The MG season started two days ago and the main race for the Continental division was the Cuban Clasico San Cristobal, a hard hilly race in which the strongest puncheurs of the division would have their first challenge.
With more or less 100 kms to go, our leader Fabio Taborre had a crash, but luckily he recovered and got into the peloton again and he was ready to fight for the win.
The first attack was made by the rider who was going to take the win finally, the MOL Hategeka.
Fabio Taborre was able to finally take the 5th place, just before a much better puncheur than he is, Dowsett.
After this first race, we can say we look at the future with hopes on our leaders and now we know Taborre is a real contender for the win or for good placings at least in the hilly races in CT!
Edited by MARSUPILAMI on 17-08-2016 10:42
Our second racing day was also a classic. Clasico San Cristobal was hilly but this second one was mainly flat. It was Great Ocean Road Classic in Australia.
We brought there the third main favourite for the win, and our main leader, Giacomo Nizzolo. Markus, Timofeev, Tempier, Dockx, Trusov, Vorontsov and Abdallah were the chosen ones to be the workers for the Italian.
Our guy Abdallah was one of the important names who got behind the pack in the first echelon, so it was one teammate less for Nizzy.
With 20k to go, we still had 4 guys to accompany Nizzolo in the peloton, They were Tempier, Timofeev, Markus and Trusov. In that moment, the Ticos Air cyclist Gonzalez was in a solo breakaway against the peloton.
The MOL B. King tried his luck but he got caught thanks to the amazing work of our rider and leader Nizzolo. Only 10 guys in the peloton with 5k to go!
After an agonic sprint, it was the Schuh Connolly who took the win and our leader, Giacomo Nizzolo, only could come 5th. After the race he recognised he did too much effort by catching B. King's attack, so it was a real shame.
We really hope our first wins can come soon. See you in Benelux Challenge!
Edited by MARSUPILAMI on 04-08-2016 15:47
After making our debut in Cuba and in Australia with the Clasico San Cristobal and Great Ocean Road Classic, we moved onto our next Challenge which was Benelux one. A race which had a bit of everything. Nervous stages, short hills, some cobbles...
We sent there some guys who could do good in all the terrains, but who weren't the top favourites at all. The 8 New Balance's there were Dockx, De Marchi, De Vreese, Lovik, Orlov, Poels, Taborre and Timofeev.
In the first four stages, we suffered as hell, looking how we failed with the sprinting train, with the cobbled leader and with the puncheurs.
But luckily our luck changed and in Stage 5, after a great job by De Vreese, catching the previous attackers of the day, De Marchi outsprinted everyone and got the first win of the team!
After failing for previous stages and GC I actually thought that win was much more than enough, but the next day, our sprinting leader for this race, Gert Dockx, took the win in the pan-flat stage against Manarelli.
This was awesome, really! In this race we took our two first wins of our history! We will remember this season's Benelux Challenge forever, and we hope this is just the first step for a great first season!
Edited by MARSUPILAMI on 17-08-2016 10:41
A strong race from your team in Benelux! De March is a great attacker who is well suited to this kind of attacks and I'm not really surprised that he won a stage this way.
Dockx' stage win surprised me a lot though. Hadn't noticed him before in the race and normally should not be the strongest which probably makes it even more enjoyable for you.
While Tour of Middle East was taking part (ToME will be covered in the next update), we also were in the startline of two classics.
The first one was in Belgium, Geraardsbergen-Bosberg, a pure hilly cobbled classic. We sent there our only northern classic man, De Vreese.
The race started and our rider Vorontsov was in the break. Unfortunately, that was going to be the nearest we would be of the leaders as when the top cobblers attacked, De Vreese was dropped with no chances.
The Chiquita Kenny De Haes would be the winner today. De Vreese ended up 21st.
The second classic I am going to talk about in this update is San Marino Hill Classic, which is obviously a pure hilly classic in San Marino (name gives all hints).
The most important thing of this race was the breakaway, with four riders who were going to fight for the win after a chaotic ride in the peloton.
And the Tico Morris Possoni took the win after being the strongest in the break. Our leader, Taborre, could only be 14th, which was a disappointing result after being 5th in his debut in Cuba.
Edited by MARSUPILAMI on 17-08-2016 10:40
So in March we faced one of the races we had in red in our calendar. The CT longest Tour. Tour of the Middle East!
And, what else, we sent there our best riders. De Marchi, Khripta and Iturria for climbing; Markus, Dockx, Trusov and Nizzolo for sprinting; and Orlov for breakaways.
First two stages were close to nothing for us. Both finished in a very similar way, as we saw the same guy, Simon Geschke, getting the win in both stages and our best rider was De Marchi, 16th in first stage and 15th in second.
Stage 3, and first break for New Balance. It was Orlov. This time the break was succesful (win was for Sarmiento), but Orlov wasn't strong enough this time. We hoped he could try again in the next days. Khripta came 10th in the sprint.
Mountains came with Stage 4, and it was the Carlsberg Garby who took the win after a great exhibition in the last climb. Our riders didn't disappoint and got two great results for us. De Marchi was 4th (7th in GC) and Khripta, 8th (10th in GC).
Stage 5 was the first flat one, and our main goal was winning with Nizzolo. Unfortunately, he started too early and despite the fact he was leading with 700 meters to go, he could only get 5th, with Dockx 6th as well.
In Stage 6 we had kind of the same problem. Nizzolo got 6th after being in the lead with 2 km to go... Things should start changing fast, because ToME was going nice in GC, but very bad in stages so far...
Here we are again with the 2nd half of the Tour of the Middle East.
So in Stage 7 we could see our loaned in rider Orlov in the break again, doing his job, which was already really good...
...specially when we saw he was leading wth 1 km to go...
Unfortunately for him, he was caught in the line... by his teammate Nizzolo who finally got his first win of the season! Great for us!
And, the next day we could see another New Balance in the early break, Iturria.
And yes, Iturria was dominating the break!
Finally, Jim from Kayak took the win. Khripta was 4th, Iturria 7th and De Marchi 10th. We kept the doubled Top 10, with 6th and 8th places of De Marchi and Khripta...
Xero and Salinas would be the next ones to take the win, in Stage 9. Unfortuanately, Orlov, Markus and Nizzolo had to abandon in that stage due to having missed the time cut... Bad news as we lost options with Nizzolo in flat stages... After this stage, we were 7th and 11th in GC with our guys... Losing positions and options wasn't too good.
Stage 10, and Garby won again. Fortunately for us, we didn't lose any positions in GC this time, which was good enough at this point of the race.
After a tough enough stage race, the riders faced a long Time Trial. The Tico De la Cruz took enough time on Garby so he was the provisional winner of ToME... And once again, De Marchi and Khripta kept their places in GC (7th and 11th).
Finally, in Stage 12, Löbauer Stadtwerke - Etixx took their third win of the race, thanks to Baska, coming from the break. GC didn't move, so that meant we got a Top 10 in GC, and an 11th place, plus a stage win from Nizzolo.
I can proudly say we did our homework in this race!
I didn't really want to write anything about this race, as we did close to nothing in it. I will say some things of each stage and that will be all.
Orlov being in the Stage 1 break was maybe the best we did in the whole race.
15th place in Stage 3 with Timofeev was too bad, but at least Markus got in the right break in Stage 5. Unluckily, he launched too bad the sprint he finsihed 4th...
2nd Top 10 came with De Vreese, getting 7th in Stage 6.
New break for Orlov in Stage 7 was the last highlight of New Balance in this race. We better forget about this race soon... and we better don't repeat these disappointments.
After "racing" in Ireland, we moved to New Zealand to take part in the Tour of Southland with a squad of Dockx, Iturria, Khripta, Lovik, Poels, Taborre, Tempier, Vorontsov, so we had chances in almost all terrains.
After a not worthy to mention 4.7 km prologue, in second stage, our sprinting leader for this race, Dockx, got 10th, which was expected from the Belgian.
In Stage 3, our 4th win of the season was definately too close, as Taborre came second in the Bluff Hill, only after Tiernan-Locke.
Stage 4 was another sprint with a worse result by Dockx who couldn't even Top 10 this time.
In Stage 5, the mountainous one, we got a double Top 15 with Tempier and Khripta, which wasn't too bad to be honest as they placed themselves in 9th and 10th places in GC.
Nothing to say about Stage 6, but something about 7, as we gained some places in GC. The time trial was won by Tennant (in the image), and the best fact was that Iturria (20th in GC before that stage) got to 8th in GC! Great jump which gave us a double Top 10. Tempier kept his 9th place and sadly Khripta could only be 12th.
But in general, a double Top 10 (plus another almost Top 10) and a 2nd place in a stage was far from being good although it could have been worse...
Edited by MARSUPILAMI on 17-09-2016 11:08
After some recent disappointments, we really hoped we could do good in Tour of Bulgaria. We sent there De Marchi, Poels, Iturria, Khripta, Vorontsov, Lovik, Trusov, Timofeev and this race was the first goal of the season. We had to take the KoM jersey and that wasn't going to be easy...
In Stage 1, Antón took the win and was the first leader of the race. Our guys did okay overall, and by the end of this stage we had 5 guys in Top 20, but none in Top 10, and that was a thing that should change.
Above you can see a picture of our team taking part in the Team Time Trial, in which we got 7th. Thanks to that, our best guys in GC were now 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th. We got some spots in GC but that wasn't enough.
In Stage 3, Chaabane won from the break and De Marchi, Khripta and Iturria kept their 9-11 places in GC. The worst was that we had no chances to win the KoM Jersey, so we were going to fail our goal.
In Stage 4, the break won again and this time it was the FOX Sports Gunman. In the peloton, the best was Krieger, and Trusov the 6th of that group, 13th of the stage.
And again, another break won in Stage 5, Öste-Macdonald beat all the riders in the break (including Vorontsov) and was strong enough to hold onto the win. Bad day for New Balance as in the end, De Marchi and Khripta could only be 11th and 12th in the GC, which means that our performance in this race is totally bad.
Good luck!
