Sad we didn't get the win we sought, but it was never really an option this year. Oomen disappointingly bad all race. Novak with only 1 good stage. Senni hanging in there does make up a bit, but still not what we hoped after last year. Congrats to Zara and thanks for the reports!
Well what a brilliantly ridden stage by the Team! Looked like it would be tough for us to hold onto the lead given the nature of the stage in conjunction with the small gaps in the GC.
An excellent performance throughout the race from Cosnefroy sacrificing himself while in the GC lead on Stage 5 and then supporting again on Stage 6.
Taaramae really showing his experience by realising today was Conci's day and doing all he could to get the young Italian over comfortably. 10th in the GC for him a nice reward.
Finally, what a tour from Nicola Conci
3rd place in another of the more difficult stages following a solid TT and then capping it off today with a powerful ride for 2nd on the stage to earn a well-deserved victory! The first of his professional career and hopefully not the last.
Commiserations to those who saw disappointing performances from their leaders and thank you UU for the awesome reports!!
Guldhammer is not letting his career go out with a whimper. I'll admit that I was unsure whether to even bring Guldhammer here. I knew I was sending Kamna, and bringing him AND Jensen had potential to be a mega screw up. But as I've been saying all year, we have too many leader race days around anyway, and we didn't plan too many pure mountain races. So here he was.
And it worked! Fantastic racing all week from him. He was alert and in the right spot the entire time. He rode a pretty decent TTT for his ability. And on the last stage, he attacked at the perfect time with enough strength to outlast the others, making use of his hill, acceleration, and sprint at times. To cap it off with a final stage victory was amazing to see.
4 seconds is always a tough gap to lose by, especially in a race where time bonuses and TT seconds were so crucial, but there's zero way I can be unhappy with 2nd here. Compared to what I expected yesterday, it's a thrilling result. Add the points jersey, 4th in KOM, and his contribution to 3rd in Teams, and he must have gotten close to 150 points on his own in a C1 race. Love to see that.
For Kamna, it was also a pretty good race. Not exactly what he prefers for selectivity, but luckily we planned for that alternative with Rasmus. He got dropped again today, but after a couple of guys ahead of him, so he moves up to 11th on GC. As our secondary stage racer, that's an awesome result. We very rarely have gotten any real depth scoring in the past, so to have him riding for himself too helped a lot. I was very happy both here and in HKC to see that he is able to coexist with our top puncheurs and stage racers in really productive ways for scoring. Love to see it.
Oh yeah, and there's Jensen. This did not end up being a super puncheur heavy race, so easy to say we wasted 6 race days, but he did contribute a lot. Scores a few points for 21st and had a couple of stage results. Plus he seemed to be our top domestique for the last two stages. It might be a waste of his talents, but when you bring 3 leaders with 3 different specialties, the race won't work out for all of them.
Congrats to LLS on an amazing race, and thank you to Ulrich for the reports! They are always such a joy to read, whether I catch them before bed or wake up to them.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Stage 6 makes the stage 5 shenanigans even more bitter to swallow. Masnada proved once again that he's a regular Top10 contender in such fields and stages, so what happened yesterday was really unlucky and pretty (or completely) random. Especially when seeing someone like Calmejane easily in the Top10, I'm really unhappy with my team's result.
And not just with Masnada, also - or especially - with Moscon. Speaking of Calmejane, Moscon should beat him pretty much in every tough stage. Instead, he again proved to be completely useless this year. No clue what happened to him in the offseason - whether it's classics or stage races, he's just pathetic.
Moreover, after the time loss yesterday, we had to join the breakaway and go for KoM points with this lineup, instead of getting a 9th place on the stage (no points) and a 23rd place in GC (little points). We had nothing to lose, but didn't gain much by sitting in the pack and waiting...
I guess we're currently in a position where we can afford an underwhelming race from time to time, but definitely not too often. We need more Hong Kong and less Pais Vasco, clearly (without being political, of course ^^).
Nevermind, onto the next race, and congrats to the winners. And thanks for the reports UU, I really enjoyed all but one of them.
Yes! It was THE race to bring back our first distinctive jersey, very happy with Rodriguez performance (seems like it was necessary to shake him a bit).
I guess that Quentin or Sergio, who had good legs, could have help him secure the jersey earlier (or, at least, make the race a bit less stressful), but I'll be happy with what I get.
Thanks for the great and entertaining reports Ulrich, and congrats to the winners (and to Bianchi for the great mountain fight).
