The first big test for our cobbles-squad was in deed a huge test.
Not only against many of thee best cobblers from PT but also on a route that doesn't suit Kulppi really well.


When the peloton broke in pieces we had all our guys placed in the wrong group and despite some good work from Gustav Höög we never got back in contact with the favourites and without much sprinting skills the result became much less than hoped for.
Olli fell chatting with his old leader Boonen in the 2nd big group and payed for that by bad placing and ths missing the top 50.

knockout wrote:
Seems like Kulppi didn't understand the "follow Greg" order

This was the first lower-level cobbled classic for Kulppi & Co. but with the small amount of cobbles we need it to be a tough race.


Vastaranta got in the break and put in a valiant effort being among the last to be caught.


Along the way we also got a short peak at Nurmi in his NC-jersey. Sadly it was due to him dropping on the Casselberg.
In the end as many as 87 riders got to the line together, which was roughly the worst-case scenario for us.

Tour de Pologne was obviously another big goal for Gautier.

Stage 1 saw the first hills already and while the finale turned a bit odd with many of the biggest favourites including Gautier just looking at each other 8 riders including Flügel and our own Ingvar Omarsson managed to gain 55 seconds on the rest.

On one side it was really cool to a´see the Icelandic champion play a role in the finale on the other hand I'd rather have seen Gautier gain that time...

Stage 2 was flat and since didn't bring a sprinter our only chance was through the break. Samuel Halme tried but didn't get in there.

Stage 3 however was the first big test and our focus was on getting Gautier to the final climb in good shape.
Van Garderen attacked right tat he foot of the climb but Gautier was perfectly positioned and kept his cool as the Americans atttempt was neutralised.

Cyril stuck to the wheels of Froome, Flügel and Van Garderen .
He dug deep and bagged a 5th on the stage in the end even winning 12 seconds on Van Garderen.

On the next hilly day we saw Lindau with a great effort in the break chasing mountain sprints.

At the final climb we saw another well adjusted race from Gautier, who saw him take 5th on the stage. Sadly his gap to the big group disappeared on the final part of the climb though so he didn't gain much in terms of GC.

Sadly on the final hilly stage he lost a bit of time and dropped a spot in the GC.

In the final flat stage we had Omarsson in the break, but that was really all that happened for us.

Ultimately a 7th place in the GC was one or two spots lower than hoped for but still an important result for us.

	Best Rider	Place	Time
St. 1	Ingvar Omarsson	6th	s.t.
St. 2	Cyril Gautier	18th	s.t.
St. 3	Cyril Gautier	5th	+ 31
St. 4	Cyril Gautier	15th	s.t.
St. 5	Cyril Gautier	5th	+ 1'02
St. 6	Cyril Gautier	13th	+ 5'04
St. 7	Cyril Gautier	17th	s.t.

1	Chris Froome	Fablok - Bank BGZ	30h11'48
7	Cyril Gautier	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1'23
46	Ingvar Omarsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 17'29
50	Philip Lindau	Valio - DeLaval	+ 18'23
105	Paavo Paajanen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 36'47
116	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 41'24
146	Essa Khalifa	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1h03'20
157	Samuel Halme	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1h18'46
DNF	Sakari Lehtinen	Valio - DeLaval	St. 5

This is a very special race. Not only is it a cobbled race situated in Portugal, but with a long uncobbled hill followed by an even linger cobbled descent it has a very unique profile.


Kari Brynjolfsson managed to get in the big early break alongside among others the ageing Tom Boonen.
With only 3 teams not in there and no teams present with more than one it looked like a good break right from the start.

They quickly get a good gap, but the peloton didn't just let hem slide away so when they started closing in from behind Kari went solo!

Going into the final descent he held on to a one-minute gap looking strong.


I dare say this is one of the most surprising winners of the season and I most definitely didn't expect him to grab us our first season win.
That won't stop neither us nor the Icelandic people celebrating.

Olli finished inside the big group of favourites once again lacking the sprint to get a big result for himself.

1	Kari Brynjolfsson	Valio - DeLaval	5h57'00
2	Ramon Domene	Newton Foundation	+ 1'41
22	Olli Kulppi	Valio - DeLaval	+ 5'16
43	Samuel Pökälä	Valio - DeLaval	+ 7'22
51	Ahmad Arissol	Valio - DeLaval	+ 8'24
54	Jukka Vastaranta	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
56	Roope Nurmi	Valio - DeLaval	+ 9'52
79	Joni Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	+ 21'32
87	Gustav Höög	Valio - DeLaval	+ 28'37

While the main target of our PT campaign is gathering experience for our talents we are delighted that we were able to let Gautier and Paillot race a big race on home soil.
With a bit of luck they could even end up showing our jersey to he big public.


Halme set a solid early time on the stage 3 TT making sure the Finnish NC got a bit of TV time, which is wonderful!
In the end Halme manages a 13th place, which really is much better than we had expected from him in a PT race.
Paillot however did slighty worse than hoped for but with a 6th place on the stage it is still our first ever PT top 10 so that has to count for something.


Essa Khalifa showed the UAE-NC in the break on stage 4.
Gautier couldn't quite keep up with the strongest in the end and finished inside the 2nd big group.


However that timee loss did allow for Gautier to go in late/midstage attack. Sadly it ended in a fairly big sprint but a good show from Cyril.

On stage 7 Cyril managed to avoid cameras while still grabbing a 9th on the stage and a small advance in the GC.

	Best Rider	Place	Time
St. 1	Cyril Gautier	32nd	s.t.
St. 2	Cyril Gautier	75th	s.t.
St. 3	Yoann Paillot	6th	+ 13
St. 4	Cyril Gautier	23rd	+ 2'08
St. 5	Cyril Gautier	25th	s.t.
St. 6	Matti Manninen	33rd	+ 2'54
St. 7	Cyril Gautier	9th	+ 2'51
St. 8	Cyril Gautier	17th	s.t.

1	Alexey Lutsenko	Pendleton's	31h14'45
14	Cyril Gautier	Valio - DeLaval	+ 5'06
75	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 33'38
76	Yoann Paillot	Valio - DeLaval	+ 33'55
105	Matti Manninen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 50'15
126	Essa Khalifa	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1h02'33
141	Roope Nurmi	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1h14'00
159	Samuel Halme	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1h50'45
161	Gustav Höög	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1h59'51

We had high hopes for Gautier in this beautiful hilly classic.
The team showed their trust by being one of three teams taking on the responsibility of pulling back the break.

Gautier kept himself close to the front for the finale.

Nevertheless he had o go out in the wind early for the final dash to the line.

In the end an extremely narrow 5th place.

While it was slightly disappointing to see Cyril miss out on the podium so narrowly it was great to see Paajanen get 18th - the best result in his career.

1	Aleksandar Flügel	Kraftwerk Man Machine	4h38'31
5	Cyril Gautier	Valio - DeLaval	+ 14
18	Paavo Paajanen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 43
24	Branislav Samoilev	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
29	Roope Nurmi	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1'13
33	Philip Lindau	Valio - DeLaval	+ 1'40
36	Ingvar Omarsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 2'03
42	Samuel Pökälä	Valio - DeLaval	+ 2'12
159	Essa Khalifa	Valio - DeLaval	+ 8'52

With our strongest hilly line-up in Italy Vastaranta had a rare chance thos season to lead with Lo Ciceero in the mix as well as this season in the past has ended in a sprint.

The finale became packed with attacks even though no time gaps were given.

Neither Jukka nor Ivano had enough left in the tank for strong sprint despite being decently placed.

1	Tejay Van Garderen	Newton Foundation	4h23'48
30	Jukka Vastaranta	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
34	Ivano Lo Cicero	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
99	Yoann Paillot	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
118	Olli Kulppi	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
133	Joni Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
153	Troels Vinther	Valio - DeLaval	+ 3'53
158	Gustav Höög	Valio - DeLaval	+ 5'55
161	Sami Tiainen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 6'45

Moohsic of the month. Wrapping up February back at the farmhttps://t.co/xOesHFjyWM

— Valio - DeLaval (@Atlantius_PCM) November 20, 2017

This has been a month of the unexpected.
Olli Kulppi fell through completely in the first cobbled classics while Kari Brynjofsson compensated the team by taking a surprise win in Viano do Castelo.

Karis compatriot Omarsson took an unexpected stage 6 in Tour de Pologne when he was supposed to make sure Gautier was in just that position.
Nevertheless our French puncher pulled together a solid month finishing 7th on Pologne, 5th in Strade Bianche and 14th in the GC of PT race Paris-Nice.

Sure Gautier did well, but this month clearly belongs to Iceland.
Omarssons top 10 in Pologne was good but it's anothe result that will go over in history as the first over all win from an Icelandic rider.
So the award can really only go to:

An Icelandic cow in a hot tub.
https://icelandreview.com/news/2015/06...ys-hot-tub

With kulppi having done well in Paris-Roubaix when younger GP Herning was the cobbled classic we had the highest hopes for.

Apart from that we have very high hoped for Lo Cicero in South Africa as that isa rac where he should be going for a high GC position as well even though we should expect some strong riders coming down from PT challenging him.

Later we will get our asses handed to us in Qatar and Corsica. In the latter we will be hoping for a good TT from Paillot though.

The startlist for the U23 cobbled event remain undisclosed but we hope to at least take part.

Start		Race	Days	Cat.
2-Mar		GP Herning	2	HC
4-Mar		SAA Tour d'Afrique	4	PTHC
7-Mar		Qatar Oil Mountain Classic	2	HC
27-Mar		Corsica International	3	HC
31-Mar		U23 Cobbled Classic	2	U23

Historically Olli Kulppi have done the best when the cobbles sections have been flat and many do we had high expectations for this race in our home area.

He did not live up to that.

In fact the only time our team was mentioned was when one of our riders got lapped.

This really was not good enough and it seems more and more likely that this will be Kulppis last year in a leading role.

1	Geraint Thomas	Podium Ambition	4h35'20
51	Olli Kulppi	Valio - DeLaval	+ 7'20
64	Kari Brynjolfsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 9'58
65	Ahmad Arissol	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
85	Jukka Vastaranta	Valio - DeLaval	+ 16'26
95	Samuel Pökälä	Valio - DeLaval	+ 22'52
DNF	Joni Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	-
DNF	Troels Vinther	Valio - DeLaval	-
DNF	Gustav Höög	Valio - DeLaval	-

knockout wrote:
Ouch :/

A completely flat stage race with no TT'ing is obviously a big goal for Lo Cicero.
To add some spice to it we will be racing against both Aaltio and Liepins.


Stage one was a complete miss as Ivano wasn't in place for the sprint and has to take a lot of wind early on.

In stage 2 the train was working fine right up till they were on the wrong side of the road in a left swing and lost it all once again leaving Ivano with a lot of ground to make up in the sprint.

For stage 3 the train was pretty much in place, though prhaps a slight bit early but still Lo Cicero failed to make the top 10.


Ivano finally found his sprinting legs in the last stage to take a stage podium and improve his GC a bit.

Nevertheless this race was a huge disappointment overall.

	Best Rider	Place	Time
St. 1	Ivano Lo Cicero	13th	s.t.
St. 2	Ivano Lo Cicero	11th	s.t.
St. 3	Ivano Lo Cicero	12th	s.t.
St. 4	Ivano Lo Cicero	3rd	s.t.

1	Ben Swift	Aegon - Lavazza	14h27'56
11	Ivano Lo Cicero	Valio - DeLaval	+ 39
31	Matti Manninen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 54
52	Troels Vinther	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
88	Olli Kulppi	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
90	Philip Lindau	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
93	Ahmad Arissol	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
133	Roope Nurmi	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
173	Sami Tiainen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 11'17

Of all the races on the calendar this is the one we had the fewest expectations for.

Best-case scenario would have been to have a guy in the break. That didn't happen.

1	Dayer Quintana	Team Ticos Air Costa Rica	6h15'41
70	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 21'49
71	Gökhan Hasta	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
74	Sakari Lehtinen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 22'48
83	Ingvar Omarsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 26'21
106	Branislav Samoilev	Valio - DeLaval	+ 34'59
121	Joonas Henttala	Valio - DeLaval	+ 39'04
DNF	Samuel Halme	Valio - DeLaval	-
DNF	Essa Khalifa	Valio - DeLaval	-

We went to Corsica with a team looking for stage results rather than the GC.

Last year Troels Vinther overdid himself on several occasions but his year he doesn't get the chance to ride for himself many other places than here.
Safe to say that he did not make the most of it…

Things went significantly better in the short TT, where Paillot took 3rd behind Cornu and the surprising winner Steensen.

Samoilev managed to sneak into the top 10 as well.

For the final mountain stage we had hoped to see one of our climbers in the break or with an early attack.
In stead we saw half the team crash and Hasta getting dropped with the (on paper) much weaker climber Steensen.

A bit further up the road we see Lehtinen dropping as well much to early on the stage.
Simply not good enough, despite a respectable 34th in the GC by the ever so solid Samoilev.

	Best Rider	Place	Time
St. 1	Branislav Samoilev	40th	s.t.
St. 2	Yoann Paillot	3rd	+ 6
	Branislav Samoilev	10th	+ 16
St. 3	Branislav Samoilev	50th	+ 6'24

1	Fabio Duarte	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	6h26'00
34	Branislav Samoilev	Valio - DeLaval	+ 5'19
47	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	Valio - DeLaval	+ 7'37
74	Joonas Henttala	Valio - DeLaval	+ 12'13
80	Sakari Lehtinen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 12'47
108	Gökhan Hasta	Valio - DeLaval	+ 17'55
115	Joni Kanerva	Valio - DeLaval	+ 19'51
151	Yoann Paillot	Valio - DeLaval	+ 28'04
154	Troels Vinther	Valio - DeLaval	+ 30'44