We traveled to Mongolia without big hopes. As predicted this flat race ended in a mass sprint and we found ourselves in a remarkably good position going into the final k.
Teunissen leading out Veelers
However, Teunissen lacked experience and faded before the last kilometre started. Veelers had to re-position and our other sprinters came from too far back. Once again a 12th, 13th and 15th place show that the beginnings of a train are there. It's just the big man that's missing.
The biggest HC stage race of the season took place in Portugal. With two mountain stages finishing uphill we had little hopes for a decent GC here. The flat stages and the TT however were a different story. Gavazzi was close several times on the flat stages, while Reus did well in the prologue and in the hills to keep a good GC placing.
Even in the first mountain stage Reus came through, losing only 30 seconds to the big favorites. And when Gavazzi won stage 8 hopes climbed ever higher.
The big final climb on stage 9 proved to be too much for Reus however. He lost contact early and found himself outside the top 20, over 7 minutes back. Stage 10 was his thing and he retaliated with a vengeance, winning the long ITT. This even brought him up to 12th place.
The final stage was the flattest of the whole tour with a circuit to finish things off. And that's where disaster struck. A crash held up both Reus and Gavazzi, costing us 3 places in the GC and another shot at a stage. Luckily no riders were directly involved in the crash.
All in all these two races showed our new sponsor that the potential is there. The riders are looking forward to show more of themselves the following weeks.
Edited by tyriion on 08-10-2013 19:07
With a very tense battle in Portugal that resulted in a better finish for Reus than expected and 2 stage wins, the rest of the month was pretty disappointing. Though not unexpectedly so, as the Tour of the Vineyards was our weakest line up all year and the Baltic Chain Tour was so highly contested it was no shame that van Poppel couldn't get into the mix.
The single good result in the second half of the month came on the very last day in the Horizon Park Race. Lorenzetto surprised freidn and foe alike to take a strong 3rd. Welcome points indeed as UPC slips into the danger zone after being just above it all year long.
The season end is nearing (well, a good 2 months of racing are still left) and all kinds of rumors around transfers spring up like weeds. Where will van der Lijke go? What team and division will Bennati race in? Will Kessler find a new team?
Asked about the future of his team, UPC manager tyriion had nothing to say. We're first and foremost focusing on the races that are left. They will be absolutely crucial to remain in the PCT. None of the riders are looking for new teams at the moment, as they're too busy securing the future of their current team.
The official statement regarding transfer from UPC last week was: busy with this season, no plans are being made yet. However, sources close to the manager have now revealed that the future of nominal team captain Reus look very uncertain, at least in terms of a prolonged stay on the team.
More news will without a doubt surface in the coming weeks.
September has come and gone, and it's been a quiet month for UPC. Participating in only 2 races this month was all about keeping up the average scores.
First up was the tour of Britain where Gavazzi had to match his result from the Tour Down Under all the way back in January. And while he tried in every stage he failed to get onto the podium in the first 6 stages.
So things were looking bleak until stage 7 came around. With a pretty challenging profile in the last quarter of the stage control was lost by the leading teams as Gavazzi boldly attacked!
Although Ventoso overtook him in the end, Gavazzi managed to stay ahead of the pack and finished second. Coupled with a podium sprint on stage 8 this was enough to get a third in the final standings. And this indeed matched the TdU, so high fives all around.
The second race was Wanze - Arenberg. Featuring cobbles it was time for Veelers once again. While he has been close all season, he still misses that big result. As the race was pretty flat there was just some selection on the few cobbled stretches. So a pretty big bunch had to sprint for the win after attacks had been neutralized.
And Veelers kicked first and got a pretty decent gap rightaway.
Sadly to AMEX riders had been lurking in the background, relegating Veelers to third.
But finishing both races in third position means we had a successful month nonetheless.
This also became apparent from the most recent rankings update, where we are currently tied with CSC in the final relegation spot. But with 25 race days left (more than all the teams in the bottom third of the table) anything is still possible, and the rankings projections show us in a final 21st spot indeed.
Edited by tyriion on 18-02-2014 07:21
The last month in the season and do or die time. Although we weren't exactly tied with CSC it was really close, so every race had to count. And with more racedays left than the teams behind us things should go well.
But those racedays featured some of the weaker line ups or unsuited races of the season. So things were tense and the outcome all but certain.
The Giro dell'Emilia (a big HC race) started things off. And as it is a very tough hilly race expectations weren't high. Direct opponents Cisco lost their captain Efimkin to a crash, but we couldn't capitalize with Knees' 35th position as our best result.
The Herald Sun Tour featured our weakest line up of the season without a decent time trialist. Spearheaded by van Poppel we managed to only occasionally break into the top 20 and points scoring was low.
New ranking updates dropped us into the relegation zone, but the other teams weren't pulling ahead that much.
Our big hopes were put into the Tour du Faso with it's cobbled stretches. Veelers was set for glory, but Roelandts dominated the race. None of our relegation opponents were around, so we could try to get a safe margin. In the normal flat stages Veelers ranked between 4-8, slowly racking up points and positioning himself for the big cobbled stage.
The first cobbled stage wasn't expected to be deciding and Roelandts indeed won it. But Veelers stepped up and delivered a second place.
Veelers beating some others for 2nd place in Faso stage 3
The final cobbled stage was where the magic had to happen however. But things went down differently. In a tactical race Bouygues fooled all competition and let the break (with their rider in it) have the stage. Attacks by Veelers were countered and he dropped outside the top 15. Disaster was imminent.
But in the final 10th stage Veelers salvaged his race by scoring a podium, resulting in the 8th place in the GC. Less than hoped for, but more than expected after stage 9.
Next race in October was the Tour of Beijing, one of 3 HC rated races this month. And after Tour du Faso every point would count, as the margin to CSC was very small indeed.
Lorenzetto had to do it on the flat stages, but CSC sprinter Teruel beat him soundly on stage 1 by winning it. Lorenzetto didn't even make it into the top 10. More importantly the hilly riders of CSC were distanced here, so GC points would be sparse between the teams. The next two stage were hilly and we had no real chances there.
Lorenzetto continued to disappoint in stage 4, but in stage 5 he at least got some points, by finishing 4th. However, CSC passed us in the rankings and we were in danger of relegating.
So it all came to the Japan Cup, where Reus had to make it happen. And with aggressive tactics he forced a split 20ish km to the finish, that caught the leaders of CSC unprepared.
Reus putting the pressure on CSC
Later on he managed to hold on to the favorite group, eventually finishing on a fantastic 10th place.
And that meant safety!
This concludes the races by Team UPC - Boehringer-Immelheim. Next season we will be back with a different name and some new names. Who that might be and who is set to leave will be announced over the following days.
Time to look back and to look forward. The past season was one with many downs and some ups. It started of well enough in Australia, with Gavazzi getting a 3rd in the Tour Down Under, but after that results went away. The low points came with the Tour of the Czech Republic and Reus' fall.
However, lessons have been (hopefully) learned. We wanted to be a sprinters/cobbles team, but in the end we failed to achieve either as a top contender. So the goal for next season will be the signing of a big name winner in one of those fields.
We will also need somewhat of a team for when the roads start to rise, as our record in hilly/mountain (stage) races is almost 0. Too many points are missed because of an inability to climb to some extent.
Looking forward we can say the following about our roster:
Staying Tom Veelers Matteo Trentin (welcome back!) Bobbie Traksel Boy van Poppel Francesco Gavazzi Jan Oelerich Jan Hopman Bob Schoonbroodt Mike Teunissen Dylan Groenewegen Michael Schwarzmann Danny van Poppel Geert van der Sanden Eugert Zhupa (national champ, gogogo!)
Depending on wage demands Kai Reus Michiel Elijzen
Probably out Mirko Lorenzetto Christian Knees Matteo Priamo
Out Joost van Leijen Rik Kavsek Thomas Berkhout Arne Hassink Arjen de Baat JJ Navarro
The riders in the out category were with us from the D2 start. However in order to diversify the team and get stronger domestiques they will have to go. Hopefully some of them will find employment in the D2, they can form a cheap cobbled core for teams that have this as a side interest.
Sad the old D2 guard is leaving, but it will likely be the same for few of my old D2 riders too, good times Good luck with your team, you got a really nice base upon to build on for sure.
Tom Veelers
Matteo Trentin (welcome back!)
Jan Oelerich
Eugert Zhupa (national champ, gogogo!)
JJ Navarro
