No one got into the break and all wheels were in attendance of Bardet to get him a good result. Bardet did not take part in the initial attacks, and instead rode steadily to claw his back to the front group. He also missed the decisive move when it happened, but finished in the reduced bunch, claiming 7th from the sprint.

1	Vitor Rodrigues	Berg Cycles	6h55'09
7	Romain Bardet	Philips	s.t.
33	Wout Poels	Philips	+ 30
58	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 4'29
58	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 5'00
101	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	+ 12'50
103	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	s.t.
106	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 17'08
121	Thomas Boudat	Philips	+ 26'23

We had an expectation of Top 10, and achieved that. however, when the startlist were revealed we were hoping for a possible Top 5 finish, but just missed out on that. A decent ride out for our youngsters otherwise.

We were not part of anything significant that happened in this race!

1	Natnael Berhane	ISA - Hexacta	5h09'58
26	Florentino Marquez	Philips	+ 3'00
70	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 7'16
102	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	s.t.
117	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 10'19
120	Wout Poels	Philips	s.t.
125	Andrea Palini	Philips	s.t.
165	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	+ 22'03
185	Thomas Boudat	Philips	+ 46'06

Not one mention all race and a 26th place as our best finish underlines how poor we were in this race!

The race saw a last minute profile change for the first stage.

Kelderman stayed attentive on Stage 1 to finish with the leaders, despite missing out on the stage winning late move.

Bovenhuis joined the break on Stage 2, won some intermediate sprint points and finished 6th, as the break was not caught.


Stage 3 looked like where it was going away from us once in the hilly stage race. A strong break was allowed to get a gap and then not chased down hard enough. Gautier took full advantage, winning the stage and taking the GC. Kelderman finished 8th, third in the reduced bunch sprint of favourites. Although he moved in the GC to 8th, we felt this was a huge lost opportunity to attack for the race win.

Another big break was allowed to get away on Stage 4, but this time the strength of the riders were a bit less. The break kept splitting up throughout the stage, and so did the peloton behind. Kelderman stayed with the favourites all the way till the final moves were launched. The break did survive, but this time it wasn't enough for any of them to challenge for a high GC placing. Kelderman finished 7th on the stage, making up time on a lot of his rivals. He moved up to 3rd in the GC as a result.

1	Tomohiro Kinoshita	Rakuten Pro Cycling	17h58'20
3	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	+ 45
38	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	+ 13'19
68	Andrea Palini	Philips	+ 17'46
92	Olivier Le Gac	Philips	+ 21'50
105	Rok Korosec	Philips	+ 26'21
129	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	+ 32'30
155	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 43'52
171	Wouter Wippert	Philips	+ 58'32

It took nearly all of 7 months, but Kelderman finally delivers a result that matches our expectations of him. Some bonus stage points and GC points by Grossschartner make this the most successful race of our season. This is also the first time that we have scored more than a 100 points all year! Just goes to show how bad we have been.

We made a silly administrative mistake by signing up Ligthart for a race that he was ineligible. Our yearly goof-up, I guess!

The first three stages were boring for us. The good news was that all our riders finished in the peloton in all stages.

On the final stage ITT, all eyes were on Van Zandbeek for a good result. He however, disappointed. Instead it was Thomas Boudat, who pulled out a great ride to finish 18th on the stage, losing 8 seconds. This meant he finished 23rd in the GC and 2nd in the U25 classification!

1	Dan Holloway	McCormick Pro Cycling	13h57'03
23	Thomas Boudat	Philips	+ 32
36	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips	+ 35
99	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	+ 48
103	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 49
121	Aurelien Paret-Peintre	Philips	+ 53'
137	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	+ 57

Boudat missed out on the U23 classification win on countback to Rekita, having finished on the same time. It was a great result from him but another poor outing for Van Zandbeek. We did get what we came for in this race, so it wasn't all doom and gloom.

This is a race where we can safely say that Kelderman 'should' be among, if not, the top favourite! Emphasis on SHOULD though, given the way the season is going. The full hills squad, barring Lienhard is here, and there really is no excuse for a bad performance in this race.

We ride this race because we chose this band for its other races but leader strengths meant we didn't really have any rider who could take on this race as a favourite. As such, we decided to send a team of opportunists, and try to concentrate on breakaways and the KOM jersey. This is an excellent opportunity for everyone here to contribute something substantial, because none of them have really done it so far. We hope Bardet can be consistent and grab some GC points as well.

The thought process behind this race selection was to have Saber, Havik and Bovenhuis exploit the cobbles in the Prologue to try to get a good start. Van Zandbeek is here to try to get a good time in the Prologue in case the cobbles don't have much effect. After the first stage, our concentration will more or less shift to delivering Saber into good sprint positions. Potentially, this race could turn out to be a very good outing for us or a very disappointing one. Something in between doesn't look likely.

Our focus was on Kelderman, but the team didn't stick with him for long. Kelderman, however, did stay with the favourites, keeping up with all the early moves. Inside the final 15 km, Kelderman remained a part of the six man group which got a gap.



However, this group did not survive and Kelderman missed the next move, playing catch-up all the way to the line. He managed to finish in 7th at the end.

1	Tomohiro Kinoshita	Rakuten Pro Cycling	7h29'20
7	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	+ 1'57
33	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	+ 10'27
39	Rok Korosec	Philips	s.t.
63	Olivier Le Gac	Philips	+ 12'11
110	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 16'08
118	Andrea Palini	Philips	+ 17'15
139	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 20'38
190	Thomas Boudat	Philips	+ 53'36

Another underwhelming result from Kelderman, and this is a further setback to our survival hopes.

Boudat started things off on a good note, finishing a superb 8th in the Stage 1 Prologue.



Wippert surprised everyone on Stage 3 by winning the mass sprint finish!



A couple of weak breakaway performances followed but it wasn't till Bardet's breakaway adventure on Stage 10 that we had some air time. Bardet finished 10th the stage, which didn't really help our cause.

1	Louis Meintjes	cycleYorkshire	41h30'32
59	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 28'00
90	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	+ 39'19
119	Rok Korosec	Philips	+ 1h00'33
128	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	+ 1h10'26
149	Remco Te Brake	Philips	+ 1h26'25
175	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	+ 1h52'01
184	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	+ 2h22'16

Boudat failed to finish, which was a shame given his good start to the race. GC wise, this wasn't such a surprising result. However, the poor managerial decisions on the road to send the whole team back to help Te Brake on a couple of stages, as well as the almost non-existence in breaks was the major disappointment of this race.

Both Saber and Havik got off to a good start, finishing the cobbled Prologue in 8th and 11th respectively.





Saber finished 4th on Stage 2, which saw him rise to 2nd in the GC.



A couple of 7th places followed, which saw him lose a single GC position each time, ending up 4th before the last stage.

Stage 5 didn't suit Saber and he managed only 9th, falling to 7th in the GC. Havik finished 17th.

1	Kris Boeckmans	Campari/Asahi development	17h32'43
7	Lahcen Saber	Philips	+ 21
17	Yoeri Havik	Philips	+ 47
63	Wouter Wippert	Philips	+ 1'52
64	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	s.t.
70	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 1'54
76	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips	+ 1'56
150	Aurelien Paret-Peintre	Philips	+ 6'53
156	Wout Poels	Philips	+ 8'02

7th and 17th in the GC, 6th in the Points and also in the U25s would be a good result in a race like this under normal circumstances. But these aren't normal circumstances, and this result is especially disappointing given how well we started the race!

PTHC sprints are always difficult, given the presence of the PT population. As a result, we have to temper our expectations from this race. Having said that, the best support available in the squad is here for Saber and we hope the team can prove us wrong and deliver a better than expected result.

Our first ever appearance in this race, and it can't come at a more crucial juncture in our team's history. We didn't expect this race to become so vital in our survival push, and truth be told, even with a great result here, we won't safe, but that's how the season has turned out. Marquez holds a lot of the cards to our future in this race, while Wippert should at least be contender in the sprints. Time for the boys to step up and show what they are made off.

Another hugely important race and another chance for Kelderman to redeem himself. The entire hills squad is here in support. So is Te Brake, who will want to continue his form from Portugal. Let's just hope our luck in hilly stage races improves for this particular outing.

Saber leads in our home race, hoping for a repeat of the good result last season. Havik, Bovenhuis and Allegaert are here to support, along with others who make up the numbers and maybe look for breakaway opportunities. We are hoping that the clash with Battenkill will make it an easier field.

Kelderman leads our last C1 race of the season, and he should be among, if not, the top favourites here. We really need him to drop the lethargy on the climbs and attack the race at the correct moments. Like Balkans, our full strength hills squad is here in support.

Not much happened from our end till the sprint finish. Saber started from too far abck and finished 11th.



Wippert some minor points.

1	Michael Van Stayen	Evonik - ELKO	5h31'11
11	Lahcen Saber	Philips	s.t.
42	Wouter Wippert	Philips	s.t.
110	Remco Te Brake	Philips	s.t.
124	Yoeri Havik	Philips	s.t.
127	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	s.t.
137	Rok Korosec	Philips	s.t.
163	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	s.t.
172	Thomas Boudat	Philips	s.t.

Hoped for Top 15 and got it. Just missing out on a Top 10 is never fun. Our support sprinters don'd do much once again.

Our sprint lineup failed to produce the goods on stages 2,3 and 4, as Wippert managed one podium out of those.

Ligthart rode a good TT on Stage 5 to finish 5th.

Marquez finished 3rd on Stage 8, after going on the attack. His attack didn't survive but he got a podium out of it.



Marquez followed this up with another 3rd place finish on Stage 9, from a reduced uphill bunch sprint.

Marquez lost some time on Stage 10 but climbed in the GC.

Marquez finished 3rd one more time on Stage 11. Bardet also got 7th, after a day in the break.

Ligthart won the ITT on Stage 13.

Bardet finished 4th on Stage 16, after another day in the break.

Marquez attacked in the closing stages of Stage 19, got some time back from his GC rivals, and finished 4th.

Marquez finished 5th on the Stage 20 MTT. There was disappointment for us though, as he dropped one position in the GC.

Wippert rounded off the race well, finishing 3rd on the final stage.

1	Chen Shikai	Rakuten Pro Cycling	83h51'12
5	Florentino Marquez	Philips	+ 7'34
32	Romain Bardet	Philips	+ 41'51
58	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	s.t.
79	Wout Poels	Philips	+ 1h52'29
87	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 2h30'13
96	Wouter Wippert	Philips	+ 3h01'23
99	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	+ 3h06'56
109	Pim Ligthart	Philips	+ 4h20'03

Marquez did well overall, finishing 5th, but it was hugely disappointing to lose a position after the MTT by 1 second to Nerz in 4th. Marquez also finished 6th in the points standings. Inkelaar did well to climb into the point scoring positons in the U25 classification.

The peloton let the breakaway, with some string punchers get away on Stage 1. They stayed away and put us on the backfoot straight away. Kelderman finished 9th on the stage, but he was already more than 2 minutes down in the GC.

Te Brake finished 8th on Stage 2.

Le Gac joined the break on Stage 3 and moved into 4th in the KOM standings. Kelderman finished 9th again.

Palini finished 4th on Stage 4 from the bunch sprint.

Another 9th place finish followed for Kelderman on Stage 5.

Palini joined the break on Stage 6 and won the stage!



Le Gac joined the break on Stage 8, picking up more KOM points to finish 3rd in the classification. Kelderman finished with the favourites to seal 9th (what else? ) in the GC. Palini ended up 8th in the Points standings.

1	Lilian Calmejane	Team Europcar	40h05'13
9	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	+ 2'00
59	Olivier Le Gac	Philips	+ 20'07
60	Andrea Palini	Philips	+ 20'21
73	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	+ 25'16
88	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	+ 31'28
93	Rok Korosec	Philips	+ 34'41
160	Remco Te Brake	Philips	+ 1h14'35
190	Thomas Boudat	Philips	+ 2h35'31

Again, we got what we came for in the GC but the way the race played left something to be desired. The first stage ended up being the difference in maybe Kelderman getting a Top 5 in this race. For a change, Palini and Le Gac stepped to contribute some points.

Saber struggled from quite early on, bieng dropped a couple of times, before finally being dropped for good by the leaders for group. He ended up 16th, with Havik in 22nd.

1	Alexander Kristoff	Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ	4h43'16
16	Lahcen Saber	Philips	s.t.
22	Yoeri Havik	Philips	s.t.
41	Remco Te Brake	Philips	s.t.
57	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips	+ 3'10
84	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 6'04
92	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 7'29
96	Rok Korosec	Philips	s.t.
149	Jonas Bokeloh	Philips	+ 23'34

We needed better results to keep the pressure on those above us in the standings.

Kelderman looked attentive, following attacks from favourites and helping chase them down. Howeverm with 2 km to go, he couldn't keep up anymore and was distanced. He finished 8th. Palini finished 14th, and Le Gac 25th, to give us some more points.

1	Eduard Alexander Beltran	Swisslion Cycling Team	4h43'06
8	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	+ 2'37
14	Andrea Palini	Philips	+ 5'43
25	Olivier Le Gac	Philips	s+ 6'06
58	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	+ 8'31
102	Rok Korosec	Philips	+ 10'40
122	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	+ 12'34
132	Aurelien Paret-Peintre	Philips	s.t.
137	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	+ 13'19

Another disappointing result for Kelderman it is beyond bewilderment for us at the moment. He just can't seem to keep up in classics when it matters most. Palini and Le Gac keep up their improved performance from Balkans but that is scnat consolation.

We have put all our eggs in the Emelia basket, and come to this race with a weak startlist. This is a great opportunity for Korosec and Grossschartner to show what they can do as potential leaders on hills. A fairly balanced, albeit weak, team will ride in support.

All in Kelderman once again? Not quite. It hasn't really worked out for us this season anyway. We're taking Marquez to this to play the foil for Kelderman, in case the climbs become too hard. They should be well supported by the others.

Saber hasn't had a lot of success in sprint stage races. We're hoping that changes here. We've brought all out riders who're good on the flats plus Lienhard to go on some excursions. We're hoping that the support staff can deliver Saber into good positions at the end of each stage.

Fittingly, our season will be wrapped up on the hills with Kelderman leading the line. The full hill support will join him on the startlist along with wildcard Bardet. We hope to sign off on a high.

A race where we didn't do much and failed to get any riders into the point-scoring positions.

1	Cyril Gautier	Valio - Viking Genetics	5h07'04
42	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	s.t.
47	Rok Korosec	Philips	s.t.
62	Wout Poels	Philips	+ 1'20
82	Jasper Bovenhuis	Philips	s.t.
120	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	+ 4'25
142	Piet Allegaert	Philips	+ 8'50
145	Thomas Boudat	Philips	+ 10'14
153	Pim Ligthart	Philips	s.t.

Forgettable.

Kelderman was a part of the elite 18 rider lead group. He led the bunch at the Red Kite, which perhaps was the mistake. He didn't have much for the sprint, finishing 4th, which was rather disappointing.

1	Eduard Alexander Beltran	Swisslion Cycling Team	5h30'38
4	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	s.t.
23	Andrea Palini	Philips	+ 4'06
32	Florentino Marquez	Philips	+ 4'31
44	Olivier Le Gac	Philips	+ 5'55
51	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	s.t.
95	Aurelien Paret-Peintre	Philips	s.t.
125	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips	s.t.
133	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	s.t.

Kelderman's best classic result of the season, and only second Top 5. Still, we were hoping for better.

Saber pulled out the perfect sprint on Stage 1 to register his first win of the season.



He was poor on the following two stages, finishing outside the Top 10.

Lienhard joined the break on Stage 4, and claimed the KOM jersey by winning both KOM sprints on offer.



Saber finished 8th in the sprint. He ended up in the GC and the Points.

1	Jonas Ahlstrand	Volvo acc. by Spotify	18h26'29
7	Lahcen Saber	Philips	+ 20
34	Wouter Wippert	Philips	+ 49
59	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	+ 2'57
67	Remco Te Brake	Philips	+ 3'02
88	Yoeri Havik	Philips	s.t.
104	Ryan Gibbons	Philips	+ 4'46
132	Rok Korosec	Philips	+ 6'59
159	Thomas Boudat	Philips	+ 8'03

A great start but then Saber fell away, as has happened a couple of times before this season. Lienhard picked up some useful points winning the KOM stadings, which is also something that hasn't happened too often this season.

Kelderman found himself in a five man chase group, behind a lone leader with a kilometre to go. However, he was following the wheel of Izagirre who wasn't strong enough to hold on to the others. THis led to a gap and Kelderman couldn't get back. He finished 5th, getting past Izagirre before the finish.

1	Oleksandr Prevar	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	7h03'31
5	Wilco Kelderman	Philips	s.t.
59	Felix Grossschartner	Philips	+ 9;54
72	Fabian Lienhard	Philips	+ 11'09
93	Olivier Le Gac	Philips	+ 12'57
101	Andrea Palini	Philips	s.t.
103	Romain Bardet	Philips	s.t.
104	Rok Korosec	Philips	s.t.
106	Kevin Inkelaar	Philips	s.t.

Another slightly disappointing result for Kelderman, which sums up our season. 5th is not a bad result but it is again below our expectations.

Race	Category	Goal	Result
Tour of Beijing	HC	Win	3rd
Balkans International	PTHC	Top 5	9th
Volta a Portugal	PTHC	Top 5	59th
Rheden GP	PTHC	Top 10	16th
Team Standings	PCT	Top 5	Lol

*Green means Goal Achieved. Red means Goal Failed.

We failed all our goals. We got close in Beijing. We never really expected to achieve our Top 5 PCT Standings goal, but we never expected to miss it by 20 positions!

Only in the HC category did we do satisfactorily in any race category. We didn't expect to do much in C2 but our results in C1 were woeful.

When 18th, which is incidentally the position we finished in last season, is the best position for the team after any points update, you know how much trouble the team is in. The period from February to June killed our chances. April was a shocking month. After a slight improvement in July, August turned out to be another poor month. No wonder we ended up where we did.

The good part is, almost all our riders scored this season. The bad part is, barring three riders, they scored next to nothing. Comparing just three riders to last season, Saber scored exactly 150 less, Te Brake and Van Zandbeek both had 100+ seasons in 2018 and you can see how far they fell this time. Marquez didn't score enough as our third leader. Just three riders scoring 100+ points is another huge drop-off from last season.

Surprisingly, Palini leads the team in being the most cost-effective. Despite this, it is not really good enough to have three riders in the 700s in this ranking and the rest beyond 1000. The flat and TT squads were absolutely appalling.

The full list of achievements can be viewed here.

Van Lerberghe spent the season on loan in the PT with Generali, after we signed him, and we're happy that he could play his small part in their excellent debut PT season. He returns fully developed, possibly as our cobbles leader for the coming season.

A rider we acquired from our friends at Isostar, Korosec has developed fully into a hybrid hilly sprinter. We think he will become a key member of our hills and flat squads.

Hofstede spent the season at fellow PCT team Delvaux, assisting them with a few breakaway appearances and handful of points. He returns needing another year of development to reach his full potential.

Allegaert is now the only rider in this list to have spent all his time with us since his debut in the peloton. However, he needs to go out on loan next season to reach his maximum potential.

One of two riders who spent the season on loan at Centovalli-Fiat, Minali returns as a rider who should already be useful on the flats and in sprint trains, be it with us or out on loan.

One of two riders to have not scored any points for us this season, Bokeloh takes a step up in his development, but still has some way to go before he can be really useful for us.

The first of our two marquee talent signings from this season, Inkelaar rode the season for us. He could not contribute too much points-wise but he made a successful debut at Avenit, finishing in the Top 10, and must surely be one of the top favourites for next season's edition.

Our second talent signing of the season, and the second of our riders to have developed in the care of Centovalli-Fiat. Eenkhoorn is another rider we have high hopes for going ahead, and should form a successful 1-2 punch with Inkelaar for the foreseeable future.