2014 Vuelta winner and massive hero of South America. Lean 2015 and much known hater of any race against the clock. Known for legendary attacks in the Alps and the Pyrenees.
This years targets: Vuelta a Espana and Giro D'Italia
Mark Cavendish (Key Stats: SPR 83)
One of UK's second tier sprinters behind Ben Swift, but confident rider has the attitude to challenge. Well earned shot at the PT, after journeyman style career. Team are hoping for great professionalism after offloading failed Spanish sprinter Guerao
This years targets: Vuelta a Espana and Tour de California
Dan the Man (Key Stats SPR 80 ACC 82)
Very solid 2015 for Red Bull, known for decent consistency. More ambitious targets this including taking on a Grand Tour. Dying to stick it too former teammates at Pokerstars.
This Years Targets: Giro D'Italia, Milan San Remo
Sub leaders
Dani Diaz (Key Stat: MO 78)
Luxury mountain domestique, however when race planning will now be given the chance to lead team at the Tour de France, seen as a KoM hopeful. Will ride Paris Nice and Tour de Suisse as lead
Matek Mohoric (Key Stat: HI 78)
Came in as part of the Skiddypants deal, better rounded perhaps than the latvian and a long term classics hope. This year is his finishing school.
Marco Brus (Key Stat: SPR 78, ACC 78)
Fairly expensive lead out type, very hopeful 29 year old Dutch fast man can drop sprinters in right place
Lasse Norman Hansen (Key Stat: TT 77, PRO 79)
Part of a new wave of chrono men and seen as a prologue power specialist and will have a couple of shots at this discipline this year
Asian hopefuls
Liben Chen (Key Stats SPR 79), Yake Hou, Alex Edmondson
Improving 30 year old enjoying ProTour experience. Has chance as lead sprinter at the Tour de France, would love a podium or two. He has recommended Yake Hou as a young apprentice, with Alex Edmondson also furthering his sprinting experience
Alex Ariya Destribois, Arvin Moazemi (on loan), Pengda Jiao, Marcelo Felipe, Ulugbek Galiev, Altanzul Altansukh, Ahmad Arissol, Nawuti Liphongu, Rustom Lim (Stag), Raj Kumar Shrestha
We have looked to expand our Asiatic stock by casting out a large net in this often forgotten region. Destribois has awakened something in Laos and we have looked to give many regions a leg up this year. No less than 10 of the best unproven climbers are around, we are very excited to see what Destribois can do this year.
Loan stars
Moreno Moser, Jani Tewelde
Two more powerful sprinter types drafted in to give potential sprint trains a boost
Joey Rosskopf, Jesper Hansen, Luca Serbini
Stage racer Rosskopf will be a raider in GT's, Jesper Hansen will gain some valuable hilly classic experience and Italian chrono man Sterbini will also be one of the tester leaders
The Cobblers
Scott Thwaites, Cristian Cominelli, Timothey Vangheel
I think Scott is a decent enough outside shot of doing a good cobbled season, I like that Scott can also sprint really nicely. Cristian and Tim will continue to ply their usual hard work on the cobbles with freedom to attack unlike previous times for Fab
The road captains
Konstantin Siutsou
Aging former Red Bull star returns for what is likely to be his final season, gives our young squad some much needed experience
Steve Fisher
Seen as a bit of a pacer for when we want to set up a sprint, just a useful guy to have around for 50KEdited by Smowz on 24-07-2016 08:33
The battle to avoid relegation - Race to 5000 points (763 currently scored)
Badabing My Nana won the race, Baker finished second again and Truffles grossly underperformed. Jesper Hansen was RB's best finisher in 26th. Moazemi and Mohoric also got in bonus points positions. 60 Points scored
Qatar Pokerstars poked every one hard in the face with sprint brilliance that has been in evidence since 2011. New signing Cav did not disgrace with positions of 10th, 6th, 3rd, 4th and 7th in the road stages before doing a top 50 ride in the chrono to net 4th Overall and and decent 5th on the sprint classification. A shout out to young chrono man Norman who also netted a nice GC position roughly 280 points scored
Omloopy - KBL cobbled headache Omloop Felipe makes the break and holds on to a top 50 place. Everyone else gets dropped far too easily by Jayco's forcing for the Burger man - useless attempt though by the Ozzy twits as Bewbastard wins comfortably over doping Belgian GvA. 45 points from Omloop.
We took a risk in KBK to bring star sprinter Cavendish, it paid off big time with a surprise win from the sprinter after a field sprint. Brilliantly Cavendish made the splits the team working hard to make sure he was in the right place at the right time. 265 points from KBK
Italian two seas race Cav nabbed a 6th and 9th in the sprints which is a bit naff. Young climbers Destribois, Mohoric and Moazemi all finished in the GC top 20 which was quite a good performance. 163 points scored
Race to the sun
Schleck Douche bag race Breakaway won, no-one from RBH in break and only one in large group of sad favourites behind and he finishes towards back of this group in 64th so gets no more points then anyone else. 40 points scored. The bare minimum
Chrono des Red Bull
Token British race
Hooray we are in Africa, oh it is South Africa again, no disease risk
Basque hill festival
De Ronde
Hell of the North
Top GT - most beautiful race graced by JoseEdited by Smowz on 12-08-2016 06:17
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
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
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)
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
2015
Stagnation! It was always going to be hard to replicate the previous years results and the Red Bull franchise began to over-reach. We looked to bring in a hilly leader in Skujins and also return to our Dual sprinter threat of 2013, unfortunetaly we ended up with anothetr Van Heerden on our hands with Oscar Guerao. The Spanish sprinter wasa disgrace for much of the season and was well below expectations.
The aging Cancellara performed decently but there was little to do against Bewley in the key classics, Fab did grab a couple of nice wins including a last Tour of Northern Europe triumph. Jose Alarcon failed to break a GC podium once and whilst stage wins at Tour de Suisse and a passionaite Tour de France stage win was really not quite good enough.
Encouraging results though for American sprinter Dan Holloway who seems to always get stuck in. We also struck out by heading hard into the Asian field this policy would continue in the 2016 season.
Jose Alarcon wins mountain stage at Tour de France
After a confidence boosting stage win at the Tour de Suisse, Jose attacked the first stage in the Pyrenees at the tour with gusto determined not to let the chance to put the wheelsuckers to the swoerdord slip by. However rider of the year Alex Pluchkin proved a strong adversary and it was only a gutsy claw back in the penultimate klick enabled Jose to outkick the Moldovan in the home straight.
Dan the man stuns sprinters and Bewley in Lisbon
Pluchkin dominated the GTs, whilst Bewley dominated the classics and this included flat classics particularly windy affairs such as we got in Lisbon. But Dan Holloway and a group of sprinters hunted him down in Lisbon. Dan just got his nose in front picking the right side of the barriers to take a really nice morale boosting win in Portugal
Fab keeps Red Bull brand in PT with solid secure TONE win
Sensationally after talking of PT win hopes, the Red Bull franchise was sitting perilously close to the relegation zone after a lean year. Fab was determined to take advantage of his race and with teh cobbles coming early it was the perfect send off, gaining large swathes of time on the cobbled stuff to defend in the hilly stages to come.
Red Bull Huawei results 2015
Team Rankings 10th 5403 points
13
Cancellara
Fabian
SWI
1243
22
Alarcon
Jose
VEN
1056
31
Holloway
Dan
USA
750
36
Skiddypants
Toms
LAT
717
138
Chamorro
Juan Ernesto
COL
220
167
Bastard
Fat
ESP
169
174
Destribois
Alex Ariya
LAO
164
264
Hristov
Stefan
BUL
109
273
Russom
Meron
ERI
105
9 wins (1 classic, 7 stage wins and 1 GC
Jose Alarcon: Stage win Tour de France, Stage win Tour de Suisse
Dan Holloway: Lisbon Classic, Stage win Dueutchland Tour
Fabian Cancellara: GC and stage win Tour of Northern Europe
Oscar Guerao: Stage win Giro D'Italia
Jose Ernesto Chamorra: Stage win Tirrano Adriatico
Bruno Santos: Stage win Tirrano Adriatico
Edited by Smowz on 29-07-2016 19:22
