Yep, results are really great so far and i'll try to keep them up. I changed a bit look of "Results" in 4th post, since the list will be too big if i continue to write all the results there. So, from now only podium places will find its place in that post.

Thanks on great words about layout and reports, once again. I am really trying to be unique and good in same time and it seems i am doing it well so far.

It's already February, guys! Sounds weird, but ye. The team only had 2 races (excluding NCs) and we're now moving to February, where 1st race will be GP Costa della Etruschi, precisely its 18th edition. The race is obviously 1 day classic and it've been popular for some WT teams over last few years, so we decided to give it a try.




The route and profile are listed as flat, but there are few tricky hills. It's circular race which means the riders will face the one hill for 3 times. Once at the start and 2 times at the end of the race. Profile looks great and i am very curious to see what can our guys do there.

Startlist is, as i previously said, full of some known names from world of cycling and some of most popular are: B. Eisel, D. Cataldo, M. Breschel, D. Oss , M. Hayman, J. Bakelants, R. Bardet... All in all, these names should bring us some really good fight and interesting race to watch.



As for our squad, we brought a bit weaker squad here than it was in Australia or Argentina in last 2 races, but it's still good squad that should be nice competition to other teams.



Boy van Poppel is our main sprinter and he'll try something only if no one decides to attack on these hills. If someone decide to do so, we have a guy who's surely going to follow that and his name is Arredondo. We will also try to catch the breakaway and send a rider in it.

That was all for preview of this beautiful Italian race, i will be with you on field.

See ya soon, DS of Trek FR

Thanks, sutty.

Our tactic for todays race is to send one guy in a breakaway, most likely Zoidl or Stuyven and then wait to see what they can do. If peloton catch them, we still have 2 options - van Poppel for sprint and Arredondo for hill attack. I can feel that we can achieve something good here!




Race started, and just as we expected breakaway were created early. Zoidl made a move in perfect time and he's in BOTD now. Westra is there, aswell.



There are alot of guys in the group here, so not many teams are organised to chase them. Only IAM's and Androni's riders are chasing, but can they catch them? Gap were widening until the middle of the race, where it reached it's top and it was 8 minutes then.

Nothing interesting happened before 2nd hill, where half of the BOTD dropped. Zoidl is still in E1.



Weather were becaming just worse as the kilometers passed and Zoidl saw that as great opportunity to attack. He made a move on the bottom of last hill! At that point, peloton was 2 minutes back. Good chance for Zoidl.



But, although other guys dropped on the climb, Westra managed to catch Ricardo and now they're only 2 left in the leading group. Downhill started!



Westra is looking exhausted and that was clear when Zoidl started higher pace, when Lieuwe dropped. It's now peloton vs Zoidl. 10 kilometers to go, 1 minute of advantage.



Really brave show from Riccardo, but can he make it? 5 kilometers and group is just closer. You could hear "Don't turn Riccardo, don't turn around!" from our vehicle. It was most important thing at the point.

Last corner, 2 kilometers to go. Still few hundred meters of advantage for young Austrian. This is going to be close!



Just as he passed below 1km to go banner, group catched him. Phew, that was really great race for us... But wait! Is that Boy van Poppel on right side sprinting? That guy is still alive after these hills!



There's still fair chance that we can get this. "Go van Poppel, you can beat Gavazzi and Oss. Go, go!" i shouted.



And it was like that! Boy van Poppel won GP Costa della Etruschi! Woohoo!



What a great, intense and interesting race it was. Let's now bring on the results.

1	Boy Van Poppel	Trek Factory Racing	4h18'34
2	Francesco Gavazzi	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
3	Daniel Oss	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
4	Luke Rowe	Team Sky	s.t.
5	Matti Breschel	Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
6	Iljo Keisse	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	s.t.
7	Rafael Andriato	YellowFluo	s.t.
8	Jens Debusschere	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
9	Jens Keukeleire	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
10	Fabio Sabatini	Cannondale	s.t.

Yep, definitely great result for older of van Poppel's. He did some kind of revenge, since Danny got only 2nd and 3rd place in TDU previously so he filled 1st place aswell and now van Poppel brothers have 1-2-3 in this year so far.

Day after we got that great win in Italy, our guys are in Qatar and some of them had long night (Vandewalle, Stuyven, Alafaci and Hondo) since they traveled overnight and there's big temperature change from Italy to Qatar, but they'll surely get used to it after first training/stage.




There's pretty much nothing to say about route except that there are 6 stages, and one of them are TTT. Pan flat and race in the middle of the desert would describe this one best.

Startlist is full of some sprinting names such as: N. Bouhanni, E.B. Hagen, B. Coquard, M. Matthews, D. Bennati, G. Ciolek and these guys are going to be big competition to our leader here, G. Nizzollo, who's surely one of main favourites for GC here.



As i already said above, Giacomo Nizollo is our leader here. We also brought few TT riders and they're K. Vandewalle, B. Jungels and J. Sergent. Few young helpers, aswell. All in all - pretty solid team for first 2.HC race of the year.



That was all for this presentation of Tour of Qatar.

See ya soon, DS of Trek FR

We're hoping so! Thanks for correcting me Sutty, i edited it.

And the first stage of ToQ is right at front of us. There's really not much to say about it except that we're going to try to avoid echelons and to keep our guys at the front. Nizollo is obviously our sprinter for today.




3 guys decided to make a move from an early start. Alafaci, new guy in our 2014 squad decided to join them aswell and that made 4-member BOTD.



They were caught quickly, so teams started organising early. At about 10 kms to go, 2 trains were organised - Trek's one and FDJ's one. Vandewalle-Jungels-Hondo-Nizollo for us.



After 2-3 kilometers, unknown problem appeared for FDJ guys, so they moved back their train. There are only our guys there, for now.



Orica - GreenEdge created a train late and accelerated quickly, so they can make us competition aswell. Sprint started!

At the end, after long sprint Thor Hushovd took a win. Perfect timing for him, unlikely for Nizollo, who gone out a Hondo's wheel too early.



Nizollo were fighting for 3rd place with Pelucchi and Matthews, but at the end Pelucchi somehow managed to get last place on podium and left Giacomo without a podium place for today.



Nothing impressive, but we're not disappointed. Still 4 sprinting stage to come. Giacomo must shine on at least on of them!

1	Thor Hushovd	BMC Racing Team	2h46'04
2	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Team Sky	s.t.
3	Matteo Pelucchi	IAM Cycling	s.t.
4	Giacomo Nizzolo	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
5	Michael Matthews	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
6	Brett Lancaster	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
7	Ben Swift	Team Sky	s.t.
8	Bryan Coquard	Team Europcar	s.t.
9	Nacer Bouhanni	FDJ.fr	s.t.
10	Tyler Farrar	Garmin Sharp	s.t.

Indeed, VoetsT. It could've been better, but seems like Hushovd is having absolutely great start of the season and he seems unbeatable, at the moment.

The 2nd stage of ToQ is Team Time Trial one and is decisive one for General Classification. Sky, Orica and Garmin are listed as leaders. We'll see what we can do here.




IAM was first one of potential favourites for this stage to start. Surpriningly, they had pretty bad ride since they finished behind Tinkoff Saxo, who was at the lead in that moment.



Garmin was next one on the starting schedule. They're one of the potential leaders aswell. Leaded by Farrar, they somehow manages to finish in front of Tinkoff Saxo and gets provisional lead. Still few teams to come.



Our Trek Factory Racing were next one. Guys are prepared and not much is expected from them today, so they're without pressure. Hope they can achieve something good. At the end, it turned out to be disappointing day for guys, since they finished about 50 seconds behind Garmin.



Orica GreenEdge, actual outsiders for this stage are next ones. Only Sky is after them, so if they get a good result they may even win this. Great TT squad for them, since Meyer, Tuft and Howson are there. They easily gets the lead with 26 seconds of advantage over Garmin.



And the last team to start was Team Sky. Main favourite for the stage disappointed a bit, since at the end, they finished 11 seconds behind Orica and closed 2nd stage of ToQ.



At the end of the day, Trek finished 1'13" behind winners, OGE. Quite disappointing result, but that has to happen aswell. We'll try to search our chances in stage win, now.

1	Orica GreenEdge	15'29
2	Team Sky	+ 11
3	Garmin Sharp	+ 26
4	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 40
5	BMC Racing Team	+ 46
6	FDJ.fr	+ 50
7	IAM Cycling	+ 58
8	Team Europcar	+ 1'07
9	Trek Factory Racing	+ 1'13
10	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.

1	Damien Howson	Orica GreenEdge	3h01'30
2	Brett Lancaster	Orica GreenEdge	+ 2
3	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Team Sky	s.t.
4	Michael Matthews	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
5	Jens Keukeleire	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
6	Cameron Meyer	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
7	Svein Tuft	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
8	Jens Mouris	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
9	Christian Meier	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
10	Dario Cataldo	Team Sky	+ 10

Yep, pretty disappointing TTT from the Team, but well... Thanks baia, but no I actually didn't play it (it would be better if i did with this result...) There are some story writing tricks.

After that disappointing 2nd stage and TTT from guys, we're entering the 3rd stage where we have to correct the things a bit, with some possible podium place. We'll surely aim high for this, since Nizollo have the win in his legs. He just needs some luck!




Big group decided to make a break today, since the gaps in GC are already made and they hope guys from peloton will let them go. No big names here.



Of course peloton didn't let them go. They caught them right under 20km to go banner and it was now on sprint teams.

We positioned well, with almost same train there + Sergent this time. It's looking all good for us so far.



The guys were really in-form today, since no one was actually able to follow the pace of our train. 5 kilometers to go, 3 guys are still there. We're still on top, this is looking good.



Jungels is out of energy and it's only Hondo/Nizzolo for us now. Sky and FDJ accelerated and we're now in the same line. They started sprint first and blocked our way. Nizzolo just couldn't find the way to pass Swift, who dropped after leading out Hagen and just stood in front of Nizzolo.

At the front of the race, Bennati somehow manages to get the win in front of Matthews and Bouhanni.



Giacomo comes in as a rocket, showing that he got the speed to outsprint all of these guys, but... He finishes as 5th, while Hondo finishes on 9th place. Nothing changed in GC.

1	Daniele Bennati	Tinkoff - Saxo	2h50'52
2	Michael Matthews	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
3	Nacer Bouhanni	FDJ.fr	s.t.
4	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Team Sky	s.t.
5	Giacomo Nizzolo	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
6	Ben Swift	Team Sky	s.t.
7	Brett Lancaster	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
8	Mickaël Delage	FDJ.fr	s.t.
9	Danilo Hondo	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
10	Raymond Kreder	Garmin Sharp	s.t.

Guys, i changed my settings a bit for this report and will do in next few reports probably, since i am trying to figure out which one's looking best. Hope it's not problem.

4th stage of ToQ, same as all others. Flat stage, peloton probably won't allow anyone to make a move and get a win from breakaway and the same guys are in fight for the win again.




As every other day, breakaway was created early and alot of guys are there. No big threat for sprint or GC there, so peloton lets them go.



To sum what's happenin' - breakaway got caught at 16 kilometers to go and first trains were created back then. FDJ had absolutely great train there, and they were in big advantage.



At the end, after intense and really interesting sprint, Brett Lancaster gets a win in front of Nacer Bouhanni. Great timing for Lancaster, who was on Bouhanni's wheel all the time.



Few meters behind, great fight for 3rd place, where Nizzolo gets it. Pretty big surprise, since he had no train today, due to narrow roads and big amount of blocking.



Nothing changed in GC, once again. Orica's guys are still on the top.

1	Brett Lancaster	Orica GreenEdge	3h01'33
2	Nacer Bouhanni	FDJ.fr	s.t.
3	Giacomo Nizzolo	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
4	Bryan Coquard	Team Europcar	s.t.
5	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Team Sky	s.t.
6	Michael Matthews	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
7	Daniele Bennati	Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
8	Thor Hushovd	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
9	Frederique Robert	Wanty - Groupe Gobert	s.t.
10	Tom Van Asbroeck	Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise	s.t.