Well Red Bull are here again and this time we have found a welcome financial boost from our new Chinese friends Huawei
The team's philosophy is simple - to build a squad of riders to win the ProTour. Along the way of course winning Grand Tours, Monuments and just about any other race is a bonus.
The pure Venezualan climber became a national hero in 2014 when he landed the Vuelta a Espana. He confirmed this was no fluke by romping home to anothe classification victory in the Vuelta a Colombia. He is characterised by vicious solo attacks in the mountains.
This years targets: Tour de France, Tour de Suisse, Tirrano Adriatico and defense of title in Colombia.
Fabian Cancellara (Key Stats - TT 81, COB 82)
The legendary chrono cum cobbled expert took out De Ronde in 2014 as well as a few time tests to boot. Not as consistent as he was in the past he is looking at one last hit out before winding down. He will continue to work hard to gain big cobbled classic results for the team and try to land as many key results in chronos as possible.
This years targets: Tour of Northern Europe, De Ronde and rouler style attacks in flat classics.
Tom Skujins (Key Stats - HI 82)
The Vesuvio farm saw Skujins as a bit of a cash cow and gain cash they did from the Red Bull coffers. We are pleased to give the team a new dimension in the hilly stuff and Skujins will be leading the team with a realistic chance of high finishes in the Ardennes for the first time.
This years targets: Ardennes week, Paris Nice, Giro D'Italia and Duetschland Tour
Oscar Guerao (Key Stats - SPR 83)
Spanish fast man brought in to see Red Bull return to mainline sprinting after an absence in 2014. Swapped for the top chrono man Coppel, Red Bull belive that sprints may be more profitable. Guerao will ride all three Grand Tours this year, as well as the Tour de Suisse - going to be quite the year
This years top target: Stage win at all three Grand Tours.
Dan Holloway (Key Stats - SPR 80, ACC 82)
American former member of the Pokerstars sprint legacy, now having spent a year in the little leagues is back to try his hand at the big sprint classics and as the team lead sprinter in several races over the year.
This years top target: Stage win at Tour of California
The climbers
Juan Ernesto Chamorra, Daniel Ricardo Diaz, Ricardo Mestre, Meron Russom, Alex Ariya Destribios, Gokhan Hasta, Songezo Jim (ALL MO 73 +)
We have drafted in quite the squadron of climbers, most of which will improve in a year of stage racing. Mestre is the old hand with Diaz and Destribios possibly staying long term with the Red Bull franchise. Mestre will lead the team at Volta ao Portugal a HC race this year.
The punchaers
Pengda Jiao, Ran Margaliot, Pablo Mudarra (ALL HILL 74+)
Just a couple of names this year all down to support Skujins in the Ardennes and beyond. Jiao is a decent rider penned down to ride in some HC races this year.
The lead out types
Theo Reinhardt, Bruno Santos, Libin Chen, Heiko Redecker, Marvin Orlando, Angarita, Alexander Edmondson (ALL nice SPR)
With Santos, Chen and Edmondson all possibly long term Red Bull connections we have yet more loaned in riders to aid the hoped sprint lead outs for the the likes of Guerao and Holloway from time to time this year. Santos gets to lead the sprints at Volta ao Portugal and in a stage race this year.
Cobbled companions
Christian Comenelli, Timothey Vangheel, Stefan Hristov (ALL COBB 73+)
Just a few nice cobbled guys to hand with Fab until the last 40 klicks at cobbled races.Edited by Smowz on 10-06-2015 19:19
Badabing - Skujins 10th
The Chinese hilly classic saw Skujins battle to 10th as we had that unfamiliar feeling of actually cheering a top contender. Unfortunately old man Schleck was still ahead.
Qatar - Cancellara 17th
Some tosser put a new formula one timing system which absolutely guarenteed Swift and Bewley would be miles ahead come the chrono. Fab rode like a lead balloon on the chrono after riding well all race - the old boy gets a bit tired after five stages these days. Never has done well in the epilogue should have learned. Coppel rubs salt in the wounds leading Festina to a great TT showing.
Omloop Head F*** - Cancellara 13th
Was it the same tosser that came up with this route design. The riders all looked completely confused as to how to ride this as cobbled specialists tried to help TT men, meanwhile two CT wildcard raiders just romped away on the opening day. Red Bull couldn't merge Cance's fading but still hefty chrono power with cobbled power in the team chrono and faded from a promising GC position to a mediocre one.
Race across the boot - Alarcon 13th, Chamorra and Santos took stage wins.
Strange one this one, Cancellara produced another cruddy chrono with 6th in the prologue and Alarcon could not use the mountain stage to move up the GC at all. However Santos produced a one in a million sprint to surprise better fast men and there was breakaway success for loanee Chamorra (as well as a second place for Destribios on another day). After complete lack of points from support crew in previous year this is encouraging.
Race to the slightly warmer weather - Skidpants 3rd
Sensational performance by young Skidpants as he finishes 3rd on Gc behind Hagen and Trofitruffle. He beat some really good hilly names in this hilly stage race taking advantage of reduced company to produce a fine result and Red Bulls best on hilly terrain. Encouragingly Holloway produced some decent sprints finding a few top fives.
Frank Schleck invitational - Jiao 32nd
Okay like the bad old days for Red Bull here - Skidpants in Nice, so crappy squad here in Frank Schlecks race. The old Vesuvio man has a new protege in Gastauer but the Wiggle hilly squad leader Ponzi snatched it.
The old lady - Milan San Remo - Holloway 5th
Bewley won - and given that he is expected to be very dominant in cobbles this could be big year for the Kiwi. Holloway though justified his status as flat classics raider with a fine 5th place. Very pleasing result.
Chrono des Herbiers- Cancellara 12th
Well the remarkable thing here is that Fab beat Phinney and Coppel but only came 12th in a very strange ITT. Second tier cobblers took it in a scrambled test - another middle of the road performance for Fab though in what is fast turning into a season to forget.
East Midlands Cycle Classic - Cancellara 2nd
At last a return to the Fab we all knew from last year - attempting to break the Bewley stanglehold. He couldn't do that but distancing everyone else is a fine performance.
Lisbon Classic - Dan Holloway 1st
Just a wow performance here from Dan the man - who sped to a massive perfomance beating a fine collection of hill specialists and sprinters in this interesting MSR type race. Big win for a rider who has improved amazingly over the year thus far.
Basque hill festival - Dan Holloway 2nd on stage 2
No Gc guys here as Skidpants left out due to Giro gamble. Basque designers gave a flat teaser and a longish chrono that was slightly less hilly than normal. Cue another chrono mediocre moment for Cancellara and another impressive sprint from Holloway. In the hilly stages I might have mentioned the immortal line 'hoping for breakway' which translates in basque to 'we are taking the piss'
Tour of Flanders - Cancellara 6th
Disappointting as Fab shows that his stamina is beginning to get suspect, finishing below riders who frankly should be looking at Fabs rear motors. Not much else to say Fab hasn't got it anymore.
Hell of the North - Cancellara 5th
A slight improvement on Flanders but with Boonan finishing second you have to say you would expect Fab to do a bit better. The team will need a big cobbler to come in or else they will be forgetting these races very soon.
The Giro D'Italia - Guerao stage win
We came in with some nice hopes. The sprint field was thin enough to expect some strong results for our GT sprinter Oscar Guerao. However it became apparant that our sprint train for hire was rubbish and only when a few of our fatty loanees missed time cut could Oscar start to look decent for high finishes. We were still surprised he actually managed to nab one. A thrilling race overall saw Andy Schleck slip into the leaders jersey on the last mountain stage. A shame my boys were watching from the broomwagon!
The fourth Grand Tour my ass- Holloway sprints well again
Swift was here so out went any stage win hopes but Dan did a good job of following the Brit fancy dan home a number of times and proved a consistent scorer over the week. Here I start to regret not having second stage race hope as lots of cruddy ones did okay here.
Vuelta D'Pain
Guerao decides that he isn't really going to bother sprinting after woeful first attempt all by himself. He bemoans the lack of a sprint train, he half heartedly tries again mid race. The sulky Spanish sprinter showing some interesting traits here. Chamorra gives it a go on a couple of the more difficult stages. However this was the worst GT performance the team had ever given.
Strade Appia - The Roman general Sparticus rolls back years
Cancellara plotted a plan to try and beat the Bew Bastard but unfortunately this Caeser truly is all powerful cobbled brute. Canc held a tenious 20 second lead on the Kiwi Krusher for the last 25 klicks but he was reeled in and of course outkicked in the finale. Still in a season where Bewley conquers all second place is not half bad and a welcome last cobbled glimpse of Fabs power.
Tour de Suisse - Alarcon creates anarchy once more
Jose Alarcon showed first signs of his real talent in 2015 with a fabulous stage win and high finish on the overall GC in a mountains but unfortunately TT heavy Suisse course. He was trumped by superstar GC man Spilak but this was encouragement before the Tour de France. Guerao actually sprinted quite well to second place on the one pure sprinters stage. Show reignated some faith that the big Tour de France could be a big race for us.
Criterium Dur Dolphin
Holloway didn't sprint. Jiao however rolled the lucky break dice and had a nice 3rd place on one day that kept morale from hitting rock bottom after Vuelta d Pain fiasco. rubbin rabbits feet for Tour.
Le Tour - Jose animates the mountains, but slips away from deserved podium
A brilliant stage 11 win, beating pluchpowerman and in general riding brilliantly throughout the race. However a lengthy chrono towards the end of the race put paid to any podium hopes which would have been a fine performance. Guerao was absolute shyte. We got in a decent amount of successful breakaways.
Grey in Germany
Skiddypants really struggled for consistency in the Duetschland Tour, Holloway tried to get it going managing to nick a peck on the cheek from a German babe on the last day.
Canc rolls them back in Moscow
Fab tried to attack to halt the inevitable Bewley sprint win. Bewley remains a complete bastard.
Alarcon tries in his 'home' tour
Jose gets another 4th and quite a distant one behind Taaramae, Spilak and Madrazo. Those guys can go get a room. Holloway disappointted in sprint attempt.
Fab reduces relegation fears winning his tour
The TONE farce of the previous year was wiped away as Fabian took a massive win. Dominating the cobbled stage and riding hard on the hills. Whadda rider!
Alarcon 7th best climber in the world?
The Liechtenstiend race labelled Alarcon 5th best climber in the world - he is probably the fifth tbh.
Team chrono - let's not bother with this
Nah
Holloway again good in sprinters race
Dan the man nabbed 4th in a sprinters classic. He can keep his place.
Tasmania - has the season ended yet
Hollo, Skiddy and Canc had a last hit out (Skiddy went to Lombardy but no dice there)
Lombardy - too hard for Skiddypants
Yeah it was too difficult as Festina stole the PT title.
Edited by Smowz on 23-07-2016 18:30
Our first year got off to an explosive start as we stormed to victory through Yukiya Arashiro in the Tour Down Under. As the year wore on the early season boost began to fade as we settled into a middle of the road sort of team. John-Lee Augustyn, Arashiro, CJ Sutton, Adam Hanson and Roman Kilun kept things going with some useful results. But our star rider was Konstantin Siutsou who after podiuming at the Spanish and American Tours finished the season off in style with victory at the Japan Cup.
The team were not disgraced in finishing 15th in our first season, however our lack of star quality left us only able to gain one of the pre-season goals.
On the youth development side of things Australians Adam Semple and Michael Matthews developed well and Chinese climber Jianhua Ji managed a victory in the short lived Criterium Series. The team sponsored an U23 team starring sprinter Damian Drapac and a fairly low key Tour de L'Avenir team.
Arashiro gives us wings
I don't think I will ever forget stage six of the Tour Down Under, I could not possibly have expected to be in that position. We had entered a sort of composite team in the then HC rated six stage race, John-Lee Augustyn and CJ Sutton were supposed to be the co-leaders. But Yuki stole away on stage two and sneaked into yellow a day later. He rode like a man possessed on the queen Willunga hill stage and survived the last stage crash filled finale to win the 2011 Tour Down Under.
A team in unity?
We had an eclectic group of riders at Red Bull Cycling in our first year and there was a general lack of team spirit amongst the guys. This led to cliques and some major underperformances particularly from the Columbian riders. However on occasion we could pull something special out of the bag, the team time trial at the Tour of Japan was one such occasion with a stunning win setting up a memorable race for Red Bull
Siutsou comes to the fore
Belerussian Konstantin Siustou was not on any of my pre-season to sign shortlists, he was rather drafted in at the last minute. This rider has gained a reputation of a somewhat aloof mercenary and his response after a bitterly disappointing Tour of Langkawi was to simply say that Genting highlands is not really his thing. As the end of the season approached Konstantin found a new gear, probably thinking of getting a big money protour contract for the next year. This was our gain also however, here he is at the front of the Volta a Portugal where he would finish 4th overall.
New jersey given a decisive airing
The foundations for 2012 were put in the summer of 2011. A six man U23 squad was sent on an enterprising European based series. Our team was based on four Aussie youngsters and two Kiwi young lads, we raced well with Damian Drapac winning a race here in the new colours.
Japan cup season ending victory
We didn't really expect it to succeed, but Konstantin still had some form in his legs so we gave him license to try a bridging to the breakaway move. It was a sort of 1 in 20 type of chance but we reasoned with all the classics experts in the peleton, that this was the only chance of doing something really big. Konstantin was putting himself out there in the shop window again with a classy win from the group sprint to win the Japan Cup 2011.
Red Bull Results 2011
Team Ranking: 15th 2873 points
Individual Rankings:
21st Konstantin Siutsou 663 points
48th Yuki Arashiro 485 points
59th JL Augustyn 389 points
113th Roman Kilun 240 points
162nd Adam Hansen 158 points
170th Julian Rodas 148 points
198th Jose Chacon 115 points
202nd CJ Sutton 111 points
205th Edwin Parra Bustamante 109 points
223rd Ahmed Haider Anuawar 94 points
12 wins (1 classic win and 11 stage wins)
Konstantin Siutsou: Japan Cup, Stage 7 Volta a Portugal
CJ Sutton: Stage 5 Vuelta Castille y Leon, Stage 3 Jayco Sun Tour
Yuki Arashiro: Stage 2 and 5 Tour Down Under
JL Augustyn: Stage 1 Giro del Capo
A Hansen: Stage 5 Vuelta a Burgos
A Haider: Stage 2 Vuelta a Tachira
J Chacon: Stage 4 Vuelta a Columbia
V Orozco: Stage 11 Vuelta a Columbia
Team Trial: Stage 2 Tour of Japan
Full results:
Spoiler
Bloemfontain Classic[HC]: 10th John Lee Augustyn, 26th Adam Hansen Winner: Filipo Pozzato (Mercedes Benz)
Vuelta a Tachira [c1]
4th Julian Rodas, 5th Jose Chacon, 13th Franklin Chacon, 14th Luis Felipe Laverde Jimenez Winner: Richard Ochoa Quintero (Youtube-Twitter)
Stage 1: 6th Ahmad Haider Anauwar Winner: Damien Martinez (Quiksilver)
Stage 2: 1st Ahmad Haider Anauwar, 2nd Franklin Chacon, 3rd Arthur Garcia Rincon
Stage 3: 4th Ahmad Haider Anauwar Winner: Alexander Gottfried (Bbox)
Stage 4: 4th Julian Rodas Winner: Yeison Delgado (Quiksilver)
Stage 5: 6th Luis Felipe Laverde Winner: Laurent Didier(Bbox)
Stage 6: 3rd Julian Rodas Winner: Oliver Zaugg (Youtube)
Stage 7: 3rd Jose Chacon Winner: Richard Ochoa (Youtube)
Stage 8: 6th Jose Chacon Winner: Francisco Colorado(Sport Lisboa)
Stage 9: 4th Arthur Garcia Rincon Winner Damien Martinez (Quiksilver)
Stage 10: 3rd Julian Rodas Winner: Egoitz Murgoitio (Sport Lisboa)
Stage 11: 4th Julian Rodas Winner: Mikel Asterloza (Bbox)
Stage 12: 9th Ahmad Haider Anauwar Winner: Kevin Barclay (Youtube)
Tour Down Under [HC] 1st Yukiya Arashiro 21st Adam Hansen, 22nd John-Lee Augustyn, 31st Jamie Ball
Stage 1: 10th Yukiya Arashiro Winner: Mark Cavendish (100% Me)
Stage 2: 1st Yukiya Arashiro
Stage 3: 42nd Yukiya Arashiro takes leaders jerseyWinner: Alex Flugal (Ikea)
Stage 4: 3rd Yukiya Arashiro Winner: Luke Rowe (Wiggle)
Stage 5: 1st Yukiya Arashiro
Stage 6: 36th Jamie Ball Winner: Jimmy Casper (Milka)
Tour de San Luis [HC]
7th John Lee Augustyn, 34th Edwin Parra, 35th Roman Kilun, 39th Julian Rodas Winner: Rein Taaramae (IKEA)
Stage 1: 4th Yukiya Arashiro Winner: Max Richeze (UBS)
Stage 2: 7th JL Augustyn Winner: Florentino Marquez (Sport Lisboa)
Stage 3: 19th JL Augustyn Winner: Dimitri Grabovski (Intesa)
Stage 4: 6th Julian Rodas Winner: Jose Serpa (Pirelli)
Stage 5: 3rd JL Augustyn Winner: Rein Taaramae (IKEA)
Stage 6: 19th Yukiya Arashiro Winner: Max Richeze (UBS)
Stage 7: 8th Adil Jelloul Winner: Rui Costa (Sport Lisboa)
Volta a Catalunya [ProTour]
7th Konstantin Siutsou, 27th Edwin Parra, 34th Victor Orozco, 37th Jianhau Ji Winner: Alejandro Valverde (Cafe du Columbia)
Stage 1: 30th Konstantin Siutsou Winner: Martijn Keizer (Nespresso)
Stage 2: 28th Victor Hugo Orozco Winner: Sam Bewley (Festina)
Stage 3: 5th Konstantin Siutsou Winner: Alejandro Valverde (Columbia)
Stage 4: 9th Konstantin Siutsou Winner: Alejandro Valverde (Columbia)
Stage 5: 67th Carlos Manarelli Winner: Jesus Tendero (Energie Diesal)
Stage 6: 13th Carlos Manarelli Winner: Hector Duenes (Domina Vacanze)
Stage 7: 4th Fumiyaki Beppu Winner: Rafael Rodriguez(La Gazzetta)
Mt Hood Cycling Classic [c1]
3rd JL Augustyn. 17th Roman Kilun Winner: Jose Alarcon (IKEA)
Stage 1: 15th Roman Kilun Winner: David Abal (Santander)
Stage 2: 4th Yukiya Arashiro Winner: Robert Forster (UBS)
Stage 3: 5th JL Augustyn Winner Jose Alarcon (IKEA)
Stage 4: 4th Red Bull Winners: IKEA
Stage 5: 3rd JL Augustyn Winner: Jose Alarcon (IKEA)
Stage 6: 3rd Yukiya Arashiro Winner: Tomas Viatkus (Telenor)
Giro de Capo [c1]
4th JL Augustyn, 15th Adil Jelloul, 16th Yukiya Arashiro, 20th Luis Felipe Laverde Jimenez Winner: Hassan Ben Nasser (Cillit Bang)
Stage 1:1st JL Augustyn
Stage 2: 3rd JL Augustyn Winner: Hassan Ben Nasser(Cillit Bang)
Stage 3: 2nd JL Augustyn Winner: David Abal (Santander)
Stage 4: 2nd Adil Jelloul Winner: Taylor Tolleson (Mercedes)
Stage 5: 9th JL Augustyn Winner: Ignas Konovalinos (El Al)
Tour de Langkawi [HC]
19th Konstantin Siutsou Winner: Bernard Kohl (UBS)
Stage 1: 15th Ahmad Haider Anuawar Winner: Juan Jose Haedo (Mercedes)
Stage 2: 16th Christopher Sutton Winner: Danilo Napilitano (Unicredit)
Stage 3: 3rd Ahmad Haider Anuawar Winner: Greg Van Avermart(Bimbo Nutella)
Stage 4: 7th Ahmad Haider Anuawar Winner: Danilo Napilitano (Unicredit)
Stage 5: 25th KOnstantin Siutsou Winner: Bernard Kohl (UBS)
Stage 6: 8th Ahmad Haider Anauwar Winner: Oscar Guereo (Santander)
Stage 7: 11th Ahmad Haider Anauwar Winner: Oscar Guereo (Santander)
Cape Argus Cycle Tour (c1): 2nd Yukiya Arashiro, 5th Adil Jelloul, 7th CJ Sutton Winner: Lasse Bochmann (Telenor)
Vuelta Castille y Leon (c1)
3rd Konstantin Siutsou, 9th Roman Kilun, 25th Adil Jelloul Winner: Kim Kirchen (Bacardi)
Stage 1: 12th Konstantin Siutsou Winner: Rui Costa (Sport Lisboa)
Stage 2: 8th Roman Kilun Winner: Kim Kirchen (Bacardi)
Stage 3: 2nd Konstantin Siutsou Winner: Kim Kirchen (Bacardi)
Stage 4: 2nd Konstantin Siutsou Winner: Kim Kirchen (Bacardi) Stage 5: 1st Christopher Sutton
Worlds View Challenge(HC)
11th Yukiya Arashiro 21st Adam Hansen, 23rd Jamie Ball Winner: Simon Gerrans (Petronas)
Stage 1: 4th Yukiya Arashiro Winner: Thomas Ziegler (Yamaha)
Stage 2: 4th CJ Sutton Winner: Galdos (Santander)
Stage 3: 6th Yukiya Arashiro Winner: Max Richeze(UBS)
Stage 4: 20th Adam Hansen Winner: Simon Gerrans (Petronas)
Stage 5: 11th Yukiya Arashiro Winner: Stefan Schumacher (UBS)
Jelejah Malaysia (c1)
8th Julian Rodas 15th Kin-San Wu Winner: David Lopez Garcia (Santander)
Stage 1: 3rd CJ Sutton Winner: Greg Van Avermart (Bimbo Nutella)
Stage 2: 7th CJ Sutton Winner: Lars Crocket (Petronas)
Stage 3: 2nd Haider Anuawar Winner:Max Richeze(UBS)
Stage 4: 11th Haider Anauwar Winner: Greg Van Avermart (Bimbo Nutella)
Stage 5: 4th Haider Anauwar Winner: Eric Mohs (Pokerstars)
Stage 6: 7th Julian Rodas Winner: Jose Alarcon (Ikea)
Stage 7: 4th Haider Anauwar Winner: Borghesi (Unicredit)
Tour of Japan (c1)
5th Adam Hansen, 7th Arashiro, 16th Kilun, 24th Beppu, 25th Parra B Winner: Sylvian Chavenal (El Al)
Stage 1: 4th Fumi Beppu Winner: Priamo (Yamaha) Stage 2: 1st Red Bull Cycling
Stage 3: 4th Hansen Winner: Van de Velde (Petronas)
Stage 4: 7th Hansen Winner: Hesjedal (Pirelli)
Stage 5: 8th Kilun Winner: Nazaret (Benfica)
Stage 6: 2nd Hansen Winner: Chavenal (El Al)
Stage 7: 2nd Kilun Winner: Chavenal (El Al)
Vuelta a Columbia (c1)
5th Parra Bustamante 12th Jose Chacon 16th Victor Orozco 18th Luis Laverde Winner: Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Sport Lisboa)
Stage 1: 3rd Parra Bustamante Winner: Krasnoperov (Benfica)
Stage 2: 14th Parra Bustamante Winner: Mayo (Pirelli)
Stage 3: 15th Parra Bustamante Winner: Rui Costa (Benfica) Stage 4: 1st Jose Chacon
Stage 5: 11th Orozco Winner: Carduso (Yamaha)
Stage 6: 4th Manarelli Winner: Bajadali (Yamaha)
Stage 7: 6th Parra Bustamante Winner: Gil (Lego)
Stage 8: 8th Parra Bustamante Winner: Betencourt (Quiksilver)
Stage 9: 5th Parra Bustamante Winner: Van den Broeck (Benfica)
Stage 10: 6th Parra Bustamante Winner: Rodrigues (Bimbo Nut) Stage 11: 1st Victor Orozco
Stage 12: 5th Jose Chacon Winner: Gil (Lego)
Stage 13: 2nd Parra Bustamante Winner: Beraud (Bimbo Nut)
Stage 14: 7th Manarelli Winner: Grau (Unicredit)
Stage 15: 5th Manarelli Winner: Van den Broeck
Urkola Igoera (HC)
11th Konstantin Siutsou 28th Julian Rodas 36th Edwin Parra Bustamante 41st Luis Felipe Laverde 48th Victor Hugo Orozco Winner: Riccardo Ricco (Bacardi-Colt)
Vuelta a Burgos (HC)
13th John-Lee Augustyn 20th Victor Hugo Orozco Winner: Rein Taaramae (IKEA)
Stage 1: 13th Fumi Beppu Winner: Jean-Patrick Nazon (Bacardi)
Stage 2: 13th JL Augustyn Winner:Ruben Elvira Lobato (Bimbo)
Stage 3: 13th Adam Hansen Winner: Gustav Larsson (IKEA)
Stage 4: 9th JL Augustyn Winner: Rein Taaramae (IKEA) Stage 5: 1st Adam Hansen, 4th Jamie Ball
Volta a Portugal (HC)
4th Konstantin Siutsou 27th Edwin Parra B 33rd Luis Felipe Laverde 34th Kin San Wu 50th Adil Jelloul Winner: Franco Pellizotti (Youtube)
Stage 1: 9th Adil Jelloul Winner: Miles Olman (Bimbo Nutella)
Stage 2: 4th CJ Sutton Winner:Jordi Grau(Unicredit)
Stage 3: 7th Adil Jelloul Winner:Franco Pellizotti (Youtube)
Stage 4: 16th Adil Jelloul Winner:Franco Pellizotti (Youtube)
Stage 5:3rd Konstantin SiutsouWinner: Jose Serpa (Pirelli)
Stage 6: 10th Adil Jelloul Winner: Theo Eltink (Falcon) Stage 7: 1st Konstantin Siutsou
Stage 8: 13th Adil Jelloul Winner: Cieran Cassidy (Vespa)
Stage 9: 19th Adil Jelloul Winner: Paulo Bettini (Vespa)
Stage 10: 3rd Konstantin Siutsou Winner: Bernhard Kohl (UBS)
Stage 11: 10th KOnstantin Siutsou Winner: Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Benfica)
Tour of Missouri (HC)
13th Roman Kilun 28th Adil Jelloul 30th John-Lee Augustyn 32nd Scot Zwizanski Winner: Mikhial Ignatiev (Wiggle)
Stage 1: 3rd Yukiya Arishiro Winner: Peter Kennaugh (100% Me)
Stage 2: 20th Adil Jelloul Winner:Vasili Kirylenka (Tinkoff)
Stage 3: 15th Roman Kilun Winner: Ian Stannard (100% Me)
Stage 4: 11th Roman Kilun Winner: Thor Hushovd (Milka)
Stage 5: 13th Roman Kilun Winner:Enrico Gasparotto (Intesa)
Vattenfalls Classic (HC)
45th Yukiya Arashiro Winner: Matthew Goss (Bacardi)
Vuelta Chihuahua International (c1)
2nd Roman Kilun, 10th Julian Rodas, 12th Scott Zwizanski, 24th Adam Semple Winner: Mwangi Samwel (Bimbo Nutella)
Stage 1: 9th Roman Kilun Winner: Lopez Garcia (Santander)
Stage 2: 2nd Roman Kilun Winner: Mwangi Samwel (Bimbo Nutella)
Stage 3: 3rd Roman Kilun Winner: Lopez Garcia (Santander)
Stage 4: 5th Roman Kilun Winner: Vitor Rodrigues (Bimbo Nutella)
Stage 5: 2nd Manarelli Winner: D Martinez (Quiksilver)
Stage 6: 12th Zwizanski Winner: Iker Camano(Bimbo Nutellal)
Stage 7: 2nd CJ Sutton Winner: D Martinez (Quiksilver)
Jayco Herald Sun Tour (c1)
18th JL Augustyn, 22nd Kin San Wu Winner: Jose Alarcon (Ikea)
Stage 1: 2nd CJ Sutton Winner: Impey (Yamaha)
Stage 2: 14th Fumi Beppu Winner: Pineau (Bbox) Stage 3: 1st CJ Sutton
Stage 4: 18th JL Augustyn Winner: Ricardo Van der Velde
Stage 5: 11th JL Augustyn Winner: J Alarcon (Ikea)
Stage 6: 12th Hansen Winner: Chavenal (El-Al)
Stage 7: 10th Kin San Wu Winner: Griepel (Bbox)
Japan Cup[HC]: 1st Konstantin Siutsou
20th Adam Semple
2012 Promotion!
We went into the season with some optimism of a top 10 finish, however as the season went on we became a shoo in for promotion with a high level of team consistency the key. We knew we would be strong in Asian races and so it proved following yet another sparkling Tour Down Under. We managed to keep the momentum going this year deep into April building a really important buffer. Excellent performances at races like the Tour of South Africa and Tour of Langkawi helped keep us in position but also solid performances in the classics.
Mid Season when promotion looked apparent focus shifted towards our first Tour de France assault. Ultimately we narrowly failed to take a stage but battling perfomances from Moinard, Gadret and Calzati will long be remembered.
It cam down to securing promotion really, which stage wins in Swaziland and Great Britain and continued presence in classics enabled our diverse squad to finish 3rd on the team classification.
Despite a fairly cold logistical approach to gathering points the team were able to experiment with cobbles, with Giaux snatching a victory from admittedly a weakened Herning field. The whole team looked a bit tired going into the seasons end after a busy and highly succesful year
Gezza strikes in Red Bull's lucky charm race
Tour Down Under 2012 didn't bring the victory of the year before, but it proved impossible to stop a determined Allan Davis. That said the team had another spectacular race in the light of media pressue Simon Gerrans attacked clear in the lumpy stage 3 finish with Italian Alessandro Proni. The plucky Australian landed a home victory roared on by friends and family proving again that Red Bull's heart lies in Australia
Mori is the man of the first half of the season
The squad showed a one for all and all for one mentality in the first half of the season. The balanced nature of the squad meant that results were shared around, though some riders i truth used this as an excuse to take a day off. Not experienced Italian Manuele Mori who seemed to always be battling for every position. The former Sony Ericsson rider produced a brilliant solo win in South Africa, another nation which piled huge media pressure on Red Bull. A highly successful race followed this stage 2 victory.
Moreno shows Panache in Langkawi
Never was this all rounds squads resolve tested more in the HC rate Tour of Langkawi. We went into the race with high hopes of a podium through John Gadret. However he was caught up in a nasty crash following the key mountain stages. But following a morale boosting win by Romain Kilun, Danny Moreno launched an audacious attack on the final stage to sieze second overall after he had battled well for a high GC place in the mountains. This pick ourselves up off the floor scrapping has helped accumalate some hefty points totals
Gadret shows glimpses of the past
John Gadret suffered the ignomy of being sat at home watching his favourite races in 2011. It was always going to be tough on his return to the saddle and the French former two time Dauphine winner couldn't shake off the race rust in the first half of the season. That said the Mount Fuji TT in the Tour of Japan inspired Gadret who walloped the opposition by a over half a minute. This gave the team an indication that come Tour de France Gadret could pull something fantastic off.
Moinard takes three podiums at the Tour de France
We targetted four or five stages that looked good for a breakaway win and Amael Moinard proved to be our go to man on most of those key days. He unfortunately came up against one rider who was stronger than he on each of the three days he came runner up. But the French love a gallent runner up and certainly it proved popular with sponsors. It was a huge highlight to be there, John Gadret just squeaked inside the top 15, whilst Impey tested himself in the sprints. We barely saw a day without a Jayco Red Bull rider in a break, just a wonderful 21 days
Moinard takes stage at Tour of Blighty as promotion is sealed
It was beginning to become obvious that just a couple of half decent performances late on in the season and we were going to make it to the ProTour. Moinard had been so active in the Tour and was able to hold some form for the big HC race in Great Britain. It's great to get some success in Europe and Moinard showed excellent race guile to take the third stage. We ended the Tour of Britain pretty much confirmed as promoted!
Jayco - Red Bull Results 2012
Team Ranking: 3rd 4461 points
Individual Rankings:
34th Daryl Impey 532 points
50th Daniel Moreno 446 points
60th Manuele Mori 408 points
66th Simon Gerrans 366 points
70th Kim Kirchen 345 points
96th Gustavo Veloso 271 points
102nd John Gadret 257 points
104th Amael Moinard 255 points
107th Eduard Vorganov 250 points
138th Sylvian Calzati 195 points
155th Jerome Giaux 182 points
166th Mikael Cherel 166 points
182nd Adil Jelloul 149 points
213rd Blaise Sonnery 126 points
226th Greame Brown 110 points
11 wins (1 classic and 10 stage wins)
Jerome Giaux: GP Herning
Simon Gerrans: Stage 3 Tour Down Under and Stage 6 Tour of South Africa
Amael Moinard: Stage 3 Tour of Britain and Stage 4 Tour of Swaziland
Daniel Moreno: Stage 10 Tour of Langkawi
Romain Kilun: Stage 9 Tour of Langkawi
John Gadret: Mount Fuji Time Trial at the Tour of Japan
Gustavo Veloso: Stage 3 Tour of Japan
Eduard Vorganov: Stage 6 Tour of Southland
Blaise Sonnery: Stage 3 Tour of Swaziland
Full Results
Spoiler
MTN Cycling Classic (HC)
16th Simon Gerrans, 19th Manuele Mori, 20th Mikael Cherel, 29th Kim Kirchen 30th Daryl Impey Winner: Francesco Ginanni (Vespa)
Down Under Classic (HC)
3rd Graeme Brown Winner: Allan Davis (Hollister)
Tour Down Under (c1)
2nd Daryl Impey, 5th Simon Gerrans, 15th Blaise Sonnery, 18th Manuele Mori, 22nd Adam Hansen. Simon Gerrans wins stage 3 Winner: Allan Davis (Hollister)
Tour of Wellington (c1)
4th KIm Kirchen, 5th Manuele Mori, 22nd Adil Jelloul Winner: Alexander Flugal(VolksWagen)
Mumbai Cyclothon I (c1)
8th Georgos Tzortzakis, 13th CJ Sutton, 18th Adil Jelloul Winner: Daniele Bennati (Puma-SAP)
Mumbai Cyclothon II (c1)
3rd CJ Sutton, 8th Joseph Cooper Winner: Daniele Bennati (Puma-SAP)
Vuelta a Mallorca (c1)
17th Sylvian Calzati, 24th Eduard Vorganov Winner: Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez(CalBerry)
Tour of South Africa (c1)
3rd Manuele Mori, 4th Simon Gerrans, 6th Eduard Vorganov, 8th Kim Kirchen, 12th Daryl Impey 23rd Sylvian Calzati Simon Gerrans wins stage 6 Winner: Jonathan Bellis (Rapha Condor - Qhubeka)
GP di Lugano (c1)
10th Sylvian Calzati, 20th Amaël Moinard, 21st Manuele Mori, 22nd John Gadret Winner: Alexander Flugal (VolksWagen)
Tour de Langkawi (HC)
2nd Daniel Moreno, 12th John Gadret, 18th Kin-San Wu, 19th Amael Moinard Daniel Moreno wins Stage 10 and Roman Kilun wins stage 9 Winner: Marco Marzano (VolksWagen)
Tour of Boland (c1)
9th Manuele Mori, 11th Sylvian Calzati, 12th Mikael Cherel, 13th Simon Gerrans Winner: Jonathan Bellis
Nokere Koerse (c1)
17th Carlos Alexandre Manarelli Winner: Gaudin (Focused)
Cape Argus Cycle Tour (c1)
9th Manuele Mori 15th Adil Jelloul 17th Eduard Vorganov Winner: Sambris (Hollister)
Dwars Door Vlaanderen (c1)
15th Jerome Giaux Winner: Veelers (Koppert)
Tour of Taiwan(c1)
2nd Gustavo Veloso, 7th John Gadret, 8th Sylvian Calzati 10th Daniel Moreno Winner: Krasnoperov (Emu export)
Paris-Roubaix(Monument)
46th: Sven Vanthourenhout Winner: Tom Boonen(Nestle)
Tour of the Battenkill(c1)
18th Roman Kilun Winner:Staf Scheirlinckx (Hollister)
Profende de Drenthe(c1)
37th Georgos Tzortzakis Winner: Veelers (Koppert)
Tour of Japan(c1)
4th Daniel Moreno, 8th John Gadret, 11th Ameal Moinard 16th + KoM: Eduard Vorganov John Gadret wins Mt Fuji time trial and Gustavo Veloso wins stage 3 Winner: David De la Fuente (Bianchi)
Rund um-eischborn Frankfort(c1)
3rd Manuelle Mori, 17th Adil Jelloul, 20th Mikael Cherel Winner: Fabian Wegmann(Trilux)
GP Herning(c1) Winner: Jerome Giaux 6th Sven Vanthourenhout
Gp of Moscow(c1)
10th Matteo Priamo Winner: Danielle Bennati (Puma)
Lincoln GP(c1)
32nd Jerome Giaux Winner: Pieter VanSpreybrouk(Bpost)[/b]
Rogaland GP(c1)
17th Carlos Manarelli
[i]Winner: Danielle Bennati (Puma)
Tour of Southland(c1)
4th Daryl Impey, 11th Gustavo Veloso, 13th + KoM Eduard Vorganov, 19th Kim Kirchen Vorganov wins stage 6 Winner: Chris Froome (Rapha Condor)
Barcelona Classic(c1)
2nd Adil Jelloul, 7th Daryl Impey, 21st Daniel Moreno Winner: Valentin Iglinski (Rothaus)
ProRace Berlin(HC)
43rd Carlos Manarelli Winner: Daniele Bennati (Puma)
Tour of Luxembourg(c1)
18th Adil Jelloul, 20th: Mekael Cherel Winner: Francesco Ginanni (Vespa)
Gp of Wales(c1)
10th Sylvian Calzati, 13th Mikael Cherel, 14th Manuelle Mori, 16th Simon Gerrans Winner: Cesere Di Maggio (Venchi)
Air Force Cycling Classic(c1)
12th Blaise Sonnery Winner: Daniele Bennati (Puma)
Tour de France (Grand Tour)
15th John Gadret 27th Daniel Moreno
Podiums on stage 9, 14, 17 and 19 Winner: Damieno Cunego (Cafe de Colombia)
Vuelta a Colombia (ProTour)
13th John Gadret 18th Daniel Moreno
Podiums on stage 8 and 9 Winner: Damieno Cunego (Cafe de Colombia)
Clasica San Sebastian(c1)
5th Daniel Moreno 8th Kim Kirchen Winner: Alejandro Valverde (Proximus-Trek)
GP Ploauy(c1)
8th Sylivian Calzati, 10th Simon Gerrans, 16th Mikael Cherel, 17th Eduard Vorganov, 18th Amael Moinard, 19th Blaise Sonnery Winner: Mikael Delage (Puma)
Tour de Delhi(c1)
10th Graeme Brown Winner: William Ford (Oz Cycling)
Tour of Swaziland(c1)
3rd Amael Moinard Ameal Moinard wins stage 4
Balise Sonnery wins stage 3 Winner: Jose Alarcon (Aker Solutions)
Tour of Britain (HC)
4th Daryl Impey 11th Jerome Giaux Ameal Moinard wins stage 3 Winner: Jonathan Bellis (Rapha Condor - Qhubeka)
Gp Quebec(c1)
15th Manuele Mori, 16th Eduard Vorganov, 17th Kim Kirchen Winner: Ryder Hesjedal (Rothaus)
GP Montreal(c1)
4th Kim Kirchen, 7th Manuele Mori, 16th Mikael Cherel Winner: Hassan Ben Nasser (Proximus Trek)
Circuit Franco-Belge(HC)
24th Carlos Manarelli Winneraniele Bennatti (Puma-SAP)
Milano Torino(c1)
3rd Mikael Cherel 10th Jon Gadret, 12th Kim Kirchen Winner: Massimo Iannetti (Pirelli-Alfa Romaro)
Paris Tours(c1)
No Top 25 finisher Winner: Daniele Bennati
Herald Sun Tour (c1)
5th Kim Kirchen Winner:Kristjen Koren (CalGiant)
Tour of Taihu(c1)
5th Adil Jelloul Winner: Rene Mandri (Cyclevox)
Japan Cup(HC)
14th Sylvian Calzati Winner: Alexander Flugal (VolksWagen)
2013
Glory days! Our first year in the big time was validated by two huge names joining the Red Bull franchise. Fabian Cancellara's 2013 season was simply his best, with a number of high profile cobbled classic and time trial wins. The team also put forward it's first notable Grand Tour challenge with Emanuelle Sella at the Giro. His GC position wasn't that great but his brilliant solo win over the Gavia will long be part of the highlights reel.
Sprint duo Michael Van Stayen and Juan Van Heerden would mop up plenty of points and we finished a very respectable 7th in our first Protour season. Both are young and certainly this is an area we can re-strengthen in future seasons.
We had a highly active transfer season coming into the year and managed to considerably lower the average age of the team - with an eye to get loyal domestiques for the long term.
Cancellara takes a cobbled classic
What a brilliant professional - the Swiss time trial machine showed his prowess and adaptability winning a small bunch sprint at the end of the highly respected Belgium classic the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. It was a highly anticipated clash between our new look cobbled squad against the might of the green team at Pokerstars. They made a hash of setting up the sprint and Fab capitalised.
Sella nails teams first ever Grand Tour stage win
Manu couldn't manage the high GC results he wanted, but he will always go down in folklore as the first Red Bull GT stage winner. What a magnificent stage win it was too, over the Cima Coppi first dropping Colombian Henao along the way to finish solo. A brilliant descent he relived some of his glory days in that moment. He would repeat the trip with a fine summit victory in Colombia a few months later. The teams search for a consistent stage racer though continues
Cancellara provides uber lead out for Van Stay in Cali
The Tour of California was a very heavy scorer for us, the perfect Red Bull tour really not mountainous enough to attract an all star stage racer field but not flat enough to attract the big sprinters. Michael Van Stayen was led out brilliantly by Bobridge and then Cancellara on his way to fine stage win. The select one of his six stage wins over the year, this one was perhaps the sweetest coming on the opening stage.
Van Heerden learns finally how to win
South African sprinter Juan Van Heerden was in the main panned throughout the season with one lucklustre sprint effort after another. Very much seen as an upgrade of Daryl Impey from the season before this proved a long hard season, that was until a superb stage win in Germany beating Ben Swift amongst others to the line. The Saffer followed it up with a n excellent second in the Czech flat classic, to underline promise for the following season.
Cancellara takes his fifth TT of the year down Under
In the first half of the season much of Fabian's focus was on cobbles but following a fine performance at the California stage race - the Swiss man switched his focus on the chrono. He just missed out on Worlds gold to Tyler Phinney but had the Americans number on the penultimate race day of the Protour calender. This underlined his claim to perhaps be the best pure TTer of the year given he also won the Chrono des Herbiers earlier in the year.
Simply Red Bull results 2013:
Team ranking: 7th 7055 points
Individual Rankings
Fabian
Cancellara
2105
Michael
Van Stayen
1072
Emanuelle
Sella
668
Juan
Van Heerden
453
Jack
Bobridge
359
Ran
Margaliot
236
Michel
Sibilla
229
Tom
Stubbe
226
Sebastian
Turgot
203
Ameal
Moinard
178
19 wins
Fabian Cancellara: Chrono des Herbiers, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Stage win (Tour of California), Stade Appia Antica, 2 stage wins (Tour of Northern Europe), Stage win (Tour of Tasmania)
Michael Van Stayen: Stage win (Volta a Catalunya), Two stage wins (Tour of California), Stage win (Vuelta a Espana), Stage win (Dauphine), Stage win (Vuelta a Colombia)
Emanuelle Sella: Stage win (Giro D'Italia), Stage win (Vuelta a Colombia)
Elia Viviani: Stage win (Giro D'Italia)
Tom Stubbe: Stage win (Tour de Suisse)
Timothey Vangheel: Stage win (Tour de France)
Juan Van Heerden: Stage win (Duetschland Tour)
Full rundown of season
Spoiler
January
10th: Badaling International (Protour Classic)
Young Rowsell is in the BotD, as Bobridge, Margoloit, Moinard and Bennett finish with the front group of 100. Hilly classics will be tough to catch a break in this year.
22nd: Tour of Qatar (Protour 6 day stage race)
A much stronger team and a better performance. Cancellara narrowly fails to take Red Bull's first protour win on the short TTand Van Stayen cannot get a top 5 in the sprints which the competition was red hot as it should be
February
5th: Chrono des Herbiers (Protour Classic)
Red Bull's first Protour win as Cancellara upsets home favourite Jerome Coppel with a stunning display of chrono power. Viviani and Bobridge produce decent rides too.
13th: Tirreno-Arriatico (Protour 7 day stage race)
The stage race triple was always going to be tough, Bobridge and Facci flew the flag with some attacking riding. Bobridge went okay on GC aided by a horrific final stage crash taking out some of the favourites.
15th: Paris Nice (Protour 8 day stage race)
The Trofimov dominated Paris Nice offered scant oppurtunity for others. Margaliot produced a battling ride for a decent GC, as Sulzberger managed a surprise high sprint finish on one of the stages with Sibilla featuring in breaks
18th: Volta ciclista a Catalunya (Protour 7 day stage race)
Sella made his debut an produced a decent ride to finish high on GC despite a very tough field. Van Stayen rounded off a decent stage race with a sprint win on the final stage.
27th: Milan San Remo (Monument)
Struggled to get involved but both Cancellara and Van Stayen managed to finish in the top 20 - both showing they are the stars of the early season for the team
March
1st: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (Protour Classic)
A Huge goal sealing win from Cancellara who allowed Boonen to provide the suicidal attack before using the in form Pozzato's wheel to launch a stunning sprint win
5th: East Midlands Cicle Classic (Protour Classic)
Cancellara provided a late attack as once again the cobbled squad showed good legs. Turgot did well to nab a 5th after Cancellara was caught late on.
11th: Rund um Koln (Protour Classic)
What looked a low key race turned into a decent one as Van Stayen managed to find a good position to gain an excellent podium behind Boonen and Bennati
18th: Gent – Wevelgem (Protour Classic)
Third place for Cancellara here as he got on Boonen's wheel for the sprint following a far more selective race than we thought would initially occur. We were one of the key reasons why, putting out cobbled squad through their paces.
19th: Vuelta al Pais Vasco (Protour 6 day stage race)
A bit of a nothing hill fest for us, Bobridge had a crack at the youth jersey and a few half hearted break attempts. We are not up to it in these hilly battles frankly, but Bobo did a decent run to third on the youth.
25th: Ronde van Vlaanderen (Monument)
We just miss our second season goal as Cancellara is unable to follow the big attacks at the big moments. It's a shame as the team worked very hard to turn this into a highly selective De Ronde. Gusev joined Bewley and Boonen on the podium, Canc just off his best if we are honest
April
1st: Paris-Roubaix (Monument)
Cancellara was really up for this one, but alas a nasty crash at a key section left us behind the 8-ball. Still a great effort from Sibilla pulled Cancellara back into contention, which saw him finish in 4th. Bewley emerges as the new cobbled superstar
8th: Amstel Gold Race (ProTour Classic)
The first race of the Ardennes and already we realise that competition here is too hot for our young bunch of punchaers. Lessons learned for Jack Bobridge who was caught on one of the hills with 30 or so km left and no way back.
11th: Fleche Wallone (ProTour Classic)
A poor race. Hopelessly out of position in the finale, though nice to see Boonratanathanakorn have a go in the middle of the race.
15th: Liege – Bastogne – Liege (Monument)
Once again the team miss the first major split, Bobo just wasn't either in form or in place to have an impact. He may have hoped to grab a top 20 or two from the Ardennes but he was badly lacking.
22nd: Tour of Romandie (6 day stage race)
The big pointer for how well Sella could do in the Giro and some encouraging signs with a 4th on the Mountain Time Trial. However there were some warning signs too with Sella losing time to the favourites in the hilly stage 5. He manages an alright 9th place, will be hoping for far more in his home grand tour.
May
1st: Giro d’Italia (Grand Tour)
Emanuale Sella gave us our first ever Grand Tour stage win with a brilliant solo ride over the Gavia. Elia Viviani won the next day from a breakaway to complete the rescue of what had been a trying Giro from a strong Simply Red Bull squad. Sella finished 7th overall and Jaan Van Heerden was just off in his sprint attemps.
6th: Tour of California (8 day stage race)
By far our strongest protour stage race ever, Cancellara finishes third overall surprising the climbers with a gutsy performance on Mount Baldy aided by a supreme team effort. Fab convincingly won the TT which followed on from Van Stayens pair of stage wins. We were pretty much all over every stage and it took a determined ride from Machado to know Cancellara off.
25th: Vuelta a Espana (Grand Tour)
Following the late show in the Giro, the team's morale was sky high with an early stage victory from sprinter Michael Van Stayen. However this proved a false dawn with little else to cheer from a comparatively weak squad. Van Stayen managed some more decent sprint results, but in the land of breakaways we only occasionally made it in one.
June
1st: Stada Appia Antica (Protour Classic)
Fabian was highly motivated for this and following his excellent Tour of California he managed to break the entire field of cobblers and zoomed away in this new Italian classic. Only really Sam Bewley looked close to the Swiss machine but even he could not keep Fab in his sights. An excellent win.
17th: Tour de Suisse (Protour 9 day stage race)
After a fairly miserly tour in the main Tom Stubbe went for broke on the final day in the days breakaway. After a tense struggle in the finale the Belgian won the small group sprint to take a massive win to boost the team after an otherwise indifferent stage race with Van Heerden once again making a mess of the sprints.
17th: Criterium du Dauphine Libere (Protour 8 day stage race)
In the one flat stage Michael Van Stayen sprinted to a fine win, his season continues to go from strength to strength. Rain Margaloit is showing a liking to French stage races also, breaking clear to finish second on the penultimate stage.
28th: Classique du Grand Duche
Hilly classics usually mean very low points yields for SRB, but today Jack Bobridge decided to produce by far his most convincing classic performance to date animating the finale. He ended up finishing just inside the top 15, with the promise of greater success to come in future seasons
July
1st: Tour de France (Grand Tour)
For Simply Markets an abject failure. In truth a weak team in GC terms was sent. Timmy Vangheel took the 15th stage with a brilliant win from the breakaway. Juan Van Heerden lacked the defining sprint result.
26th: Tour of Norway (Protour 8 day stage race)
A decent race with good consistent placing from Van Stayen, who narrowly failed to add to his win count. Moinard made the final stage breakaway which proved to massively change the GC. Jack Bobridge produced a determined display to finish 13th on GC.
August
2nd: Flat Classic (Protour Classic)
Another very average performance from South African sprinter Juan Van Heerden. It is possible the protour is not for him
5th: Vuelta a Colombia (Protour 12 day stage race)
Two stage wins perhaps mask that we may have expected a slightly better GC than 6th from Manu Sella. Even so the climber managed a stage win along with the ever reliable Belgian sprinter Van Stayen
31st: GP Liechtenstien (Protour Classic)
Will Manu out of race days, Adill Jelloul ended up our best finisher in 61st from the breakaway. A day for the mountain men, one to forget for us!
September
2nd: Deutschland Tour (Protour 8 day stage race)
A quiet race until the final road stage and sprint success for JvH at last as he took a long awaited first win in SRB colours - possibly earning a contract for next year
14th: Lisbon Classic (Protour classic)
It was a day for the late attackers in this flat classic - JvH back to ordinary with a weak 23rd place
17th: Tour of Northern Europe (Protour 8 day stage race)
A big race for Fab this one, he opens up with a win on stage one and backed it up by beating Coppel on the long ITT. But crucially lost time to Coppel on the first of the hilly stages and the cobbles proved unselective meaning the Frenchman took the overall. JvH managed a couple of top fives
26th: World championships
Two second places in the chronos - in which both Luke Durbridge (U23) and Fabian Cancellara (Elite) anything but the gold will be seen as a failure. Still a decent performance from both to be on the podium
October
2nd: Copenhagen-Malmo TTT (Protour Classic)
One of the teams that finished in a big clump between 6th and 15th - saved ourselves for the finale slightly but finished just outside the top 10 which was marginally disappointing
6th: Praha-Karlovy Vary-Praha (Protour Classic)
In a very wet and windy race, Juan Van Heerden produced a fine performance sprinting alongside Tom Boonan to a second place. He can talk of stepping up next year.
17th: Tour of Tasmania (Protour 3 day stage race)
MvS took 6th in a messy sprint which also involved punchaers on the opener. Cancellara hung on to the climbers group on the selective stage and delivered another brilliant TT winning the final stage and finishing second on GC
23rd: Giro di Lombardia (Monument)
No riders in the top 50 in what was always going to be a tough race for our young hilly squad
2014
This year will be remembered for two really big wins. Cancellara was starting to fade, but whilst his time trial results were erratic Fab continued to challenge on the cobbles. The big challenge this year was to beat the new Boonan Sam Bewley and like Tommake the Kiwi was most vunerable on the hilly parcours at the Tour of Flanders. Canc formed a temporary alliance with other challenger Burghardt and managed to beat the German in a two up sprint for an emotional win.
Meanwhile in after disappointing results from the previous year through Manu Sella, the Italian climber was replaced with exciting PCT climb starlet Jose Alarcon. The Venezualan raced a strong 4th place in the Giro behind the strong trio of Cunego, Pluichkin and Madrazo. The Vuelta was more suited to Alarcon, however what followed was simply a fantastic display in a throwback to the old days with Alarcon attacking in the mountains over and over again to win the Grand Tour.
One monument and one Grand Tour - could hardly be better for the team. Unfortunately however the teams third leader Coppel didn't really deliver the consistant results the team was looking for. He did take the Chrono des Herbiers and a couple of other chrono's but lacked too many heavy scoring results. This lead much like the previous year to a finishing position just outside the top 5.
Coppel regains Herbiers crown under Simply Red Bull colours
One of two major pre-season transfers, Red Bull strengthened their chrono ability by signing a second really top tester in Jerome Coppel. Known as Jerry Copp to the squad the Frenchman sealed an emotional Chrono des Herbiers win to regain the title lost to Cancellara the year before. Jerry Copp found the conditions a littl more variable this year and didn't always look like he was going to quite win this, there was a lot of pressure on us to take the win and Fab had had a disasterous run so was delighted when Jerry got the season wins coloumn moving.
Cancellara is the king of Flanders
Whilst Fab did win two cobbled classics in the year previous, he was disappointed with his performances in the really big races where bad luck and a bad day had ruined his chances. However a tactic employed the year before at Paris Roubaix proved the basis for his brilliant Tour of Flanders victory in 2014. Moving away with marcus Burghardt, a stunned Boonan and Bewley watched on as they would never see Fab again Cancellara managed to outkick Burghardt in the finale to seal a career defining moment. With Cancellara looking to wind down his career in 2015 this was a magic moment indeed and Red Bulls first monument win
Alarcon takes Red Bulls first Grand Tour
After using fading legends John Gadret and Emmanuelle Sella as their stage racing lynchpins in previous years, Red Bull changed tack a little and went for unproven climber Jose Alarcon in 2014 with spectacular results. Jose fitted that favoured mold of team manager Smowz in that he is a pure climber and in a year of pure climbers dominating at grand Tours Jose Alarcon put rivals Justo Tenorio and Tiago Machado to the sword over and again to deservedly win the 2014 Vuelta a Espana. It was a stunning moment for Jose and a cumulation of a storied rise from obscurity.
Jose doubles up in Colombia
The Vuelta win was seen by many as a surprise and possibly many in the field had underestimated Jose's dynamite climbing legs. The Vuelta a Colombia however showed that Alarcon was here to stay as the Venezualan once again gave a virtuoso climbing performance to continue to kick away from rivals in the mountains. It proved a wonderful time for Alarcon who was afforded a heroes welcome upon stage finishes with thousands of fans from his home country pouring over the border to cheer their favourite son on.
Simply Red Bull results 2014
Team Rankings 6th 7027 points
11
Alarcon
Jose
VEN
1963
13
Cancellara
Fabian
SWI
1619
44
Coppel
Jerome
FRA
698
101
Samoilev
Branislav
BLR
323
107
Morizot
Florian
FRA
295
120
Juul-Jensen
Christopher
DEN
257
184
Morabito
Steve
SWI
175
190
De Bie
Sean
BEL
172
251
Mestre
Ricardo
POR
135
271
Prevar
Oleksandr
UKR
121
15 Wins
Jose Alarcon: GC Vuelta a Espana (Two stage wins), GC Vuelta a Colombia (two stage wins)
Fabian Cancellara: Ronde Van Vlaandaraan, GC Tour of Northern Europe (one stage win), 1 stage win Tirreno Adriatico
Jerome Coppel: Chrono des Herbiers, Stage win Tour of Tasmania, Stage win Dauphine
Florin Morizot: Stage win Tour de France
Branislav Samiolev: Stage win Tour of the Basque country
Sean De Bie: Stage win Sean De Bie
Full rundown of season
Spoiler
Badaling (Hilly Classic) - It was a tough race for our young hilly squad who were joined by Jose Alarcon for this January hit out. It was a nice little eye opener for the season to come - what is important in the future is to get their noses out in the wind a bit earlier if they want to get noticed. I felt today it was best to ride in the pack and learn their place.
Qatar (flat stage race) - This years edition proved windy, very windy which suited Fabian Cancellara nicely and Fab managed a couple of high stage finishes before the short TT. Fab missed out in the chrono by the odd second which was a disappointment. Benoit Vaugranard managed a good stage finish on stage 5 also. A decent race for our flat rouler tean
Chrono de Herbiers (Individual Time Trial) - A very tight race this which saw Jerry Copp take an emotional win in front of home fans with defending champion Cancellara a very disappointing 11th place. A first season win though for SRB should be celebrated.
Tirrano-Adriatico (hilly stage race) - An easy win for Fab in the opening TT showed the Herbiers disaster was a blip. However the parcours proved very selective and so stint in leaders jersey was short. Fab then got in a breakaway on a later stage and finished 3rd from a small group sprint. The young punchaers on the team battled hard but ultimately were outclassed.
Paris-Nice (mountain stage race) - The weakest of the three stage race clash squads with hopes pinned on breakaways and possibly sprints for young loanee Soupe. Team attempted to set up Soupe on two occasions with Soupe showing good poise on both stages. Floran Morizot tooks 2nd on the KoM but arguably should have won this competition if he had taken his chances.
Volta a Catalunya (hilly stage race) - Two time trials here, so we sent along Jerry Copp and he battled to 11th place on a tricky one raced over some hilly parcours. Jerry didn't get a long flat chrono to have a run at - but performed well enough 2nd and 5th on the two behind the imperious Phinney and Trofimov of course won the race.
Milan San Remo (Flat Classic) - Jerry Copp took his battling Volta form to Italy and managed a top 20 in a classic which simply doesn't suit us. Once again a cheeky Festina move nabbed the win over the Poggio climbs, we simply lack the bullets for these races.
Omloop He Nieuwsblad (Cobbled Classic) - Fab wasn't quite at his best as Bewley and Boonan slipped away in the finale to contes the win. Fab got 4th behind the surprising Breen, was seen arguing with Burghardt at the end and perhaps justifiable the German was angry at Fab - simply he wasn't feeling super here to defend his title.
Rund um Koln (Flat Classic) - Poor race from the C squad, no one made the front group in yet another hard mans sprint. Once again the Boonan bastard wins!
Gent Wegelum (Cobbled Classic) - The least selective of the cobbled classics and after it was clear the Boonan Bastard was on another super day we shut off and allowed the break to win. A big FU to Boonan bastard.
East Midlands Cycle Classic (Cobbled Classic) - Yet another far from selective cobbled race, I guess we pay for not really having the team to pull it apart. Bewley gets his act together to beat BB (Boonan bastard). Canc comes 5th in yet another sprint.
Tour of the Basque country (hilly stage race) - Bran Samiolev managed to cleverly get a stage win on the one day the GC riders sat back too far. It proved a really tough stage race for the hilly classics youngsters - unfortunately once again this year are hilly classic squad is off the mark.
Tour of Flanders (Cobbled Classic) - Massive win from Fabian Cancellara - Fab had cut a very frustrated figure for much of the pre-season despite a good showing in Tirreno. He had bemoaned sharing TT leadership withe Jerry Copp. Once again Burghardt used as domestique (despite riding for another team) Canc judged finale perfectly to deliver a lifes ambition style win.
Paris Roubaix (Cobbled Classic) - Sam Bewley sealed his moment as the new young king of cobbles. Certainly proved he is the man for the flatter cobbled races beating Cancellara by a minute in an epic Roubaix. No problems for Cancellara he has his monument for the year.
Hilly Classics (Amstel, Fleche, LBL) (trio of hilly classics) - Will keep this brief Juul Jenson led the team throughout another tour hilly classics campaign. 40th, 38th, 53rd were his sequence of results. You would have found it hard to see the SRB jerseys in these ones!
Tour of Romandie (Mountain stage race) - It was always going to be a case of getting in breakaways in this one. It was a hell of a mountain stage race to really kick off the stage racing section of the season - the big names were not going to let it go with big TdF favourite Spilak taking the overall. Mestre battled hard to take a top 30. The rest of his season largely in service of Alarcon.
Giro D'Italia (Grand Tour) - A hilly route this year saw a return of the the little Prince who took yet another Giro crown. Pluchkin battled him all the way, behind was Madrazo and our new GT sensation Jose Alarcon who produced a fine display in the mountains to climb to 4th place. Unfortunately Jose's GC fight left the stage win cabinet bare.
Tour of California (Mountain stage race) - A weak squad was sent here but battling performances from De Bie and Margaliot enabled some nice stage results. Unfortunately the big mountain stage lowered any lingering GC hopes.
Vuelta a Espana (Grand Tour) - A massive moment for Jose Alarcon and the Red Bull franchise as the diminutive Venezualan WON the Vuelta with a brilliant display of attacking in the mountains. In particular on the sole Pyrenees epic solo ride destroying home hopes Contador and Tenorio's ambitions. Jose Alarcon held firm throughout a difficult last week to clinch victory atop mount Tiede. A brilliant performance from him and a modest support team.
Strade Appia Antica (cobbled race) - Brave effort from Fab top defend his title in Italy but he could not drop young Bewley who underlined his new status as cobbled king sprinting away to win.
Tour de Suisse (mountain stage race) - Young De Bie managed a stage win from a break which was nice as the team came alive in the middle of this stage race with a decent 3rd place at the TTT as well. Rather slipped into apathy at the end which was a shame.
Dauphine (mountain stage race) - Jerry Copp returned to racing and dusted off the cobwebs with a fine win in the opening prologue. He ran a bit out of legs though for the longer test at the end of the race finishing a fairly disappointing 5th place. Bruno Santos managed a 3rd place in the sprint on stage 2 which was a nice bonus.
Grand Duche bag (hilly classic) - Once again nothing from the red bull boys but a high finish in the main group from Juul Jenson - perhaps hints at a bright future for the Dane.
Tour de France (The Grand Tour) - A second stage win in as many years, in what proved to be an epic Tour overall seeing Andy Schleck take his first Tour over the eternal second Pluchkin. Florin Morizot provided the joy from a breakaway, Jerry Copp had to be satisfied with two podiums from the individual and team chrono's in a slightly disappointing mid season run.
Tour of Norway (hilly stage race) - Proved once again to be once of SRB's better hilly races this one - in a race that seems to suit the chances for breakaway riders and crappy sprinters. Bruno Santos took some sprint top tens, whilst Juul Jenson and Samoilev impressed on the lumpy stuff, breaking into top 30.
GP Moscow (flat classic) - A nothing race from us here.
Vuelta a Colombia (Mountain stage race) - Alarcon took his second stage race of the season set up with a brilliant performance on the last mountain stage after gradually wearing down his rivals through a mountainous course. Jose will be asking for the venue to change to Venezuala next season!
GP Liechtenstein (Mountain classic) - The big match up between Jose and Schleck - but Schleck took top honours with Jose struggling towards the end. Still a massive season from Alarcon.
Duetchland Tour (Mixed hill/TT/Mountain stage race) - Copp and Canc led the team to a second place finish on the team chrono and both put in a decent individual chrono too. A good race here with some good GC performances as well.
Lisbon Classic (Flat classic) - Unfortunately we have two of these races before the end of the year and as was usual the selection proved far too tough for our loanees.
Tour of Northern Europe (Mixed Hill/cobble/TT stage race) Fab wins his second TONE with two strong chrono perfomances and measured rides on the hill/cobbled stages. It was a strong team perfomance in the early going, though Fab was left a little isolated on the pemultimate hard stage. Still Fab came through and won the final stage short TT.
Copenhagen-Malmo TTT (TTT classic) Not to be our day as Oz Cycling came up ffrom the Procontinental ranks and blitzed it. Closed the gap to ING with a determined ride but were also eclipsed by B and O.
Praha-Karlovy Vary - Praha (flat classic) Another blank drawn though Jerome Coppel managed a top 20 in a hard mans race. Plenty of sprinters were eliminated including once again the powderpuff Bruno Santos.
Tour of Tasmania (short hill/TT stage race) Jerry wins the Chrono in a solid race from him, more selective hilly stage led to a slightly disappointing GC for Jerry but good to give Phinney a beating in the time trial.
Giro di Lombardia (season ending hill classic) Juul Jenson battled hard to one of his better classic positions but once again outclassed in this monument dominated by Damiano Cunego.
First off a big apolegy to the writers and organisors of this season, I have not been anywhere near as active as I would have liked in the first third of the season. The sponsors are not really that happy and for the first time in a while Red Bull could be looking to transfer away from my franchise agreement since I took up cycling management. More on that later in the season
Barring a decent attempt to break Bewley in some muddy corner of Blighty, Fabian is clearly struggling to recreate his greatness of previous seasons. For most riders a cluster of top 15 rides across stage races and top 10's in chronos and classics would be seen as a highly successful year. For Fab who is a winner by nature this is unacceptable.
I cast my mind back to the transfer season when I had a couple of friendly offers for Fab to drop down to the Continental ranks. Do I regret not taking them and perhaps going in for a rider like Danny Summerhill? Not sure the trouble is like most of my PT comrades is that Cobble only experts are not really good value. I passed on Sibilla and not really convinced we are missing out on having not drafted in another.
I hope Canc can do a bit better in TONE and Strade Appia later in the year an possibly nip onto a chrono podium as some point. Hell is Zmorka can win Herbiers...
Toms 'skidpants' Skujins is on the flipside to Fab a rider on the up and he brings new life to the Red Bull franchise - he says hoping his sponsors agree. His ride in Paris Nice raised hopes that he could go well in the Ardennes, though Badalings result may say that this hope is premature. Still an early podium at Paris Nice is a great start for the young fresh faced Latvian.
Dan Holloway is very much also a rider on the up his encouraging performances in Milan San Remo and in Paris Nice were confirmed with a brilliant win in the Lisbon Classic. A couple more of these results will confirm that the high wage for him was worthwhile.
Overall it has been a steady start with some outstanding performances but quite a lot of letdowns too. Jose Alarcon and Oscar Guerao have made sluggish starts - Alarcon was way off the pace at Tirrano Adriatico and the spectacular Giro sprint train fails for Oscar have been embarressing. Despite this on the last Pt rankings update we were 6th - lets tell the truth their ain't no way barring a Giro crash from Schleck and an unbelievable Alarcon win at the Tour that we will be competing for the PT title.
In fact we are looking at Vesuvio looking likely to move up into pole position after the Giro - Bewley charged Becherovka will obviously be very high all season thanks to the Kiwi. Festina look good for a podium to me, Spilak will need to fire of course. They also have a lot of other very good riders so they will be the next ones. I am interested to see how well Aker can do, likewise the sensation of the season really in Oz Cycling.
It looks to me like Swisscom could be the duffers of the year predicted by many to be lower midcard early doors it looks like they could be a great deal worse.
Toms Skujins is certainly the bright spark for us in the first half of the year. His Ardennes week was highly promising, here is a guy who has taken his ball and run with it. It is pretty certain that his ball(s) hasn't dropped of course but hell he can keep running with it now. Let us just compare 2014 with 2015 shall we?
2014 Ardennes Amstal 54th, FW 80th, LBL 46th
2015 Ardennes Amstal 10th, FW 5th, LBL 6th.
Just fantastic from him, it followed a keen performance in this years Giro too. Very high hopes for long and friutful relationship with Skiddy pants.
We are down in the Vuelta at the moment and to be honest the whole team is feeling the heat at the moment. Oscar Guerao is disappointed with his whole form, coming out of the Vuelta I think he felt as if he was beginning to get going. Though his late withdrawel may have pointed toward a problem, he hasn't been up there with Swift, Mohs here in Spain and he knows he should be fighting for it but he hasn't had the legs.
Not sure we are going to give up on him though there is still time to find his feet, and I think he could be back up there soon enough. I have to remember the first week was quite a quiet one at the Vuelta last year and look what happened then!
The teams standings are turning quite quickly into a retro threeway between Vesuvio, Becherovka and Festina. Hard to argue that these teams don't deserve to be there long time stalwarts who have teams that hit out on so much terrain. Vesuvio are in the plus at the moment with Swift's stint in the leaders jersey here in Spain and success for young Andy at Giro. However they have less from old man Frank and may just beginning to feel that bite, certianly as Becherovka get more and more out of Bewley.
The man of the moment though is Simone Ponzi who has promised much so often with some great rides in Italy in particular. But his Ardennes week was a thing of magic, again and again he has this great kick that puts even superstars such as Spilak and Trofitruffle to shame.
Down the other end I don't think things are getting any better for our long time friends at UBS. Their ageing squad just has no gaz at all at the moment with Schumachers desperate 10th place at LBL being cheered you know the writing is in the wall. In the meantime one of my favourite pisstakes Ayubowen are actually doing remarkable well. Hell at this rate they will overhaul us!
You know it is probably some sort of private dig against the team boss, but sadly our sponsors have failed to see the funny side that Oscar Guarao showed up to his home race and possibly big target of the season the Vuelta d'Espana in terrible shape.
After an inconsistent Giro in which the Spanish speedster grabbed a stage win when it was beginning to look like he was going to miss out, Oscar was nowhere near the front at the important sprints of this years Vuelta.
As punishment Oscar was sent to a mountainous Suisse race with only one of nine stages open for a sprint in which he did actually come second in the finale. This secured one more chance for him at his third GT of the year.
What a wasted opportunity it was at the Vuelta. Annoyingly Danny Holloway also was huffing and puffing at the Dauphine. But thankfully other events in the Suisse stage race and on the historical roads of Rome had taken excitement and reminded us of Red Bull's greatest triumphs in 2014.
The one moment in a 2015 cobbled classic when you felt Cancellara was on 2014 form was the race which he has done brilliantly in throughout his three year tenure here. I was bursting with pride at Fab really took it too Bewley in the Italian classic, narrowly failling to crack the brilliant Kiwi.
In one of the greatest stage wins I have seen from a Red Bull rider, Jose Alarcon produced one of his mountain specials in the third stage at the tour de Suisse. After losing a heap of time in the ludicrious opening chrono he went on the attack on the first mountain stage with 55km to go. The GC favs did not see him again until the finish.
Jose ended up 4th on GC behind Spilak, Phinney and Madrazo. All riders who will not be at the Tour de France, neither will last years winner Andy Schleck, it feels as if there is an opening there. Vuelta 2015 winner Pluichkin is obviously favourite. It is not a super hard course with two really important sections of mountains in the middle and at the end of the race. It should also provide oppurtunities for Guerao to redeem himself from a horrible Vuelta.
Jose is now getting a reputation of being the eternal 4th - 4th at the Tour and now 4th down in Colombia. For him missing those GC podiums is quite the disappointment. Spilak, Pluichkin have shown different class but to suffer reverses by the likes of Amador, Taaramae is underlying some deeper deficiencies for Jose. Early on in stage races he is almost peerless but as races go on he moves onto grinding mode and lacks that spunk to dance away.
He sinks into a general 4th place behind the upwardly mobile podium chasers - I am beginning to question the hunger of the team to be honest. Danny Holloway came down to Colombia in a very poor state and not prepared to put in the hard yards - this is what has been happening to Oscar Guerao.
We will be working both Oscar and Dan hard in the off season - Bruno Santos utterly failed to impress in his home tour down at HC level also. Our sprinters have not been impressing at all, actually Liben Chen has done some decent turns.
Skiddypants meanwhile was putting in some nice things in the German hill fest tour - it didn't quite convert but I liked his effort. Again he is getting all my plaudits and it is soon time for Sparticus' last stand at his race the Tour of Northern Europe.
Attention vultures.... here is the Red Bull Huawai team 2016 pre transfers.
Last name
First name
FLA
MO
HI
TT
COB
SPR
ACC
NAT
XP Level
XP Points
Day
Month
Year
Age
OVL
Wage
Alarcon
Jose
69
84
73
66
50
59
78
VEN
4
100
12
6
1988
28
80.11
€ 950,000
Skujins
Toms
70
70
82
59
67
68
76
LAT
4
100
15
6
1991
25
78.71
€ 525,000
Holloway
Dan
78
62
69
71
65
80
82
USA
4
100
21
5
1987
29
77.19
€ 425,000
Guerao
Óscar
74
57
64
57
68
83
76
ESP
4
100
25
2
1988
28
76.29
€ 185,000
Diaz
Daniel Ricardo
68
78
70
72
56
61
68
ARG
4
100
7
7
1989
27
74.87
€ 87,500
Chen
Libin
74
59
63
68
57
79
78
CHN
4
100
7
10
1986
30
74.36
€ 87,500
Santos
Bruno
71
61
64
61
62
79
75
POR
4
100
13
12
1985
31
73.32
€ 65,000
Jiao
Pengda
68
72
76
65
54
60
65
CHN
4
100
13
2
1986
30
73.10
€ 57,500
Destribois
Alex Ariya
69
76
75
68
52
61
75
LAO
4
100
3
2
1991
25
73.86
€ 50,000
Margaliot
Ran
70
71
74
62
58
67
65
ISR
4
100
18
7
1988
28
72.07
€ 50,000
Mestre
Ricardo
65
75
70
67
50
52
66
POR
4
100
11
9
1983
33
72.28
€ 50,000
Cominelli
Cristian
70
55
67
64
75
59
58
ITA
4
100
22
5
1988
28
71.37
€ 50,000
Vangheel
Timothy
71
62
67
66
73
70
66
BEL
4
100
28
8
1986
30
71.21
€ 50,000
Edmondson
Alexander
71
58
62
64
60
75
75
AUS
4
13
22
12
1993
23
71.27
€ 50,000
Offers for ANY rider will be considered. The most obvious rider we are interested in hearing about is anyone who wants a punt on regular GT stage winner Oscar Guerao.
GT winner Jose Alarcon could be persuaded to join a new team, he has some ethical issues with our Chinese sponsor. Tom 'skidpants' Skujins has no such concerns and he and Dan 'the Man' Holloway are unlikely to leave unless a very generous offer was to come.
During the past couple of years people often compared us to pre-2013 Red Bull. Cool to finally be in the same division! Best of luck this season, Smowz.