A one-day team time trial - why did we actually go there? Well, because we had to, as the Vilnius GP is part of the mandatory C2HC category races. We didn't have any expectations besides not getting last - and we did even better than that! We finished 12th, which was better than the 15th place the bookies expected us to take. This effort by our very young squad was even worth some points, so we can even declare this race a success!
The boys advertising our beautiful country in Lithuania
We started our 5-day US journey with the Nantahala Classic, a hilly one-day race. In a very uneventful race, Simon Pellaud was able to keep up with the best until the Flame Rouge, but then unfortunately couldn't follow the big guns once they went full gas.
Given that the race was really close for so long, we sure hoped for an even better result, but knowing how hilly races have (not) worked for us so far, we'll take this Top 20 spot.
No picture this time - our riders unfortunately weren't active enough to get a mention.
After a solid first day in the US, we continued our trip with one of the races we really looked forward to, bringing our strongest possible sprinter team.
As expected, we didn't get any notable result in the short epilogue on day 4. Our best man was Max Walscheid in 40th, with Manuel Stocker getting our highest GC result with 35th place, thanks to his bonus seconds from stage 1. That's a really, really painful result.
In fact, our best rider was Thomas Boudat, loaned out to Philips for development purposes, who finished 2nd in the U25 standings with an outstanding epilogue. Congrats, Thomas, and we're looking forward to have you back fully developed in two years!
Although the Tour of Bulgaria is still missing from July due to technical reasons on the organizer's side, we go ahead and take a look at the next month. Of course, with our most important race - since we have a sponsor goal there - still missing, it's hard to draw a conclusion about July, but we definitely ended the month on a huge letdown. So it's time to turn things around immediately, and we're hoping to do so in the following races:
Aug 1 - 6 | Benelux Challenge (C2HC)
Spoiler
Clearly, this is another race we didn't choose to take part in, but we simply have to, as it's another C2HC one. Even though we already got some good result in hilly stages, we won't send our best puncheurs for the obvious reason that is stage 4 with its cobbles. And with just one more true hilly stage, we didn't want to take the risk.
Instead, we're on one hand putting our hopes in the two flat stages, and on some breakaway from our youngsters, of whom consists most of our roster:
As mentioned before, we don't send any of our best puncheurs; instead, we'll give our youngsters some chances to shine. Fedeli should lead our squad on this terrain in a few years - it's time he gets used to this already!
Finally, Gamper and Mäder are two of our best cobblers, with especially the Austrian having a bright future on this kind of roads ahead. And don't forget Eenkhoorn, who'll have a home race here!
Expectations: 2 Top 10 stage result, Top 25 GC
Aug 7 - 13 | Int. Österreich Rundfahrt (HC)
Spoiler
For the first time in our team's history, we'll get to race on HC level, thanks to the wildcard from the Österreich Rundfahrt organizers! Thanks a lot for letting us play with the big guns there!
Of course, everyone on the team wanted to do this race, but given especially the first two stages, it was clear that the priority would be on our climbers. Obviously, none of them can keep up with the Top PCT mountain goats, so our big hope will be on the breakaways. Let's take a look at the roster:
Rider
Mo
TT
Rider
Mo
TT
Gian Piero Signorini
78
65
Gino Mäder
70
68
Andrea Manfredi
78
65
Alessandro Fedeli
64
61
Mirco Saggiorato
77
66
Patrick Gamper
62
69
Fausto Masnada
75
71
Manuel Stocker
60
69
Once again, we bring our Top 4 climbers to Austria, augmented with climber talent Mäder. Whereas Fedeli is here to gain some experience, we couldn't deny Gamper's wish for participation in his home race. We hope he'll enjoy the closing ITT - a discipline where we expect him to shine in a few years.
Finally, Stocker is the sole representative of our sprinter department - he sure can keep up with the flat powerhorses, let's see if he's able to partake in the sprints, too.
As we already said, we won't have a chance against Pluchkin et al. if we hit the final climb together with them, so we definitely hope our climbers will try an early move. Stage 4 seems to be especially well designed for this - let's see!
Expectations: 2 Top 15 stage results, GC Top 25
Aug 9 | Rio Vista Chinesa (C2)
Spoiler
While the climbers are in Austria, the puncheurs will head to Brazil for our last C2 outing of the season. Another hilly one-day race - but this time with the finish line after a descent, and we've already shown that we can handle this... Let's see which riders should pull off a good result here:
Whereas Pellaud still is our best pure puncheur, Freuler will probably be our best bet, as he handles the longer climbs - whereof we'll have plenty - pretty well, too. And he's already won a hilly stage in Hong Kong this year - precisely after a final descent. And if Thièry should survive the last hill, he'd be our trump card in a bunch sprint - so we definitely hope for a rather easy race, like we've already seen plenty this year.
Given the profiles, our main hopes probably are on Thièry, as he's the best sprinter among our puncheurs. But Freuler's great resistance and his downhill skills might come into play once more, while Pellaud should have some chances on stage 1, too. It's finally a race that doesn't feature a lot of climbing, so that should suit him well - just one short sprint up to the finish line, that's what he was waiting for.
And we bring Manuel Stocker and Max Walscheid just in case the race isn't too hard on day 2 - they should fancy their chances from a reduced bunch sprint. Let's see if that happens - and else we still have the puncheurs.
Expectations: 2 Top 10 stage results, GC Top 15
Aug 23 - 31 | Tour de l'Avenir (U23)
Profile not unveiled yet.
It is THE race for all U23 riders, a race where they can show what they'll be capable of in a few years in the big races, a race where they can already shine now. We're glad to announce our roster, consisting of four of our own talents, and four young riders from other teams:
Our biggest hopes are certainly on Cullaigh, who will try to get a good stage results or two from the sprint stages. Unfortunately, we won't be able to set him up a train, so he'll be on his own.
For the inclines - long or short - we won't be able to keep up with the likes of Padun, but Mäder and Williams will hopefully join some breakaways and show our jersey there. But most of all, we hope they'll all have some fun out there - for great results, we'll hopefully be back next year.
Expectations: Have fun.
Another interesting month of racing is awaiting us, with 6 C2HC race days, a single and final C2 one-day race, the Tour de l'Avenir - and our first HC race! Let's have some fun out there!
Well, the last "Challenge" - the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, finishing two days ago - clearly didn't work out in our favor, and so we headed over to Netherlands with very mixed feelings. Moreover, the first stage, a short prologue in Maastricht, definitely wasn't what we needed to re-gain some confidence.
Stage 5 then definitely was the hardest one - which didn't keep Gino Mäder from finally joining a breakaway on that day. There were plenty of KoM sprints on the menu, and he collected enough of them to finish 7th in the KoM standings. But that wasn't all: The breakaway stayed ahead until the final climb, and Mäder kept up with the race leader almost until the KoM sprint - but unfortunately just almost. Nonetheless, he then hung on to the GC contenders - and suddenly became one of them, too! He finished 8th on that stage, moving up to 10th in the GC, and 3rd in the U25 standings! Wow, what a stage by our youngster!
Gino Mäder taking 9th place in the GC contributed to a huge and much-needed team result, taking furthermore 3rd in the U25 standings and 7th in the KoM standings, too. Yeah, sometimes things can turn around really fast, and without anyone knowing why. But we'll definitely take this one, and we really hope that high will last for the whole month!
We're only in August, but the trip to Brazil was our final C2 showing of the year. We hoped that the hilly parcours - partially matching the 2016 Olympic RR route - could suit some of our riders well, given the flat finish with a likely bunch sprint from a reduced group of riders.
But for this, the race shouldn't be ridden too hard, as we know by now that our puncheurs struggle on the longer hills. Yet, it was a hard race. A very hard one.
Max Walscheid didn't fear the difficulties, despite the parcours not really fitting his main strengths, and joined the breakaway. However, without too much surprise, he was the first rider to be dropped from the same.
So all our hopes were finally on Cyrille Thièry, who still was within the front group of just 15 riders, chasing a trio of breakaway riders, with one final lap over the hills to go. On the final long climb, he even tried to follow the move of later race winner Hoelgaard - but he pushed a bit over his limit and later fell back some positions.
Still, Cyrille Thièry held on to a group that was finally fighting for 8th place - and being by far the best sprinter in this group, he got this 8th place! He really had a huge day, securing a Top 10 spot in such a high quality field - hats off!
Due to our sponsors' regional focus, we applied for a wildcard for the HC category Int. Österreich Rundfahrt - which we finally received, and so our boys got to race as the lone CT team amidst of a really strong PCT field.
We knew we wouldn't be able to keep up with Pluchkin, Uran, Amador & Co., so our plan was to be present in as many breakaways as possible. A plan that failed miserably on stage 1. Not only did we miss out on the breakaway, but none of our climbers really seemed to care about a good stage result. Andrea Manfredi's 42nd place was our best result - clearly not enough, not even for a CT team.
In the evening of that stage, DS Rubens Bertogliati recalled them what we were here for - and he seems to have found the right words! Fausto Masnada and Gian Piero Signorini made it even two riders in the breakaway, with Masnada doing a lot of work for Signorini. But unfortunately, the latter once more struggled in the end due to his sub-par stamina - but Fausto Masnada held on to fend off almost the whole peloton! He finished 3rd on that stage, behind his breakaway companion Bonnin and race dominator Pluchkin - a first HC stage podium for us, well done!
And to be fair, Gian Piero Signorini did a good job as well, finishing 8th - meaning we had already accomplished our goal of 2 stage Top 10 finishes on day number 2!
The third stage then was a lame one, as Manuel Stocker seemingly hadn't understood that we sent him here for the sprints. Well, he didn't sprint. At all.
Anyway, the stage we mainly had in mind before the race was number 4, with a big mountain at about halfway into the race. Our strategy played out really well, as we got Andrea Manfredi, local hero Patrick Gamper and again Fausto Masnada in the breakaway of the day. Gamper had to let go rather early - as expected - but the two others held on until the end.
In the finale, Fabbro set a strong attack, but this time we distributed the roles the right way, with Andrea Manfredi doing a huge amount of work to reel him in. Manfredi went on to finish 6th that day.
And his work really paid off, as Fausto Masnada won that stage! But he not "only" won the stage, he took over the green jersey as well, and jumped up to 3rd in the KoM standings - definitely one of the greatest results in our short team history! With the 20th place in the GC, he had a great situation to accomplish our Top 25 goal, too.
We even hoped for Fausto Masnada to gain some spots in the GC on stage 5, as he was among the better puncheurs in the peloton - but unfortunately, he wasn't quite able to keep up with the top guns after his great effort the day before. He finished 32nd, but was still able to defend his 20th GC position.
Which he easily did on an uneventful stage 6, too, where Manuel Stocker again decided not to participate in the sprint. He may be a great leadout, but he definitely lacks some confidence to deliver good results on his own...
The final stage 7 then was a 24km ITT - another discipline we're not too fond of (yet). And it showed, as we were unable to bring a rider into the stage Top 50. But 54th place was still enough for Fausto Masnada to gain a spot in the GC, getting him a 19th place in this race - a really great showing from our top transfer target! Andrea Manfredi was able to finish within the points as well, getting the 44th place. Mirco Saggiorato, who had a rather disappointing race without a single breakaway attempt, finished just outside the Top 50, losing two places in the ITT.
But overall, we can be really satisfied with what we got from our first ever HC race! Fausto Masnada, in addition to his two stage podiums and the 19th GC position, finished 3rd in the KoM and points standings. The whole team proved that we can compete with the "big boys" - although it took some luck with these successful breakaways. But that was our plan right from the start, and it's cool when your plan plays out that well! Let's see if that's going to be the case in the next races, too!
Fausto Masnada winning stage number 4, with Andrea Manfredi right behind in 6th place!
This unfortunately can't be said of the rest of our team - but our three puncheurs - reinforced by Masnada - will soon tackle the hills in Britain - a great chance to redeem themselves! See you then!
Simon Pellaud (left border of the picture) getting his best result of the season with a 4th place on the first stage!
While Tour de l'Avenir has just started, the MGUCI has somehow found a way to start the September races in parallel - so it's high time to do a preview for those upcoming races! After a pretty successful month - scoring more than 10 Points per Race Day in all of our races - we hope to continue on this high, right from the start of the month:
Sep 1 | Philadelphia International Championship (C2HC)
Spoiler
First day of the month, first out of four C2HC races. For four of our fellow CT teams, this flat one-day race is kind of a prologue to the Tour of America, starting the day after. Not for us, though, but we'll actually already be racing earlier the same day (see next race).
In Philadelphia, it's clearly a day for the sprinters, and so our lineup is surely no surprise:
As mentioned before, our day on the 1st of September will already start earlier. We stay with the same language (well, more or less), participating in our final C1 stage race of the season back in Europe. The Tour of Britain is a race for Hilly-ITT-hybrids - something we unfortunately don't have on offer yet. But we still have some hopes for a good points haul here, which should be accomplished by the following riders:
For the puncheur stages, we once again bring our Swiss trio Freuler - Thièry - Pellaud, but given their lack of ITT skills, our leader should be Fausto Masnada, who's on a high after his great performance in Austria. He should be able to keep up with most of the puncheurs, and could even have the edge over them on the longer hills thanks to his good climbing skills. Furthermore, he's a better time trialist than most pure puncheurs in the race - let's hope he can capitalize on this!
Expectations: 2 Top 10 stage results, GC Top 15
Sep 10 - 13 | Euskal Bizikleta (C2HC)
Spoiler
We'll then travel to Spain for our second - and final - stage race this month, with the traditional race in the Basque Country awaiting us. It's once again a race for the puncheurs, and so our roster should look somewhat familiar to you:
Rider
Hi
Mo
Spr
Hi
Mo
Spr
Simon Pellaud
77
65
65
Pascal Eenkhoorn
67
69
64
Cyrille Thièry
74
70
72
Gino Mäder
66
70
67
Alessandro Fedeli
69
64
64
Patrick Gamper
65
62
63
Miltiadis Giannoutsos
68
71
64
Max Walscheid
62
55
74
There really are too many of these puncheur races, and so we unfortunately can't bring all of our good puncheurs. Still, the profiles on stages 2 and 3 should suit Thièry pretty well, as he can hold on on the shorter climbs and then should be one of the better sprinters among the puncheurs. On the last day, he'll hopefully be able to pull off a good result as well, having pretty decent climbing skills.
For Pellaud, there's unfortunately no stage that would suit him really well - no short, steep home stretch. But he just showed in Canada that he can in fact handle the longer climbs, too - so we definitely put some hopes in him, too!
The rest of the lineup basically consists of our young riders, who are here to support the puncheurs. But Fedeli, Eenkhoorn and Mäder have already gotten some pretty good results from breakaways - why not here?
Expectations: 2 Top 10 stage results, GC Top 15
Sep 24 | Transfagarasan GP (C2HC)
Spoiler
After a break of more than a month, the climbers will finally be back into action - for the last mountain race this year. It's a short one, with just 88km - but the main obstacle, the final climb, is definitely long enough! Only the best climbers will be able to pull off a good result here, and so we send the best we have:
It's our final mountain race of the season, as only flat and hilly ones will be left after this one. So it's the last chance to get a great result on a moutain-top finish - let's see if any of our climbers will have his best day of the season here! A breakaway will probably not be an option, given the shortness of the stage, so it will be an attrition race - hopefully with Centovalli coming out on top! But realistically, our expectations should be a bit lower.
Expectations: Top 10
Sep 29 | Milano - Torino (C1)
Spoiler
We're closing our C1 racing season with another home race, the hilly classic Milano - Torino. Unfortunately, it clashes with another race - see below - so we can't send all of our top puncheurs. Some of the climbers will jump in instead - and given the profile, this actually shouldn't be a bad thing at all! So let's see who we actually send to Italy:
Given how the season went so far, the second-to-last and the final hill should definitely require some true climbing skills, so the pure puncheurs might be rather lost - although the hill stat will surely come into play, too. Something that could be pretty good especially for Masnada, but Saggiorato and Freuler should do well, too. Manfredi might lack a bit of punch - let's see if his climbing skills are still enough to get a good result.
One thing is sure: With the finish line in our secondary sponsor's home city, we definitely have to shine in this race - and the riders know this. We're really looking forward to this one!
Expectations: Top 10
Sep 29 | GP Yekaterinburg (C2HC)
Spoiler
The final race of the month is - another hilly one! Given the clash with Milano - Torino, we had to split our puncheur department, and we think we've done it rather well. Let's see who will be riding in Russia:
After a series of decent results, our expectations are definitely higher this month. We might not reach all of our goals, but we're sure our boys will give their best out there!
Race Review | Philadelphia International Championship (C2HC)
First day of the month - first two races, thereof the one-day classic in Philadelphia. We had a pretty flat profile, with just a few bumps - ideal terrain for our sprinter star!
The team knew this, and they worked hard all day long to keep the escapees at bay. There were attacks left on the final kilometers. We were chasing the last one with 1,500m to go - but unfortunately, the coordination among the sprinter teams wasn't good enough, and so 5 late attackers made it to the line.
We're only in the beginning of September - but the 5-day long Tour of Britain was already our last C1 stage race of the season. Therefore, our puncheurs were fully motivated to get another stage win at this level - with our biggest hope being the breakaways.
Stage 2 then was predestined for the sprinters, which is why we brought Max Walscheid. However, he didn't feel very comfortable at this level yet and finally renounced participating in the sprint. His 30th place was still our highest finish on that day.
As expected, our best result was even worse on the 3rd day, consisting of a grueling 53km ITT. But Fausto Masnada was able to limit the damage, only dropping to 15th in the GC - meaning he'd just reach our Top 15 goal. But the race was of course far from over, with two hilly stages yet to come.
On the fourth stage, we really hoped for some breakaway action - but again, no-one tried. Moreover, Fausto Masnada wasn't having the best of days, finishing on a rather disappointing 24th place. Yet - and most important - he was able to defend his 15th place. Given that the final stage should suit him more, we were even hoping to gain a few positions. But we had fixed two Top 10 stage results as a goal, too - so we really needed some breakaway action on the last day!
All in all, the start of the month went pretty well once again - but given that our direct competition is winning a lot of points, too, we'll have to step up even more! Stay tuned!
The race in the Basque Country would traditionally be decided in the hills, so we sent some of our best puncheurs here. But first, there were two flat stages. With our main sprinters being short of available race days, our man for these stages was Max Walscheid.
And he didn't disappoint: With a 7th and 5th place on the first two stages, we already had the expected Top 10 stage results in the bag and were then targetting the Top 15 GC result on the following stages.
But what happened on stage 3 left us kind of speechless. First, everything went well, as Simon Pellaud was able to join the breakaway of the day. He collected some valuable KoM points, but the breakaway was reeled in already 30km before the finish line, on a category 1 climb. But the really bad thing happened shortly afterwards: Pellaud, who was done after his breakaway effort, was dropped from the pack - and the whole team joined him! The boys were probably hoping to come back after the summit - but they went on to lose more than 11 minutes. What a catastrophic strategy!
And as none of our DS had actually given the order to support Pellaud, things were really heating up during the supper. The boys finally understood they should never have taken such a decision - at least not all of them, thereby wasting all options for a good GC result. Given that the front group contained still 35 riders, they knew at least some of them could have easily kept up...
But well, the only option was to forget what happened and do better on the final day. Things looked pretty decent in the beginning once again, as we had Miltiadis Giannoutsos and Pascal Eenkhoorn in the breakaway. But soon they couldn't keep up - and the whole breakaway was reeled in with 35km to go. With about 15km to go, on the descent of the second-to-last climb, Simon Pellaud attacked once again - and he held on to the lead until 4km to go. Unfortunately, he still isn't a premium climber, and was dropped again soon after.
At least, he went on to finish 21st on that stage, which was 4 spots behind Cyrille Thièry, who confirmed he'd have been a Top 15 candidate if not for this horrible stage 3... Although this final stage showed us that we are competitive at this level, day number 3 made us leave Spain with really, really low morale. We're truly hoping for some better moments later this month...
Simon Pellaud about to be caught after his solo attempt on the final day.
After the puncheurs weren't able to deliver in Spain, it was now the climbers' turn in Romania. A race of less than 90km - but with the final third only leading upwards. A true dream of a race for the mountain goats!
Despite the unlikeliness of a breakaway success in this race, Alessandro Fedeli joined the breakaway of the day. He was caught with about 15km to go, while all of our climbers were still comfortably sitting in the pack.
Unfortunately, none of them were able to follow the decisive move - mainly due to rather poor positioning, as some of those who were able to get away are not stronger climbers. But at least Andrea Manfredi tried to limit the damage by riding away from the pack later on.
He arguably did too much of the chasing work, as he was left behind by Cort Nielsen - a rider he should definitely beat in the mountains. Still, an 8th place in this one-day mountain classic meets our expectations, and it's a good result for Andrea Manfredi. We finally had 5 riders in the Top 50, but only Gian Piero Signorini added a few points with his 23rd place.
That was of course much better than what we got in Spain, and a Top 10 is definitely nice to take, but we once again weren't able to value our team's depth in the mountains. So this was one more of those "good, but..." races. Let's see if we can make the end of the month even better...
For the end of the month, we had one of the season's key races on the program: the autumn classic Milano - Torino. With the finish line close to our secondary sponsor's HQ, a good result was a must-have - kind of a difficult task when you have Kinoshita, Beltran et al. in the same race...
In this stacked field, our best guess was a breakaway attempt - and with Andrea Manfredi and Aimiliano Vila, we had even two riders going for it.
It was a smart move, given that all our other riders were dropped rather early. Once the breakaway was caught, both riders did a great job of hanging on - although only Andrea Manfredi was finally able to deliver a good result, just missing out on the Top 10 and getting the 12th place. In this field, such a performance must be considered a success! Although our sponsors would have preferred a Top 10 finish, they were delighted by the fighting spirit of our two attackers - get on like this, boys!
Clashing with Milano - Torino was our second-to-last C2HC one-day race in Russia, the GP Yekaterinburg. Just as the classic in Italy, it was a hilly race - so we had to split our puncheurs.
It was one of those races with almost no action until the final kilometers. And unfortunately, our riders were obviously lacking some punch. Three of them - including sprinter Manuel Stocker (who finished 36th) - were ranked s.t. with the winner, but none of them was able to claim a Top 10. Cyrille Thièry, another good sprinter but not among the top puncheurs, got our best result with 15th place. Simon Pellaud scored some additional points with his 20th place - he'd certainly have hoped for more...
So the month ends with three Top 20 results in two races - which pretty much sums up our season: we're pretty good, but nowhere near the top yet. Let's see what the final month brings...
After the race organizers experienced some serious technical difficulties, the Tour of Bulgaria could finally be started close to the end of the season! As this stage race with three mountain-top finishes and a TTT was our 3rd goal race of the season - the sponsors expected a Top 10 GC result - we brought all of our best climbers, hoping at least one of them would be able to shine.
Day number 4 was kind of a rest day for us. The flat stage went to a breakaway, and given that we didn't bring a sprinter, we didn't have to do any work in the pack. Patrick Gamper (45th) finished highest this day.
Ahead of the final stage, our two best riders were still 13th and 14th in the GC, needing to find just 3 seconds to jump into the Top 10 - would they be able to do so on the final day?
But more important was to see Mirco Saggiorato and Fausto Masnada moving up to 9th and 10th in the GC! They may not have had their best race, and they didn't even attack once, but their consistency made us finally achieve a sponsor goal - well done! Andrea Manfredi's good performance on the final day made him score some minor points, too, whereas we already mentioned Miltiadis Giannoutsos' great 3rd place in the KoM standings. Furthermore, he finished 7th in the youth classification.
The final proof of a consistent performance by the whole team was the 2nd place in the team standings, yielding some more valuable points.
Even though we didn't get a single Top 10 stage result (except for the TTT), we achieved a sponsor goal - even with 2 riders - and we saw a very solid team performance. We'll need some potential winners for next year, but for the time being we and our sponsors are pretty satisfied!
After we already had an HC wildcard in Austria, we got to ride even two HC classics on the same day today! Unfortunately, both of them were hilly races, but as they were held in Italy and Switzerland, we had to apply for both - and we were accepted in both.
Nominating the squads for these races was fairly simple: Italians to Italy, Swiss to Switzerland. And so, our best puncheur at the start line in Bologna was Fausto Masnada - but with a hill stat of just 75 our best guess was - as usual - a breakaway.
Unfortunately, none of our riders were able to break free, and so they all suffered the war of attrition on the many hill climbs. Even worse, none of them had a decent daily form, and so with 15km to go, all of them were behind the front group and therefore out of contention.
Finally, Andrea Manfredi managed to finish just inside the Top 50 (43rd), leading home a bigger group 5'55" behind the race winner. Fausto Masnada (67th) finished inside the same group, as did our loan-out Fabian Lienhard (51st), who definitely will be a great addition to our hills squad next year!
But all in all, what we take from this race is mainly some lessons learnt, as we weren't able to snatch any points here. At least for our Italians, it surely was a cool experience!
We couldn't spot our jersey in the race reports, so nothing to see here.
From the start of the transfer period, we were hoping for a spot in this HC band to remain open, so we could apply for the GP Lugano - and so it was! So here we were, competing in our one and only true home race of the season, in the middle of our beautiful Canton of Ticino - in the GP Lugano!
After it looked good for a moment with Freuler leading the race, the final result was a bit of a bummer, both for us and for the sponsors. Although we are "just" a CT team, we should have been able to deliver a better result, at least getting some points, but no. Not this year. We'll definitely be back next year to improve on this - if there's a free spot for us. For now, all that remains is the great atmosphere with lots of friends cheering for our boys throughout the race. Let's soak that in - and hopefully it gives us some wings for the remaining races!
Vilnius GP (C2HC)
Nantahala Classic (C1)
Simon Pellaud was able to keep up with the best until the Flame Rouge, but then unfortunately couldn't follow the big guns once they went full gas.
Cissé - 
Guillén, with the Ivorian doing a perfect leadout, hitting the front just under the Flamme Rouge - but our lead sprinter somehow completely messed up his timing. In the end, 
Max Walscheid in 40th, with 
Thomas Boudat, loaned out to Philips for development purposes, who finished 2nd in the U25 standings with an outstanding epilogue. Congrats, Thomas, and we're looking forward to have you back fully developed in two years!
Benelux Challenge (C2HC)
Rio Vista Chinesa (C2)
Grand Prix Cyclistes (C2HC)
Euskal Bizikleta (C2HC)
Transfagarasan GP (C2HC)
GP Yekaterinburg (C2HC)
Tour of Bulgaria (C2)
