January
Off to a bad start
The season started with the Tour of Tasmania where Samolenkov wasn't able to do anything in the first sprint stage, luckily Skujins managed to finish third during the stage 2 (uphill sprint) and Vorobev finished third during stage 3 (19km time trial) which resulted in a 28th place in the final General Classification.

Next on the program was the Tour of Qatar, the first 5 stages were all flat and Samolenkov was in the top-10 everyday (8th, 10th, 3rd, 7th and 4th). He was able to hold on to his 6th place in the final General Classification during stage 6 (4km time trial), however during stage 5 the whole team - including all of our time trialists - except Samolenkov lost contact with the peloton on the circuit... overall resultwise a terrible race.

Can it get any worse? Yes, working all day in the peloton and ending up 23rd (Kamyshev) and 40th (Senechal) at the Franceville Classique; the cobble curse continues, very frustrating.

February
Light at the end of the tunnel
So, January was a pretty bad start of the season, but we're able to bounce back during the Volta a Portugal: Surprisingly Foliforov won the first stage (5km prologue) and Banaszek the fourth stage after a long 1km sprint in the wind. After 8 stages Rybalkin ended up 41st in the final General Classification, not too bad.

After Portugal we were back to underperforming big time; Tinkoff was considered to be the primary favorite at Copenhagen - Malmo TTT, but instead we were biggest disappointment of that day, finishing 9th place.

Vlasov was our leader at Tirreno-Adriatico, but he wasn't able to do much and finished the race as lucky number 13. Kind of a no show from our whole team, although Kanerva almost saved our Tirreno by getting into the Break of the Day during stage 6, but it wasn't meant to be; he finishing 2nd.

Tinkoff - La Datcha Team was totally invisible during Paris-Nice, apparently Mamykin did arrive in Nice after 8 days -> 45 riders in front of him.

Also Classique du Grand-Duché didn't go well at all; Skujins - one of the pre-race favorites - was in a really good position when going under the red kite, but somehow managed to finish 29th!?

Milano San Remo on the other hand turned out to be the light at the end of the tunnel; at the end of the Poggio Sulimov together with Mads Pedersen (Grieg-Maersk) and Artem Nych (Polar) launched an attack. The favorite teams hesitated a little bit - did organize themselves later on - but couldn't get back to the three in front. Sulimov wasn't able to win the group sprint, still second place at La Primavera was an amazing result.

March
Finally
Sulimov second place at San Remo really had a positive effect on the team spirit and after 12 years we finally managed to win our first cobble race: Kamyshev together with the rest of the team controlled the race perfectly, shutting down multiple attacks and with 14km to go Senechal attacked and was able to win Strada Appia Antica solo.

Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha went alright, Dal Col was our best time trialist and finished 8th in the final General Classification and Samolenkov sprinted to a 3rd place during stage 4.

Skujins was our leader during the Ronde van Nederland, but he wasn't able to do much and finished the race as lucky number 13.

We ended the month pretty bad with 3 cobble races in a row: Senechal finished last of the favorites group (16th) at Macskako Kerekparverseny.

Senechal was able to lit up the Ronde van Vlaanderen by attacking with 50km to go, but in the end Kamyshev wasn't able to make use of our tactics and finished 8th (we had hoped for a little more in terms of result).

The E3 Prijs was better -> Senechal helped Kamyshev a lot, unfortunately he just missed out on the podium (4th).

April
La Corsa Rosa
The most important race for us - Paris - Roubaix - ended in a big disaster: Kamyshev looked unbeatable that day but had a puncture with 18km to go, kudos for him still finishing 8th.

The expert saw the Tinkoff duo Kamyshev and Senechal as race favorites for Roma Maxima, but again a total failure: Kamyshev 23rd and Senechal 26th... We have put in so much effort in our cobble team for years now but the curse is crazy hardcore.

Our B-squad was sent to GP Liechtenstein, Burmann was on the attack most of the day and in the end he finished 45th. Time for some positive news right? 3, 2, 1, Sivakov!

The first Grand Tour of the year was amazing: Sivakov was rated a top-10 rider before the Giro d'Italia started, but he toke over the heritage of Kritskiy in style by suprising everyone: After 3 weeks of crazy hard cycling he was able to climb the podium in Brescia, finishing 3rd overall!

The last two races of April went pretty good as well -> Samolenkov sprinted to a 5th place at the flat classic Veenendaal - Veenendaal and Skujins was best of the rest, finishing 4th at the Amstel Gold Race.

May
In need of a good Vuelta
Another cobble disaster to start the month: Bad tactics plus bad luck during Cheshire Cycling Tour were Kamyshev barely made it into the top 10.

Skujins was doing ok during the Ardennes classics; just like Amstel he was able to finish 4th place at Fleche Wallone.

Liege- Bastogne - Liege on the other hand wasn't great, during Amstel and Fleche Skujins played the waiting game really smart, we tried a different tactic during LBL -> he went on the attack with 30km still to go and because of the energy spend he ended up 19th: Lesson learned.

Yatsevich was our leader for the Chrono d'Arenberg, he did his best but the 30th place was the maximum we could get out of this unorthodox race.

Samolenkov was being dropped with 30 kilometers to go during Rund um Koln and that of course killed our chances on a good result. He made it back to the pack eventually and was able to finish 16th, better luck next time.

As mentioned before the second Grand Tour of 2022 (Vuelta a Espana) has started and we definitely are in need of a good Vuelta, since all races this month (except Fleche Wallone) were really bad. Six riders who rode the Giro will also be riding the Vuelta (Uran, Mamykin, Rybalkin, Foliforov, Trakhov and Banaszek). No GC ambitions this Grand Tour -> no Sivakov (and Strakhov). Vlasov and Kanerva will complete our Vuelta squad, meaning we are going after stage wins, break aways and maybe the mountains classification.

June 2022
Looking Good
Sivakov's preparation race for the Tour de France; Criterium du Dauphine Libere went really well: He finished just outside the podium, which was unlucky since he ended the race in the same time as Dombrowski. However, winning the Team and the U25 Rankings showed us we're ready for La Grande Boucle next month.

Skujins couldn't do much during the Scandinavia Open Road Race he ended the race +3'21 behind the winner Taylor Phinney (which resulted in the 20th place in the General Rankings).

July
La Grande Boucle
The 2022 Tour de France turned out the be Sivakov's best race until now; after his 3rd place at the Giro d'Italia and 4th place at the Criterium du Dauphine Libere, he was able to win the U25 Rankings in the biggest race of the year! With our Time Trial focused squad we (Tinkoff - La Datcha Team) won the Team Time Trial (Stage 5), which resulted in Rigoberto Uran wearing the Maillot Jaune the next day. During Stage 6 (the first mountain stage of the race) Sivakov was able to keep up with Silvio Herklotz, which led to 5 more days in yellow! Silvio Herklotz took control of the race during the stages in the Alps and in the end Pavel Sivakov lost his podium place in the last days in the Pyrenees, nevertheless an amazing race for us.

The Tour of Slovenia was a total no-show for us: After 5 days of sightseeing Vlasov ended up 23rd.

Pavel Sivakov celebrating on the Champs Elysees

click to enlarge

August
Very Consistent
Yatsevich was our leader for the Deutschland Tour and the Chrono des Herbiers, he scored quite some points in both races (4th and 7th).

Samolenkov as always very consistent during the flat classic Riga - Jurmala GP (7th)

Another disappointing cobble day at the East Midlands Cicle Classic to end the month; Senechal was working for Kamyshev, but both were unable to join the front of the race at the decisive moment -> we had to settle with the 9th place.