It was announced today that a new UK based professional cycling team has been created & is preparing for competition in the coming year.
The team known as 'Expect Transportation Cycling' bring with them the financial clout of Expect Distribution a world leader in palletised distribution. Thier managing director resigned today with the following brief statement.
'Over the past decade I have developed & grown this meagre haulage company into a global competitor with a strong foundation & financial stability. After much consideration I feel the time has come to nurture my familly & support thier dreams having achieved all that I can here.'
It is widely believed that the outgoing MD, Phil Beevers, was referring to his youngest sons cycling career which until now has been managed by his older brother.
It is with great pride that we here at Expect Cycling can announce our partnership for the upcoming 2014 season with Damonballe. The depth of thier engineering and production talents provides a perfect support for the dynamic exhuberance of our vibrant young team.
We each hope to mold the future a little through our partnership. Damonballe will gain unlimited access to a group of highly promising young rides to gain an insight into the direction future projects might persue. In return we at Expect Cycling will recieve detailed feedback on our riders, training programmes and techniques so that we may develope the young talent we have assembled into the super stars of the coming decade.
With the excellent standard of machinary provided by Damoballe, wheels from Zwin & tech from Sbam; Expect riders will have reliable and very user friendly equipment with which to challenge for victory.
Throughout our first season together we will strive to achieve great things together but we would like to clearly set out from the start that we are aiming for nothing less than an outright victory in Britain's Tour. By September we aim to be challenging & beating some of the worlds best cycling teams as our talented pool of young riders develope & grow in confidence.
Expect Transportation Cycling is a professional cycling team created with the single aim of success. We will cut our teeth in the sports continental division encountering a wide range of challenging advesories throught the 2015 season. With that in mind Expect Cycling has scoured the globe to find the crop of future stars of cycling. As our first full team training gets underway in the south of France today we can confirm a full 18 man roster for the campaign ahead.
A, Beevers 16 J, Beevers 16 A, Vickers 16 J, Hunt 16 D, Volgin 16 M, Bagnoli 16 J, Kane 16 S, Hewitt 16 G, Sykes 16 J, Dyson 16 S, Clarke 16 G, Jose 16 J, Dabek 16 C, Ruta 16 D, Weigelt 16 D, Dvorak 16 D, Wilson 16 E, Sharples 16
We are working with race organisers so that our innuagral race schedule can be confirmed in the coming days following discussion with our riders.
" It's exciting for all of us to be following our dreams. Doing it together has already brought us together like a family & we are all excited for the long season ahead." - Cesc Ruta
The firest action for an Expect Transportation rider will come in two days at the Australian National Championships. The 160Km time trial is made a 11 laps of a parkland route, featuring a steep hillside near Buninyong.
" It will be a great experience", Jaemes Hunt said,"Riding alongside truely the best riders from Australia will be awesome."
Expect Transportation Cycling's young Australian rider will be there alone & is not expecting to feature in the final standings, "competing against the established pro's I simply don't have the power, yet." Hunt predicted. Riding as an individual entry also means that there will be no support from team-mates unlike other riders severly limiting his tactical options at the event.
The sun blazed down on the riders at Buninyong as the best cycling talent from across Australia battled for NC honors. The park land track required maximum effort from the riders with a steep hill climbed 11 times in total it would be a tough ask for riders as they prepare to enter the season ahead.
The rhythm for all riders was pretty poor but Brown and then O'shea made early punching attacks that were quickly caught by the peleton. Orica Green & Sky were leading the field around with the the suprising Hunt from Expect there for company. After just 11 Km Cantwell (Drapac) made the first concerted attack of the race and broke clear with the Peleton unwilling to chase so early. Garmin Sharp rider Von Hoff gave chase but took a further 11 Km to bridge the gap, the pair began to comfortably work thogether and extend the lead they had.
The peleton lead by Orica Green Edge & Team Sky were content to follow the two breakaway riders allowing the gap to rise to over 6 minutes before a response came from Expects' Hunt. Hunts' response came immediately after a fall in the pack during a brief mid race rainshower, while the riders were able to carry on the incident fragmented the field with three distinct groups becoming evident. There were a series of speradic efforts from the peleton to close down the breakaway but no real sustained effort with the larger teams happy for the young Hunt, riding his first NC at just 16, to dictate the timing of the increased work rate.
Climbing the hill for the 9th time the peleton finally bridged the gap. Cantwell had made a really brave effort but after 80Km he was caught. Straying with the lead riders he made another break at around 5Km later which didn't amount to much. As he was caught by the peleton for a second time Gerrans made a telling breakaway, opening up a sizable gap on the field.
Again the peleton were happy for the young Expect rider to do the work to close the gap. For around 50 Km the peleton gradually wound up into a frenzied machine with Team Sky, Orica Green & Hunt still leading the way in the persuit of Gerrans. With 10K to go the young Hunt was actually leading, briefly. A concerted effort at a break saw the teenager breakaway with Gerrans & Porte (Sky) for company. The three looked to setting up a close sprint home when with 7K to go Gerrans burst away again. Porte & Hunt had nothing to respond with having expended so much energy in the chase. Gerrans would go on to win by 2 minutes & 16 seconds in a splendid solo attack that was timed to perfection.
Behind the new national champion there was a titanic sprint for second with Hunt, Porte, Cantwell & Hanson crossing the line almost together, the order was decided by photo. The early breakaway from Von Hoff didn't hurt him too much as he came home 6th. With 2 riders in the top 10 Orica Green Edge took the time title too.
Edited by pengod67 on 09-01-2016 08:43
As pre-season training finally draws to a close everyone is raring to get racing. The 7th running of the Tour of San Luis, Argentina will be the teams first outing in the continental division. Several team members have finished thier preperations in the US at Boulder to acclimatise to the environment.
A 6-man team will take on the difficult mountain climbs and mid tour time-trial that give this event such great character. With 16 teams entered the race should be a fascinating contest. Daniele Bennati of Tinkoff-Saxo is favourite for thw win but can his team climb well enough? Androni Giacotti have two excellent prospects for the win in Von Hummel & Biletti.
Expect cycling will be looking to establish where we are amongst the established teams & gain much needed experience for the main season in europe. Being a new team there are still many communication techniques & strategies the team need to explore to understand just how to get the best out of the talented riders we have this season.
2015 sees the 36th running of the Grand Prix de Marseille,the premier road race of the French Road Cycling Cup. The UCI Europe Tour event was started by the innugural winner Leo Van Vliet while last years champion Justin Jules (La Pomme) returned to defend his crown. The Cofidis team were seaking a fourth win in 7 years at the event. A victory for either could see the French domination of the event continue into a seveth year.
This years route circulated through the twisting country lanes surrounding the city in order to incorporate some minor climbs before descending into Marseille for a stadium finish.
There was a great deal of movement early in the race as first Mansalve (Nero Sapristi) & Ista (IAM) and the Bos (Belkin) & De Backer (Shimano) broke away. A seriesof riders bridged the gap to create an eleven man lead group which was allowed to establish a 2 minute lead early on. FDJ.fr took the lead of the pelleton increasing the speed and edging back to the lead group.The Expect team joined FDJ at the front and working together they patrolled a relaxed pace, gaining on the leaders slowly while remaining alert & responsive to other attacks. On the first real climb of the day the pelleton closed off several attacks the most promising was from Movistar rider Andrey Amandor but FDJ weren't letting anything get away as they crested the first ascent. At just about half way a young punchy rider from Expect made a sustained attack from the foot of the first descent and up the most challenging climb of the day. Both Vicioso (Katusha) & Mancebo (Sky Dive Dubai) tried to counter the strong attack from Beevers but the pelleton closed them down. Shortly after half way Jose Guttierez of Movistar withdrew because of illness.
COM Cycling took up the head of the pelleton as the second half of the race got under way with FDJ & Expect keeping them company. None of the three teams really taking charge to close the growing gap to the lone rider out front. Expect were riding superbly in one of thier first outings with the team excellently controlling the pelleton and disrupting any attempts to close on the breakaway team leader. With 47 Km to go Beevers had amassed over 5 minutes & although the pelleton had quickened its pace the gap was widening further. Irizat (Trek) & Bretagne's Fonseca both fell in the pack with the former needing to be patched up at the road side. While riders attempted punchy attacks in pairs the COM & FDJ riders quickly closed down each attempted break. Beevers was gone, over 10 minutes ahead with 20 Km to go, the pelleton wasn't willing to allow anyone else to escape. In the jostling for position at the ensueingsprint Bretagne lost rider Jean-Marc Bideau to a fall. With just 5 Km to go the attack was launched from Oreca & Lampre sprinters. It was a little early as a powerful surge at 3 Km saw a host of Expect riders catch the tiring pair and over haul the duo who would ultimately finish 6th & 7th.
Beevers break at half distance proved inspired, the huge effort coming on the second & most severe climb of the day led to an almost 12 minute margin at the line. Expect sprinter Eoin Sharples came from behind to take second with German time trialist Dani Weigelt sweeping the podium; Norwegian fighter Dyson & French man Jules Kane made it a dominant top five places for the Expect Team. Australian Matthews (Oreca) followed up a 6th overall on the Down Under Tour by matching that position in Marseille ahead of Pozzato (Lampre-Merida).
Edited by pengod67 on 09-01-2016 08:48
Today, the cycling season begins in Australia or Malaysia but the European season starts here with the Etoile de Bessèges, an essential race at the beginning of the year for riders and media alike. Despite the years of snow, rain and freezing winds, the Etoile de Bessèges still shines with the happiness of everyone present. As Roland Fangille, a former rider and president of the UC Bessèges club once said: "we've managed to keep going because we believed in it and we've been able to live our passion through it."
Created in 1971, the Etoile de Bessèges is now 44 years old and its founder with his small band of volunteer cycling enthusiasts could never have imagined that the race would become international and bring together a peloton worthy of the biggest races.
The Expect Cycling team will be sending 6 cyclists to the South of France for the traditional season opener. Jaemes Hunt will be leading the team with support from Jo Beevers, Shaun Clark & Canadian Shane Hewitt. Ruta & sykes will have free riding roles.
A, Beevers 16
A, Vickers 16
J, Hunt 16
D, Volgin 16
M, Bagnoli 16
J, Kane 16
G, Sykes 16
J, Dyson 16
S, Clarke 16
G, Jose 16
J, Dabek 16
C, Ruta 16
D, Dvorak 16
D, Wilson 16
E, Sharples 16
