The Giro d’Italia is over, and put lightly: It was a fiasco for Citigroup – Cannondale. During the past three weeks, much criticism has hailed upon the poor souls, and rightly so. Citigroup’s performances were nothing else than embarrassing, awful and much reason to be angry at the new team philosophy. “The team now apparently targets only Belgian classics and le Tour�, wrote a journalist at Gazzetta dello Sport, "those races that appear to be the most important. For them, the Giro is no longer a target. This team is no longer italian despite so many italian riders on the team".


The Italian media and public have booed Citigroup’s riders at the Giro, but soon turned their attention to Citigroup – Cannondale’s riders who actually didn’t participate in the Giro d’Italia and preferred to stay at home or ride other races. General consensus was that the squad, which was selected for the Giro, was too weak. The riders at the Gio had nothing to be ashamed off, but the lack of interest from the other riders in the team was the problem, and thus they were a disgrace for the Giro and Italy. Especially Raphael Visconti was criticized, as was Moreno Moser, for skipping the Giro and instead focusing on some small races. Apparently they have come to think of Visconti as something that he isn’t.

A Journalist wrote, “Raphael would have been a great help for both Basso and Caruso in the mountains and hilly stages, and for Viviani in the bunch sprints. But in this way, Basso and Caruso were missing mountain support, which Moser and Visconti would have guaranteed. Viviani’s lead-out trains were a joke in itself meanwhile, and Visconti has shown already this season that he is gifted at building up the sprint for his teammates. Citigroup – Cannondale seemingly prefer to let their riders do whatever they wish, and don’t care about the Giro d’Italia in return. Instead, they send a weak team here and treat this race like a holiday race, don’t put any effort in it, don’t animate those young riders like Visconti and Moser to want to show themselves in their home land. Citigroup have no interest in the Giro apparently and they treated this race like it.�
Another Italian Journalist wrote: “With Visconti riding the Tour of California and Bayern-Rundfahrt, he showed that he avoids Grand Tours like the devil despises holy water. Visconti is not a complete rider and will never be. But more so: He lacks the passion for Italy and our races. He prefers to ride over cobblestones than to ride over our beautiful mountains or through those magnificent towns of ours, he shows himself to foreign audiences but vanishes when it comes to his own tivosi. I imagine he shruggs at the sight of the Italian flag, while wishing to be born aboard. The Giro is useless to Visconti. He may as well be useless to us too.�

Such harsh criticism towards our rider draws from the vivid downfall of our team. Elia Viviani showed some great action early on, but missed out two times close on the stage win against Alexander Kristoff. On stage 6 then, the bad news hit us: Ivan Basso fractured his hand during a crash. He had to abandon the Giro.

From there on out, it was up to Damiano Caruso, but last year’s two times stage winner and King of the Mountain, appeared to be in no shape to be as competitive as last year. In fact, his performances disappointed hard. The remaining sprint stages meanwhile turned into a race against wind mills, with Viviani losing his edge time and time again. Add to that the fact that Citigroup’s riding in breakaways was unlucky and unrewarded, and the Giro proved itself to be tough and became an impossible task for the squad.

In the third week eventually, the team was at a low point, when 4 riders abandoned and merely 4 remained. Caruso, Viviani, Kritzek and Bennett arrived in Brescia with sad faces, and a relief that the race was over.


The Giro itself was long-time a race of great action and excitement. Cadel Evans put in some stunning performances and claimed 2 stage wins in the first half, while Kristoff appeared to be the new strong sprinter in the peloton by beating Kittel and Cavendish.
Bauke Mollema (last year’s Tour de France third) had some issues in the first week and lost considerable amounts of time. However, the dutch rider fought his way back and passed Evans eventually in the rankings, whilst Nibali took the Maglia Rosa with a comfortable lead. As Mollema was gaining time on Nibali, the Shark of Messina seemingly just waited for the last two mountain stages, where he put in such fantastic rides that his advantage was out of this world. With the KoM classification and the points classification on his list too, Nibali has truly dominated this Giro d’Italia 2015, much like he did two years ago. Betancur secured the 2nd rank overall with a fantastic showing up on the 20th stage, as Mollema got yet another 3rd place at a Grand Tour.

Overall:	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana
KOM:	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana
Points:	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana
U25:	Warren Barguil	Giant-Shimano
Team:	AG2R La Mondiale

Stage	Name	Team	Leader’s Jersey
1, FL	Alexander Kristoff	Lotto – Belisol	Alexander Kristoff
2, TTT	BMC	BMC	Gianni Meersman
3, HL	Michal Morkov	Tinkoff – Saxo	Lars-Ytting Bak
4, HL MTF	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana	Vincenzo Nibali
5, FL HLF	Alexander Kristoff	Lotto – Belisol	Vincenzo Nibali
6, FL	Jens Voigt	Trek Factory Racing	Cadel Evans
7, HL	Cadel Evans	BMC	Cadel Evans
8, TT HL	Dario Cataldo	SKY	Cadel Evans
9, HL	Bauke Mollema	Belkin	Cadel Evans
10, MT	Cadel Evans	BMC	Cadel Evans
11, HL	Emmanuelle Sella	Androni	Cadel Evans
12, FL	Andrei Amador	Movistar	Cadel Evans
13, HL	Van Rensburg	Giant-Shimano	Cadel Evans
14, MT	Enrico Battaglin	Bardiani	Cadel Evans
15, MT	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana	Vincenzo Nibali
16, HL	Jeremy Roy	FDJ.fr	Vincenzo Nibali
17, FL/HL	Jose Herrada	Movistar	Vincenzo Nibali
18, MT TT	Carlos Betancur	AG2R La Mondiale	Vincenzo Nibali
19, MT	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana	Vincenzo Nibali
20, MT	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana	Vincenzo Nibali
21, FL	Arnaud Demare	FDJ.fr	Vincenzo Nibali

Giro d'Italia, Final Classification

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana Pro Team	84h44'51
2	Carlos Betancur	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 8'19
3	Bauke Mollema	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 9'36
4	Cadel Evans	BMC Racing Team	+ 12'37
5	Rafal Majka	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 14'25
6	Domenico Pozzovivo	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 18'14
7	Michele Scarponi	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	+ 24'26
8	Ryder Hesjedal	Garmin Sharp	+ 25'38
9	Beñat Intxausti	Movistar Team	+ 26'31
10	Dario Cataldo	Team Sky	+ 28'27

Leading up to those two important preparation races for the biggest race of the season, Elia Viviani found some success in Estonia. Our top sprinter scored 3 out of 4 stages at the Tour of Estonia and of course also claimed the Overall Classification and the Points Classification! What a way to strike back from the Giro d’Italia.


The Criterium du Dauphine was a rather dull affair and could have been described as a Criterium du SKY as well. Though Peter Velits claimed the jersey in the prologue, Peter Sagan snatched it from his shoulders by the help of two stage wins. The next day, he already gave it to his teammate Chris Froome. The Briton carried it without problems to the end of the race, since his fiercest rival Alberto Contador crashed on the second stage. The form seems to be right for most of the contenders, yet Peter Velits claimed the last stage yet once again for BMC.

Stage	Name	Team	Leader’s Jersey
1, PRL	Peter Velits	BMC	Peter Velits
2, FL	Peter Sagan	Team SKY	Peter Velits
3, FL	Peter Sagan	Team SKY	Peter Sagan
4, HL TT	Chris Froome	Team SKY	Chris Froome
5, MT	David Millar	Garmin – Sharp	Chris Froome
6, HL	Alberto Contador	Tinkoff - Saxo	Chris Froome
7, MT	Andy Schleck	Trek Factory Racing	Chris Froome
8, HL	Peter Velits	BMC	Chris Froome

Criterium du Dauphine, Final Classification

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Chris Froome	Team Sky	28h26'22
2	Peter Velits	BMC Racing Team	+ 3'54
3	Alberto Contador	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 4'30
4	Rui Costa	Team Katusha	+ 4'40
5	Andy Schleck	Trek Factory Racing	+ 6'17
6	Kanstantsin Siutsou	Team Sky	+ 7'59
7	Jérôme Coppel	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	+ 8'13
8	Thomas Voeckler	Team Europcar	+ 8'48
9	Damiano Caruso	Citigroup - Cannondale	+ 8'52
10	Przemyslaw Niemiec	Lampre - Merida	+ 9'20

Ahead of the Tour de Suisse sighs at the issue of the missing support: “When puncheurs like Moser or Visconti get criticized for not riding the Giro because their support would have been important, than we know that we have a serious lack of climbing potential in the team.� Van Garderen shrugged off speculation about a buy-out clause out of his contract though. “I signed with the team and I’m happy with it. I think Italian media would do well at limiting their ambitions for this team though. They are not as strong as they used to be with Nibali and such on the squad. We are a young squad, still developing and forming. We are contenders though, and we’ll fight for the best results any day of the week.�

The reaction onto the recent issues, came from Moreno Moser who claimed the stage win up to Flums against Mikel Nieve. With a second ahead of Van Garderen, Arredondo takes over the leader’s jersey though, since Moser had an awful first day. It was Moser’s first win since two years. “It’s amazing to have found winning ways again. I was very close a couple of times, but today it worked out. I tried to ride my race, and not get too nervous by Mikel Nieve’s constant attacks. It worked out for me�, stated a seemingly relieved Moser.


The race continued to come in great for Citigroup-Cannondale. With various riders leading most of the race, Van Garderen was in a good position, mostly holding on to his podium place, switching between 2nd and 3rd. With the Mountain Time Trial a bit of a surprise came around: Pierre Rolland, not particularly known for his TT skills, but certainly famous for his climbing abilities, took the win ahead of Van Garderen. As a result, the French got the jersey. On the next day, he even increased his lead with the help of Alejandro Valverde. Van Garderen finished the race on a fantastic 2nd place, snatching some valuable WT points and getting more confidence for the Tour de France. And with Moreno Moser, winning a stage and the King of the Mountain jersey, he will surely have some great support alongside him!

Stage	Name	Team	Leader’s Jersey
1, HL	Bryan Coquard	Astana	Bryan Coquard
2, MT	Moreno Moser	Citigroup – Cannondale	Julian Arredondo
3, FL	Thor Hushovd	BMC	Julian Arredondo
4, FL	Marcel Kittel	Giant – Shimano	Julian Arredondo
5, HL	Cyril Gautier	Europcar	Joaquim Rodriguez
6, MT	Mikel Nieve	Movistar	Joaquim Rodriguez
7, FL	Marcel Kittel	Giant – Shimano	Joaquim Rodriguez
8, MTT	Pierre Rolland	Europcar	Pierre Rolland
9, HL	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar	Pierre Rolland

Tour de Suisse, Final Classification

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Pierre Rolland	Team Europcar	33h35'06
2	Tejay Van Garderen	Citigroup - Cannondale	+ 1'18
3	Joaquím Rodríguez	Team Katusha	+ 1'23
4	Julian Arredondo	Team Alonso - Ferrari	+ 1'54
5	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 2'12
6	Roman Kreuziger	Movistar Team	+ 2'31
7	Fränk Schleck	Trek Factory Racing	+ 3'51
8	Romain Bardet	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 4'24
9	Michael Rogers	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 4'52
10	Daniel Martin	Garmin Sharp	+ 5'02