roturn wrote:
Wyss is having an excellent season so far and proves to be a brilliant signing.

Starting the month with mixed emotions... the last few stage race timetrials didn't went our way.
Anxious to avoid mistakes Windhoek ITT the race was already ill-fated.
Not surprisingly Michael Schär ended best as 8th, but much too slow to challenge the prime C2 riders.



At least Reto Hollenstein showed some confidence due to his good results in the near past. He finished well within our expectations.

Slim hopes for GP Oudenaarde . The combination of cobbles in a hilly environment somewhat suits
Michael Schär's merits, but sadly he is almost on his own to fight these kind of races.
No wonder we joined the brake...



...once again was Martin Kohler our guy in the front seat.
The group got caught and Michael Schär a puncture... time to satisfy with the fight for minor placings.

Ruta America del Sur could have been better.
We failed to make a strong appointment leaderwise. Matteo Montaguti was better placed after the prologue, but Marcel Wyss is the guy known to get things done.
Remained with minor GC results. However Armindo Fonseca...



...found a way to get his season started. The young Frenchman gave a first impression on what to expect from him in the future and grabbed two stage wins.

Another Frenchman stepped in when it counts at Tro-Bro Léon .
Stephané Poulhiès was lacking quality results, too...



...until he found his way into a group of nine. The breakaway survives and Stephané prevented us from a painful defeat.
Our leaders for this race: Steven Tronet and Michael Schär ended trailing.

A top 10 result at Tour de Bretagne was our first and maybe easiest goal of the season.
To secure it brought our two best punchers Marcel Wyss and Reto Hollenstein flanked by a strong team.
Armindo Fonseca was on his own in the sprints, but we couldn't deny him the participation in his home race.



Lead by Marcel (once again in attack mode) we prevailed. Summed up eight stage top 5's made this race a real success story.

Sent Michael Schär and Claudio Imhof to Duo Differdange .
The team timetrial race lacked attendance, so even it was C1 rated good scoring was inevitable.



But still a poor result was possible. Just didn't get last by the slimmest of all margins.
Aussie duo Ford and Rodgers managed to defend the title for Oz Cycling.

Istrian Spring Trophy marked the end of April.
The opening prologue shouldn't prevent Marcel Wyss from having another great race.



Flanked by a hard working team Marcel was able launch several attacks and create the needed gaps to let him climb the ladder.
Gracjan Lejman of FCB-Polska turned out best by winning the two key stages.

May kicked off with our seasons most important race in Germany.
We approved to end within the top 5 at Rund um den Eschborn-Frankfurt .
It turned out that we were well-prepared for every kind of race development, even a breakaway success.Young Remo Schuler was alert when a dangerous group was formed right from the beginning of the day.



He even felt strong enough to drop his breakaway companions before reaching the finishing straight, but was unfortunately caught.
Brave effort by him even if he jeopardized our top 5 goal.
Armindo Fonseca got second in the bunch sprint and confirmed his great mid-season shape.

Staying in Germany we next attended Criterium Hainleite .
Regarding our last cobbled-race results the expectations were accordingly low. But surprisingly Michael Schär showed his best pave appearance of this season.



He was able to follow the severe attack by the races favourites with only a few kilometres to go. This way Michael was able to keep some of the better sprinters behind and finished a respectable 9th.

Lincoln GP showed a comparable hilly-cobbled profile than Hainleite.
This time Stéphane Poulhiès made it into the brake and raised hopes to repeat his success at Bro-Leon.
Sadly he was caught early by the already singled out group of twenty best cobblers in the bunch, including Michael Schär.



In the final analysis Michael Schär missed the sprinting power and Stéphane Poulhiès hadn't enough energy left to compete for better results.
Race was won by early break survivor Aleksei Saramotins of Evonik.

The stop at Vuelta a la Comunidad de Madrid was already ill-omened when the profile was revealed.
Race plan was to get one in the break of the day and keep the rest assisting Remo Schuler to stay in the bunch as long as he can.



Andrea Manfredi once again proved that he'll the guy to watch out the coming years and earned some TV time. The break got caught way to early and ONCE-Eroski took over with a dominant performance.
Remo Schuler missed ranking points by the smallest of all margins and ended 31th.

Half of the team was sent to the American east-coast. Near Philadelphia the annual Bucks County Classic took place.
Many talented CT-sprinters made the trip and Armindo Fonseca among them.



In a heartbeat final the break was captured on literally the last kilometre. Tyler Farrar (Azteca) took the home win and Fonseca satisfied with his fourth place.
Race was accomplished by Martin Kohler and Stéphane Poulhiès ending well in the top 20th.

The rest of the group stayed in the old world to attend GP Onda-Boavista .
What was planned as another opportunity for Marcel Wyss to compete on PCT-level turned out a stunning battle by our veteran Pirmin Lang. Being in the early break he kept his reserves well to even launch an attack with 20 km to go...



...that was neutralized soon after. When the break was caught on the last hill there was nothing left in the tank, but just the few very best punchers in the race were able to catch up.
Totally exhausted Pirmin has to settle for 11th. Still, Portugal was worth visiting, again.

First stop of the month was at Vuelta Guatemala .
The best calculations made our GC guys Reto Hollenstein and Matteo Montaguti gain time in the hills on the pure climbers. Activity was okay and resulted into several top 10 stage finishes, but no gaps far and wide.



Lukas Flückiger secured the best stage outcome by taking the podium on stage 7. While the GC-challenge failed with a 20th spot by Montaguti as our best.

Another Iberian race followed with the Barcelona Classic .
When Armindo Fonseca was signaling he might not have the legs for the sprint...



...Martin Kohler decided to go on his own and bridge the gap to the remaining breakaway riders. With less than 1 km to go he was caught; so finally another puny harvest.

Ahead lied our seasons win goal at Oberösterreichrundfahrt .
Both our leaders: Marcel Wyss and Reto Hollenstein attended to make us unswayable as far as possible.
No doubt the final stage would be the climax:



In the end we missed the decisive move by a group of outside favorites around later winner Perikles Ilias.
Reto Hollenstein made it in the next group and secured (at least) a 6th place in the overall.

At Tour d'Algerie some of the best CT-sprinters met to battle for the win... and Armindo Fonseca was right among them.



With a podium on stage 4 valuable bonus seconds were secured, but surprisingly a successful break on the first day sealed the deal for the GC.
Ruben Fernandez of Euskaltel caught the managers sleeping.

Premiere race in Armenia at ACA CycleVanadzor .
The hilly circuit outside Jerewan should work in our favor.



With one lap to go Marcel Wyss launched the key attack of the race.
Time to celebrate Vontobels first classic victory.

Next chance to improve in the Asia tour ranking was at Tour d'Indonesia .
Remo Schuler staggers us with a second place on the opening stage...



Summed up we collected seven stage top 10th by five different riders. Overall best was Reto Hollenstein as 5th.
Once again the trophy was stolen by an Euskaltel breakaway win. Julian David Arredondo was the lucky feller.

Cigar City Brewing Twilight GP was our last and maybe easiest cobbled race of the season.
Armindo Fonseca came to the decision he would be chanceless in a bunch sprint and tried his luck in the daily break.



The escapees were first caught by a small group of attacking favourites. One of them (Kenny De Haes of Risa - Ergon) came out as winner while Steven Tronet sprinted to a 6th place and provides us a positive start in August.

With lots of optimism we made another trip to Germany. Bayern Rundfahrt should turn out the most challenging, not only because of it's C1 status.
We hoped for more activity...



...however Claudio Imhof made it into a breakaway.
Reto Hollenstein and Matteo Montaguti couldn't take an advantage in TT or the hilly stage and barely achieve top 20th.

GP Tokyo is with 262 km the longest Continental Tour race of the season.
The mainly flat profile should suit Armindo Fonseca, who is endued with great stamina, too.



He found himself in the midst of the fastest men closing in to the finish line. At this point the race was already won by fellow Swissman David Vitoria (Maloja). The 7th place by Armindo was satisfying nonetheless.

With our best sprinter busy in Japan, GP Ouest France - Plouay was at first instance the hunt for a breakaway spot.
Remo Schuler did the job finding himself in a promising eleven rider group...



..., but the chasing PCT teams left nothing to chance.
Jonathan Bellis of RBC Pro Cycling turned out to be the best under difficult weather conditions and we left France empty-handed for the first time.

Tour de l'Avenir was planned as a perfect opportunity to spotlight cyclings greatest talents.
We built a Vontobel-Alps merger joined by teams of every division.
Was a grand honour and turned out a success in sporting terms as well.



Stefan Küng got second on the final stage and climbed to the 9th overall.
Michel Koch stood out with his consistency (10th in GC), though each of the merger did his share to the stunning second place in team ranking.

#	Name	Team	loaned to
9th	Stefan Küng	Sauber Petronas	Swisscom UBS
10th	Michel Koch	Evonik - Signal Iduna	RBC Pro Cycling
39th	Andrea Manfredi	Team Vontobel
59th	Matej Mohoric	Project 1t4i	Team Hornbach
60th	Maximillian Schachmann	Rothaus - Aegon	ONCE-Eroski Cycling Team
64th	Théry Schir	Team Vontobel
115th	Simon Pellaud	Team Vontobel
153th	Gabriel Chavanne	Sauber Petronas
171th	Jan Polanc	Allianz-BMW

Team Vontobel wrote:

Dear Eidgenossen,

the cycling season almost come to an end, but there is one date of utmost importance left:

Schwizer, chunnch na Züri!
Schweizer, kommt nach Züri!
Suisse, vient à Züri!
Svizzera, vient a Züri!
Civis Helvetica, venit ad Züri!

The upcoming Züri Metzgete will decide about weal and woe of the premier season for Team Vontobel.
We need all the support we can get from you to suceed in this race through our beautiful homeland.
This is also a call to honour all the great tour athletes for their suffering and devotion along the year.

See you at Züri,
Team Vontobel

Bushwackers wrote:
Congratulations on a great year Margh, 5th is a very nice result. I guess with both you and sammy promoting, the bidding wars for Swiss riders will be significantly more intense this time around

See you at Swiss Nats!

Edit: Confused Sauber with Vontobel

sammyt93 wrote:


I think that's something you can definitely count on unless a lot of talking goes on behind the scenes between the three of us come transfer season as we should be able to fight a lot harder for them this season.

Herald Sun Tour would be our last effort to turn the Asia Tour rankings in our favor.
Reto Hollenstein as the best puncher we sent struggled in the short timetrial.



Martin Kohler took advantage of the absence of leadership and showcased his skills. Eventually many good stage results can't recompense the points we missed to make the team goal.

A strong starting field was waiting at Grand Prix de Montreal .
Mendes, Geschke and Tiernan-Locke were willing to battle Marcel Wyss...



..., but it was Kirill Pozdnyakov of Ameriabank who outsmarted the favorites while they're watching each other.
The podium by Marcel Wyss is a nice achievement nonetheless.

Cauberg Classic was attended by almost the same opponents as in Montreal.
Reto Hollenstein took his liberties to launch several attacks to make up for his disappointing Herald Sun performance.



He made it into a promising group, but spent to much energy doing so and falls behind in the final.
Marcel Wyss made it to a barely satisfying 7th due to his more economically riding.

Milano – Torino was one of the late classics we chose to honour Matteo Montaguti and our Italien partners and supporters.
As this years calender didn't provide CT races in Italy we needed to take our chances in the C1 races.



Pirmin Lang made it into the break, but the favourites left nothing to chance. Chris Froome of Quickstep gained the victory.

Desperately looking for ranking points at GP Yekaterinburg as the Continental Tour goes into it's final phase.
The riders faced another typical, rainy autumn day. Getting to climax Marcel Wyss punctures and the team had to work hard to bring him back before the final action starts.



Marcel had power to go with the attacks a cut the losses. It could have been better, but the fourth place is still something to be satisfied with.

Giro dell'Emilia features sunshine and an almost invisible Vontobel team.
Matteo Montaguti tried to stay as long as possible with the better punchers...



… but was seen when Johnny Hoogerland (Swedbank) crashed. Matteo stated he was already exhausted when the action started, though happy he was in the lead when the bunch left Bologna to wave his friends and family.

The season finale at Züri Metzgete was planned as a gala day for Team Vontobel and Swiss cycling.
The situation got tricky when a strong brake of eleven applies a lot of pressure to the remaining squads. When the gap was closed Marcel Wyss launched his attack... which turned out crucial.



Winning the home race less than 5km away from Vontobel headquarters was the perfect ending for the season. Promotion ensured, Worlds and NC's ahead.

Great U23 Road Race by the attending Vontobel young stars. Théry Schir and Andrea Manfredi (our only non-Swiss contender at the Championships) made it into the 13-men-break.



The group got caught just a little late yielding in a sensational result:
Young Andrea Manfredi didn't score a ranking point the whole season, but was able to apply what he has learned the year, today.

The Team Time Trial was a nice opportunity to learn from the best. Lead by Swiss legend Fabian Cancellara the squad hits the 40 km parcours.



Michael Schär, Reto Hollenstein and Claudio Imhof with a modest contribution. 12th is barely mediocre, though good enough to justify the invitation to the A-Worlds.

The Elite's Individual Time Trial features our best Michael Schär to accompany Fabian Cancellara.
Missing consistency was an issue the season, unfortunately he caught a weaker day.

Five Vontobel riders joins the Switzerland squad in the Hamilton Elite's Road Race.
Unlike the U23 Race the best sprinting nations left nothing to chance.
The Swiss team had to be content with the outcome, though a little more activity wouldn't have hurt.

The Swiss Nationals Road Race were held in the Alps. Without a decent climber we were looking for good fortune in the break...



...Remo Schuler and Pirmin Lang heard the call and an exciting race developed. When the band began to play the expected favourites took care of business.


A better team performance was expected at the Time Trial. There were no doubt in Fabian Cancellara winning the competition, but the fight for the runner-up title raised hopes. Sadly Michael Schär just made to the minimum goal and became third.

The French Road Race features a difficult parcours in favour of the best punchers.
Stéphane Poulhiès finished as our only rider within the time limit. Was a quiet race from him as he was busily engaged staying with the peleton.


The Time Trial showed a much better Vontobel performance, though others claimed the victory.

In the Italian Road Race the sprinters were expected to compete for the championship.
They did! Ivano Lo Cicero (Meiji – Cannondale) was the fastest.


The Time Trial granted us much better results. Adrian Malori of Good Energy with the commanding victory.

Final CT standing

Team goals reviewed

Marcel Wyss is “two time�

One main reason for promoting is Marcel Wyss' performance all over the year.
He secured both our classic wins in Armenia and Züri.
For the two Vontobel stage race victories the credits belong to him, too.
In Rwanda Marcel was responsible for the first two stage wins.



He ended his almost perfect season as second best rider in the Continental Tour ranking.

Martin Kohler provided steady contributions the expired year.


Skimming through the season results (spoilers of post #4) you can't find a race he failed us. The contrary is the case. A long list of top30 results carve his way:


...plus 21 stage top30

Martin might have been the piece in the puzzle we needed to turn a good into a great Vontobel season.

With the season concluding it's about time for the tough decisions.
It seems fair to inform the riders a soon as possible when the call is made not to extend their contract.
Stéphane Poulhiès and Lukas Flückiger won't join the 2015 contract negotiations.
They'll get our recommendations and most certainly enhance any newly founded CT-team smart enough to sign them.

Stéphane Poulhiès is a 76-sprinter, born 26.06.1985 in Albi.
Best 2014 result: 6th at Tro-Bro Léon (C2HC)

Lukas Flückiger is a 72-puncher often seen in breakaways. He's 30 and from Ochlenberg (Bernese country).
Best 2014 result: Podium in stage of Vuelta Guatemala (C2HC)