1st Alex Ciocan
5th Tiziano Dall'Antonia
17th Juan Mora
62th Nikita Umerbekov
69th Roy Eefting
73th Lawson Craddock
76th Daniel Eduardo Silva
Stage 2
Dall'Antonia closing on Sutton to finish 2nd
2nd Tiziano Dall'Antonia
5th Alex Ciocan
20th Juan Mora
23th Roy Eefting
62th Daniel Eduardo Silva
71th Nikita Umerbekov
75th Lawson Craddock
Stage 3
Dall'Antonia in the green jersey sprinting into 7th place
7th Tiziano Dall'Antonia
19th Alex Ciocan
29th Juan Mora
49th Roy Eefting
66th Daniel Eduardo Silva
67th Nikita Umerbekov
81th Lawson Craddock
Stage 4
Bruno Santos dominating Stage 4
12th Tiziano Dall'Antonia
13th Alex Ciocan
30th Juan Mora
55th Daniel Eduardo Silva
56th Nikita Umerbekov
63th Roy Eefting
68th Lawson Craddock
Final Results:
General Classification
4th Alex Ciocan
6th Tiziano Dall'Antonia
19th Juan Mora
51th Roy Eefting
60th Nikita Umerbekov
62th Daniel Eduardo Silva
70th Lawson Craddock
Points Jersey
3rd Tiziano Dall'Antonia
7th Alex Ciocan
Team Classification:
3rd Mobil - Castrol Cycling
Review:
What can you ask for? 1 stage win, two rider's in the top of the GC and in the points classification as well 3rd in the team classification. Overall, 97 points scored from this race.
Philadelphia Internation Champioship
Dall'Antonia crossing the line in 11th place
Full Results:
11th Tiziano Dall'Antonia
41th Alex Ciocan
62th Peter Williams
64th Eugenio Alafaci
114th Stefano Pirazzi
115th Roy Eefting
125th Lawson Craddock
Review:
11th wasn't bad against PCT team's. 22 points scored, so I'm happy.
Duo Differdange
Criel and Mojica riding trough the Luxembourg landscape
Full Results:
10th Mobil - Castrol Cycling
Review:
16 points scored, divided 8 by both Criel and Mojica. Not bad against PCT team's, but we lost the duel for best CT team at the race.
Giro dell'Appennino
Bellis giving another win to Rothaus
Full Results:
53th Maky Roman
76th Juan Mora
78th Daniel Eduardo Silva
84th Remy Di Gregório
88th Robert Vrecer
98th Eugenio Alafaci
130th Tiziano Dall'Antonia
Review:
I was already expecting this, so no surprise. No points scored. Still, nice to see Rothaus winning, again, their really fighting their way to promotion.
Donestk GP
Dall'Antonia celebrating after his solo win
Full Results:
1st Tiziano Dall'Antonia
28th Jose Mojica
32th Roy Eefting
33th Eugenio Alafaci
42th Fabricio Ferrari
44th Stefano Pirazzi
48th Lawson Craddock
Review:
What a win from Dall'Antonia. 45 points scored and another win.
Glava Tour of Norway
Stage 1
Ciocan winning stage 1
1st Alex Ciocan
32th Juan Mora
49th Peter Williams
54th Nikita Umerbekov
79th Tom Criel
82th Maky Roman
93th Remy Di Gregório
Stage 2
Di Gregório was the last attacker of the day to get caught
5th Alex Ciocan
38th Maky Roman
54th Tom Criel
65th Juan Mora
70th Nikita Umerbekov
75th Peter Williams
101st Remy Di Gregório
Stage 3
Ciocan spriting to 5th place
5th Alex Ciocan
19th Juan Mora
46th Maky Roman
52th Peter Williams
60th Nikita Umerbekov
71st Remy Di Gregório
94th Tom Criel
Stage 4
Roman sprinting to 9th place
9th Maky Roman
13th Alex Ciocan
19th Juan Mora
20th Tom Criel
31st Remy Di Gregório
38th Nikita Umerbekov
41st Peter Williams
Stage 5
Ciocan finishing the race how he started it, by winning
1st Alex Ciocan
12th Juan Mora
23th Maky Roman
24th Nikita Umerbekov
26th Tom Criel
47th Peter Williams
65th Remy Di Gregório
Full Results:
General Classification
1st Alex Ciocan
11th Juan Mora
19th Maky Roman
29th Nikita Umerbekov
32th Tom Criel
37th Remy Di Gregório
39th Peter Williams
Points Classification
1st Alex Ciocan
38th Maky Roman
42nd Juan Mora
47th Remy Di Gregório
Youth Rider Classification
10th Nikita Umerbekov
Team Classification
6th Mobil - Castrol Cycling
Review:
124 points scored from this race. 2 stage win's, the points jersey and the GC win. What a race from Ciocan and the team.
Final Review:
288 points scored this month from 15 race days. What a moth from the team.
Our Squad: Remy Di Gregório Robert Vrecer Maky Roman Alex Ciocan Nikita Umerbekov Lawson Craddock Peter Williams
Goal:
Ciocan has 2 stage he can prove very good: 2 and 6. This are marked by us to at least top 3. Vrecer and Roman can try to squeeze to the GC top 10.
Mobil - Castrol manager revealed, trough the team's website, that Castrol would leave as sponsor for the 2014 season. He also confirmed that Mobil would continue as a main sponsor, beeing acompanied by another sponsor, so far unrevealed. The team manager also reported that he already contacted designer aidanvn13 to make the team's shirt for the 2nd year in a row.
Mobil - Castrol manager Miguel98 revealed today that he's going to make a press conference to reveal the sponsor that is going to acompany Mobil in 2014.
So everyone has been expecting this. Who's Mobil co-sponsor for season 2014? The manager has release a press conference earlier today and he has stated the sponsor.
Mobil's co-sponsor for 2014 is:
Spoiler
Aeropostal
The venezuelan airline company has signed a contract for two seasons, with another one as option depending on results. Jersey will be announce when designer aidanvn13 finishes this busy period of his life.
Ciocan and Craddock finishing 2nd and 3rd on stage 6
Results
15th Alex Ciocan
20th Maky Roman
37th Remy Di Gregorio
42th Lawson Craddock
50th Robert Vrecer
59th Nikita Umerbekov
1st Points Jersey - Alex Ciocan
Review:
It wasn't a bad race. Ciocan was able to secure a stage win and podium and the points jersey. So, once again, a very sucessfull race from him. Craddock also secured a very nice podium on the last stage. We scored 45 points from this race.
GP Onda-Boavista
Silva in the company of Toribio, Weening and Talabardon
Results
7th Daniel Eduardo Silva
16th Eugenio Alafaci
17th Juan Mora
19th Fabricio Ferrari
22th Tom Criel
57th Stefano Pirazzi
87th Jose Mojica
Review:
A 7th place in a home race by Silva is good. Plus, those rider's in the top 20 show some strength, somehow. We scored 23 points from this race.
Eneco Tour
Alafaci taking the intermediate sprint on stage 2, where he took all the intermediate sprints
Results
6th Eugenio Alafaci
38th Juan Mora
44th Roy Eefting
59th Jose Mojica
68th Tom Criel
79th Daniel Eduardo Silva
83th Stefano Pirazzi
Review:
Thank you Alafaci for this. 6th in a HC race thanks to breakaways? Let's celebrate. 87 points scored, very nice.
GP Tokyo
Williams getting ready to be the last of the escapees to be caught by the pack
Results
14th Alex Ciocan
36th Eugenio Alafaci
39th Daniel Eduardo Silva
40th Fabricio Ferrari
51th Stefano Pirazzi
73th Peter Williams
Review:
Well, Ciocan failed there. 14th isn't good enough. Oh well, it's still points. 6 points, but points.
Final Review:
We scored 161 points this month, not as good as May, but we probably won't ever have a good month as May.
Our Squad Remy Di Gregorio Robert Vrecer Maky Roman Alex Ciocan Fabricio Ferrari Nikita Umerbekov Peter Williams
Our Goal:
We have no idea how the startlist looks, but probably there will be top climbers here. Let's hope that our trio tries to squeeze into the top 10.
Isle of Man ITT
Our Squad Tom Criel Jose Mojica
Our Goal:
Why did I sign up to this, I don't know. I think that a top 15 would be very good.
Giro della Valle d'Aosta
Our Squad Tiziano Dall'Antonia Daniel Eduardo Silva Juan Mora Tom Criel Eugenio Alafaci Roy Eefting Stefano Pirazzi
Our Goal:
Mountains, mountains every-fudgin-where. Daniel should be able to squeeze into the top 10,while a home bonus should help Dall'Antonia to secure the stage win on the only flat stage of the race.
Taldykorgan GP
Our Squad Remy Di Gregorio Juan Mora Maky Roman Alex Ciocan Tom Criel Nikita Umerbekov Peter Williams
Our Goal:
So, we come to meet again C1 hilly races, aka for us, disaster. Nothing expected.
Ulanbaatar GP
Our Squad Tiziano Dall'Antonia Robert Vrecer Jose Mojica Fabricio Ferrari Roy Eefting Stefano Pirazzi Lawson Craddock
Our Goal:
So, it can turn out Tartu style or Vilnus style. Let's cross fingers for Tartu stye.
Tasol Tour to the Sun
Our Squad: Remy Di Gregório Daniel Eduardo Silva Juan Mora Maky Roman Alex Ciocan Tom Criel Fabricio Ferrari
Goal:
2 race days only. Probably every single one top GC rider for the CT team's will be here. It is on tough. A top 10 should be achibable and wtf was wrong with me to send Ciocan here?
Half of the season is done for Mobil - Castrol. And I admit, a very sucessfull 1st half of the season. In this post, I will talk about the numbers of wins, about the sucess and our unsucess of our rider's and our current position in the CT rankings. Let's start then.
Winning is the key to go up
During the 1st six months of the season, our team granted 7 wins, a good number with also some podiums places, making wins + podium places, a grand total of 13 podium places, a good number too. Our win's started in February, in Australia, in the Emerald Race. Tiziano Dall'Antonia started our winning's there, wich can be considered one of the best win's this season in the MG.
Dall'Antonia granted our 1st win of the season
After that, Dall'Antonia was able to grant another win, in Ukraine, in the Donetsk GP in a solo breakaway after an attack close to the 10km's mark.
Dall'Antonia granted his 2nd win of the season in a brilliant solo attack
But most of our team sucess comes from a debutant in the MG, a romanian veteran named Alex Ciocan. 5 win's and two points jersey makes this our best rider so far this season. Surprise ride's by him, including probably his biggest race so far in the Glava Tour of Norway, where Ciocan won two stage's, the GC and the Point's Jersey. He also won a stage in the Volta ao Alentejo, another one in the Tour of Serbie, where he also won the Point's Jersey.
Ciocan proving a lot of surprises across this 1st half of the season
Minus win's and point's jerseys, there's still 4 podium spots left. From those 4, 1 belongs to Dall'Antonia, in Alentejo, 1 to Ciocan in Serbie, 1 to Craddock in Serbie as well, while the other was already in July, with Mora finishing in 2nd in Valle d'Aosta. And this concludes the wins part of our mid-way review of the season.
Goals so far
So far this season, we've had to goals to complete: one in Lithuaine, in Vilnius GP, where we asked for the win and the other was in Alentejo, where we setted the goal as a top 10 in the GC. On Vilnius, the AI went bogus with Dall'Antonia and in the end we only the 15th place, disappoiting and one goal failed. Next up, Alentejo. In the end, we just didn't put 1 rider in the top 10, we putted 2. Ciocan finished 4th and Dall'Antonia 6th. Goal achieved.
And this is part 1 of the review. Stay tuned in our HQ to read the 2nd part where we look into individual performances on the rider's and the rest of our season. Stay tuned.
The 2nd part of our review of the 1st part of the season is here. In this section, we're going to look into individual performances of our rider's (everyone expect Dall'Antonia and Ciocan, where we already spoke during the 1st part of this review) and what's remaining of our season, including sponsors goal and our monthly calendar. Let's start then.
For an individual to perform, he needs a team too
Robert Vrecer
The veteran slovenian so far has proven a good buy, altough his goals are still later in the season. So far, Vrecer's best performance probably was in Trentino, where the best climber's from the PCT division we're present and where Vrecer finished in a very respectfull 13th place in the GC. In terms of GC's, Vrecer had another good result, very recently in Austria, in the Int. Österreich Rundfahrt, where he finished 9th in the GC. This year, he was also been able to finish top 10 ina CT 1 day hilly race, the GP Kathmandu, in Nepal, very early in the season, where he granted a 6th place. Currently, the €180.000 salary for him seems a little bit high, so let's see if Vrecer can improve into the 2nd part of the season. During the remaining season, Vrecer will ride 4 more race's: the Ulaanbaatar GP, Volta a Portugal, Tre Valli Varesine and his biggest goal of the season, Tour of America where he hopes he can find a way of granting the sponsor goal, the Top 5 in the GC.
Remy Di Gregório
Remy has proven so far to be a good solid domestique who, in mountainous race's, goes onto to the attack to it. In every single he enter's, he goes onto the attack on at least one stage from that race, smart guy he is. For the remaining part of the season, he will ride, for a main goal, the Tasol Tour to the Sun, the Volta a Portugal where he will have a chance to ride good race's while he will ride the Tour of Battenkill, the Milano - Torino, Herald Sun Tour and, still during this month, the Taldykorgan GP.
Daniel Eduardo Silva
Well, Silva, Silva, Silva... Your season currently, in terms of Stage Racing, is, is, bad overall. While, in one day classics, is very good. 10th in Kathmandu and 7th in Boavista are good results. GC wise, his result's are not proving his salary. He got assigned a leader role in Valle d'Aosta and after decent mountain stage's, he was really bad in the MTT, where he dropped to 17th in the GC, a bad result for a guy with his abilities. For the remainder of the season, Daniel will ride the Tasol Tour to the Sun, Volta a Portugal, Tre Valli Varesine, Milano - Torino, Herald Sun Tour and Tour of Utah. In this last one, both him and another rider will share leadership to fight for the top 5 in the GC.
Maky Roman
Roman has proven been a great asset for the team. Constantly riding good in GC's, and for the rest season he still has his biggest goal of the season. Roman, so far this season, has finished 12th in Rogaland GP after a breakaway, but his biggest result so far, is his 6th place in the GC of the Int. Österreich Rundfahrt. For the remainder of the season, Roman has his biggest goal still to run, the Tour of Utah, where he will share leadership with Silva. He will also ride the Talkydorgan GP, the Tasol Tour to the Sun, Volta a Portugal, Tre Valli Varesine, Milano - Torino, Clasico RCN and Zuri - Metzgete.
Juan Mora
He has proven to be a really nice purchaes, especially with minimun salary. 10th in Emerald Race, 11th in Glava Tour of Norway, and recently, a podium in a stage and 8th in the GC of the Giro della Valle d'Aosta. For the remainder of the season, Mora will still ride the Taldykorgan GP, Tasol Tour to the Sun, FDB Èire Tour, Bucks County Classic, Tre Valli Varesine, Milano - Torino and Clasico RCN.
The rest
Criel, Mojica, Ferrari, Alafaci, Eefting, Pirazzi, Craddock, Williams and Umerbekov have proven decent rider's, with good result's, everyone except Eefting, who so far hasn't prove anything he's worth to be in the team next season. Criel has good results, but this season, Criel won a race in the Crit Series. Mojica hasn't had a lot of TT's to prove his value, his best result so far his is 20th place in Isle of Man TT, while Ferrari and Alafaci have ridden pretty good 1 day classics. Eefting has failed hard in term's of lead-outs, while Craddock is a talent with a lot of time to develop, but he has gotten a podium this season in the closing stage of Tour of Serbie, after a long breakaway, beeing caught in the last couple of meter's but still hanged on to 3rd place. Williams and Umerbekov have proven beeing solid domestiques going in breakaways and chasing breakaways.
Goals and Calendar
In terms of goals, we have still two more to do: Top 5 in Tour of America, an ambitious goal, let's see if Vrecer surprises the world with the result and the other goal is the Top 5 in Tour of Utah, where Roman and Silva will try their hardest to reach it, and they can do it. While in terms of calendar, here it is:
August FDB Èire Tour Volta a Portugal Bucks County Classic Tour of the Battenkill Tre Valli Varesine
September Tour of America
October Milano - Torino Clasico RCN Herald Sun Tour Tour of Utah Zuri - Metzgete
It's not been a bad season for you, I've noticed a few results where Mobil are definitely punching above their weight. Ciocan seems to be a bit of a star at times too.
Will be good to have an active Colombian team next season, if that is your plan! Lots of talent there, with no South American team to take advantage at the moment
Volta ao Alentejo
Alex Ciocan
Tiziano Dall'Antonia
Juan Mora
Nikita Umerbekov
Roy Eefting
Lawson Craddock
Peter Williams
Duo Differdange
Remy Di Gregório
Robert Vrecer
Donestk GP
Jose Mojica
Fabricio Ferrari
Glava Tour of Norway
Tom Criel
Tallinn-Tartu Grand Prix
Nikita Umerbekov
Tour de Serbie
GP Tokyo
Aeropostal
Jose Mojica
Ulanbaatar GP
Tasol Tour to the Sun
FDB Èire Tour
Clasico RCN
Herald Sun Tour
Zuri - Metzgete
