Classico San Cristobal

10.01

C2

Goal: Top 10

One-day race

As one part of the squad kicked off their season in Australia, another went to Cuba for the Classico San Cristobal which signals the start of the season for many CT teams. A first visit here for Swisslion as they skipped the race last year.

A breakaway of 5 riders formed quickly with no Swisslion riders in it. Teams Euskaltel and Equinor controlled the peloton. They did so successfully as they caught the breakaway well before the finish.



The pace continued to ratchet up and unfortunetely Swisslion's leader Pibernik lost contact with the main group. A group of 7 riders broke free 1.5 km to the finish, it was clear they will dispute for victory. Among them the strongest is Estaban Chaves who finishes in front of Siskevicius, while Rui Costa rounds out the podium.

Down Under Classic

10.01

HC

Goal: Top 10

One-day race

First race as a PCT team for Swisslion this season in Melbourne, Australia. A 75,3 kms flat circuit race. As expected the weather was beautiful with not much wind in sight.

The race kicked off with young debutant Matic Groselj joining Rodrigues in the breakaway. Quite a few riders wanted to follow and join the two escapees, but the short length of race made it difficult for riders to come across.



Matic was clearly having a good day as he left Rodrigues behind with about 34km to go, but alas the young time-trialer's lone adventure came to an end 14km later, as the peloton caught up.



The nervousness in the peloton was rising as was the tempo. Trains started to form for every team's chosen sprinter. A few riders tried with a late attack to surprise the peloton. It was not to be, as every attack was thwarted.

Europcar managed the best train as they lead in the finish for Ivano Lo Cicero. But that backfired as Lo Cicero could not hold the wheel of main leadout man Modolo. It became a disjointed sprint where Delvaux's Guarnieri was strongest as he took the win.



Swisslion's own Gerald Ciolek was slightly too far back to reach the front. He finished 8th in his first race. Luka Mezgec added a few more points for finishing 21st.

Tour Down Under

14.01 - 19.01

C1

Goals: GC Top 10; 2x Stage Top 3

First stage of the Tour Down Under started with a rather long hill climb. A relatively short stage of about 140 km in total. 5 riders formed the break of the day including Swisslion's young neo pro Michael Christodoulos. Michael fought for the 1st intermediate sprint of the day, finishing 2nd.



Michael didn't have the legs for the next sprint, but came back to fight for the lone KOM finish of the stage, that meaning the leader would take the KOM jersey. It was a close fight between two Cypriots, unfortunetely Michael just missed out.



Meanwhile the peloton was going faster and faster and caught the breakaway just under 6 km from the finish. It was a messy sprint where Degenkolb showed his class to take the win. Guarnieri and Zabel rounded out the podium.

Ciolek wasn't quite at the front and only finished in 8th place. Christodoulos finished 2nd in both the KOM classification and U25 classification, narrowly missing out on both jersey's.



A similar length of stage on day 2. 150 km of mostly pan flat roads, so another chance for the sprinters. The breakaway took awhile to establish and did not last long, as the peloton swallowed them up with 56 km to go. That meant there was one intermediate left for the main sprinters. Ciolek gained a bonus second.



Europcar formed a train for Lo Cicero in last few km's, Guarnieri was also up front. A lot of the other sprinters were a bit back, but the front guys ended up going to early. Ciolek with some good readjusting made it on to the wheel of Holloway, who ended up taking the victory. Manninen 2nd and Ciolek 3rd.





Another shorter stage, but with the Corkscrew climb near the end, a chance for the puncheurs to take over the GC places. An early breakaway formed and with Corkscrew being the only KOM of the day, there was not much for the riders to fight for. The peloton caught the escapees way before the climb.



As soon as the climb started Bellis launched the first attack, Gautier followed. And soon after attacked, opening up a gap to all the other favourites. A select group chased Gautier with the main sprinters lagging. In the end Gautier held off everyone for the win. The chasers group including Bilbao were afforded the same though. Ciolek finished in the 3rd group 1'04 behind the winner.





Short stage of 130km and it was another chance for the sprinters again. A 5 man breakaway was established over the lone KOM. Fasting forward to the aforemetioned breakaway, they got caught 8km from the finish. Europcar and Iberia were up front for Lo Cicero and Degenkolb.



The leadout for Degenkolb and Lo Cicero did their jobs, putting them both in a great position. Ciolek, Vanderbiest and Zabel were the other sprinters who managed to tag behind them. It was 5-way battle royal to the finish, it needed a photo finish to declare the winner.



Gerald Ciolek had won it! It was as tight as it gets, but it's the 1st victory for Swisslion in the PCT ranks. With the win Ciolek moved up  to 14th in GC.



Stage 5 with Willunga Hill was always going to shape the final GC. The only saving grace for the sprinters was, that the stage didn't end at the top and there was a descent to the finish. How did it unfold?



6 riders in the breakaway with mainly Kulczyk and Swisslion working on the front of the peloton. The breakaway's advatange was less than a minute with Iberia leading their leader Degenkolb into the climb. Surprisingly no attacks on the climb, Iberia kept a steady pace with the last escapee being caught just after the summit of the climb. As a result it was Holloway who then attacked over the top.



Holloway's move was neutralised 3km from the finish, to set up a sprint finish for the bunch. Degenkolb was the strongest to win the stage, making sure all that work from his teammates didn't go to waste. For Swisslion it was Kreder 10th, Bilbao 16th and Ciolek managed to stay in the front group to protect his GC placing.



The last and shortest stage, pan flat 90 km, but with only 1 second between 1st and 2nd in GC, there was still a lot to be decided. A decent sized break was formed, but their advantage was never allowed to extend and they were gobbled up by the peloton comfortably before the finish.



It was a messy sprint with only Delvaux and Europcar providing leadout for Guarnieri and Lo Cicero. It didn't help though as Holloway expertly positioned himself behind the aforementioned to take another stage win. In fact with Degenkolb way behind, Holloway won the GC as well, with Borges and Gautier rounding out the podium. For Swisslion it was Bilbao 11th and Ciolek 14th in GC.

Tour of East Java

28.01 - 29.01

PTHC

Goals: GC Top 10; Stage Top 3

There was a short and flat stage to start this race, the 1st PTHC race of season. Some strong sprinters travelled to Java to contest this stage which would not represent just a good stage win, but also almost guaranteed the points jersey in the end. Some interesting names entered the early breakaway, none more so than Kulczyk's Vakoc, who managed to snag the only KOM pts and jersey.



Lots of strong crosswinds were present in the latter part of the stage. The peloton split into many groups with some big riders missing at the front. The breakaway was caught with 7 km to go and with the wind subsiding everyone was able to rejoin the bunch.



What followed was a disjointed sprint with Degenkolb and Guardini kicking of the sprint. Goss what the only sprinter able to latch onto their wheels with rest slightly behind out of position. That proved to be key as Goos was able to pass Degenkolb for the win, with Drapac finishing a strong 3rd. Ciolek was 7th for Swisslion.



Stage 2, still rather short with 132 km, but with 3 hills a cat 1 climb followed by a short descent and a kick up to the line. Well it was a profile that will always attract some great climbers to the race. Nine men formed the early breakaway featuring some talented riders like Reichenbach and Warbasse. Swisslion was represented by loanee Scotson and Beltran's top domestique Petrovski.



Petrovski contested the cat 3 KOM and came in 2nd. Scotson was caught by the peloton with 25 km to go, with Petrovski hanging on for just 4 km more. Gazzele set the tempo on cat 1 climb for Madrazo while Tenorio, Martin and Beltran are also present near the front. The peloton slowly shrunk in size as the riders crested the KOM point.



38 riders approached the last steep 1.5 km to the finish. The big names were at the front with Formolo leading Madrazo, Kudus leading Alarcon and Brambilla setting up Dombrowski. Martin and Beltran were also there, with Beltran moving to the front opening the tiniest of gaps.



It was nip and tuck throughout the final. Madrazo and Kritskiy looked like they were gaining ground, but it was simply not enough. The finish line came too quickly for everyone but Beltran, who took a surprising yet fantastic stage win and with it the overall as well. Madrazo and Kritskiy rounded out the podium.



An absolute dream start in the team's debut PTHC race. Beltran's stage win, overall win, shared points jersey and 2nd place in the KOM standings, meant a massive haul of points scored for Swisslion in the first month of the season.

Tour of the Middle East

05.02 - 08.02

HC

Goals: GC Top 10; Stage win(s)

Sprinter's stage to start things off. Pibernik join the breakaway that consisted only 4 riders. To his best abilities he fought for the intermediate sprint points, but was only able to manage 2nd, 3rd and 3rd for a total of 8 points.



The catch was made only 2 km from the finish line, so no time for sprint trains to get organised. Jonas Ahlstrand proved strongest in the sprint. Gerald Ciolek managed 4th place for Swisslion.





Not too much to report on stage 2. It was the last chance for the sprinters to take a stage win. A 5 man break got away, but they never had a chance for the stage win. A first KOM though proved to be a prize as Duolingo's Trillini took the sprint. The catch was again made with less than 2 km to go. What shoud've been a messy sprint was anything but for team Volvo as Hagen and Roelandts lead out Ahlstrand for a dominant win. 2 for 2 for the Swede, with Roelandts making it a 1-2 for Volvo. Gerald Ciolek looked like he could get 3rd, but faded in the end and finished 5th.





The first stage with expected GC implications, 200 km with 14 ascents up a difficult cat. 3 climb. A total of 10 riders entered the breakaway with some notable climbers like Teklehaimanot, Chamorro, Carlsberg's duo of Garby and Fabbro and Europcar's duo of Parra Bustamente and Suaza. The breakaway managed to collect all the KOM's apart from the one on the finish line, getting caught 21 km before the finish.



Beltran launched a surprise attack on the smaller hill before the final climb with 10 km to go. A move he would eventually have to pay for. Team Popo4Ever had the numbers to chase meaning the Colombian only had about a 10s gap starting the final steep climb. Beltran started to really suffer as premium climber Pluchkin lead the group past him. No one could match his brutal pace as he took the stage ahead of Dan Martin and Natnael Berhane. Beltran lost a shocking 1'51'' as he finished 17th, throwing away his chances at a good GC result!





The queen stage, only 114 km long, but with cat. 2, two cat. 1 and the final HC climb up to Jebel Shams. KOM leader Parra Bustamente was one of the first to attack, but many followed. Eventually a group of 19 riders would form the day's breakaway, fighting it out for KOM standings and perhaps an unlikely stage win. Chamorro proved the strongest on the climbs holding on to take 2nd on the penultimate climb which was enough for KOM jersey.



De la Cruz was the rider up front via a late attack, giving his all for the stage win. 3 km to go and he still had a 2'40'' gap to the peloton. It looked good for De la Cruz, but once again Pluchkin showed his class as his tempo reeled in the Spaniard in the last kilometre. The Moldovian wouldn't stop there as no one could get past him, taking another win and confirming his GC triumph. Beltran finished same time as the winner in 13th, 15th on GC. A race to forget for the Colombian.

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

06.02 - 06.02

PTHC

Goals: Breakaway appearance

Having missed the initial break the whole team worked hard to try to catch up to the escapees, but it wasn't possible. Apart from that no other mentions of Swisslion, which was expected since this was a purely developmental race, as are all the cobbled races this season.

Sam Bewley won the race ahead of Edward Theuns and Sep Vanmarcke.

Tour de Slovenie

08.02 - 12.02

HC

Goals: GC win; Stage win(s)

The home race for Swisslion started with a TTT around the town of Mirna Pec in the Dolenjska region. With a very young and inexperienced squad it was always going to be an uphill task. The team finished in 14th, 2'14'' down on the stage winners from Duolingo. Still a better performance than was expected before the start.





Stage 2, a hilly parcour 153 km long and with a hill top finish. A chance for the puncheur leaders to gain back some time on the GC. The stage started off with many attack involving Swisslion riders. First it was Setiawa to attack, followed later by Scotson and later also by Pello Bilbao!



Many more attack followed, but it was clear the peloton will not allow such a thing to happen. Both Scotson and Bilbao are reeled back in, while Setiawa stays away with a group of 8 riders, including strong puncheurs like Ben Nasser, Zordan and Bratashcuk. As expected Setiawa gets dropped on the first of the KOM's and is caught with 35 km to go. In the meantime a disaster for Swisslion as the peloton splitted before the penultimate with Bilbao on the wrong end of the split!



A select group of Gautier, Waeytens, Kelderman and Flugel were able to catch up to the last remaining escapee Ben Hermans. The former proved the strongest as Gautier took the win ahead of Waeytens and Kelderman. Most other favourites finished in the group 1'15'' behind Gautier, but Bilbao lost 2'16''! With another time-trial coming up on stage 4 it became clear that the chance for a good GC result was lost.



A lone stage for sprinters here in Slovenia. The first attacks are launched early, but the surpise came in the second wave of attacks. Pello Bilbao is again trying to get into the breakaway! He tried and failed the day before and lost valuable time on the GC, what was he thinking of doing on a flat stage?!



The peloton chased hard though. Or to be exact teams Sauber and Phillips chased hard and eventually put their own riders in the break. 8 riders were then in the break, but the pace of peloton hasn't let off severely. 80 km to go and the gap was just 1'38''. And it continued to drop with pack catching the break before the intermediate sprint well off the finish.
Many attacks and splits would still occur, but Hugo Houle of Xero was strong and attentive to win the final sprint consisting of a group of only 7 riders. Bilbao finished in the 3rd group, another wasted effort!



Nothing to report from this stage. No TV time for any of the Swisslion riders. The winner was Luke Durbridge in front of Lucas Schädlich and Emilien Viennet, making it a 1-3 result for team cycleYorkshire.



Last stage, 149 km of fairly hilly terrain with more total climbing than before, but an easier finish in the end. The last chance for Bilbao to do something in Swisslion's home race. As predicted Bilbao again on the attack. A man 5 breakaway was formed.



But yet again the peloton had no intentions of letting the breakaway get anysort of comfortable gap, only 1'39'' at the top of the first KOM. By the 3rd KOM Bilbao was already dropped by Ben Nasser, it's just hasn't been the Spaniards race at all!



Ben Nasser secured the KOM jersey with a dominant performance on the hills. The peloton nearly caught the escapees on the last KOM. Bilbao seemed to recover on the downhill and made a huge effort to bridge back to Ben Nasser, towing a fresh Bratashcuk along. Still the gap to the peloton was still a mere minute. Bilbao takes the last KOM with no much effort, since Ben Nasser had already secured the jersey.



The catch was made shortly after. Bilbao efforts again meant he couldn't feature in the final, which was won by William Chiarello ahead of Wilco Kelderman and Manuel Senni. The GC win went to Eduardo Sepulveda who was the most consitent rider throughout the race, strong on the hills and fast on the TT bike.

Ras Tailteann

10.02 - 12.02

C1

Goals: GC Top 5

The best sprinters from both continental divisions gathered in Ireland for this 3 day race. Heading the list of contenders were Degenkolb, Ahlstrand, Avelino, Guarnieri, Cavendish, Boeckmans the list goes on. Top CT sprinters like Mohs, Holloway and Granjel Cabrera were also in attendance. For Swisslion flying the flag was Gerald Ciolek.

The race started with the longest stage, almost 214 km of flat land, with no KOM's. No KOM's in the entire race, it's all about the sprints. The race got underway and after a few attempts we eventually got a break of 5 riders. Their advantage peaked at around 4 minutes and they were able to hold out until 11 km from the finish.



Leading up to the sprint it was Delvaux in the best position with Selig leading out Guarnieri, Boeckmans and Kupfernagel on his wheel. And that's the same order the stage ended. Ciolek finished 6th, coming from a worse position behind.



A shorter stage was next, 158 km long, more flat land for the riders. We got a 4 rider break, but another rider maked a long effort to join the others. The pace of the peloton was quite high as the breakaway's advantage kept hovering around the 2 minute mark. With 20 km to go the break was caught. The peloton continued to increase their pace, the cause of that was team Iberia, using a section of crosswinds to split the peloton.



A few favourites like Cavendish, Enger, Granjel Cabrera missed the split. Everyone eventually made it back to the lead group with 5 km to go, but obviously in not in an ideal position. Iberia with Degenkolb stayed at the front heading into the last 1.5 km, behind them were Volvo with Ahlstrand and behind them a whole raft of other sprinters.



But it turned out both Degenkolb and Ahlstrand fired their bullets too early, Maksimov was in best position behind them taking the lead. But even he lost his legs too early, so then it was Ciolek in 1st place. In the end Holloway also came up even faster to take the stage win. Ciolek comes 2nd with Kupfernagel 3rd for the second day in a row.



Last stage and the GC was still up in the air. 20 seconds separated the top 10 riders. Kupfernagel in the lead 4'' ahead of Ciolek and 5'' ahead of Holloway and Guarnieri. The tension was evident early as it took almost 50 km for the breakaway of 5 riders to eventually get a meaningful gap of 2 minutes.

Given the circumstances there was never a chance for the breakaway to feature in the finish, the catch was made with 12 km to go. Multiple teams take over the reins, but with 4 km to go it's team Kraftwerk that take over the front. Kreder and Willwohl expertly led Cavendish to the finish, even breaking away from the peloton. Ahlstrand was the only one able to somewhat follow the Kraftwerk train eventually finishing 2nd behind Cavendish, Willwohl made it a 1-3 result for them.



Behind them there was a scramble for the other positions, the GC still in the balance. Kupfernagel finished only 13th, Ciolek 7th, Holloway 8th and Guarnieri 10th. What did that result in?

Cavendish jumps to 1st place taking the GC along his stage win, Ciolek manages to hold onto 2nd while Kupfernagel drops down to 3rd. Ciolek and Cavendish also share the points jersey.

Volta a Catalunya

18.02 - 23.02

C1

Goals: Stage win(s)/KOM Jersey

The race started with a 154 km flat stage that featured a cat. 3 climb around 20 km from the finish. Setiawa was part of the first breakaway attempt which failed. A 5 man breakaway later established, no Swisslion were present though. Fast forward to the climb where Goncalves took maximum points for the KOM jersey on day 1.



The breakaway held up almost to the finish line only to get caught with around 200 m left. Roglic turning from GC man to leadout man put Berg's Coutinho in a great position, that in the end was only enough for 2nd. Repsol's Castaneda timed his sprint perfect to take a win for the amateur squad! Kreder finished 8th for Swisslion.





A far more difficult parcour on stage 2. A total of 6 KOM sprints, the last one followed by a downhill and flat finish to the line. A group of 7 managed to get away from the peloton. For some reason it was Swisslion controlling the breakaway, perhaps because they missed the chance to join the breakaway who's gap kept hovering around the 3 minute mark at the halfway point.

Swisslion didn't get much help and in the end it was enough for Tanovitchii to just squeze past the line before the peloton. Lindau finished 2nd, also managing to stay in front the peloton, Bellis won the bunch sprint for 3rd place. Swisslion after doing much work were nowhere to be found in the finish.



A 40 km team time-trial was on the menu on day 3. An important day for every team looking for a strong GC result. Not for Swisslion though, as they were here simply for stage result. As a result they finished 2nd last on the day. Winning were team Minions with Rigoberto Uran ahead of Team UBS and Desigual.





Stage 4, a 188 km mountain stage up to La Molina. A difficult stage where the riders were gently climbing for the first half of the stage before taking on 3 long climbs to the finish. Poljanec joined in the early breakaway attempt which also included young Swisslion talent Tadej Pogacar riding for Adastra. A few other riders missed the initial action, but were able to bridge up to the front group. Pogacar the only one to really attack the early cat. 3 climb.



For a while the peloton seemed to want to reel the breakaway back in, but they eventually relented and their gap balloned to about 5 minutes. Pantano Gomez attacked on the 1st of the three big climbs, breaking up the escape group. Pantano was able to take 2 of the 3 KOM's, getting caught on the final climb by an attacking Roglic. The long attack worked as Roglic soloed to victory. Seibeb finished a respectable 17th, 1'56'' behind the winner.



A short stage of 137 km, mostly flat but a cat. 2 climb towards the end and descent all the way to the finish line, were meant as an incentive for any brave attackers going for a stage win. A flurry of attacks at the start meant a while for the breakaway group to get together, but since every attack was let go by the peloton, a total of 19 riders formed the break. Young Pogacar was also in the group.

The peloton seemingly not interested in chasing, so the gap grew over 6 minutes. The peloton eventually sped up, but the breakaway's advantage was still a sizeable 3 minutes as they crested the cat. 2 climb. Riabushenko proved strongest in the sprint to take the win. Special mention to amateur team La Vie Claire that occupied position 2-5 on the stage!



Last stage of the Volta a Catalunya featured a 12.4 km long summit finish climb, that would decide the GC. After a first attack from 5 riders, another 5 make the break including Swisslion's Seibeb. 3 more riders joined later to make it a group of 13. The gap to the peloton grew up to 5 minutes, but gradually started to fall as the riders approached the final climb with less than 2'00'' advantage. Hirschlein and Seibeb tried to attack before the climb started, but the attempt was short lived.



The gap holds for the first few km's of the climb, but Roglic's attack that was followed by Talansky and Tenorio bridged up to the breakaway. Tenorio took to the front to set a pace, but the other GC riders were able to catch up, forming a group of breakaway riders and GC men. That didn't matter though as Tenorio just kept on pushing and with another acceleration left everyone behind to take the stage and GC. Seibeb was the only man from the break that held on in the 2nd favourites group finishing in a strong 8th place, 48'' behind Tenorio.



As mentioned Tenorio won the GC with Schelling and Choi rounding out the podium. Seibeb jumped up to 16th with his last stage performance.

Gisborne GP

22.02

C2

Goals: Top 10; Top 25

Not a particulary eventful race. Six riders joined the breakaway, but were caught by the peloton on the penultimate climb before the finish line. 31 riders would enter the last 3 km's from which Azteca's Esteban Chaves proved strongest. Completing the podium were Travis Meyer and Sven Erik Bystrom. Luka Pibernik finished 9th for Swisslion.

Milano San Remo

25.02

PTM

Goals: Have fun!

The longest race on the MG calendar, first monument of the year. La Classicissima from Milan to San Remo. A great start to the race for Swisslion, as young neo pro Matic Groselj launched the first attack, which was successful. More riders followed to form a group of 6 that would enjoy the long day in the breakaway.



The breakaway's advantage stretched out over 6 minutes, before the peloton slowly started to claw back time. Their advantage was around 4 minutes as they finished the descent of the Passo del Turchino. With just over 50 km to go the gap was only around a minute. The breakaway was able to survive until the start of the Cipressa climb.



Simone Ponzi was the first to launch an attack, followed by Boasson Hagen. The initial move was shut down, but Hagen was persistant and strong enough to follow the next attack and then attack again on the Poggio. From there it was a solo ride to the finish for Norwegian. Emerging from the group sprint was Dylan Groenewegen to finish 2nd and Arnaud Demare who was 3rd. Best placed Swisslion rider was Raymond Kreder in 37th.

Tour of Southland

26.02 - 02.03

C1

Goals: GC Top 10; Stage win(s)

Stage 1, flat course of only a 100 km for the sprinters. Swisslion came here looking for a stage win with Gerald Ciolek. A 5 man breakaway formed looking to fight for the single KOM that would ensure a day in polkadot jersey. It was a strong effort by the breakaway, especially Stijn Joseph who was able to hold on till the last 5 km.



A sprint train of Bilbao, Kreder and Mezgec did a perfect job delivering Ciolek into the final km. But alas Ciolek couldn't finish the job, getting taken over by Stallaert and Holst Enger to finish only 3rd. First opportunity wasted.



Stage 2 was even shorter, only 86 km. Pan flat until the last 3 km with a hilltop finish on Bluff Hill. A lot of riders tried entering the breakaway, but with the short length of the stage the peloton were not letting them go. With 35 km to go another group of 6 attacked, but that attempt was shortlived as well. With 17 km left the peloton was back together.



The climb was started at a steady pace, until Claeys launched the decisive attack. He was followed by Paulinho, the two had a gap but Claeys clearly the stronger rider. Di Maggio then attacked from behind, pipping Claeys at the line for the win. A gap of 16'' to Betancourt in 3rd, while Bilbao finished in the 2nd group down 38''. Not a good day for his GC goal, with only one hill stage remaining.



Stage 3, a 169 km sprinter stage. Another chance for Ciolek to grab that stage win. 6 riders broke away from the peloton. Heading into final part of the race the peloton split apart. Most GC riders managed to make the split. Paulinho was the big name left behind, along with a host of sprinters. Swisslion decide to use this opportunity to put more pressure on the others. Bilbao himself working at the front.



As a result more GC riders lost contact with the front group that counted only 28 riders. The 2nd group with Bellis was able to bridge back with about 5 km to go. Swisslion continued to lead the peloton, trying to distance the riders that fell back, but also to set up a sprint for Ciolek. But with all the work being done, there wasn't any energy left to organise a leadout.



In the end Pons was there for Maksimov who took the win ahead of Manninen. Ciolek would again have to be satisfied with 3rd place. But what about all the work Swisslion did to distance the GC men? Well it was all for nought as everyone behind the top 3 finished on the same time. Another subpar day for Swisslion.



Stage 4, the GC decider. The stage is almost a carbon copy of stage 2, predominantly flat before an uphill finish to the line. 5 riders formed the day's breakaway, but they were never allowed much of a gap. Valio were controlling the pace and thus the breakaway was caught with 8 km to go. The top favourites positioned themselves at the front before the 4 km climb to the finish.



Unfortunetely Bilbao wasn't at the front and subsequently lost contact with the leaders. At the front there was a 6 way sprint to the line between Borges-Gautier-Jensen-Pichot-Bellis-Vakoc with another 5 riders behind them. Pichon took the win, the big losers were Paulinho, Boily and Di Maggio. Bilbao also didn't put in the performance that was expected, finishing 16th. Claeys took the GC lead.



Last stage and another chance for the sprinters. A cat. 3 and cat. 4 climb were also on the menu, the KOM jersey was still available. A group of 6 made the break with Jayco's Othman the highest placed in the KOM classification. However ISA - Hexacta's Mraouni proved the strongest on both climb to take KOM jersey. With 5 km to go the breakaway was caught. Swisslion had numbers, but were disjointed and left Ciolek on his own. Maksimov had a leadout, but faded slightly in the end to take 2nd. Moreno Moser proved to be strongest today for Euskaltel - Elior. Ciolek once again finished 3rd.



GC wise there were no changes. Claeys with the win followed by Pichon and Haugaard Jensen. Bilbao finished 14th on GC, a far cry from the expectations before race. The same can be said for Gerald Ciolek, 3rd place finished was enough to net him 2nd in points classification, but given the list of sprinters he was expected to win that competition.

Pro Hallstatt Classic

28.02

PTHC

Goals: Top 10

Vuelta al Pais Vasco

07.03 - 12.03

PTHC

Goals: GC Top 10; Stage win(s)

The race started with the aforementioned TTT. For Swisslion it's was simply a matter of trying to limit their losses for team leader Beltran. A young squad consisting of 2 neo pros and 4 unmaxed riders started of doing just that, as they were only 23 seconds behind Generali's top time after the 1st checkpoint.



A slight reduction of pace saw them 53 seconds behind the still leading Generali after the 2nd checkpoint. But a better final section of the course saw them finish 1'09 behind winners Generali in 14th place. Teams Gazelle and Aegon - Lavazza rounded out the podium.



Stage 2 was the first of four hilly road stages and it was quite an eventful stage. 10 riders got away early, surely targeting the KOM standings with no less than 6 categorized climbs on the day. No initial big names that the peloton were worried about, but then came attacks from the likes of Flugel, Skujins and Ben Nasser. So the pace of the peloton increased drastically.



The attacks didn't stop there. As some riders got caught, Sagan and Lutsenko attacked to join up with Flugel's group. The peloton chased hard and eventually split, with a group containing Gesink, Kinoshita, Trofimov and Beltran joining Sagan and Lutsenko. Meanwhile the front of the race was also nearly caught by the newly formed peloton.



The pack came back together on the descent led by team Generali. Moser - Sygic then took over attempting to set up a sprint for Sagan. And it worked as Sagan took the win. Generali couldn't take advantage of the numerical superiority with Kung finishing 2nd. While Beltran had a strong finish to take 3rd.





An arguably even tougher stage consisting of 8 KOM sprints awaited the riders on stage 3. A large group of 13 riders were allowed to go up the road, mainly aiming at collecting as many KOM points as possible.



While the escapees were battling for the KOM points, notable riders were also getting dropped from the peloton, such as Mohoric, Henao and Flugel. With the pace getting higher in the now reduced peloton, the escapees were caught on the penultimate climb. Beltran took advantage of this momentary lull and attacked, opening a 39s gap over the top of the climb.



And the peloton would not see him again as he extended his lead to 46s over the short descent and last uphill. A fantastic stage win for the Colombian that would catapult him to 2nd overall, just 7s behind Robert Gesink.





An ITT stage was up next. A 25.8 km course that would start with a tough 5 km climb, followed by a similar long descent and flat roads until the finish. Not super long, but a TT that would require an allround skill set to compete for the top places.



And while we had to wait till the end to see the winner it became clear as soon as he rode of the ramp. Robert Gesink had the best time on all the time checks and finished 41s ahead of Yuriy Vasyliv and Timothy Roe. For Swisslion Beltran utilised the climb and descent to finish a very respectable 10th on the stage and kept 2nd overall.



A somewhat easier stage on day 5, but two cat. 2 climbs in the 2nd half of the stage with the potential for more race action. A total of 22 riders were allowed to break away from the peloton. It was relatively peaceful stage until the uncategorized climb before the final climb. And it soon became clear why, with top riders like Van Garderen, Mohoric and Skujins on the attack.



The gap to the breakaway shrunk immediately, which prompted attacks in the leading group, as they looked to achieve breakaway success. Andorra's Zordan proved to be the strongest, taking the KOM, but was caught by Palini, Flugel and Vakoc before the finish. The latter proved the strongest sprinting for the stage win. In the leaders group Beltran and Gesink attacked over the top, but were both caught after the descent, keeping their status quo in the GC.





Final stage of Vuelta al País Vasco. Just shy of 120 km, but a total of 8 categorized climb finishing on the very difficult Arrate climb. Multiple attack from riders going into breakaway, so it took a while, but a group of 14 riders formed. The peloton though were not planning on giving the breakaway too much leeway. Some yoyoing was still going between the breakaway and the peloton, with riders dropping from the break and joining from the peloton.



The gap of the break was around 3 minutes before the final climb, but as soon as the road turned upwards the peloton sped up. The gap quickly feel to 2 minutes and then Beltran attacked. Gesink would answer taking 7 other riders with him.



Beltran's attack could not create a gap, Gesink took the front and meanwhile the breakaway got swamped with still 1.3 km to go. No attacks insued, it was a sprint finish to the line and Gesink showed his might, beating Beltran and Sagan for the win.



So the top 2 spots on GC stayed the same Gesink 1st, Beltran 2nd, Kinoshita climbed to 3rd overall ahead of Brandle. Gesink also took the points jersey, again ahead of Beltran. While Sakalou's big effort on the final stage meant he won the KOM jersey, Beltran placing 5th there.

Vuelta a Colombia

11.03 - 16.03

HC

Goals: Top 3 stage/KOM jersey

Apex Mountain Classic

15.03

C1

Goals: Top 25

Tour of Uppsala

26.03 - 30.03

C1

Goals: Stage win(s)

Jelajah SKL

28.03 - 31.03

C1

Goals: Top 10 GC; Top 3 stage

Tour of California

01.04 - 07.04

HC

Goals: Stage top 3; KOM top 3

Coppa Placci

01.04 - 07.04

HC

Goals: Top 10; Top 20

Tour of Ukraine

13.04 - 15.04

HC

Goals: GC top 20; GC top 35

Tour of Cyprus

20.04 - 23.04

C1

Goals: GC Top 5; Stage win(s)

190 km long opening stage for the sprinters. Mostly flat, but a tough cat. 2 climb faced the riders early on. But even before that a intermediate sprint and since the break didn't establish yet, so it was the best sprinters to fight it out. Stage favourite Ciolek was able to win the sprint.



A group of 6 breakaway riders established after that. They had a gap of around 4 minutes, but it shrank to 1'40 with still 40 km from the finish. At the time the riders were exposed to 50 km/h winds along the coast. Teams Swisslion, Berg and Campari were the driving the pace, causing mayhem in the peloton. But that work backfires for Swisslion, while trying to keep Ciolek safe they left their GC man Beltran alone falling behind the main group.



The gap to the breakaway continued to fall, the peloton falling apart and regrouping many times. With about 20 km from the finish the riders turned back inland. The pace slightly dropped and groups of riders started getting back into the peloton. It took a while, but Swisslion finally realised they dropped Beltran, so they stopped working at the front and sent riders to bring him back in the fold.



While the peloton tried to get itself sorted with their sprinters and GC riders, the breakaway managed to maintain a gap of around a minute and held it. Eddie Stobart's Umerbekov took the stage win, Ciolek finished 7th, 2nd from the peloton. Beltran finished safely in the peloton.





Stage 2, still rated as a flat stage for the sprinters, but with loads of climbing, especially in the 1st half of the stage making it more unpredictable. A break of 4 formed to try and see if they can make it two breakaway wins in a row. With most of climbing on the stage done, the breakaway had a 5 minute gap with 110 km to go. Teams Swisslion, Berg and UBS again doing most of the work.



The catch to the breakaway was made with 11 km to go, but even with that not many leadout trains were formed. In the end it was every man for himself and Tleubayev from amateur team KazMunayGas - ChampionSystem proved to be the strongest and best positioned in the finish. For Swisslion's Ciolek who targeted the opening 2 stages, finishing in 4th place was a dissapointing result.





Stage 3, the queen stage. 188 km long with an absurd amount of climbing throughout the stage, punctuated with the 17 km long finishing climb to Mount Olympus. A total of 10 categorised climbs, so the KOM jersey could well be decided on this stage.

A group of 5 initially broke away from the peloton, with the number eventually swelling to 7 to form the break of the day. They spent over 100 km in front of the peloton, but the fight for KOM points took their toll as peloton caught them before the 2nd to last climb. Penasa took advantage attacking before the top to take the cat. 2 KOM.



A relatively peaceful pace is established over the next 20 km, but riders were still slowly getting dropped from the main group. With that a total of 37 riders started the decisive climb to Mount Olympus. Again the pace was not that high as the group did not fracture further. In fact with only 2.5 km to go some riders were actually able to rejoin the main group of favourites.



No attacks as the riders entered the final kilometer, but an increase in pace did weed out the weaker riders not able to challenge for the stage win. In the end it was a sprint finish where Campari's Dan Martin proved to be the fastest, followed by Tiago Machado and George Bennett. Beltran finished just below the podium in 4th for Swisslion, with the first 9 riders finishing on the same time.





The final stage was a hilly affair with four categorised climbs in the 2nd half of the stage. With the top GC conteders only separated by bonus seconds action was expected, as well as a chance for the breakaway to take the win.

It took a while for the breakaway to form, the first group was reeled back before an attack from Travis Meyer and Juul-Jensen finally stuck, two strong puncheurs looking to win from the break made it a total of 4 riders from the break.

The peloton though would not give them much leeway with the gap hovering around 2 minutes or less. With the gap getting closer to a minute Pibernik started to wear down the peloton, a clear indication that Beltran had plans for the final climb.



The pace slightly dropped after the downhill and the advantage of the breakaway grew back over a minute. But alas it didn't last, as the peloton caught Juul-Jensen on the first part of the climb. The pace set by Berg and Volvo was hard enough to prevent any attacks. Until about 3 km to the top when... Beltran attacked!



Top GC men Bennett, Martin and Machado tried to follow, but Beltran got a gap. A gap of 16 seconds to be precise as he crested the cat. 2 climb.



A fine descender in his own right Beltran managed to extend his advantage to 35 seconds! That advantage put him in the virtual GC lead. Could he hold it to the line?



The leaders group couldn't get properly organised, as the gap was still 25 seconds entering the final kilometer. And so it remained, a single man on a mission to win proved to be more effective, as Beltan was able to take the stage win.



What about the GC was there a gap measured, where did Dan Martin finish? The answer is a 17s gap to the second group meaning Beltran takes the GC! Kwiatkowski finished 2nd on the stage ahead of Bennett. Beltran also narrowly missed out on the points jersey. A fantastic race for the Colombian!

GP Wallonie

27.04

C1

Goals: Top 10

A beautiful day in the Belgium Ardennes for this 1st edition of the GP Wallonie. A 5 man breakaway was allowed early on, with a gap up to 5 minutes. At about the halfway mark of the race the gap was around 3'30. The advantage continued to plummet as teams Rakuten and Duolingo set the pace in the peloton. The pace continued to rise and the breakaway was nearly caught with 12 km to go.



23 is the total count of riders that would enter the final climb to contest victory. Kinoshita, Claeys and Schreurs positioned themselves up front with teammates. With 500 m to the finish those 3 rides attacked, joined by Di Maggio and Vogt. Vogt couldn't hold the pace, but a gap was created that couldn't be closed. Kinoshita then attacked again, Claeys countered and proved to be the stronger finisher to take the win. Kinoshita 2nd, Di Maggio 3rd.



Behind the winners group, Vogt first got caught, Betancourt lead, but it was Pello Bilbao who was strongest, accelerating past the others to take a somewhat unlikely 5th place finish for Swisslion!

Veenendaal - Veenendaal

29.04

HC

Goals: Top 10; Top 30

Lisbon Classic

29.04

HC

Goals: Top 30

Tour of Romandie

05.05 - 07.05

C1

Goals: Stage top 3; KOM top 3

Liege - Bastogne - Liege

07.05

PTM

Goals: Have fun!

Berlin ProRace

16.05

HC

Goals: Top 10; Top 30

Frankfurt Eschborn

25.05

C1

Goals: Top 15; Top 25

Tour of Norway

27.05 - 31.05

PTHC

Goals: 2x GC top 35; Stage top 5; KOM top 5

GP Kigali

05.06

HC

Goals: Breakaway apperance

Riga - Jurmala GP

08.06

PTHC

Goals: Top 15; 2x Top 50

Tour of South Africa

18.06 - 23.06

C1

Goals: GC top 15; Stage top 3

Hanko Classic

08.06

C1

Goals: Top 5; Top 20

Kenya Mountain Classic

20.07

HC

Goals: Top 10

Nantahala Classic

26.07

C1

Goals: Top 10

Tour of Beijing

26.07 - 29.07

HC

Goals: GC top 3; Stage win(s)

Opening stage of 224 km did not see much action throughout. A late attack by Pieter Serry suprised the peloton to take the win. Kinoshita came 2nd to make it a 1-2 for Rakuten. Beltran made it through the split of 25 riders and finished 5th in the messy sprint to the line.



A 109 km sprinters stage. No sprinters were brought here for Swisslion so it's all about avoiding any split that my occur. It was a quiet day with Beltran safely finishing in the peloton. The breakaway managed to stay ahead of the peloton with Stylianos Farantakis taking the win for team ENI - MOL. Serry stayed in the leader's jersey.



A tougher stage aimed to shake things up in the GC. 178 km with 5 categorised climb and short sharp ramp to the finish line on the menu. A larger 19 rider group broke away from the peloton, including pre race favourites Claeys and Gautier. With 20 km from the finish and 2 categorised climbs to go the gap to the peloton was still 3'28''. With 9 km to go Gautier attacked over the cat. 3 climb and distanced the other breakaway riders.



With 4 km to go Gautier topped the last KOM, 46'' ahead of a chasing Claeys. In the peloton behind a select group formed, which Beltran was part of. But Gautier didn't care, huge ride by the Valio rider as he took a solo win ahead of Claeys and Frank. Beltan lead the main favorites group over the line in 6th place, 2'24'' down on Gautier. Which meant Gautier climbed up the GC to 1st, ahead of Kinoshita and Beltran.





Last decisive stage, 152 km with a difficult last climb to the finish. Another strong group of 17 riders made up the breakaway. With 18 km to go Destribois and Marczynski (who was part of the breakaway on stage 2) attacked over the last KOM before the finish. The peloton were 3'05'' behind and that proved enough as Destribois pipped Marczynski to the line for the stage win.



Back in the peloton Kinoshita launched his attack with 3 km to go. Doing enough to distance Beltan and the rest and confirm his GC win. Beltran finished 6th on the day and climbed to 2nd overall. A good race from the Colombian, but he was unfortunately no match for the in form Japanese champion. Gautier payed for his efforts the previous day to finish almost 2 minutes down on Kinoshita and Beltan. In the end dropping to 5th overall.

Clasica San Sebastian

07.08

HC

Goals: Top 15