Calendar/Goals/Results

Cat.	Race	Goal	Result	Leaders
C2	Clásico San Cristobal		2nd	Rabon
C1	Tour Down Under		Rubbish	Hochmann/Serebriakov
C1	Barcelona Classic		20th	Pozdnyakov/Rabon
C2HC	Giro del Trentino		Rubbish	Sinelobov
C2	GP Tokyo	Top-5	5th	Kuznetsov/Serebriakov
C2HC	Zimnyanya GP		1st	Serebriakov
C2	Cauberg Classic		3rd, 4th	Rabon
C2HC	Tour de Langkawi	Stage Win	Not a stage win	Hochmann/Sinelobov
C2	Tour d'Azerbaijan		Stage win	Pozdnyakov/Serebriakov
C2HC	Rund um den Eschborn-Frankfurt		1st	Hochmann/Pozdnyakov/Rabon
C2	Windhoek ITT		Rubbish	Velits
C2	Tour de Taiwan		3rd GC, stage win	Hochmann/Rabon
C2HC	Tour of Scotland		2 stages, points	Serebriakov/Sinelobov
C2HC	GP Herning		Rubbish	Kuznetsov
C2	Circulo de Juarez	Win	5th	Serebriakov
C2HC	Tour of Iceland		Rubbish	Hochmann/Pozdnyakov
C2	Giro del Capo		2 stage wins	Rabon/Serebriakov
C1	Grozny Classic		Rubbish	Rabon
C2	Hanko Classic		Rubbish	Hochmann/Kuznetsov
C1	Tour of Norway		10th GC	Hochmann/Rabon
C2HC	Tour de Pologne		Stage win, 4th GC	Hochmann/Rabon
C2HC	La Tropicale Amissa Bongo	Top-5	3-4-5	Serebriakov
C2	Tour of East Java		9-10 GC	Hochmann/Sinelobov
C2	Tour de Slovenie		Stage win, 7th GC	Rabon/Serebriakov
C1	Melaka Governor's Cup		10th	Kuznetsov/Serebriakov
C2HC	Tatranska Klasika		Rubbish	Sinelobov
C2	Herald Sun Tour		Rubbish	Hochmann
C2HC	Acropolis Cup		7th	Rabon
C2HC	GP Yekaterinburg		4th	Rabon
C2	Tour du Faso		Rubbish	Hochmann
C2HC	Ruta America del Sur		1st	Rabon/Serebriakov
C2HC	Züri-Metzgete		3-9-10	Rabon

After some tough negotiations we have had to let several riders go. However, we decided to keep the core of our squad similar to last year's, hopefully this time with a better outcome.

Not renewed:
Evgeny Bakhin
Aleksandr Khatuntsev
Tigran Korkotyan
Aleksei Schmidt

Of course, several riders have received wage cuts after last season, most notably our leader Serebriakov. For the rest, it looks like all renewed riders are riding for us next season. Only Mihkel Räim may face a loan to either PT or PCT. The rest may leave only at a good offer, if at all.

We're very pleased to announce our first signing of the season. On top of his wage of 125 000 we have paid 250 000 to afford Frantisek Rabon. The Czech puncher may be aging, but still has the qualities to be a more than decent leader for us in the Continental Tour. On top of his ability to climb hills he also has a good sprint and a great acceleration.

We are very pleased to announce we have managed to sign Russian climber Sergey Rudaskov. He's a good climber who will definitely be a bringer of good results in the mountains throughout the season. After riding for Wounded Warrior last season we're glad he's managed to find his way back to Russia.

Furthermore, we're glad to announce the signing of Czech stage races Hudecek. He'll be an additional depth strengthening for the mountains, as well as being valuable in the hills and tts. Being at a wage of 50000 he can safely be called a bargain.

After the announcement of two climbers yesterday, we can now announce our leader for the mountains this season. For a fee of 275 000 and a wage of just 50 000 former Kazakh champion Chu Thien Sinelobov has signed a contract at our team, coming from Compal-Merida. At the age of 29 the Kazakh has found a team where he can claim leadership in all mountains races the team is present.

Sinelobov will probably be the final signing of the team who is not coming on loan. Our loanees will be presented as soon as both have been confirmed.

Finally, Sergey Firsanov is up for sale now. Anyone who wants him can make an offer, any offer will be considered.

Jan Barta
Jiri Hudecek
Valentin Iglinski
Arman Kharatyan
Vyacheslav Kuznetsov
Kiriil Pozdnyakov
Frantisek Rabon
Sergey Rudaskov

We came to the first race of the season with higher expectations than last year. With Rabon we had improved on our leader, compared to Firsanov, and hopes for a good start were high.

Frantisek indeed showed his strength. He went on a solo attack with 7kms to go. He dropped the entire elite group that was left. He managed to hang on for a very long time, until top favourite Mendes attacked and dropped him. The Portuguese, riding for fellow Russian team Severstal, took a great victory, and Frantisek had to live with second.

Mihran Avetisyan
Roniel Campos
Jiri Hochmann
Arman Kharatyan
Mihkel Räim
Aleksandr Serebriakov
Evgeny Shalunov
Martin Velits

With a weak sprinter field and 4 stages classified as flat, we came with high expectations. Long story short, it was all quite disappointing. A massive total of 4 times a stage was won by a breakaway. I guess our highlight is the 4th place for Aleksandr in the final stage, third of the sprinters. Overall a big disappointment though.

Mihran Avetisyan
Jíri Hochmann
Valentin Iglinski
Arman Kharatyan
Kiriil Pozdnyakov
Frantisek Rabon
Mihkel Räim
Evgeny Shalunov

The Barcelona Classic is classified as a flat race. However, we've anticipated on every scenario. In case the race gets really selective, Frantisek is our leader. Apart from being one of the best punchers in the field he also has a strong sprint that can help him. In case it's less selective, Kiriil is our leader. He has shown capability of surviving the hills, and is a strong mass sprinter. Finally we might see a pure sprint here. Jíri will be our leader here. We can therefore safely say we can bet on multiple horses, and we're confident we can set a good result, despite this race being C1 and therefore mainly meant for PCT.

Mihran Avetisyan
Jíri Hochmann
Valentin Iglinski
Arman Kharatyan
Kiriil Pozdnyakov
Frantisek Rabon
Mihkel Räim
Evgeny Shalunov

We're looking forward to March already.

Mihran Avetisyan
Jan Barta
Roniel Campos
Jiri Hudecek
Evgeni Popov
Sergey Rudaskov
Evgeny Shalunov
Chu Thien Sinelobov

Our first C2HC of the season, as well as our first stage race. We've brought our strongest climbers here. Chu Thien is the leader, and we hope he can deliver, despite the field that will probably be very tough here. With Evgeni we have a good sprinter, but his chances are doubtful.
[quote]

GP Tokyo

Jan Barta
Valentin Iglinski
Arman Kharatyan
Vyacheslav Kuznetsov
Evgeni Popov
Kiriil Pozdnyakov
Frantisek Rabon
Aleksandr Serebriakov

This race is probably our most important one this month. We have set ourselves a goal of a top-5. With Aleksandr in a mass sprint and possibly Vyacheslav for a late attack we are confident we can achieve that result. For the rest, our team is mainly based on a strong sprint train, as we brought some strong engines on the flat.

Mihran Avetisyan
Jan Barta
Roniel Campos
Jiri Hudecek
Evgeni Popov
Sergey Rudaskov
Evgeny Shalunov
Chu Thien Sinelobov

I can't say I'm too satisfied about the outcome of the race. Chu Thien showed close to nothing, while he could have done so much better. I suppose it's better to move on to the next races then...

Jan Barta
Valentin Iglinski
Arman Kharatyan
Vyacheslav Kuznetsov
Evgeni Popov
Kiriil Pozdnyakov
Frantisek Rabon
Aleksandr Serebriakov

Our first goal race of the season would be in the far east, Japan. A few attacks had taken place, with Tennant being the most dangerous one. However, Kiriil pulled back the final attack, with Aleksandr on his wheel hoping for a good sprint.

Aleksandr went early, and was very soon passed by all other sprinters. We saw all hopes of our goal fading away.

While Matthews took the crown, we saw the rider coming across the line in 5th: Kuznetsov had been making some magic progress and had headed all the way up to 5th, thus securing our goal. Oh, and Frantisek and Aleksandr made the top-10, Pozdnyakov came in the top-15.

This C2 flat race could have been designed for Serebriakov especially. He rode as our leader in this race, with some strong support by his side. He was protected well until the end, when he joined the Fablok train for Lavoine, and after its disbandment the SanCor train for Richeze.

Coming out of the last corner we found Aleksandr in second, just behind Corioni. However, on the final straight road he showed nobody could beat him. First victory of the season, and first ever win for Serebriakov for us (can you believe it?!)

Rabon would be our obvious leader here. The sight was glorious when he came across the line as the best of the favourites. The fact that two early escapees finished ahead of him will just be ignored...

And when Pozdnyakov won the pack sprint later on for a 1-2, okay 3-4, the day could hardly have gone better for us. Okay, the early break could have been caught to make it a 1-2, but that's it.

1 Matthias Wengelin Carlsberg - Danske Bank 4h33'55
2 Eros Capecchi BelarusBank Pro Cycling + 27
3 Frantisek Rabon Novatek-Panarmenian.net + 1'34
4 Kirill Pozdnyakov Novatek-Panarmenian.net + 2'09
30 Vyacheslav Kuznetsov Novatek-Panarmenian.net + 2'27
37 Jiri Hudecek Novatek-Panarmenian.net s.t.
71 Sergey Rudaskov Novatek-Panarmenian.net + 4'30
87 Valentin Iglinski Novatek-Panarmenian.net s.t.
117 Evgeny Shalunov Novatek-Panarmenian.net + 5'44
120 Arman Kharatyan Novatek-Panarmenian.net s.t.

The goal was a stage win here. When your designated rider for that crashes on stage 1 you could already start giving up on it. So the team decided we should. Only Mihran Avetisyan showed some fighting spirit by joining about 5 breaks. Uhm, yeah, 17th in the GC brings some points, but I'd rather not discuss this race any further.

No goals here, but Aleksandr took his second win of the season by winning stage 1 in the mass sprint. After this stage the team was hungover for the next two stages, and seemingly for the final stage as well, as the break wasn't caught and Aleksandr narrowly lost the points competition thanks to his. Nevertheless we got one more podium.

No goals in this race. With this parcours it's too unpredictable. Luckily we have an option for every scenario. It turned out to be the scenario of the late attack, for which Kuznetsov turned out to be perfect.

Although his lead was quickly shrinking until the end, he managed to hold on for the lead until the line, giving us his first ever win, and our biggest win of the season so far.

To make this race even better for us, Iglinski finished third, and Rabon also managed the top-10 making it to 9th.

We had zero expectations for this race, and the team decided to live up to exactly that.

We had more expectations for this race than for Windhoek. Rabon would be our leader due to the hilly stages. He therefore decided to go ahead and win on the flat stage one.

However, stage 2 was fluked by an early breakaway win, and in stage 3 Rabon had given too much of his powers. We didn't really care about stage 4 anymore, but at least another GC in the pocket.

1	Steve Morabito	Actavis - DKSH	12h06'13
2	Ethan Weiss	Gatorade - SIS	+ 58
3	Frantisek Rabon	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	+ 1'27

We brought Aleksandr and Kiriil as our leaders here. However, we quickly decided the roles in stage 1, and it paid off. Aleksandr won stage 1 and 2, and podiumed stage 4. For the rest not much noteworthy, except the points classification. Still a great race.