While there's still some uncertainty about the racing in Argentina I just wanted to drop by and give my take on the racing in Oman.
The team had sent me there on my own request as it's a stage race decided in mountains but without a TT to mess it up for me.
Things went pretty much as planned up till the big mountain stage on the 4th day.
In fact there was only one mountain to decide things on and that was a bit explosive for me as I prefer a bit of a longer haul, like the one deciding Langkawi. Still I pulled myself to a solid, but also disappointing 11th place on the queens stage and no chance to climb that one spot more in the GC on the final stages as no more mountains appeares - only some smalle hills, which really isn't where I excel...
Me leading the group behind to finish 11th
In fact the last two stages was horrific for me always being caught the wrong place when the peloton cracked. Probably becasue everyone on the team had their minds on Damuseau, who rode a very agressive race and a GC 11th doesn't give the team any points anyway.
It was about time I made my debut in the colors of CCC. The team gave me somewhat leadership in the Tour of Langkawi. However, the organizers put us up for a top-10 goal, which meant for the first time ever there was some pressure on me.
Along with me came Ramon Sinkeldam for the sprints. He did some decent performances scoring top-10's, even a 5th place on the 9th stage. I would like to congratulate the rest of the team (Natt, Pyroli, Thomas, Salvatore, Bartlomiej and Jaroslaw) for the time here in Malaysia and my amazing debut for CCC.
But then there was that top-10 goal. With only 2 mountain stages, I had two chances to perform. However on the first mountain stage, Thomas Damuseau attacked and finished second, taking second in the GC as well. If we could keep him in the top-10, our goal would be accomplished. IN the second mountain stage I stayed with him all day long and made him finish 14th on the stage whereas I took 11th. But the most important thing: he kept him second place in the GC and didn't lose it in the following stages. Oh, and I finished 17th, which is still not bad considering the startlist
Hello fans and welcome to our first edition of our Newsletter, which will be a longer highlight of the teams efforts, which hopefully will lead to several occasions in the future. I'm writing from one of our private cabins in our HQ in Savona, where I'm joined by Ramon Sinkeldam, which have been busy this spring and already have most of his race days completed so early.
To sum up we've had an annoying start to the season, where we got success for being constant in our results, but failed with not getting that final push into more points. We won't lie to you that it's been frustrating getting so many 2nd places and being so close to getting either a stage win or an overall win.
Ever since our move to Italy, we've had some more results going in and we've also found the perfect place, where we can develop our riders into every given terrain. The San Remo area is renowned for it's hills and if you want to train on the mountain, you will have to cycle the small 200 km into France and there are some nice climbs to practice on. We hope for an succesful season and hopefully we can get some content out, which refers our success from moving to Italy.
Krzystof Korzak
"Interview with Ramon Sinkeldam"
1. How has it been to move into a new team, where you're the only dutch rider?
Yeah it's been hard to break the language barrier, but my english has never been in bad shape and while this is a polish team, there is literally no one speaking polish and everything is on english during excercises, talks and in races. From the first moment I knew, that the team knew what they were doing and that everyone had a goal to achieve right from the start.
I wasn't just the only one, that just have joined the team and while they were as excited as me, I didn't see a moment of hesitation in getting this project started, which made me feel comfortable really quickly. I left a lot of friends in Giant and even though I was joined by Thomas Damuseau, I had to start from scratch and I made friends really quickly, as it turned out that they were as motivated as me
2. Tell us about the system in the daily activities?
The HQ is dealt up in a big hall with lots of cycles and also an office for the staff and 20 private cabins longer up the road, where the cyclist got a free place to live while training. The hall is opened at 6 am and it usually start with that most is going out for a morning run. When they're done with that they go into the hall and do some warming up, then there is joint breakfast at 8 am and the present riders are given training/race schedules for either the day or the next race.
When breakfast is over we go into seperate teams and doing some activities together, after that were pretty much left to ourselves with individual schedules, but the days before leaving for a race, we're given some special treatment and paired with the others going there.
3. Does this system work then?
I like the idea of actually living among your teammates for a short while, this is of course mandatory for all riders if they want it or not, but it gives a better feeling when you go into race and you learn something new every day this way. Even though I will live here for 2 months before going to live in Belgium, I feel that I've begun getting some new friends.
The living area is probably the best thing about this and we have our own little cabin to sleep in and watch telvesion in, but most things happen in the hall and the fact that the office door is always open, gives the riders an unique possibility to get an answer to their questions
4. Who has become your best friend and why?
Without a doubt the one that I have conected the most with is Bartlomiej and this is important with him being my main leadout, which he has been a little uncredited for in his time here. I feel that he gives it his max at training and at the same time you can connect with him. Most riders seem to be busy with their own things, but Bartlomiej really knows most in and out and he is the best ambassador for us new riders.
While being these things he is also the one, which is expected to bond well with the other sprinters, but your rarely annoyed at him and he both gives a good experience professionally and also personally. I almost feel a little sad having to leave and after moving to Belgium, I will only be here 1 week at a time, but I feel this gives an unque way of interacting with each other.
"Securing the Win"
We've been waiting for this win for a long time and after 5 second places we finally got the stage win were hoping for. Funny enough the one to achieve this is our own Sports Director Davide Rebellin and even though this is his final year in professional cycling, he managed to show the new generation how it's really done and his performance in these months are a legacy to be proud of.
The stage win happened on the last stage of Volta ao Algarve and Rebellin was free of any GC win, so he was allowed to go into the break and do what he does best! Ramon Sinkeldam won the bunch sprint, which were a big relief knowing that if Rebellin hadn't been in the break, he would've taken the burden and now it's gone!
Race
Stage
Rider
Result
Points Gained
Volta ao Algarve
1
Ramon Sinkeldam
6th
5 pts
Volta ao Algarve
2
Ramon Sinkeldam
2nd
12 pts
Volta ao Algarve
3
Salvatore Puccio
46th
0 pts
Volta ao Algarve
4
Salvatore Puccio
20th
0 pts
Volta ao Algarve
5
Davide Rebellin
1st
24 pts
Volta ao Algarve
5
Ramon Sinkeldam
4th
5 pts
Volta ao Algarve
5
Davide Rebellin
40th
0 pts
Stay tuned for a big Preview of the last races the team is participating in and hope you'll take care until next time!
As promised just a small update on how things fared in Argentina.
The first few stages went as planned being avoiding echelons and crashes and getting to the finish line eithout time losses.
For some peculiar reason we were leading the team classification after stage 2, so we got a trip to the podium the lot os us, which was of course nice.
On stage 3 Davide went in the break and stayed away, which pretty much destroyed my chances of getting some decent support in aiming for a decent GC even though I finished alongside most of the big names.
Usually I lose quite a bit on time trials, but this one wasn't actually too bad in my opinion. Fra from a win of course, but a solid result for me nonetheless that keeps me in the GC.
Then on the following day the big names started moving a bit. I finished as best CCC rider, but we wasted some energy and time due to Davide's good GC place before the stage
Stage 6 went to the break, while I lost a bit of time due to these small punchy climbs they have in this race is not my preference. I'll take a proper mountain before these any day.
The final stage was pretty flat and we only made ourselves noticed by sending Rutkiewicz in the break. I finished inside the pack.
All in all I had hoped to make more in this race, but I have to acknowledge that this kind of climbs really doesn't suit me that well.
Anyway this was where the team wanted me so I did my best, but after having raced the race two years in a row I still doesn't really like it…
Next up was Criterium International on the beatiful isle of Corsica. A weird race this year, but more about that later.
My last race before the continental championships was the Citerieum International. Well apart from the three EHST-races I took part in along with Palmarsson and three Scotsmen.
Those were all nice races, though I mainly used them for training.The latest edition, which was featuring a pretty hard final climb even saw me getting a decent result in spit of just riding it in my own pace.
Me finishing 17th in EHST race 3.
Anyway back to Criterium International.
The first stage was quite flat allowing Trentin to take a solid 3rd place.
Stage 2 was an ITT, but at least it was short enough to keep my losses under a minute.
On the desicive third stage we had barely started rolling before Damuseau went away.
I felt rather good on the final climb, and finished in teh same group as 10th place, though I didn't have the kick needed to get that spot myself unfortunately.
Anyway this was a mountain was much more to my liking than the climbs in San Luis and I fell I'm starting to get stronger before I head towards some of my big targets next season part - after all both here and in Oman I was margins away from getting a good result on the queen stages...
Our own Sports Director won't let the young outclass him this season and it's clear that he will round of his last season with some great results! For Davide even a 30 year old is considered young and without experience, which in the last two decades has been shared with notorious results throughout all those years.
We feel sorry to see a legend go away, but he is still here and with his recent second place in Catalunya, we hope to see some great results! We also feel sorry that the team has been hit by a curse, which tends to give us alot of second places and right now a third place would be better than all these second places.
We can say that it's good they come and that we're higher than our expected finish, but we still think there is room for improvement and next year we hope to have a competitive team, which can fight for the GC more than just going for stage wins. The Giro is our goal next year and currently the man for that job is still uncertain, but we hope it to be a certain person.
I am in my hotel room in The Netherlands at the moment, waiting for the Volta Limburg Classic to start. I am hoping to do a bit better here than I did in the early March weekend in Italy. All I can say is that my season is not going as I want at this point.
I was quite happy that I finally got to race in Italy for the first time. That happiness was gone quite fast once we were underway in Tuscany. The white roads were no friends of mine and my legs felt like crap. Paterski saved the day for us, finishing 15th from the break.
Let me tell you that it is no fun riding two classics in two days when you do not have a good form. After the Strade Bianche we were off to Rome for the Roma Maxima. Luckily for me, the race was quite slow, so I could stay hidden in the peloton throughout the race. None of our riders were really good, with Trentin being our best rider in 39th place.
I am hoping the race in Limburg will go better, but I am dreading all those short, steep hills in the middle of the race. Hopefully I can ride some time-trials or cobbled races next part.
Catalunya is next to Andorra, though for political reasons I still have to call it Spain. It was a nice opportunity for my family to come visit me for a race. With at least two mountain stages I could show my strenghts, though of course it's a WT race with big names like Valverde, Nibali and my hero Van den Broeck.
Ramon Sinkeldam tagged along for the sprints. The first two stages resulted in a 14th and 10th place. I just rode along with the peleton. The third stage was the first mountain stage, in which Szmyd attacked, but he was caught later on. I finished in the peleton after a not too interesting stage for me. Szmyd went on the attack the next stage as well, finishing some minutes in front of me after I couldn't hang on with the rest. 56th, nearly 8 minutes behind the winner is not that great, but it's something.
Rebellin took second place in the break on the fifth stage, big shoutout to him! It was a disappointing stage for me, losing 11 minutes. Sinkeldam finished fifth on the sixth stage. In the end, my GC position was 57, with Szmyd and Rebellin ahead of me. It was not the race had been hoping for, but given my age it's not a shame.
My last race of this season part was the Volta Limburg Classic. It is not the hardest race on the calendar, but with the hills I was not very confident that I would hang on in the peloton. However, as we were getting closer to the finish, my legs felt better than they ever did this season.
In the final kilometers I did my best to keep Sinkeldam at the front. We were doing quite well, until the breakaway got caught. We got blocked by them dropping back, so we lost a lot of places. In the sprint, Ramon had to come from too far back, but he still managed to pass many riders and get a 15th place. Not too great, but it could have been much worse.
The next race for me is are the Continental Championships. I don't think I'll be able to get a great result there, but at least I get to ride a Time-Trial. It will be a good training for the next season part.
I love Australia, first time racing here and I really want to come back here next year. It’s not often that I get in the break multiple times and bring home the King of the Mountains jersey. It all began at the first stage where Aquali picked up some intermediate points while I was in the final breakaway that picked up some good points for the KOM rankings. At 12 km to go I decide to get clear for the peloton seeing that my companions in the break had already given up.
going solo, looking for victory
Of course at the teambus the real highlight of the stage came apperant when I recieved the rankings.
GC
Rank
Name
Team
Time
6
Pyroli Feunard
CCC Polsat - Polkowice
+ 8
7
Aquali Feunard
FDJ.fr
s.t.
KoM
Rank
Name
Team
Mountain
1
Pyroli Feunard
CCC Polsat - Polkowice
16
Thanks to bonifications seconds I was 6th while Aquali was 7th overall, in addition I was also leader the KoM rankings. After dinner I spend most of my time on the phone with Aquali and Voltali (who wasn’t racing here and quite unhappy with me calling so early) talking about the stage and GC.
But in stage 2 it was business as usual, I missed the break though which made me lose the KOM jersey to Caleb Ewan (Orica). I decided to stay in the grupetto to save energy for the next stages to get the KOM jersey back. Stage 3 barely would give KOM points so I saved my energy again.
Stage 4 was one where I saw my chance to get in the break again and as my companions didn’t care for the intermediates sprint I picked those up giving me the lead back in the KOM classification. While the breakaway did make it until the end, I wasn’t strong enough to keep up with them. I might have lost a top 10 finish here but I got a KOM jersey for it.
During the queen stage I was afraid that I might lose the KOM jersey for real but the points awarded to the riders first up Willunga hill weren’t enough to take the lead from me as long as the riders are currently pointless. Good for me that the breakaway took the first ascent and the peloton took the second and final ascent of Willunga, ensuring that I will wear the KOM jersey for another day.
During the final criterium I took no risk and joined the breakaway to prevent any riders for potentially taking the jersey away. Nobody tried to take it so I cruised home to secure my first KOM jersey and my first season points in only my first race at my next team, seems the change from Caja-Rural to CCC-Polsat was a good one.
me in my KOM jersey leading the breakaway in the final stage
Feunard Games
Of course since I got my first EPIC points, the Feunard Games might be defeating it’s purpose as it originally was a game created as we couldn’t score points yet and while I already did. For now we’ve decide to continue and we’ll evalutate the point of doing a season 3 after this season.
After Australia where I took the KOM jersey, I arrived in France in a real good mood. I really wanted to show that it’s not some flat rider that can gather KOM points in a stage race but that I can really climb. The parcous of the “official European season opener” Grand Prix Cycliste la Marseillaise.
However this race turned out be a case of “be in the breakaway and you win” kind of race as the top 19 were breakaway riders (although half is from 14km to go). I wasn’t able to get in these breakaways. Instead I enjoyed riding in France, which I won’t get to do in race situations until the Criterium International.
I would have added more races in this segment but this is the only classic I race until Plouey in the fall and I don’t want to wait that long for to post this race. translators note: I only found these papers last weekend and I still needed to translate them
Feunard Games
The way how this race was ridden didn’t really allow for team support so Aquali who was also in this race, had an easier time than normal as well. In the finale I lost sight of him and he finished before me. He can take it though, I’m still in the lead by some margin.
Albert Llanet
