For this years championships we decided to field a full compliment of riders, meaning we had CJ, Nathan and Richie riding in the race. The time trial was on a long flat 40 kilometre course, but with Richie not feeling so good today, we didn't really expect anything special. The win was taken by Rohan Dennis who led home a BMC 1-2 as Richie was our best guy in 7th, but he was almost a minute back, so we were happy he wasn't to far away, but we know the road race will be better for us.

The road race was taking place on a hilly course around Buninyong, so we wanted to try and get the guys working together as a team, so we made sure we had a clear plan going into the day. We wanted to get CJ or Nath in the early break and luckily we were able to get CJ in the break along with Flakemore of BMC and Clarke of United Healthcare, so we were happy that CJ would be strong enough to get the win. CJ then left the others as the bunch started to chase them down. With 6o kilometres to go our plan set in motion and Richie attacked solo, bridging to CJ they then worked and pulled out a large gap over the rest with Orica chasing to try and catch the pair. CJ then worked to pull out a gap for Richie and their gap slowly started to rise, before Richie left CJ and went solo for the finish. CJ was then caught by the bunch, but we knew Richie had the win in the bag. What a great way to start the year!

Today we've brought a strong team to try and come away with the victory, so we have Nico and Sergio as team leaders, they'll be supported by Xabier, Puccio, Pate and Fenn, so we have a relatively strong team for the first race of the season, and we want to show the others that this is the case.

The first stage was a sprint stage, so we decided to let Andy have a go for the win with Puccio acting as lead out man. Today we knew that there weren't many big name sprinters, so we decided to put Xab in the break to make sure that if the break stayed away we wouldn't be put in a bad place, and it meant we could save our guys for later in the race. In the final Xab was caught abd reeled back in by the bunch, but in the final 3 kilometres we were to far back so our lead out didn't work out and Andy came in way back, as Marco Haller took the first stage and the leaders jersey.

The second stage meant a second attempt at getting a stage win, so we knew what we had to improve on and we aimed to try and follow it as much as possible. With 10 kilometres to go the bunch eased so Nico attacked and pulled out a minute lead, the bunch hesitated, but then they realised what was happening and started to chase, he was caught with 200 metres to go, but managed to hold on for 4th place on the stage behind Theo Bos who took a great win for MTN. But Haller did enough to keep the jersey.

Today's hilly stage was going to be the first day for the GC riders, so we knew we had to keep Henao and Roche towards the front. On the first big climb of the day Henao and Roche found themselves off the front solo, so they decided to commit and go for it, they were able to build a two minute lead, but the other riders reeled them in and Sepulveda was the strongest on the final climb as he took a minute on us, to take the jersey and a popular home win.

Today was quite an important stage as the 19 kilometre time trial would cause changes in the gaps to the riders, sadly we lost time to Sepulveda, but we think we can regain it tomorrow so not all is lost, and tomorrow we're going to try and rip the race up.

Today was the big mountain stage, so we wanted to make sure that we got the time on Sepulveda, so on the final climb Nico attacked and bridged to Xab who had got in the break, they then worked together to pull out a two minute lead on Sepulveda, with Xab taking the stage and Nico taking over the race lead, so yeah we're all very happy as we got two wins with two riders, so it was great to see. So now Roche has a 45 second lead on Sepulveda which isn't huge, but we think it'll be big enough.

Today was the final hard day and we knew the final climb would be very difficult to control, so when we saw Sepulveda was out of position we capitalised and attacked with Sergio and Nico getting a good gap that they were able to hold to the finish where they finished just ahead of Trofimov and over a minute ahead of Sepulveda who came in with Xabier, who put in a great ride to take over the lead in the points ranking. Sergio took the stage win as Nico secured the overall, so that's a great week for us with two stages, but hopefully tomorrow we can make it a 3rd.

Today we just wanted to defend the overall lead, which we were able to do, so we were very happy with that then in the finale we committed fully to the leadout for Andy, with 5 kilometres to go we hit the front and the guys worked brilliantly to put Andy in the front with 200 metres to go from then on he took a superb win ahead of Theo Bos to take the teams 3rd stage win of the race and to take our win total for this race to 7 including 3 jerseys and the team prize, so yeah a very successful race for us.

The Tour Down Under was a target for our sponsors, so we tried to send as strong a team as we could manage so we have Richie and Leo for the overall, they'll be backed up by Seb Henao, CJ, Lopez and Nath Earle, we also have Vivi for the sprints, so we have a super strong team here and we're here for the win.

The first stage looked like a normal flat day in the road book, but we knew that the climb on the circuit could perform the perfect launch pad for a late attack, so we told Richie to attack on the final lap, and he was able to do that and Simon Clarke went with him, Richie did all the work as he wanted to gain any time he could, so Clarke took the stage win, but Richie managed to get home for 2nd, but the officials decided there wasn't a gap to the bunch, whoich we were furious about , but luckily Richie had gained 6 seconds courtesy of bonus seconds, so we were reasonably happy with the stage, but we were hoping for more.

The second stage was going to be a good one for us, as the final climb was steep, making it ideal for Richie to attack off, and that's what he did, he made a move 1 kilometre from the top with Vuillermoz the only rider who could follow, then on the descent they worked together to try and build a lead, then Richie was able to get the stage win, giving him the jersey courtesy of bonus seconds, so we were happy as Konig, Seb and CJ were able to finish in the main bunch just behind Richie. That meant Seb took the young rider jersey, which was a really nice surprise for the team as he is such a hardworking team mate.

Today's stage wasn't great for us as we lost the lead to Navardauskas as he won solo, Richie dropped to 6th place as all our guys are near the top 10, so we're pretty happy with that as I think we'll gain time on Willunga and we can always gain 20 seconds from the bonuses. Richie today just didn't have it in his legs to follow the attack of Navardauskas, which he was very annoyed about after the stage, but he'll come back fighting.

The sprint stage today should of suited Viviani, but with only 7 riders on a team it's hard to control the race, so the break was able to stay away and Breschel took the win as the two man break fought out the win. Viviani could only manage 12th, but we weren't to bothered. Rojas led the bunch home thankfully for us taking the bonus seconds from Navardauskas meaning Richie is still 20 seconds down.

Today was the big one, the race finishing atop Old Willunga Hill, this was a climb that would suit Richie, but we were unsure as to how much time Richie would gain if any, so we were very nervous coming into the stage. With two times up Willunga we knew that if we made it hard the first time up then we would be more likely to gain more time, so we decided that Leo Konig would drive hard the first time up Willunga to try and isolate Navardauskas and give Richie an easier race. We managed to split the race the first time up Willunga, but Navardauskas was comfortable and was able to follow us with a team mate, so it didn't have the wished effect, but we kept pushing and then on the final climb Leo set Richie up perfectly as Richie sprinted away to take the stage, but Navardauskas managed to get 2nd on the stage keeping the lead with Richie moving up to 3rd overall still 17 seconds down, but we rode the best team race Navardauskas was just to strong for us.

Today we wanted to try and get Vivi a stage win as he's struggled this week as we haven't given him a proper lead out, so we wanted to make sure that we gave him the best chance today. With 5 kilometres to go Leo hit the front and strung out the bunch, with Richie taking over with 3 kilometres to go followed by CJ and then Vivi made his move, but Rojas was coming close, but Vivi held him off by 1 cm, so we were very happy as it was a great end to the week of racing. Richie managed to secure 3rd overall with Konig in 4th. Seb Henao also managed to win the Young Riders jersey, and Richie took the KoM jersey after his wins over the top of the race's main climbs. We also secured the team jersey, so a great week of racing.

The Dubai Tour is a new race for this year, so we wanted to show our support and as the race was very flat we decided that this would be a good race to send Vivi and to try and get our lead out right. So Vivi is our team leader, and he'll be backed up by Boswell, Deignan, Andy Fenn, Pete Kennaugh, David Lopez, Nico, and Luke Rowe, so a team that is well suited to the type of racing.

The first stage was a criterium around the city centre, so it was a fast race that was difficult to control, however with 1 kilometre to go we were able to get ourselves to the front with Rowe and Fenn leading out Viviani to allow him to start his sprint at the perfect time and take a great win to add a 15th win of the year for us, I mean some people have said well Cav and the likes aren't there, but that's not my fault you know it's their loss as this is a great race that we rode perfectly today.

Another stage and another sprint, and now as we're leading we're going to have to control the race and try to keep everyone together so Vivi can hopefully take his second stage of the race. We controlled the race all day with Boswell and Roche driving hard to reel in the break that got a maximum of 6 minutes, then with 5 kiloemtres to go MTN swamped us and started to lead Sbaragli to the line, but we didn't give up and with 1 kiloemtre to go Rowe made the move that took us back to the front, and from then on we were in control with Viviani winning by half a wheel from Trentin and Dehaes, and with it extending his lead to 14 seconds over Trentin.

Today's stage was classed as a hilly stage, although we were confident that we could get Viviani over the top in the front group, so we were looking forward to a hard day of racing. We decided to ride on the front today even though I don't think other teams would of expected us to as Nico Roche is over 5 minutes down after sacrificing himself for Vivi everyday so far. We managed to control the race until the final climb where every rider just went flat out for the win as Vivi finished in the bunch just behind Gatto who won the stage, our best guy was Lopez in 5th and then Kennaugh in 10th. However the officials gave Gatto an 8 second gap, so he took the jersey by 4 seconds, but I think we can get that back tomorrow in the sprint.

The final stage was our last chance to take back the jersey, so we were determined to make the effort and to get the win, so we controlled the break all day with no help from the other teams, and we wanted to try and get Viviani to the front for the intermediate sprint. We tried everything today, but we just weren't able to get the result we needed as Viviani was to far back coming into the sprint and he could only manage 6th as Dehaes took a greatly timed sprint win. So we ended up 2nd on GC for Viviani, but he also lost the points to Gatto by a point as Gatto managed to get 5th in the sprint which was very dissappointing for us.

The Colombian Nationals were a big deal for the two Henaos of our team as they dreamed of showing off the national jersey on the roads of Europe, the time trial wasn't going to suit them as Rigo Uran took an easy win ahead of Nairo Quintana with Sergio fighting his way to 3rd place and Seb Henao taking 5th, so we were very happy with their performance as it put us in a good place going into the road race.

The road race was a very mountainous course, which would suit the Henaos, so we decided to put Seb Henao in the early break ,meaning Sergio could just follow the other favourites. Seb managed to get in the early break along with Dayer Quintana and Beltran of Tinkoff, so we knew that this group could go all the way to the line, so we got Seb to sit on the group and to not do any work for now. With 60 kilometres to go the lead of the breakaway was unassailable, and as we hit the climb for the penultimate time Seb put the hammer down and dropped Dayer and Beltran as they had constantly been attacking, so even though Seb is very young he showed he has great experience as he kept a steady tempo that the others couldn't match. With 20 kilometres to go Dayer blew and the gap started to rocket up, so we knew Seb had the win, and we were over the moon with it as he rode the perfect race. The gap to the break was so big that Seb lapped Sergio meaning that Sergio and the big name climbers were pulled out of the race, so that just shows the quality of Seb's ride.

So this week we've brought a more classics based team as the race is going to be very tough with various terrains, our leader will be Ben Swift and he'll be backed up by Xabier, CJ, Puccio, Pate, Knees, Eisel and Nath Earle, so we have a strong team that is well suited to the various terrain.

The first stage was a short prologue, so there was not tactics, and as we didn't have a rider that's very good at that short intense effort we just wanted to try and limit our losses and get some good positions where we can move up in the next few days, our best guy was Puccio in 20th, just over 17 seconds behind the winner Daniele Bennati of Tinkoff.

The first road stage, and the first sprint stage, with Omega bringin Meersman we knew that we would have to get the leadout perfect to get the win for Swifty today, but we were confident we could make it work. In the finale we hit the front with 1.5 kilometres to go, but Ben went a little to early meaning that Meersman was able to get over the top of him just before the line, but we'll be back tomorrow.

Today was a slightly lumpy stage, but we knew that this wasn't the key stage. On the final climb a break of 6 got away that we weren't able to catch, Gavazzi of Southeast was the fastest sprinter in the group and he took the win behind Swifty came home for 13th on the same time as the front bunch as Bob Jungels was the new leader with Ben our best guy 44 seconds back.

Today was a day for Ben, so we put all our guys to the front to try and control the race and then set him up for the finish. We put Knees in the break of the day to mop up the KoM points, which he was able to do meaning he took the KoM jersey which was a great bonus for us. Then in the finale we set Ben up perfectly, but Bennati was just to strong and he took the win ahead of Ben in second, but Ben couldn't of done anything more, so we're happy.

Today was our last chance for a stage win, and with the uphill finish we thought it would be a stage for Swifty, so we rode hard all day to keep him at the front which we were able to do, but with 3 kilometres to go Simon Clarke attacked and we couldn't quite keep him close enough and Swifty wasn't able to catch him before the line although he did get very close, it means that Swifty wins the points jersey, so we do get something our of the race. Bob Jungels managed to hold onto the win a single second ahead of Clarke with Swifty getting 3rd just 6 seconds back. Also Christian managed to keep the KoM jersey, so that's a great result for him, so overall I think we should be happy with our week of racing.