The first race of the season as well as the first race ever was not the biggest succes for Los Pollos Hermanos. As seen on the image above, more than half of our team was dropped while the finale of the GP Yekaterinenburg (C2HC) had not yet begun. Our self-proclaimed puncheur Fulgencio Bru was our highest finisher on the 66th place, a couple of hours after Philips' Kelderman won the race. No worries though, as we knew from the beginning the hills were our least favourite terrain. Bru continues his mission to beat his personal record of obtaining 14 CT-points in a single season. #WeHaveADream

January hasn't ended but with the pace the reports are coming in we wanted to have the February preview up before the month started. Thanks again to all the reporters doing a great job as there have been many amazing and incredibly exciting reports already. Anyway, here's Los Pollos' February preview.

Only two days later the CT peloton heads to Belgium for more cobbles. This is an important race for the cobbled teams in our division, as it's one of the only opportunities to shine in the C2HC, and most of those cobblers are Belgian as well. Our main man will once again be Baugnies, supported by almost an identical team as the one in Portugal. We're aiming for the win in every C2HC cobbled race, and would be disappointed if we were to one zero cobbled races this season.

No idea what I was thinking when selecting races, but it seems we decided to go to a C1 hilly stage race. The only puncheur we have is Fulgencio Bru, and after finishing 66th in Yekaterinenburg, we doubt he'll do much better in Hong Kong. Luca Sterbini will also be present, but finishing in the points at the time trial would already be exceeding our expectations. For some reason we also decided it would be a good idea to send Guillén, Marquez and Seboka to Asia. What was I thinking?

It makes more sense sending those riders to Asia when seeing we are riding in Denmark at the same time. Poor planning by DS Nemolito. Anyway, in Denmark we will rely on our cobbled team to get a good result. First C2 cobbled race of the season, should be a perfect race for Jerome Baugnies.

Another C2 race later in February as we head to Ireland for what should be a three-day sprinter's paradise. We expect the strongest sprinters of the C2 division to be present and hope to get some top-8 places in the different stages. Carlos Alexandre Manarelli and Marco Guillén know what their job is, and have an extremely strong lead-out in Baugnies. The other five riders in Ireland will be our young ones getting some experience on the flat.

Only the second edition of the C2HC hilly classic in the history of the MG, with the first edition being back in 2007! We won't be contending for the win and probably neither for the top-25. Our aim is simply to be in the breakaway. Of course, Fulgencio Bru can always surprise us and try to score some points as well.

Our first month is over, so time to have a look at how we did.

After a terrible (at least it was expected) performance in Yekaterinenburg, our team headed to Venezuela to perform in the 10-day long Vuelta al Tachira. Our most important riders would be Manarelli, Marquez and Petrovski, and they surely delivered!

Manarelli had four chances to win a stage during the first five stages, as four of them were relatively flat and not too long, so a mass sprint should have been expected. The bunch sprints happened, and Manarelli gave us our first (stage) win in our history! He rode very consistently and got three 2nd places in the other sprints, ending 2nd in the battle for the green jersey as well. Coronel did a great job at the lead-outs and grabbed one CT point as well. The photo below is one of our beloved Brazilian who managed to win the second stage in Venezuela.




Marquez was our hope for a good GC. We aimed for a top-5 finish but also hoped for the Spaniard to be the closest rival of the two favourites (Pinot and Ranaweera) and thus even finishing in the top-3. It started well for Marquez, as he had a strong day in the MTT where he finished third (photo below). However, the longer the race went on, the more difficulties Marquez had to follow the other GC contenders, which ultimately saw him drop back to a fifth place. Not an amazing performance, but decent enough.




One man who definitely delivered was Stefan Petrovski. Our favourite North-Macedonian was quite absent during the first stages, but then blew everyone away when joining the breakaway in the eighth stage and got the stage win as well as enough points to win the KoM-classification at the end of the Vuelta al Tachira! Great performance by Petrovski, who also finished 11th in the GC!

Our star rider, Jerome Baugnies, hasn't performed very well during the first three cobbled races of the season. A zero pointer in Viano do Castelo was disappointing, but understandable. A sixth place in Gent - Wevelgem was below expectations and not even finishing in the top-10 in Herning was absolutely catastrophical. Jerome defended himself in an interview with Los Pollos TV, and we wanted to share the most important fragments of the interview here.

Reporter: Jerome, welcome. Am i allowed to say your first cobbled races were terrible?
Jerome Baugnies: No, I don't think so. Anybody who knows we will know that the February cobbles were just a warm-up for March, where I will be scoring many points and probably win in the two HC races I ride in.

R: But still, are you happy with a sixth place in Gent - Wevelgem, when your manager was hoping for a win?
JB: I will be honest with you, I don't care what the manager wants. I am Los Pollos Hermanos, I will do what I want. Who cares if I'm sixth though? My fellow countryman Naesen, who's a good friend of mine, actually won the race. Friends are more important than managers.

R: I'm sure Nemolito will be happy to hear this... How do you explain your terrible performance in the GP Herning?
JB: I actually wanted to win. I was going to win it as well. Until some small yellow things started throwing bananas at me. The MGUCI have to punish the responsible team hard, because it was totally unacceptable. Joe should also be punished.

R: Joe?
JB: Joe mama, yeet.

Let's be honest, February was terrible. Time to look forward to a month where we will have many opportunities to show our red and yellow colours!

Geraardsbergen - Bosberg (HC)

We send our classic classic's team to Belgium for our first of two HC races this season (and this month). Baugnies prefers cobbles over hills, so this is not his favourite race, but of course still one he likes a lot. His classic classic's domestiques will be there as well, with Coronel and Ulloa. Top-10 should be doable, but we're hoping for some redemption and maybe even a top-5 on a good day.

Roma Maxima (C1)

This should be a better course for Baugnies, with the competition being probably more or less the same. The goal will be the same, top-10 at least but always hoping for a good day and top-5.

Circulo de Juarez (C1)

We made a big mistake signing up for this race, and even making this a sponsor top-10 goal. Mexico is one of Los Pollos Hermanos' home countries, so we thought: "why not?"
Well, because we have worthless sprinters (sorry, guys). What's done is done, and with some luck we might be in the break and score some KoM-points. Our main riders will be Baugnies, Guillen, Quispe and Quicibal.

Apex Mountain Classic (C1)

We're really measuring ourself with the big guns this month as our mountain squad gets sent to Canada for the Apex Mountain Classic. We're not hoping for too much though, but finishing in the points should be nice. Our main rider for the job will be Marquez, who will be assisted by Petrovski and the almighty Seboka.

Le Samyn (C1)

Back to Belgium for another cobbled race, as Baugnies and the gang aim for a spot somewhere between fifth and tenth in Le Samyn.

Aha, Eritrea, interesting race. We'll have Marquez for the GC (hopefully top-5), Manarelli and Guillen for the sprints (hoping for some top-8 positions in stages) and great domestiques as Coronel and Petrovski, who are allowed to do their own thing as well.

Kuurne - Brussel - Kuurne (HC)

We finish the month as we started it: a Belgian HC cobbled race. You already know who will be our one and only hope, now we're just hoping for the race to be selective enough to get him into scoring positions, go go go Baugnies!