Indeed, I never thought that Fabio would do this good with bad daily form & "4" fitness. However, he proved me wrong and I am glad that it was like that! And yeah, Giro is definitely going to be something special in this story (just as both Tour & Vuelta I hope) with new type of presentation, previews & more interesting stuff. More to come.

Oh and Sutty, Jesley decided to finally use his admin powers so he edited my signature and put Rick Astley... Something he calls trolling. So original, I know.

The last stage of this years Romandie is 30 kilometers long MTT which ends in little Swiss city full of tradition & their culture called Hospental. It's surely going to change the gaps in Overall GC, but it's hardly going to move anyone up/down in Top 10.




Awful weather didn't stop the great day for our guys. Basically all guys, starting from Sergent who was the lowest in GC before this stage and finishing with Zoidl who was the highest team-rider in GC after Kiserlovski had all perfect rides. It was a definitely a great surprise for us and even after 3(!) stage wins here, we once again kept showing a good form and some class.



Nothing really interesting happened before Top 10 and Kiserlovski, so we'll just skip to that part. Robert had one pretty strange tactic today which got him one solid result. He was so bad on the flat part that Hesjedal almost caught him, but he almost got back to the normal start gap on the climb. At the end, he finished his ride as 8th provisional - 14th at the end of the stage. Thankfully, he had big GC gap already so we didn't lose anything today.



Hesjedal, who was 6th in GC and next on the startlist after Kiserlovski put up one great ride too! In provisional, he finished only behind Scarponi at that point, which was one great result, considering that this was probably best Scarponi's TT ride ever. This ride, however, brought Ryder 6th position on this stage and 5th in Overall GC which with 11th position of Talansky today should be considered as a good result for them.



Betancur is the only rider that lost his GC position today. From basically the first moment he started his ride - it was clear that he's struggling alot. Even despite he should like MTT's, it looked actually opposite. Even then, he managed to finished 12th on the stage, 10 seconds in front of Kiserlovski. However, that's definitely not an achievement, as he lost his 5th GC position to the guy on the image above.



At that point, only 4 guys left to start - first one was ex-Tour de France winner Alberto Contador. You can just imagine how strong competition was here when he's 4th at last MTT. However, he managed to pull up one really solid ride and to take provisional stage lead at that point. However, Rodriguez looked scarily close to him all the time, so it was expected that Alberto lose that lead quickly. At least he secured 4th GC position.



Purito was the first of three podium guys to start here and he really looked good on his bike, even tho he definiteley isn't a classic TT rider. After around 55'20" minutes on his bike, he managed to get 31 seconds better results than El Pistolero which secured him sure 3rd position. But could he beat Froome & Nibali leading duo with this time?



Of course he couldn't. Froome.exe 3.0.0.2 just got a fresh update which easily made him get the best result there. Nibali was the only one that could fear now. Really, really impressive ride by Christopher who managed to get exactly 1 minute better result than Rodriguez. Even with the snow who started in the meantime and slippery asphalt. Insane, just insane.



Nibali was the only one left now. It was on him to prove that he's really on Froome's level now and that yesterdays attack wasn't just daily form but the class he got. This MTT suited him perfectly with short flat TT part and long mountain & downhill parts. He showed that, as he managed to ride absolutely perfect downhill section, to neutralize the gap he had on the first checkpoint and to gain additional 39 seconds on Froome. What a great way to win time trial & race overall. Great, just great racing from Nibbles!



Anyways, a great race for our guys! 4 days in yellow jersey, 3 stage wins including one TTT win and great racing from both Cancellara & Kiserlovski, as well as all other guys that helped us prepare for upcoming Giro. We're more than happy and more than ready for next challenge(s).

1	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana Pro Team	53'40
2	Chris Froome	Team Sky	+ 39
3	Joaquím Rodríguez	Team Katusha	+ 1'39
4	Alberto Contador	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 2'10
5	Michele Scarponi	Astana Pro Team	+ 2'28
6	Ryder Hesjedal	Garmin Sharp	s.t.
7	Domenico Pozzovivo	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 2'33
8	Bauke Mollema	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 2'34
9	Beñat Intxausti	Movistar Team	+ 2'42
10	Simon Spilak	Team Katusha	+ 2'44

GC

1	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana Pro Team	19h13'53
2	Chris Froome	Team Sky	+ 1'16
3	Joaquím Rodríguez	Team Katusha	+ 2'30
4	Alberto Contador	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 5'06
5	Ryder Hesjedal	Garmin Sharp	+ 5'36
6	Carlos Betancur	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 5'57
7	Robert Kiserlovski	Trek Factory Racing	+ 7'25
8	Pierre Rolland	Team Europcar	+ 8'15
9	Bauke Mollema	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 9'44
10	Sergio Henao	Team Sky	+ 10'59

Points	Chris Froome [Sky]	59 points
KoM	Matthew Busche [Trek]	38 points
U25	Carlos Betancur [AG2R]	19h19'50
Team	Team Sky	57h32'46

Even though we lost green jersey literally on the last stage in last few minutes of it, we're happy with this race. Only one more race-day before Giro becomes and it is 1.1 rated race around Frankfurt. See ya!

30 pages! Just 227 more and we're on Monster Energy level!

Indeed, 7th in GC, especially with this hard competition is absolutely great result for us, considering we're without real stage-racer this year. However, considering that field on Giro is nowhere strong as the one that was in Romandie, it can get only better for us. But, no way that we'll complain if we get 7th in GC there, too!

The only left race-day for our team before start of 2014 Giro d'Italia is in front of us and it's one great challenge for our sprinters after being passive for quite some time. Of course, the guys who are selected for Giro squad (more to come) are not here.




Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt or "shortly" Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop is one traditional German, one day semi-classic that was race for the first time back in 1962. The terrain is, as you can see, really tricky with four steepy and pretty big hills & flat finish. Sprinters are main favourites here, but you never knows what can happen with this profile. Much (whether most of sprinters are going to drop after all of these hills) will depend on peloton's pace, too. All in all, should be one interesting race to watch!

Not only racing route & terrain are interesting, but the competition too. Definitely the name that stands out is Andre Greipel who's by far the biggest favourite here. It's one of his main season goals, so it's clear that he's in top shape here. Other than him, we do have few world-class sprinters here too, such as our B. van Poppel, Van Hummel, Colbrelli, Bennett, Coquard, Gallopin, Cantwell, Van Staeyen and many others. Definitely one strong field, with Greipel being a clear favourite.



Our team is, as previously said, led by Boy van Poppel who is our best sprinter over here. However, we brought one pretty interesting squad here, with Voigt, Devolder & Rast trio who can always surprise with a late attack and few great sprinters/domestiques such as Stuyven, Hondo, Irizar & Watson. Definitely one solid team that aims for at least a Top 10 place here, as this isn't one of teams top goals in this season.



Race & breakaway plans are just to wait for final sprints, as our guys were already part of many breakaways during first four months. That was all for this long race-name German race, see ya on the roads of Frankfurt city & Hessen state!

DS of Trek FR - admirschleck

Pretty good team here, but everything depends on how race goes. If everyone decides to stay calm before the finish, we're going with Boy. If not, Devolder, Jensie & Rast are all here.

Transfer talks. Oh, of course. I prepared few articles/updates about it and they just wait to be posted, which will be soon. But before, I have to do pre-Giro (post-Classics) ranking update and to post Giro preview updates (yes, updateS). So, it's all ready, don't worry.

Older of van Poppel, just as whole our team is ready to rule the race around 5th biggest German city & probably the race with longest name ever! Prepare yourself, almighty Team Trek Factory Racing is coming!




The start of the race didn't go as we planned, since 11 guys created a breakaway of the day group and none of our guys were there. We thought that only few of them will try, but we were wrong. However, at that point, there was no going back, so we had to deal with it and to stay (eventually chase) in the peloton.



Things got out of control when the advantage of breakaway reached 10 minutes. We, alongside Trek, started some strong relays. Luckily, that happened after the hills, so none of the damage was done to Boy van Poppel.

Finally, after a long 150km chase, at around 10 kilometers to go and in entrance of Frankfurt city - peloton almost caught the breakaway group. Almost, as guys from BOTD started multiple attacks there and somehow managed to keep the gap around 20 seconds constantly. It started to look like peloton will have hard times catching them, especially because we & Lotto were only 2 teams working behind.



When I said "gap was around 20 seconds constantly", I really meant it. 7 kilometers to go and we managed to create a small sprint-train for van Poppel. It was Devolder - Voigt - Hondo - van Poppel this time. Duque, Greipel, Navardauskas, Gallopin and Ponzi were all there. In the meantime, guys from a break in front decided to co-operate and were going full gas, just to keep that 20 seconds advantage. It will be very close at the end.



3 kilometers to go & peloton finally managed to close down that gap, but they still didn't catch breakaway guys as Denifl attacked again! It was only Hondo - van Poppel for us at that point, while Greipel was on van Poppel's wheel. It finally started to look good for us at that point, as our guys were on the top of the peloton.



Finally, at 1.5 kilometer to go, peloton managed to catch break thanks to Hondo, who upped the pace abnormally there. Anyways, the real sprint started at the front! Van Poppel got out of Hondo's wheel, while Greipel started sprinting on himself too. It looked like these two will decide the winner of todays competition. Gallopin was there too, but just a little bit behind the his teammate & our main sprinter.



On the finish line, Greipel easily outsprinted everyone else and brought Lotto another win, while Gallopin somehow managed to pass van Poppel, show that he definitely is the guy for this type of races (all-arounder) and get a 2nd place. Finally, a 3rd place for us here, which is more than satisfying, considering what competition we had here!



Not just that we managed to get a 3rd place, but Hondo finished on the 8th place, showing that he still has it in legs, despite being 40 years old! Great racing from our guys here, which definitely indicates that one great Giro is in front of us.

1	André Greipel	Lotto Belisol	4h50'01
2	Tony Gallopin	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
3	Boy Van Poppel	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
4	Leonardo Duque	Colombia	s.t.
5	Ramunas Navardauskas	Garmin Sharp	s.t.
6	Simone Ponzi	YellowFluo	s.t.
7	Roger Kluge	IAM Cycling	s.t.
8	Danilo Hondo	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
9	Rafael Andriato	YellowFluo	s.t.
10	Stefan Denifl	IAM Cycling	s.t.

There's always a way to catch up.

We arrived in Italy & I, as someone who's updating this team's blog, started writing preview for Giro & ranking update for the first 5 months of the season. It was one nice, peaceful morning and everyone were resting in their hotel rooms. Some of the guys, however, were relaxing and preparing for a tomorrow's team time-trial, the first stage of Giro d'Italia 2014. It was, as I said, one nice and peaceful atmosphere.



Until one moment. I heard the knocks and I opened the door of my hotel room. What I saw and heard then, shocked me absolutely. I never, ever expected something like this. He said: "Come with me, we have some serious topics to talk about...". It sounded scary at that point. What did I do wrong? All my activites from past 5 years crossed my mind. I am freakin' innocent. Oh God, help me now. UCI president doesn't always comes to your hotel room and tells something like that with that face expression. You could just feel it. Something is so wrong.