result was a 7th place in fourth stage.

Olympia's Tour Final GC/

1	Dominique Cornu	Team BPost	20h57'44
2	Maxime Vantomme	Rothaus - Aegon	+ 11
3	Dennis Van Winden	ING Cycling - Project	+ 19
4	Patrick Gretsch	AMEX Pro Cycling	+ 21
5	Andrew Tennant	Jaguar - Eritel	+ 23
6	Miles Olman	Oz Cycling Project	s.t.
7	Rick Flens	Die Berg Komt Er	+ 26
8	Ian Stannard	Jaguar - Eritel	+ 27
9	Michiel Elijzen	Team UPC	+ 29
10	William Ford	Oz Cycling Project	+ 34
...
16	Alex Rasmussen	Oz Cycling Project	+ 57
...
	William Ford

/ Ethan's diary #1 - Oz's stagiaire in Kuala Lumpur

Oz Cycling Project's future stagiaire Ethan Kimmince (Australia, 21 years) decided to give us some impressions from his semi-professional races in the first half of the season. He currently rides for Genesys Wealth Advisers, which participated at a 3-days-race in Kuala Lumpur just a few days ago:

"We raced three flat circuits in three days, so our sprinter Caleb Jones had some high ambitions. In the end, the races were pretty unpredictable though. I'm in good shape and tried my luck with a breakaway in first race."

Me attacking in the first race..

"Unfortunatelly, we (a group of 7 escapees) got caught close to the finish-line, but I still managed to sprint for a decent 15th position. Caleb didn't do too well, finishing 10th.. things got better on second day, where my teammate Shaun Higgerson attacked and his breakaway managed to stay clear til the end. He finished 4th."

Shaun and his breakaway-companions in second race. The bunch let them go eventually.

Nik Azwan Zulkifle (Huawei) took the win with Shaun sprinting for 4th.

"I somehow failed to join a break in final race. A pity, as a 4-men-group again managed to battle for the win. Me and my teammates tried to work in the bunch, but the lack of support made us suffering a bit. Caleb sprinted for 5th though."

That's our team trying to chase down an early breakaway group plus holding down several more attacks during the race.

Kuala Lumpur Semi-Pro-Race #1/

1	Shih Hsin Hsiao	ProTeam Merida	1h00'11
2	Yung-Jae Jeon	Fuji - Champion Korea	s.t.
3	Moha Umardi Rosdi	Huawei Malaysia	s.t.
...
15	Ethan Kimmince	Genesys Wealth Advisers	s.t.

Kuala Lumpur Semi-Pro-Race #2/

1	Nik Azwan Zulkifle	Huawei Malaysia	1h04'02
2	Hyeong Min Choe	Fuji - Champion Korea	s.t.
3	Fan Hsin Chu	Champion System Pro Cycling	s.t.
4	Shaun Higgerson	Genesys Wealth Advisers	s.t.

Kuala Lumpur Semi-Pro-Race #3/

1	Sea-Keong Loh	Huawei Malaysia	1h07'08
2	Amir Kolahdouz	Tabriz Petrochemical Team	s.t.
3	Hyeong Min Choe	Fuji - Champion Korea	s.t.

Michael Ford, Miles Olman and Wen Hao Li scored high in Oz Cycling's second C2-race this year, just as the whole team had been hoping for: while Ford/Olman went for 1-2, our Chinese prospect Li added a decent 7th, making the recent races (Windhoek, Olympia's Tour) a success for Oz.

Windhoek-reporter CountArach: "And was anyone else ever going to win today? Ford doesn’t just win, but he tears up the course and comes home in 56’33�, beating his teammate by 17� in the process."



"And it won’t just be him celebrating tonight. Oz Cycling get the 1-2 in the time trial, with Li also taking 7th."

Team's manager TS Moha was delighted with the "unholy trio's" performance: "That's more than we could have been asked for. Of course we hoped for a win and a podium, let's say 70 points or something. But Olman continues to surprise after his 6th in Olympia's Tour and Li just shows that he is going to be a decent teammate. He definitely has learned from his PT-experience at Team Festina."

Windhoek ITT Results/

1	Michael Ford	Oz Cycling Project	56'33
2	Miles Olman	Oz Cycling Project	+ 17
3	Rick Flens	Die Berg Komt Er	+ 36
4	Lieuwe Westra	Team Gazelle	+ 49
5	Kristof Goddaert	Team Gazelle	+ 56
...
7	Wen Hao Li	Oz Cycling Project	+ 1'04

After Oz Cycling's succesfull visit to Africa (with Michael Ford taking out the Windhoek ITT), it was time to keep collecting points for the Asian Tour and relegation battle. Our destination: Taiwan, where William Ford finished 3rd last year.

Things looked good with the first hilly stages raced: Matthew Lloyd sprinted for 3rd on third day and was in decent Top-10 position in GC. Also William Ford proved his strength once again, when he almost took the fifth stage with a great fighting spirit. He was beaten close before finish though.



Unfortunatelly, Lloyd couldn't hold on to his Top-10, when he lost valuable time in the last hilly stage. Simon Gerrans lost his Top-15 one day before.. so it became just another 11th (Visconti) and 12th (Lloyd) for Oz Cycling. Congrats to Efimkin and Cisco: a great tour they had.

Final GC Tour of Taiwan/

1	Aleksandr Efimkin	Cisco Cycling Team	19h48'44
2	Hassen Ben Nasser	Pivovarna Lasko Cycling Team	+ 52
3	Patrik Sinkewitz	Team Vueling Airlines	+ 1'00
4	Jérémy Roy	Alstom-RBC	+ 1'12
5	Francesco Ginanni	Vespa-Aprilia Racing	+ 1'25
...
11	Giovanni Visconti	Oz Cycling Project	+ 2'09
12	Matthew Lloyd	Oz Cycling Project	+ 2'36

[img-l]https://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x323/tsmoha/NRS_Kimmince_portrait_zps5854dae7.png[/img-l]Name/ Ethan Kimmince

Team/ Oz Cycling Development Team

Future/ Stagiaire Oz Cycling Project (PCT)

Born/ 22/6/1992

Strengths/ Hills, Fighter

Goal 2013/ Top-5 Bowden Elite Series

"Hi guys. I'm Ethan Kimmince and just like Jack Haig and Rhys Gillett, I'm going to write a diary through this new season.

As a young rider I am, I still have to learn quite a lot in this elite races I'm heading for this year. The NRS is a great series and so I was so happy to join this series with the new founded Oz Cycling farm team."



"Even though we have a rather small roster, I think we can do well in some races. Especially Ben Grenda already proved his speed and should be competitive in flat stages or classics. Also our Kiwi Cameron Karwowski is an intersting allrounder, you better watch out for him.

My personal schedule for 2013 is listed below. I'm looking forward to the NRS events, as I haven't raced in Australia last year. I will try to attack as much as possible, but my biggest goal is to finish within Top-5 in the season-concluding Bowden Series, a South Australian event."

April - July	National Road Series	Mersey Valley Tour
		Herald Sun Tour
		Tour of Toowoomba
		Adelaide Tour
		North Western Tour
Aug - Sept	Oz Cycling Project	Stagiaire
Oct - Jan	Bowden Elite Team Series	10 rounds

Mixed feelings in Australia after rather disappointing weeks in the ManGame: while some teams down in the rankings continued to shine (AMEX), Oz Cycling failed pretty hard in Tour of Vancouver, a premier class HC-event, won by Timofey Kritskiy (Tinkoff).

"We couldn't expect to win here, but of course we expected Michael (Rogers) to do better in the mountains, yes. Finishing 40th in GC ain't good enough!", raged manager Moha. At least: Michael Rogers won the final ITT. Our US boy Roman Kilun finished 35th in final GC - as best placed Oz.


Michael Ford finished 8th in final ITT - a rather disappointing result, as Oz Cycling at least wanted to score big in the timetrials in Vancouver.


Sonomtseren Delgerbayar continued to race aggressively, this time without any success though. But at least he got us a nice picture (thanks, Count!)..

Results Tour of Vancouver/

1	Timofey Kritskiy	Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC	23h01'11
2	Rein Taaramäe	Bouygues Telecom	+ 30
3	Jaroslav Popovych	Metinvest-Emirates	+ 1'21
4	Domenico Pozzovivo	Vespa-Aprilia Racing	+ 1'26
5	David Abal	Team CSC-Orbea	+ 3'06
...
35	Roman Kilun	Oz Cycling Project	+ 19'08

A few days later, way better news came in for Oz Cycling: Michael Rogers and Michael Ford (picture in the header) went to Luxembourg, where the Duo Differdange was held - a two-men-TT.

Our duo of one world champion and one Windhoek-TT-winner did pretty good, shaking off the pressure of being rated as the top-favourites and delivering in style, eventually securing a nice win for Oz ahead of ING (Zabriskie/Van Winden) and Bouygues (Martin/Mottin)! This points will be quite important for the team, which is expected to be found in relegation-battle again.

Results Duo Differdange/

1	Oz Cycling Project	1h08'09
2	ING Cycling - Project	+ 12
3	Bouygues Telecom	+ 37
4	Jaguar - Eritel	+ 54
5	Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim	+ 56