Ciao Italia! It's great to race here again. We started really good so far, decent Team Time Trial, a podium for Ciolek and yesterday a win for him. The team is working really hard for him and he came to thank me personaly for the work I did yesterday. The sprints are hard to contest, but I just put him in a good position before I drop. And yesterday it worked, the first World Tour victory for the team!
Ciao Italia! It's a me, Mario! So Tirreno-Adriatico was good for us, even though we couldn't do much in the mountain stages, getting that win with Ciolek was perfecto!
Next was Milan - San Remo. I love a this race so much I did what I never do: I attacked!
I got into the break, giving it my all to stay ahead. We stayed well up front until the final, where I attacked again!
But finaly our adventure was over and we got caught. I looked for Ciolek but could not find him, apparently he had a bad day and was dropped. But by then I didn't have any power left to contest the sprint, so I finished in the middle of the pack. It's a bit frustrating, if Ciolek was having a bad day, I should've saved my power and sprinted for the second place.
i did not had the right opportunity to show my TT qualities there, yet. I want to change that and therefore, I want to participate in the continental championships. I may not win there against the likes of TVG, Phinney or Svein Tuft, but i should be able to do well there..!
If you agree with me, than the question will be: Should I concentrate now on them in terms of training so that I can peak there or should I continue a long preparation for a later race..
Ciao Italia! Taking a break now after the first part of the season, Volta Limburg was another hard race. Same as before, working for Ciolek. Unfortunately, he had another bad day. It has been an interesting season so far, with highlight my top 10 and points in Qatar.
All that remains for me are the Continental Championships. The manager was kind enough to select me, even though it's a bit too heavy for me. I'll probably help our leaders again. I hope to get some more leader chances in the next part of the season as well, but I'll need a good talk with my manager about that during the season break.
Ciao signore manager! I would like to discuss the next part of the season with a you. Are we going to apply the Giro d'Italia? I would love to be a part of it!
And yes, I also think I deserve another chance to sprint on my own. There are plenty other riders who can lead out Ciolek, but I feel I can bring the team some points myself. If possible, I would like so more races where I can be the lead sprinter. Of course if we get to ride the Giro, I would focus only on that. If we don't ride the giro, I think I like a Norway, Luxembourg or even Turkey.
We will request participance in the Giro. The chance we get it isn't too high, and if so, we'll aim on the Vuelta. Also, Luxembourg and Norway aren't planned for us, but you can go for a good result in Turkey and hopefully provide us with points.
Jan
Clásica de AlmerÃa
The day was quite boring, but since the finish was flat and we had brought Gerald, we had a good day. 3rd was the eventual result
Tirreno-Adriatico
We were quite invisible here during the stages, apart from the finishes of the flat stages. Our highlight was in the 3rd stage, as Gerald manages to even win a stage!
Milano - San Remo
Am I right if I am disappointed? We may have been in the break with Mario, but our goal of a top-5 wasn't even close. Cancellara eventually won.
In other news:
In San Luis Josef podiumed in one stage, and despite losing lots of time in stage 1, he came 11th in the GC.
The Strade Bianchi resulted in a 4th place for us. Well done Gerard.
In Malaysia Josef came a strong 5th in the GC. A good result for the young Bavarian.
The Tour of Oman resulted in a nice stage podium for Louis.
Edited by Selwink on 19-01-2014 15:12
Hey bros! Sorry for not posting here for a while but busy with training and all that. Getting ready for the Aufrazian TT championships, where I will probably win. It should be me against that North Korean Kim guy, but there are also some good Aussies. Still, have to win this.
Unfortunately no wildcard for the Giro this year. Luckily we have some other ambitions. Later on, we hope to drive the Vuelta, but first our goals for part 2:
Easy goal: Stage podium Bayern Rundfahrt
Medium goal: Top-10 Scheldeprijs
Hard goal: Top-10 Amgen Tour of California
Ciao Italia! I am just furious! The UCI won't let us ride the Giro! I know we are not the best team, but I was really hoping for it! The UCI management is a disgrace!
I hope after I cool down a bit, I can discuss my new schedule with my manager and let you know soon.
I just received some good news from the UCI. We have been granted a wild-card for the Vuelta! Since the Giro opted for the Italian teams, this was second option. Luckily, we have been given our wild-card. We hope to show what African cycling is worth.
first of all, I want to say thank you that i will be allowed to race the continental time trial championship. I am looking forward to prove my talent here and i want to make you proud there. There will be some tough opponent from top teams like BMC and i look forward to compete against them.
Lately, I also saw the RR start list and saw myself in it. I had to laugh somehow as i don't think i stand a chance there and without being disrespectful i can say that Dave has better chances than I have.
So I had an idea: Why not use this race as a charity event. We could ride on a bike like i have attached to this mail and ask for donations for poor children in Africa. I think this can help many African families and could also be a good marketing action for our sponsors. If you like this idea then talk to our sponsors if they support this. I think Dave would support this, too.
I'm not a marketing expert but we could even extend this idea with e.g. the Twitter Hashtag #MTNforAfrica or future commercials.
I'm looking forward to your opinion.
Johnny
Btw, do you already have an idea of which races I can race in the next months?
Guten Tag everybody,
it's yours truly, Josef "Not-the-bad-Josef" Hintermüller. I am very happy to finally start the blogging that i had been wanting to do for so long. I hope i will be able to do this once a week in the future. I just rode the Continental Championships, the time trial. I finished in an obscure 40th place. I did however think i had the best MTN time, which i was quite happy about, until Ignatatas the old b*stard came along and beat me by something like three seconds. I do have high hopes of beating him in the road race, though we'll both be riding for Cio. Talking of Cio, i would like to share with you something that nobody on the team, least of all the Germans, understand. It's his pre race preparation. Before every race he does, he listens to the song i linked up at the bottom. He says he does it "because it's funny". But seriously, how the f**k can you listen to this sh*t before every damn race?! He's driving me completely crazy, because of course everybody else on the team bus can hear it too. I think if this goes on for any longer, i'll have to choke him on a "Thüringer Kloß"!
Anyway, that's it for now, I'll get back to you after the European Road Race.
