Well he didn't attack but reduced his pace several times to avoid losing Anacona. Had he gone for himself I think he could have won...
I really hope they pull things together and have less days where they act silly or just doesn't bother trying so we can promote cleanly. I think it should be relatively easy to convert this team to a PCT-team with a few well-selected deals. Especially with the guys coming back from loans.
DeLaval is a globally orientated company but based in Sweden they want the Swedes on the team to behave like pro cyclists and not tarnish their home country.
All year Mattias Westling have completely refused to sprint despite being equipped with more support and our full confidence for bunch sprints. Not once has he actually sprinted despite being placed well on many occasions.
That is not what is expected from our riders and not something DeLaval want connected with the legacy of their home country when they try to sell their milking machines all over the world.
It quickly became clear in the negotiations that we could only keep either Westling or DeLaval and quite frankly Mattias made that an easy choice.
We are very happy that DeLaval will stay on as one of two title sponsors next year.
I can imagine a lot of things if he would just occasionally try to replicate his win in Himmerland Rundt last year. He should have been able to mop up at least some top 10's along the way
Definitely want you to report a lot of our races - really loving what you do to CAS
We went to Slovenia with a team designed to support Westling on the flat and Pökälä for the GV hoping that he can survive the hills and pull off a strong TT.
Once again Westling decided that sprinting was not for him.
The second day was the first hilly one. Sadly enough we didn't get things to work out properly and Samuel ended up losing a lot of time and any GC chances along with it.
For a moment it looked like Renäng was back on track in the TT, but in the end many were faster than him. Including Samuel, who performed just about as he was supposed to.
In a dream that the leading teams would mess up and allow him back in the GC fight Pökälä went in the break on stage 4.
He did good but not quite good enough to advance in the GC or score a good stage result. Good spirit though.
The final stage was back to anonymity. All-in-all this race was not up to the standards we expect from our riders.
Well it was bound to come sometime: The biggest pop-hit about dairy products inside this millenium:
On Pasture Elsewhere
Philip Lindau, Swedbank – PEAB
Lindau had a very quiet month on the Isle of Man where he rode Manx International.
Both him and the team rode a very anonymous race where barely anyone noticed them along the way but they still somehow managed to get two guys into the top 10.
Philip's Results
Race
Result
Team
HC
Manx International
46th
6th
Gökhan Hasta, Red Bull – Huawei
Like Philip Gökhan only rode Manx International. Like Swedbank they were invisible, but in contrast they weren't anywhere near a good result either.
Gökhan's Results
Race
Result
Team
HC
Manx International
182nd
35th
Paavo Paajanen, Vesuvio - Accumalux
Paavo on the other hand had a very eventful month adding the biggest GT of them all to his full set of monuments this year.
Vesuvio came with a st-up mainly focusing on stage hunts with Swift for the flats and Frank Schleck and Slagter for the harder stages.
Paajanens main role was as the first to start working to make sure the breakaways were managable allowing Swift a very impressive run on the early flat stages.
He fought his way over the mountains and was rewarded by being one of the riders to lead the peloton on the Champs Elysses. A great experience for him.
Paavo's Results
Race
Result
Team
GT
Tour de France
GC
127th
23rd
Tour de France
St. 1
102nd
3rd
Tour de France
St. 2
148th
WIN
Tour de France
St. 3
127th
WIN
Tour de France
St. 4
162nd
6th
Tour de France
St. 5
154th
7th
Tour de France
St. 6
128th
25th
Tour de France
St. 7
113th
WIN
Tour de France
St. 8
99th
4th
Tour de France
St. 9
160th
WIN
Tour de France
St. 10
121st
12th
Tour de France
St. 11
119th
32nd
Tour de France
St. 12
145th
4th
Tour de France
St. 13
120th
31st
Tour de France
St. 14
171st
19th
Tour de France
St. 15
96th
5th
Tour de France
St. 16
136th
14th
Tour de France
St. 17
148th
23rd
Tour de France
St. 18
125th
33rd
Tour de France
St. 19
104th
13th
Tour de France
St. 20
115th
25th
Tour de France
St. 21
53rd
10th
Olli Kulppi, Evonik – ELKO
Olli continued his run as helper for Boonen though he is slightly starting to look tired after a long season. Still he did his part early on on the races allowing Tommeke to grab a handful solid results more.
In Denmark he stayed in the peloton finishing safe in the last part since he wasn't part of the train and the TT would mess up all chances of a good GC anyway.
Olli's Results
Race
Result
Team
HC
Tour of the Battenkill
63rd
4th
HC
Post Danmark Rundt
GC
160 th
40th
Post Danmark Rundt
St. 1
191st
5th
Post Danmark Rundt
St. 2
181st
11th
Post Danmark Rundt
St. 3
134th
17th
Post Danmark Rundt
St. 4
141st
3rd
Post Danmark Rundt
St. 5
159th
96th
Bull of the Month
With a brilliant start to the month for once it'a a close decision. However there can be only one winner.
The way Chris tore things apart on Java while still staying loyal was inspirational so while Jukka was great in the last half of Pologne as well the award goes to:
Chris Anker Sørensen
Cow of the Month
This month's cow of the month features the story about Maren:
Maren was a Danish cow born in 1926. When she was 3 years old she got a real nasty infection in her leg, but since she was such a good cow the farmer wanted to save her, so he got her to the Veterinary Surgeon in the Danish Vet School. A man called Mørkeberg.
He amputated her leg and made her the first cow in the world to live with a wooden leg. One that can still be seen in the student home associated with the university today.
Maren lived on to get another calf and the story is celebrated up to this day through singing whenever a larger group of vets/vet students are gathered in the same place.
Kiitokori have decided to expand their business. So far they have made Special Vehicles of many sorts - now they want to start experimenting in making vehicles without a motor. Bikes if you should be in doubt as to what we mean.
It's still in early stages, and is only just starting to actually look after some experienced engineers to help them expand into this area. So if anyone out there feels like giving Kiitokori a hand in their new venture feel free to contact us.
Obviously the plan is that we will be riding the brand new Kiitokori-bikes next year and we expect to land a deal with another big Finnish company to supply us with wheels and tyres. More about that when we close the deal.
Sadly the change in focus also means that Kiitokori won't have the funds to continue as title sponsor for the team, which leaves us looking for someone to take the place next to DeLaval.
We are very happy to announce that sgdanny have been hired as chief engineer on Kiitokoris new venture into bike manufacturing. We are very optimistic about the collaboration and look forward to reveal the design when time comes.
As earlier mentioned we have also made a deal with a company to produce wheels for the bikes.
That company is Nokian Tyres. They were founded in 1938 as a tyre manufacuterer in the Finnish town of Nokia and were founding partner of the Nokia Corporation, which they left in 1988 when Nokia decided to focus on consumer electronics.
We are also very close to signing an agreement with a second name sponsor. You'll hear more about that soon.
We designed the team for this race with one purpose: Making Winner the winner.
Stage 1 went with no drama as planned.
Stage 2 however was the first big test and Anacona passed in flying colours as he put the other favourites in their place on the climb.
However the descent brought things a bit together and the significance for the GC was limited.
While stage 3 was perfectly calm again we had a bit of a disappointment when Anacona lost 2'31 in the ITT.
At least both Taciak and Samoilev rode really strongly putting them both in side the top 10
Stage 5 was a tricky one so the stage win went to the break. In the end Winner gained roughly half a minute on a bunch of the otehr favourites.
CAS tried to get in the early break, but the others wasn't having it so he stayed with Anacona watching out for him all day.
In stead Atapuma made it in there, which was far from a dream scenario for us.
On the big mountain stage it was time to show why we came here. Chris made a brilliant job once again from early on.
Disappointingly Anacona decided that he wouldn't ride away from Samoilev, since the Belarussian was better placed in the GC.
Quite frankly a horrific decision as he was clearly the strongest climber in the race and would have had a chance to win it had he given it his all from the bottom of the climb.
After a somewhat disappointing stage it was nice to see one of our Finnish riders showing the right kind of spirit when Pökälä went in the break.
He's not much of a sprinter but still it was great to see him just keeping the sprinters at bay to take a 5th place on the stage.
Time to reveal a bit more about the future of the teaam. As earlier mentioned Kiitokori will stop as title sponsor and in stead start producing biikes for us.
That means we have been forced to look around for some extra funding, that will be much needed if we succeed in promoting to PCT.
We are very happy to announce that we have come to an agreement with a friend of the house:
This year Valio have been a minor sponsor supplying us with milk-based protein drinks for training, but next year they will take a big step up as title sponsor alongside DeLaval.
Valio is the leading Dairy Company in Finlans with a lot of international connections. Especially around their lactose free products Valio Eila, where they were the first to develop a special technology that can produce lactose free milk, that still taste like milk.
The company is especially active in the countries around the Baltic sea, but putting the regular dairy activities, Valio Eila and their patented Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG they have activities around the globe.
With Valio on board we have a company that allows us to keep a strong connection to Finland and the other countries around the Baltic Sea while also allowing us to sign the leaders we need no matter the nationality to allow the team to get results along the way.
After the revelation of Valio as our new name-sponsor alongside DeLaval our jersey-department have worked hard and are now able to present the jersey we will wear next year. Even a bit ahead of schedule.
We have decided to stick with the basic design as it's easy to spot on the peloton and our Bovine connections are even strongr next year with both our main sponsors working in the milk industry. DeLaval by getting the milk from inside the cows udder to the milk truck and for Valio by getting the milk from the milk truck to the consumer.
So without further ado the jersey of Valio - DeLaval 2016:
Five riders rode in our cow-spots in this Tour of the Talents. Three Swedbank-riders and two of our own. The clear captain was Magnus Cort Nielsen without a doubt.
Last year Sakari Lehtinen made a good showing on the queen stage, so we hope he will be able to do well again his year as he have grown even stronger.
It will also be Essa Khalifas comeback race. Essa have spent the first part of the season showing his UAE-champions jersey in local amateur races but will join us for the rest of the season starting here.
Ludvigsson showed the jersey on stage 2 as he tried to get in the break, but without sucess in the end.
Stage 3 was the first stage with some sort of climbs so we made sure to keep Magnus safe. A fw guys gained a tiny bit of time towards the end but Cort did well and both Essa and Sakari finished in the bunch with him.
Stage 4 was an undramatic sprint stage.
Stage 5 saw us hit the first mountains and the first sightings of our two own riders. Unfortunately Essa went down with a bunch of other riders in a crash - not quite the way he had hoped to show his NC-jersey.
At the same time Sakari went in a mid-stage break, whoch at first looked good but then the collaboariotn suddenly stopped and it went into nothing. Too bad since he was really looking good.
AT the end we saw the jersey presented well once again as Cort got himself adn the team another good result promising a strong GC as well hopefully.
On the big double-Alpe stage it's fair to say that the sub-top GC riders screwed up big time allowing a break to gain a lot of time and forcing Cort down to 14th in the GC.
He made up for it a bit in the ITT, but a good effort on the queen stage is still needed.
Cort tried compensating for his time loss on the queen stage but just didn't have the legs.
This month you get a bit of old school rock'n'roll with Jerry Lee Lewis' song about the wonderful Milkshake Mademoiselle.
On Pasture Elsewhere
Philip Lindau, Swedbank – PEAB
Lindau started the month in Euskadi racing Clasica San Sebastian. His captains tried getting in the decisive break, but it was reeled in and the race ended in a binch sprint, which was far from expectations.
Baltic Chain Tour were much better for the team. Lindau's main duties were in the early part of the stages since he isn't part of the Swedbank sprint train.
However he did what he was supposed to and Ahlstrand went on to win two stages and the GC so all-in-all a great experience for Philip.
Philip's Results
Race
Result
Team
HC
Clasica San Sebastian
133rd
30th
HC
Baltic Chain Tour
GC
72nd
WIN
Baltic Chain Tour
St. 1
125th
50th
Baltic Chain Tour
St. 2
146th
WIN
Baltic Chain Tour
St. 3
110th
9th
Baltic Chain Tour
St. 4
?
4th
Baltic Chain Tour
St. 5
73rd
WIN
Baltic Chain Tour
Pts
-
WIN
Baltic Chain Tour
Young
?
WIN
Gökhan Hasta, Red Bull – Huawei
Gökhan was part of a team allowed to chase their own chances in San Sebastian. One of his teammates got in the early break but apart from that it wasn't the best race for Red Bull.
Deutschland Tour was much better for the team, but not for Gökhan, who really suffered on the flats. Some good stages from Hooloway and Skujins though giving the team a decent overall.
Gökhan's Results
Race
Result
Team
HC
Clasica San Sebastian
162nd
48th
PT
Deutschland Tour
GC
172nd
8th
Deutschland Tour
St. 1
173rd
4th
Deutschland Tour
St. 2
114th
11th
Deutschland Tour
St. 3
175th
7th
Deutschland Tour
St. 4
179th
34th
Deutschland Tour
St. 5
72nd
5th
Deutschland Tour
St. 6
174th
7th
Deutschland Tour
St. 7
157th
20th
Deutschland Tour
St. 8
99th
3rd
Paavo Paajanen, Vesuvio - Accumalux
Paavo was in Germany in support of Gastauer for the GC. At first it went perfectly but then on stage 6 Ben hit a bad day and lost a bunch of time.
Still a 5th overall in the end isn't too bad and we'd like to think Paavo did his part in that even though he was one of the first riders to be used.
Paavo's Results
Race
Result
Team
PT
Deutschland Tour
GC
74th
5th
Deutschland Tour
St. 1
116th
30th
Deutschland Tour
St. 2
67th
18th
Deutschland Tour
St. 3
85th
38th
Deutschland Tour
St. 4
146th
WIN
Deutschland Tour
St. 5
79th
32nd
Deutschland Tour
St. 6
60th
21st
Deutschland Tour
St. 7
114th
6th
Deutschland Tour
St. 8
97th
19th
Olli Kulppi, Evonik – ELKO
Olli started August with a trip to Malaysia, where he did some great work protecting Boonen and getting him to the final sprint in a very hectic race.
Olli finished inside the first group himself so that's nice to see in a finale ridden as firecely as this one.
From there he travelled to USA for the race with the coolest name on the calender. For once a cobbled race without Boonen since he isn't allowed to race on CT-level.
Several Evonik-riders finished in the first big group. Ingels was the first of them to place an attack and since he managed to just hold on to 3rd place the other two remained calm to aviod puching up the pace in the chase.
Olli's Results
Race
Result
Team
C1
Melaka's Governor Cup
60th
7th
C2
Cigar City Brewing Twilight GP
28th
3rd
Bull of the Month
While he was never supposed to lead the team he did great in USAPCC. Definitely not his fault that his leader didn't feel like doing some proper racing.
Branislav Samoilev
Cow of the Month
How it looks when cows are allowed to come out again after a long winter in the barn.
Also how it will look in our HQ if Anacona does great things in Tour of America.
Manx International
Tour de France
Tour of the Battenkill
Post Danmark Rundt
Clasica San Sebastian
Baltic Chain Tour
Deutschland Tour
Melaka's Governor Cup
Branislav Samoilev 
