As usual we've brought a strong sprint train and some good time-trialists. Not really worth going into more depth. Sam and Svein are here for the TT and the rest are here for the sprint.

Wow! So much has happened in so little time! In case you couldn't keep up with all the excitement, here's how the first part of our season went.





The first day of the season for us, with Allan Davis claiming a solid 10th place.



The first day of the GC battle saw Pieter finish in 8th and Diego in 22nd.




Durbo was one of the pre-stage favourites, and he set off early to set the benchmark time of 24'28.


Diego ended up in 10th at 30" to move up to 14th in the GC.


Meanwhile, Pieter got off to a great start, with the 4th best time at the checkpoint. Unfortunately he couldn't quite keep it going, but he still moved up to 6th overall with a 15th place on the day.




After going with the first attacks on this, the queen stage of the tour, Pieter stayed up with the very front favourites.

In the end he finished 9th, and moved to 4th in the GC.




Winner Anacona got into the break for us today, with most wins so far coming from the early attackers' group.


He attacked with 15km to go with Pomoshnikov. A chance?


The favourites also went for it, and Diego followed. He wasn't waiting for Pieter, and we didn't mind that. He ended up 12th, with Winner in 8th and Pieter in 14th. This brought Diego into overall 10th, and put us top of the team ranking.




Not to be outdone by Winner, Davide Cimolai finished 10th on the last stage. We ended up with Pieter in 4th at 2'22, Diego 10th at 7'25 and Winner in 14th at 8'28. This had us first in the team ranking. Great stuff!

Santos Tour Down Under

Unfortunately Gerro was the only one in condition to sprint for the win. This saw him finish in 9th.




In just his 2nd professional outing, Caleb Ewan went up in the break.


After winning every sprint and mountain point en route, Caleb attacked with 27km to go. Not bad for a youngster.


A great effort but not quite Gerro. A round of applause though for such a young guy for holding off the peloton until 7.5km out from the line.

Eventually Gerro came in 7th, going to 9th in the GC.




Now into the GC stuff, Simon kept going to the front. He stayed with the top guys, obivously going for the GC win we wanted.


He finished in 8th and moved to 6th overall.




With Old Willunga up the road, Clarkey went in the break to give us an advantage.


Gerro went up the road with Vichot and Schroder. He was the best placed out of them in the GC.


He ended up with Vichot alone. If one of them won, then they'd lead the GC.


Out of them our man was easily the strongest, but unfortunately people were coming from behind.


Cadel decided to attack late on, but it wasn't exactly too useful.


Gasparotto got through! This wasn't good, but Gerro was still trying to stay close for the GC placing.


Eventually our man finished 2nd, but it wasn't enough to take the Okre Jersey, which went to Alex Kristoff by just 10 seconds.




Gerro finished 6th here and 2nd in the GC to save our blushes. But a horrendously embarassing performance by everyone else invlolved for us.

Tour of Qatar

We were in a great position before the sprint with 2 riders leading out Gossy at the front. However, there was a big queue forming behind him.


He was leading under the banner! A perfect start?


Not quite, but 3rd place was still nice. Leigh also finished 8th.




Once again Gossy finished 3rd in the peloton, but with Roulston winning from the break it was only good enough for 4th. Leigh also came through in 6th after a very good leadout.



A time trial where Svein finished 8th.




This time 2nd in the peloton, but with a breakaway win it just ended up in a 9th place.




A good position to finish 2nd for once, but could Gossy do it?


Not quite, but 3rd was still nice with Michael Matthews finally showing up in 9th.




We continued our good positioning thoughout the tour right up into the last stage, with Gossy settling in behind the FDJ train.


This resulted in him being one of the 5 to contest for the win, with Leigh and Michael keeping an eye on things behind.


Still all to play for with 600m to go...


Cavendish took the win but finally Matty crept into the top 2 by out-pacing Kawasaki. Michael and Leigh also finished in 7th and 8th respectively, but unfortunately due to the time trial there was no overall Top 10 for us.



Unfortunately nothing for us in this race. Gerro and Pieter made the first selection, but Simon could only get home in 13th after a 2nd place last year in the race by now-BMC man Michael Albasini, who by the way finished 26th.