the oz cycling project organisation (currently known under the name bennelong - mitchelton) has launched a new continental team, to be called mitchelton - cobra9. the main team's new name giving sponsor mitchelton and the team's former main sponsor cobra9 will team up to support a small selection of eight riders, that will compete in 56 racedays on the coninental level.
“after what we consider to be a hugely successful first three years on the protour stage, at the top level of men’s cycling, we believe we have landed in a strong position to expand our offerings to a continental team for 2018,” team manager ts moha said.
“the addition of mitchelton - cobra9 continues to support our ambitions to foster the development of young australian riders and also extends our support to the australasian region for whom we represent with the mguci. to be able to contribute to the development of our local australian riders and those from the asian region is something we are very proud of."
the team will consist of four riders from australia and four riders from different asian countries. see the team's schedule and roster information below.
[img-l]https://i.imgur.com/h4F0yMP.png[/img-l]brenton jones 27 years old | xp maxed | ovl 73.45
wage 5,000€
on the team since 2018
fl
mo
hi
tt
sta
res
rec
cob
sp
acc
fi
dh
prl
72
58
60
60
66
65
73
56
78
78
65
65
65
[img-l]https://i.imgur.com/rhVDKIJ.png[/img-l]mark o'brien 31 years old | xp maxed | ovl 73.05
wage 5,000€
on the team since 2018
fl
mo
hi
tt
sta
res
rec
cob
sp
acc
fi
dh
prl
68
73
72
68
73
70
72
55
65
74
65
66
67
[img-l]https://i.imgur.com/goUC9mu.png[/img-l]richie porte 33 years old | xp maxed | ovl 72.97
wage 5,000€
on the team since 2018
fl
mo
hi
tt
sta
res
rec
cob
sp
acc
fi
dh
prl
72
64
70
76
69
73
72
59
62
64
71
58
75
[img-l]https://i.imgur.com/NJ24xIL.png[/img-l]mohammad saufi mat senan 28 years old | xp maxed | ovl 72.78
wage 25,000€
on the team since 2018
fl
mo
hi
tt
sta
res
rec
cob
sp
acc
fi
dh
prl
69
75
71
67
74
71
70
51
58
70
65
59
67
[img-l]https://i.imgur.com/FtaIoHq.png[/img-l]yin chih wang 30 years old | xp maxed | ovl 72.45
wage 5,000€
on the team since 2018
fl
mo
hi
tt
sta
res
rec
cob
sp
acc
fi
dh
prl
67
74
71
72
73
70
68
56
59
65
65
66
72
[img-l]https://i.imgur.com/LZiB9X6.png[/img-l]guangtong ma 23 years old | xp 3.45 pot 4 | ovl 70.36
wage 15,000€
on the team since 2018
fl
mo
hi
tt
sta
res
rec
cob
sp
acc
fi
dh
prl
68
66
67
63
68
68
70
52
72
72
64
67
66
[img-l]https://i.imgur.com/V3382m7.png[/img-l]chris harper 24 years old | xp 2.80 pot 3 | ovl 68.95
wage 5,000€
on the team since 2018
fl
mo
hi
tt
sta
res
rec
cob
sp
acc
fi
dh
prl
67
69
69
62
69
65
66
60
65
70
66
64
62
[img-l]https://i.imgur.com/OIg1ryx.png[/img-l]sang hoon park 25 years old | xp 2.28 pot 5 | ovl 68.49
wage 5,000€
on the team since 2018
fl
mo
hi
tt
sta
res
rec
cob
sp
acc
fi
dh
prl
70
50
55
70
63
67
64
59
72
68
56
65
70
we're happy to have found an expierenced core of leaders: former oz cycling project's professionals like richie porte, mark o'brien and brenton jones will be amongst those eight riders, who will hopefully show our colours in as many races as possible.
porte and o'brien were part of last year's roster at jayco - cobra9 (now bennelong) and will provide some well needed leadership on and off the road. while porte hadn't too many notable individual results for the protour l'equipe last year, o'brien proved his value in the two stints he had with the main team (2014 and 2017). his palmares features some solid gc results: 24th at paris - nice last year, 15th at volta a portugal (in 2014), 16th at tour of ukraine or 22nd at the tour of southland. he's also leading a national road series team as the directeur sportif and we're very happy to have him as a part of the mitchelton - cobra9 project.
our core of asian riders is led by malaysian climber mohammad saufi mat senan, who should be capable to go for some notable results on the continental level. the reigning malaysian road champion will be supported by yin chih wang: a solid stage racer from taiwan. we like his combination of riding mountains and timetrials and he wants to take this opportunity to attract other teams for a possible full-time contract in 2019.
in addition to those, we're excited to see some talents from the australasian region racing in our colours for one year: chris harper, sang hoon park and guangtong ma. not the bloody young guns anymore, all three will do some important steps in their development this season.
Mat Senan should score points as he has done for me in previous seasons, but unfortunately he was victim to a team restructuring and we couldn't find a way to fit in bringing him back.
Hopefully he goes well for you here and if we can promote we'd likely look to see him return.
@SotD: Yeah, cobbles.. and hills.. also for sprints, I would need a great daily form by Jones, I guess. But I'm happy with the roster. Had one half decent roleur/cobbler on my list, but decided to add our former climber Mark O'Brien instead. He's simply too cool to ignore Porte and Mat Senan indeed should be our best scorers and there's a few races, where I'm really looking forward to.
@Jakstar: Thanks for the kind words on our HQ Porte definitely deserved another year of active racing, so I'm really happy we got this unexpected opportunity to give him a contract. He may snatch a few surprising results in those always hard to predict TTs!
@sammy: Glad he had no contract, since he's not only adding some decent quality on this level, but also a NC shirt in road races I would be quite happy if he does well enough to earn himself another stint with your team next year!
mark o'brien will join one of ts moha's teams for another, a third time, as he agreed to terms on a deal with the newly found mitchelton - cobra9 team. the ct amateurs team will get to ride less than sixty race days on the continental level and o'brien (who's known as a good friend of bennelong - mitchelton's manager) is likely to play a key part in the plans for the upcoming season.
the 31 years old climber, who started to lead an australian national road series team last year, couldn't resist joining this project, that will see four aussies and four other riders from asia trying to compete in several c1 and c2 races this year: "it's an interesting project and i'm happy to be in oz cycling's family for the third time in my career now!"
o'brien first joined the oz cycling project back in 2014, where he rode quite a big schedule to support the team going for a stellar season - finishing 3rd in the pct and a direct promotion to protour. while riding many races as a main support for riders like jack bobridge or george bennett, the talented climber o'brien proved his value by finishing 15th in the gc of a tough volta a portugal (his only race as a true leader in the mountains). a stunning performance for him and definitely a result, that helped the team staying in contention for an eventually comfortable promotion campaign.
o'brien added further results, such as a 16th place at the tour of ukraine, where he also had a top-5 finish on the queen stage (losing out on a gc's top-5/10 in the following 44km timetrial though). a 22nd place at the tour of southland and several top-40 results in one day classics made him earn a 225th place (80pts) in the final pct individual's rankings.
both parties would agree to not continue the partnership in the team's challenging first year on protour level and after a rather disappointing year with amex - navigon (a former us based team) in the pct, o'brien focussed on racing in the domestic cycling scene, as well as getting used to leading his own team in the nrs. the veteran, however, signed another deal with oz cycling (then jayco - cobra9) last year: in 2017, his former manager ts moha asked o'brien to support his team for a couple of protour events - which he did. a great 24th place in the paris - nice gc was followed by finishing the brutal gp liechtenstein as 85th. particularly his efforts as the main support for jack bobridge in paris - nice's final two stages were quite amazing. a true cyclist, we're really looking forward to see him riding in a key role for mitchelton - cobra9 this season!
Thanks for the kind words, bbl I dunno! Years of practice and a sense for perfection (which I really should start to show in my real life working career as well, haha)
the first month of the season is over and with two races done for our new mitchelton - cobra9 squad, we're looking back with quite some satisfaction.
we did not exactly put a stamp on our home race: the tour down under must be considered a special race in the team's schedule for the 2018 campaign, but being a c1 race, the competition would obviously be tough. o'brien would be our best finisher as 119th in the gc and with ma (s4) and porte (s6) we had only two days in the break of the day. it must be said though, that particularly our australian riders enjoyed the event and despite lacking the results (as to be expected) it's been pleasure to race on this level on home soil.
the vuelta al tachira would always be the more important race in terms of possible points towards the amateur's rankings: with our core of climbers (mat senan, o'brien and wang) probably as the team's biggest strength, our plan was to ride aggressively in the mountains and show our colors as much as we can. and we did: mat senan managed to join the break of the day on multiple days and even had the kom-lead for one day! despite fighting hard to re-claim the shirt after losing it to pinot the day after, he eventually had to settle for a still strong 2nd place in the mountain classification (behind ratiy).
mat senan's biggest highlight has to be stage six though: when breaking clear from the early breakaway in the crucial moments of the day, it looked like he could win the stage - eventually only beaten by a dominating pinot, who went past our climber inside the final kilometre of the stage! a brave effort, however, and also a solid gc result for mat senan (23rd) and o'brien (37) at the end of ten challenging days.. in the flat stages, jones managed to be in the mix on several days - with a 5th and 7th place as his best and only top-10 results though.
race
result(s)
tour down under
c1
o'brien (119)
vuelta al tachira
c2
mat senan (23)
o'brien (37)
porte showing our colors at the front of the breakaway in the final day of the tour down under: no luck in our second breakaway attempt in six days down under..
jones in the mix for the podium in s2 of tachira: losing some speed on the final metres though, eventually finishing 5th for his best result (two top-10s) in the bunch sprints
mat senan as the strongest escapee in s6 of tachira, soloing away from the botd - just beaten by gc winner pinot on the final metres of the stage
mat senan in another breakaway, wearing the polka dot: he would end up 2nd in the (final) kom classification
Indeed that was a very good show from your team. We both came out of that race doing a very dominant ride. There was just no stopping Pinot unfortunately
brenton jones
mohammad saufi mat senan
yin chih wang
guangtong ma
sang hoon park
(which I really should start to show in my real life working career as well, haha)
