Congrats to Jai Hindley on his first ever victory in his young career, riding on loan for our friends at the BNZ Cycling Team! Hindley took S7 of the #MG_TourdeLangkawi from the early break, beating Vichot from Delvaux in a tight sprint decision. Well done, Jai ????????♂️1⃣ pic.twitter.com/87Rbct9gQF
it's been a tough season for bennelong - mitchelton so far (we will come up with an overview of our most recent results at the end of this month) and with pariticularly lachlan morton struggling to find his form, there's already some pressure for our other leaders to deliver big results. jack bobridge obviously as our most important rider beside morton and with the first two key stage races of his personal schedule done, it's about time for a first short summary of his results and upcoming race(s).
tirreno - adriatico | actually one of our most important races for bobridge, who will be featured in several pthc stage races later this year. a pro tour race like tirreno must be a key event then and while bobridge eventually had to settle for a 6th place in the final gc, he at least had a couple of top-5's in stages (a 3rd place on s4 as his best result, see the picture above). missing out on a top-5 in the gc kinda hurts though and despite a nice kom victory for adam phelan in addition to bobridge's still solid gc result, the tirreno, paris-nice and grand duché triple header eventually has to be considered as another rather disappointing series of events for our team.
vuelta al pais vasco | our first goal race this season and just like alst year, it's been a win goal once again. coming off a disappointing result from one year ago, jack bobridge desperately wanted to finally win this race, that suits our roster quite perfectly. lining up with a strong ttt setup, as well as premium hilly domestique calvin watson, there was really no excuse for bobridge to miss out on a gc podium for yet another time here in spain.
despite a rather disappointing start into the race (a 5th place in the ttt did not match our expectations), bobridge appeared to be almost at his best on the following days. a 3rd place on s2 (picture above) was followd by a 4th place on s3 and a rather quiet 10th place on s4 (with no bigger time losses though). some consistent performances from bobridge, who entered the key timetrial with a 52 seconds disadvantage on gc leader sean de bie. bobridge had to settle for a 2nd place on the stage then, gaining back some valuable seconds on de bie and moving up to 2nd in the gc as well.
fortunately (for us) jack saved his best for the final day. a smart ride on the tough parcours saw him entering the final climb as part of an elite group of puncheurs and main gc contenders. de bie as one of them, but bobridge had the better end, going clear from the group on the final few hundred metres - taking the stage and gaining a crucial gc winning gap on de bie. thanks to his consistent stage results, he took both the general and the points classification eventually! a stellar performance and some well needed points for bennelong here. calvin watson added a solid 25th place in the gc as the second best young rider.
bobridge
vuelta al pais vasco
1
tirreno-adriatico
6
vuelta al pais vasco [points]
1
vuelta al pais vasco [kom]
8
tirreno-adriatico s4
3
tirreno-adriatico s6
5
tirreno-adriatico s5
7
vuelta al pais vasco s6
1
vuelta al pais vasco s5
2
vuelta al pais vasco s2
3
vuelta al pais vasco s3
4
vuelta al pais vasco s4
10
ronde van nederland | jack bobridge will also be at the start at the ronde van nederland later this month. following on the praha - karlovy vary - praha stage race (where he won't attend this season), that will make for two more key events for our team. the tricky profiles of this new pro tour event may not suit bobridge as much as pais vasco did, but given his current shape and his strong kick, there's hoping that he may sprint for some bonifications at some point. in addition to bobridge, we will also bring leigh howard for possible bunch sprint decisions.
praha - karlovy vary - praha | as already mentioned, our next race will be held in the czech republic. we had a rather shocking result here last season and definitely need to perform better this time. without luke durbridge, we can't line up with a pre race favorite though, but as always, we do hope for our tt depth to somehow splash one or two timetrial horses into a notable gc position eventually. a top-10 for either dempster, hepburn or dennis has to be possible. also leigh howard will be at the start and hopefully competitive for the sprint stages.
it's been a couple of quiet months in bennelong's hq and now we have to confirm, that those rumours about our management stopping to run the team ain't true. bennelong - mitchelton is still alive, with all the sponsors willing to keep funding the project for the remainder of the season.
after kicking of march with a gc victory at the vuelta a pais vasco, jack bobridge couldn't repeat this big success in his next race: ronde van nederland. the event was always going to be a gamble, but unfortunately bobridge's aggressive racing the final of three stages wasn't rewarded with a notable result. our captain had to settle for 15th place in the final gc and benjamin dyball not only added a solid top-25 but also a narrow runner-up in the kom rankings.. michael hepburn had a somewhat decent 8th place in praha - karlovy - praha a few days before.
our first gt of the year then: giro d'italia, where lachlan morton rode to a podium last season. unfortunately, he could not repeat this performance this time and our co-captain had to settle for a 5th place in the final gc eventually. while he finished inside the stage's top-8 seven times, he never finished higher than 5th.. just when it looked like he could somehow finish 4th in the gc, he had one of his worst days in the crucial s20. a somewhat solid gc result for morton, who had a terrible start into the year and who might be happy to enough to at least score another top-5 result in a gt.
the scandinavia open road race would be jack bobridge's next stage race of the year (skipping all ardennes classics, where calvin watson couldn't deliver one single notable result in bobridge's abscence). our captain though enjoyed a nice trip to sweden, where he already finished on the podium in the race's classic edition back in 2014 (our promotion season). while bobridge missed out on a win (with simone ponzi dominating the three days-event), he did great to finish 2nd in the gc with two stage-podiums and a runner-up in the points classification. calvin watson grabbed the u25 victory to complete a nice score for bennelong in scandinavia.
an ever bigger points haul was delivered by leigh howard in our second gt appereance this year. after a rather disappointing season for our new sprinter to this point, the veteran rode to a somewhat shocking stage-win in the opening stage of the vuelta a espana. he continued to deliver (though losing the race-lead one day later) and finished 3rd for three more times, then 2nd for three consecutive stages, before sprinting to his second stage-win (and additional two days in the leader's shirt) in the tour's s9. nine consecutive top-5's for howard in the first nine stages, including 8 stage-podiums and 2 victories.. surviving the race as 3rd in the point's classification. a huge result for him and bennelong.
well needed points with jack haig totally failing to deliver something notable from the gc: our promising stage racer had a solid first timetrial (8th) after all those flat stages, but kept on losing time in the mountains afterwards. missing out on a top-30 in the gc ain't too promising for his second gt outing at the tour de france later this year.
race
leader(s)
praha - karlovy vary - praha
pt
hepburn (8)
dennis (17)
archbold (24)
team (2)
ronde van nederland
pt
bobridge (15)
dyball (25)
strade bianche
pthc
watson (38)
ronde van vlaanderen
ptm
edmondson (46)
e3 prijs
pthc
edmondson (58)
paris - roubaix
ptm
edmondson (45)
giro d'italia
ptm
morton (5)
goal: top-3
dyball (35)
gp liechtenstein
pt
haig (43)
lisbon classic
pthc
howard (21)
wohler (23)
amstel gold race
pt
watson (30)
fleche wallonne
pt
watson (71)
liege- bastogne - liege
ptm
bayly (44)
vuelta a espana
ptm
haig (32)
howard (2x stages)
scandinavia open road race
pthc
bobridge (2)
watson (u25)
bobridge attacking on ronde van nederland's final stage..
bayly/smith setting up some early pressure for morton in giro's s3..
morton in giro's s15.. always behind the very best here..
stagiare lucas hamilton in gp liechtenstein's early breakaway..
bobridge attacking with skujins and scandinavia open's winner ponzi..
howard celebrating his surprising victory in vuelta's opener!
third consecutive 3rd place for howard in vuelta's s5..
a narrow 2nd place for horward behind swift in vuelta's s6..
second stage-win for howard in vuelta's s9, ninth consecutive top-5 finish!
bayly initiating an early breakaway in vuelta's s16..
the tour de suisse would be lachlan morton's third key stage race of the year. after a terrible performance in paris-nice and a solid top-5 effort at the giro d'italia earlier this season, our premium climber was aiming for another top-5 result at the tour de suisse (just like last year). it started off well for our team in switzerland: a 3rd place for morton in the race's first (less crucial) uphill stage was followed by a huge solo breakaway victory by cameron bayly in the fifth stage. after spending the whole day alone in the break, it was simply stunning to see him taking this big stage win.
morton, however, would continue with a couple of low key performances, losing several spots in the gc until the final day. fortunately, he would recover from this weakness in this last stage of event. while he couldn't join a small elite leading group, he appeared to be strongest of a first chasing group and gain valuable time on several gc opponents when trying to bridge across the leading group. finishing the stage as 4th and moving up to 5th in the gc made for a happy ending of what has to be considered a succesful race for bennelong:
morton's 5th place, bayly taking a stage, ben dyball adding a strong 16th place in the gc, dion smith also inside the top-30 and we took the team's classification thanks to those strong efforts.
jack haig hadn't really a good start into the season, but he delivered big time in the criterium du dauphine libere: our promising stage racer always looked quite solid in the first days in france, achieving two stage top-10 results (including a strong 5th place in the tour's second of two timetrials). the team manager's favorite looked set to battle for an already good lower top-10 result in the gc, but went for a gutsy (and risky) early attack in the tour's final stage:
haig initiated the break of the day in the final mountain stage, going clear from the peloton already in the first kilometres of the day. the move went just perfectly, as the young gun managed to drop all the other early escapees on his way to our second stage win of the week! eventually, it looked like an elite chasing duo with gc's runner-up pluchkin may just catch haig on the very final metres of the day. but haig could celebrate this huge victory and move up to 7th in the final gc, too (also winning the u25 rider's classification).
despite some moments, where particularly morton seemed to be on his way to another fail, the double-header eventually turned out to become a huge success for bennelong and probably a big step towards a solid spot in the protour's rankings.
race
leader(s)
tour de suisse
pt
morton (5)
dyball (16)
smith (26)
bayly (stage)
team (1)
criterium du dauphine libere
pt
haig (7)
haig (stage)
haig (u25)
morton with a strong result in the tour de suisse's second stage, finishing 3rd on the day..
bayly celebrating his solo breakaway victory, a big day!
morton trying to bridge across the best of the tour's final stage, eventually finishing a strong 4th on the day, also thanks to some great support by dion smith earlier in the stage!
james oram as part of the early break in the dauphine's third stage..
haig with a nice 5th place in dauphine's second timetrial in the penultimate stage, cementing an already strong 9th place in the gc..
..then attacking the final stage right from the start!
haig would then go clear from the last few breakaway companions on the final climb of the day..
pluchkin and tenorio would almost catch up to him close to the finish, but it's enough for haig to celebrate an impressive breakaway victory!
stage-win, moving up to 7th in the final gc and winning the white jersey as the tour's best young rider!
Definitely one of the winners of the double header. Some good to great results between Morton, Haig and Bayly. Also it has been said so often already but i wanna say it again: Those squad selection graphics are so stunning <3
A fantastic double header for you guys - Haig with an awesome pre-TDF showing, Bayly, Morton and Dyball flying the flag in Suisse with three great performances
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
no big expecations for jack haig this time, but the goal to win a stage would still remain. the ttt was always going to be the key day for this goal and our team delivered the stage-win, that we were looking for. rohan dennis unfortunately missed the prologue win (as 3rd on the day) and jack haig had to settle for a somewhat still solid 18th place in the final gc.
no special days for bennelong after a kinda great tdf preparation though. also the chrono des herbiers hadn't much special to offer for the team, when michael hepburn (17th) and zakkari dempster (19th) at least brought us top-20 results.
a heavily anticipated race for bennelong and with jack bobridge entering his next stage race, it was another key race for the team. with tons of hilly stages on the menu, our goal was to fight for both stage-wins and several days in the gc-lead. jack didn't disappoint!
a great opener with rohan dennis taking out the prologue, bobridge took the second stage with an unexpeccted attack late in the day, his first of two stage-wins in the race and the first of several days in yellow (he actuallay led the race at 9 out of 11 days in the race). our captain kept delivering, though being a little bit unfortunate with four 2nd places and seven podium stage results in total. he limited the damage in the mountain key stage, adding the second stage-win in the final tt - finishing a good 6th in the gc and taking the points classification easily.
more pthc stage race for bobridge then. again, he more and more appeared to become a 2nd place finisher, as he once again finished on stage podiums for three more times. missing out on the gc-win by a small margin, our season's best had to settle for a still pleasant 2nd place in the final gc.
speaking of 2nd places, bobridge once again had to settle for the runner-up spot in the final gc of our home race (yet again...). opposing to last year, where he could deliver a stage-win, jack did just enough to bring home another podium finish in this race, missing out on the gc-win by half a minute though. jack haig had the better final tt performance as a strong 3rd on the day, but bobridge still proved to be a reliable stage racer for bennelong, bringing home his third 2nd place after the scandinavian open and balkans international (adding this gc win at pais vasco, me must consider his season plan as a success).
leigh howard added a couple of solid results at the gp moscow and jurmala (11th and 9th), too. with bennelong finishing the season as 11th in the final protour standings (missing out on the season goal by one place), we can be happy with yet another solid performance on the highest level of pro cycling.
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