The season is coming close, and with everyone now having finalised rider schedules we can now release the races that each of our leaders will be racing this year.
Mwangi Samwel
Vuelta al Tachira
Tour of Eritrea
Tour of Oman
Tour of Southland
Kenya Mountain Classic
Urkiola Igoera - Subida Urkiola
Giro del Trentino
GP Liechtenstein
Giro d'Italia
Nelspruit Classic
Tour des Pays de Savoie
Hassen Ben Nasser
Tour Down Under
Giro d'Italia
Tour of South Africa
GP Onda - Boavista
Tirreno - Adriatico
Ster ZLM Tour
Strade Bianchi
Manx International
Scandinavian Open Road Race
Milano - Torino
Tour of Taiwan
Nelspruit Classic
La Fleche Wallone
Tour of Beijing
Liege Bastogne Liege
Japan Cup
Tropicale Amissa Bongo
Enrico Gasparotto
Tour Down Under
Clasica San Sebastian
Tirreno - Adriatico
Volta a Portugal
Strade Bianchi
GP Plouay
Tour of Taiwan
Zagreb - Lljubljana
Dutch Food Valley Classic
GP Quebec
Race Horizon Park
Paris - Tours
Post Danmark Rundt
Tour of Beijing
Taldykorgan GP
___________________
NC Jerseys
Team designer aidanvn13 has once more produced some great quality jerseys for our national champions to wear. Here they are:
Our first race of the year was the Down Under Classic, one in truth that we really saw as a warm up to the soon arriving Tour Down Under. Due to it's HC status we thought Gasparotto would be ineffective here and therefore sent a development squad to gain XP, along with some domestiques who would be helping at the TDU to gain fitness.
Not much to say apart from the fact that we missed the morning breakaway and unsurprisingly had no real chances in the final sprint, meaning that it was a very quiet and anonymous way to start the year. Our best finisher was new recruit Hervé Raoul Mba, who was our best rider, one of two in the top 100 in 92nd.
In a heavily contested sprint at the front Danilo Kupfernagel of Karcher - Adira Racing took the season opener, a surprise to many as he wasn't seen as a big contender. Our friends at Project: Africa completed their top five goal through Russian rocket Romain Maksimov.
After that 0-pointer, we had a chance to make up for that in our next race, the Tour Down Under. Bringing our most capable hilly squad, we came here hoping for a top five overall and some good stage results. We came up against a packed field once more though so a result would be tough.
Leading us was Hassen Ben Nasser, one of the most capable puncheurs in the division. He kept in the main group in the opening few stages, keeping in with the favourites on the hilly stage three well and slowly climbing into the overall top ten. When the decisive Willunga Hill stage came he was one of the strongest and finished third, leading him to fourth overall.
Fabian Wegmann did well to support, even if his own GC chances were hurt by him falling behind a couple of splits over the course of the race. His highlight of the race was an 8th place on stage 2. Enrico Gasparotto put in a very disappointing performance, not joining in with the bunch sprints which is something we hope doesn't happen too often.
Venchi - Ferranti rider Michael Van Staeyen took 3 stages and the overall in a dominant performance, where he showed that his hilly-sprint combination can score massively this year. Chris Froome finished second, just 2 seconds behind the Belgian.
Followed the Tour Down Under closely. I would've liked to see Ben Nasser on the podium, but unfortunately that didn't happen. I think there'll be a lot more to come from him later on. Looking forward to it
aidanvn13 wrote:
Followed the Tour Down Under closely. I would've liked to see Ben Nasser on the podium, but unfortunately that didn't happen. I think there'll be a lot more to come from him later on. Looking forward to it
Was happy with 4th in that field in the end, even if a podium would have been nice. You can see his calendar above, I hope him and Hategka don't clash too much. I guess we'll see him in South Africa though
Vuelta al Tachira | 22nd - 31st Jan | Team Preview
The longest race we'll participate in all year with 10 stages, going to Tachira was always going to be a gamble. With 4 big mountain stages, we sent our strongest mountain squad in the hope of bettering last year's race where we got a stage win and 7th overall as a CT team.
Things didn't go to plan though, to say the least. We took Mwangi Samwel to lead us in his first race, but it seemed that the four mountain stages weren't tough enough. He was almost always among the top 20, but too many were able to hang on. His highlight was 6th on stage nine.
Still, that wasn't enough to get him an overall top ten and 12th place was all he could manage in the overall standings. A disappointing return for a quarter of his racedays. Zakayo Ndbri also got a top 30 but nothing that saved the race for us.
Winning the overall was La Vie Claire rider Jocelin Maillet, who took a surprise win after a stage win on day 4. No-one caught him on the easier mountain stages and the Frenchman took a comfortable win.
Kimeli got in stage 9's break, a highlight in a very poor race
January was poor to say the least. The Tour Down Under brought us sucess with just over 10 points per race day but Tachira and the Down Under Classic were below-par performances which give us bad news points-wise. If form doesn't pick up relegation will definitely be on the cards.
Ben Nasser was our best scorer and most point-efficient rider by far. We need others to help him out though, with our other leaders not scoring as expected leaving the team short of its goals. February gives us a chance to change our fortunes with 2 goal races, so we hope things can get better.
Picture of the Month: Ben Nasser sprinting Down Under
Unlucky Tachira for you, but at least Nasser looked solid, certainly a good sign in his first race. Samwel wił really need to deliver in upcoming races.
The first goal race of the season for the team is the Tour of South Africa, one of just a few races on our home continent this season. The sponsors want a top five, and we need the team to deliver to secure a good budget for next year as well as helping us to put some points on the board after a poor January.
Leading the team is Hassen Ben Nasser, who will hope to replicate his TDU top five and achieve our goal in what is rumoured to be a good startlist. Behind him, Fabian Wegmann can go for individual stage results with his decent sprint and Tarik Chaoufi should be a good lieutenant.
Hassen Ben Nasser
Leader
Fabian Wegmann
Free Role
Tarik Chaoufi
Domestique
Merhawi Kudus
Domestique
Gyung Gu Jang
Domestique
Redouane Chaabane
Domestique
Hillary Kiprotich
Domestique
Charles Anguilet
Domestique
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Tour of Oman
Another HC stage race, the Tour of Oman. Another mountainous stage race for the team after the disastrous Tachira, the highlight of the race surely is the Green Mountain on stage 4, where the GC could well be decided. A long and tough climb at the end of the day should be where the better climbers move away from the rest.
Mwangi Samwel is once more our leader, who will try to make his move on the aforementioned stage 4. If he can hang on during the hillier stages we think an overall top five is possible. Zakayo Ndbri backs him up, with the rest of the squad here in support of those two's GC ambitions.
Mwangi Samwel
Leader
Zakayo Ndbri
Free Role
Simon Kimeli
Domestique
Daniel Njoroge
Domestique
Suleiman Kangangi
Domestique
Samwel Ekiru
Domestique
Riadh Ghdamsi
Domestique
Salfo Bikienga
Domestique
_____________________
Vuelta a Mallorca
Mallorca is a race which we don't have the highest of hopes for. We decided to not include Ben Nasser here, and therefore only send a secondary hilly squad in the hope of grabbing a few points through Fabian Wegmann. The rest of the team supports the German.
Fabian Wegmann
Leader
Lotto Petrus
Domestique
Redouane Chaabane
Domestique
Hervé Raoul Mba
Domestique
Johann van Zyl
Domestique
____________________
Tirreno - Adriatico
Our first PT race ever, Tirreno will see our top hilly squad face some of the top riders in the world. We don't have any real targets with no points on offer, but to justify our wildcard would be good with a top ten overall or a good stage placing.
Ben Nasser leads the team with all GC hopes pinned on him, with the hilly stages where we hope he can move forward. Enrico Gasparotto can maybe take part in a sprint or two, especially on a tougher stage while the rest come in support.
Hassen Ben Nasser
Leader
Enrico Gasparotto
Free Role
Tarik Chaoufi
Domestique
Merhawi Kudus
Domestique
Gyung Gu Jang
Domestique
Mujtaba Hussein
Domestique
Hillary Kiprotich
Domestique
Charles Anguilet
Domestique
____________________
Bahir Dar
One of our weakest teams all season, we decided to come here to try and get a point or two for our Africa tour goal. Salfo Bikienga will lead the teams hopes here, with anything more that anonymity being a pleasant surprise for us.
Salfo Bikienga
Leader
Samwel Ekiru
Domestique
Riadh Ghdamsi
Domestique
Suleiman Kangangi
Domestique
Daniel Njoroge
Domestique
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Strade Bianchi
Goal - Top 5
Another goal race, this time the team visits Italy in another hilly race for the team. The hilly profile will see some of the division's top puncheurs tackle the roads of Toscana. Our sponsors want us to achieve a top five, something we think is achievable.
Leading the team like in most hilly races is Hassen Ben Nasser, who will be hoping to secure our goal as he's one of the top on his terrain in the division. Behind him, Wegmann could also get a good result while the rest will support.
Hassen Ben Nasser
Leader
Fabian Wegmann
Free Role
Enrico Gasparotto
Free Role
Johann Van Zyl
Domestique
Hervé Raoul Mba
Domestique
Tarik Chaoufi
Domestique
Hillary Kiprotich
Domestique
Suleiman Kangangi
Domestique
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Gisborne GP
On the same day as Bianchi, many of the top puncheurs will be split between the two races. Due to the Italian race being a goal, we eventually decided to send a weaker squad to Gisborne. Chaabane will try and get in a point-scoring position while our Kenyan mountain goats try to do something.
Redouane Chaabane
Leader
Zakayo Ndbri
Free Role
Simon Kimeli
Free Role
Lotto Petrus
Domestique
Gyung Gu Jang
Domestique
Charles Anguilet
Domestique
Daniel Njoroge
Domestique
____________________
Edited by FroomeDog99 on 02-05-2014 20:04
Tour of South Africa | 3rd - 9th Feb | Team Preview
The Tour of South Africa was one of our most important races on our calendar this year. Being in Africa, a goal race and .HC classified race, our result here could be an important point of a so far disappointing season. Six stages of laregly hilly profiles made up the stages.
Things started quietly on stages one and two, with no real results of note. Leader Hassen Ben Nasser remained in the main group. During the flat stage three, he had his first chance to stretch his legs, taking a ninth in the final sprint.
Stage 4 though brought one of our finest results in the team's existence. Ben Nasser got in the decisive GC move and then to make things even better sprinted away from his fellow attackers to win the stage! this put the Tunisian in the race lead and in pole position to win the race.
That's exactly what he did, holding onto his lead in comfortable fashion over the next two stages. On a testing final stage he even beat off rivals once more to finish second and increase his lead, as well as adding the points competition to his winnings.
That gave us our first ever stage-race victory in our one and a bit year existence, made even sweeter by the fact that this was a goal race and a race in our home continent. The points scored in the race even saw the team move up into sixth in the PCT standings provisionally.
Since the last update here, three of our goal races have happened, as well as some Protour Wildcard races. Time for a lengthy update!
Strade Bianchi
After his huge win at the Tour of South Africa, Hassen Ben Nasser returned to action here with another goal race, the Strade Bianchi. We needed a top five here to pass what was one of our easier goals set at the start of the year.
Leaving things until the final climb into Siena meant that the win was out of sight with arguably the division's strongest rider Michael Van Staeyen already up the road. However, Ben Nasser's explosive attack shook off the other rivals and scond place was claimed, thus completing our goal.
Result:
1
Michael Van Stayen
Venchi - Ferranti
4h38'31
2
Hassen Ben Nasser
Team Kenya Airways
+ 17
3
Diego Ulissi
Bacardi Limited
+ 34
4
Juan José Cobo
Team CSC-Orbea
+ 38
5
Tommy Zaini
Meiji - Cannondale
s.t.
Kenya Mountain Classic
The next big race we had on the calendar was huge for us - the Kenya Mountain Classic. Our home race, we needed a good result here to please our fans and fulfil our top ten goal. Home hero Mwangi Samwel lead our efforts as our strongest climber.
With several strong climbers present, including Bacardi pair Úran and Intxausti it was never going to be easy but Samwel managed to keep up with the best and despite cracking a bit near the end he held on for a respectable 7th place, making it 3/3 goals this year for the team!
Result:
1
Beñat Intxausti
Bacardi Limited
4h35'09
2
Fabio Duarte
Venchi - Ferranti
+ 19
3
David Abal
Team CSC-Orbea
+ 47
4
Rigoberto Úran
Bacardi Limited
+ 56
5
Florentino Marquez
Quickstep
s.t.
6
Petar Panayotov
Boeing-Bulgaria Bicycling
+ 1'22
7
Mwangi Samwel
Team Kenya Airways
+ 2'17
Tropicale Amissa Bongo
Our final goal race of the season, the race held in Gabon was surely our best result of last season. Behnam Khalilikhosroshani managed a stage win and 3rd overall while Suleiman Kangangi also took a stage. Surely that couldn't be beaten?
To complete our goal though, we had to. Only the win would do. Tour of South Africa winner Hassen Ben Nasser spearheads a very hill-orientated squad with previous stage winner Kangangi also making the cut.
Sadly Ben Nasser couldn't force home a big enough advantage on the early hilly stages to usurp long time race leader Mandrii of La Vie Claire and had to settle for 5th. no clean sweep of goals this year. However we still managed to win two stages of the race just like last year, with Kangangi incredibly copying last years exploits on stage 5 and Hervé Mba also taking a breakaway win on stage 6!
Result:
1
René Mandri
La Vie Claire
22h31'45
2
Jukka Vastaranta
Magna - Ryanair
+ 7
3
Santo Anza
Kappa-ENI
+ 25
4
Mauricio Soler
Repsol-Cativen
+ 29
5
Hassen Ben Nasser
Team Kenya Airways
+ 35
Protour Adventures
So far this season we've competed in three Protour races
First up in February was Tirrenno Adriatico, a stage race with a hilly route this year. We sent a strong team with our best rider Hassen Ben Nasser leading. Despite not getting any top ten finishes over the race he managed a decent 15th overall, which was promising going into our next big races.
Then we reached the Ardennes classics, also lead by Ben Nasser with a support cast of riders looking to gain experience on the highest stage.
First was La Fleche Wallone. On the attack early was our big talent Merhawi Kudus, who after a couple of attempts managed to get into the day's breakaway. Unsurprisingly he was reeled in after a good effort. The spotlight was then on Ben Nasser, who managed a respectable 29th.
Next up was La Doyenne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Our first ever monument proved to be very tough. Even our top riders struggled to make any sort of impression and we ended with our best result 81st.
Just beginning now is the Giro d'Italia, and we are competing! An all African team has been sent and we'll update you on the results.
As the season moved into May the biggest race of our season began - our first ever Grand Tour, the Giro! We came here with low hopes but optimism, with the first ever all-african squad in the race's history. As a wildcard team we weren't expected to challenge at the top of the standings, but we came in with the ambition to grab a stage win.
The first week wasn't great for us though, with our GC leader Mwangi Samwel struggling on the hilly stages, and being dropped multiple times which sent him far down the overall standings. Our only appearances were from the break, with Hassen Ben Nasser and Merhawi Kudus getting involved.
Come week two though, our fortunes began to turn. this started on stage 1, where a mid-stage Samwel attack resulted in a 5th place and a jump up the standings. Stage 12 was even better, as Ben Nasser jumped in the break and finished 2nd! He also managed to accumulate some king of the mountains points, putting him into the Blue Jersey!
He was at it again on stage 13, extending his lead further and grabbing another 2nd place! That ended up being our last real action of the race, but we were happy that we managed to leave an impression on the race over those three days.
Sadly Ben Nasser lost his mountain jersey on the last few stages, but he still finished a very respectable second in the standings, which we were very happy with. Damiano Cunego took the overall standings on home turf, while Samwel finished 28th.
There is good news for the future of the team today, as Kenya Airways have signed a deal to continue their sponsorship of their current pro continental team until the end of the 2015 season. Reportedly pleased at the number of African riders, the target for the next couple of years is building on becoming the first all-african team to ride a Grand Tour and pushing to be a part of the premier division of cycling - the Pro Tour.
Successes this year have included a win at the Tour of South Africa, and two second place finishes at the Giro. Although the team's division next year is not completely decided, the airline were happy to reinvest in the team even if relegation is a possibility due to confidence in those running the team and commercial benefits it has seen as a result of its sponsorship.
This means it will be the sole sponsor of the team for the second year running, and part of the team for a third after being co-sponsor in the team's inaugural season in the Continental tour. As a result of this, the squad will once again be almost fully African in 2015.
Most riders will be kept, although a few could leave. Drops in wages for the likes of Ben Nasser and Kudus should free up enough salary cap to improve the squad but the following could also leave to free up some space.
Thanks for the credit, it is very simple layout though.
You have some nice african talents coming through the ranks, especially Kudus and Grmay of course, but african TT talent is interesting too, he could use some more secondary stats though. Now in wonder how you will develop your two biggest talents, i have similar thoughts going on. Good luck with it!
Avin Wargunnson wrote:
Thanks for the credit, it is very simple layout though.
You have some nice african talents coming through the ranks, especially Kudus and Grmay of course, but african TT talent is interesting too, he could use some more secondary stats though. Now in wonder how you will develop your two biggest talents, I have similar thoughts going on. Good luck with it!
I think Grmay and Kudus will both be very good for us, with Grmay probably being Kudus' super domestique when both are maxed. I'll probably give them both stage racing training from now on, to bring their TT skills up to at least decent level. That could change though, of course.
Hussein can be a good prospect for us as well but as you say he could be limited due to his poor secondary stats. I probably prefer Van Zyl to him, due to his capability on the hills and cobbles and he could be trained in a few ways.
That said, your batch of talents is a lot more impressive than mine. Grosu, Zmorka, Alaphillipe and Karnulin all look like top quality riders in the making.
Edited by FroomeDog99 on 20-02-2015 10:43
Mwangi Samwel
Vuelta al Tachira
Tour of Eritrea
Tour of Oman
Tour of Southland
Urkiola Igoera - Subida Urkiola
Giro del Trentino
GP Liechtenstein
Nelspruit Classic
Tour des Pays de Savoie
Hassen Ben Nasser
Tour Down Under
GP Onda - Boavista
Ster ZLM Tour
Manx International
Scandinavian Open Road Race
Tour of Taiwan
La Fleche Wallone
Tour of Beijing
Japan Cup
Tropicale Amissa Bongo
Zagreb - Lljubljana
GP Quebec
Race Horizon Park
Post Danmark Rundt
Taldykorgan GP
Burkina Faso - Salfo Bikienga
Danilo Kupfernagel
Roman Maksimov
Hervé Raoul Mba
Gyung Gu Jang
Redouane Chaabane
Tarik Chaoufi
Sam Bennett
Momchil Robov 
Magno Nazaret
Eduard Alexander Beltran
Tyler Brandt
Bahir Dar
Toms Skujins
Thurakit Boonratanathanakorn
René Mandri
Jukka Vastaranta
Aleksandr Pluchkin
Bonaventure Uwizeyimana
