jandal7 wrote:

Happy to see an HQ further behind ours in catching up. Us Kiwis not really living up to our being ahead of the rest of the world time-zone wise!

Awesome you are doing it though. Solid work from Gaday in Feb!

Although a cobblestone race on paper, it didn't turn out that way as the race was dominated by the Puncheurs. As a result, our top finisher was Gaday in 41st with Miquel just behind him. 0 points for us.

The less we say about our time in Colombia, the better. Only one top 10 stage finish with 5th for Shikai in Stage 5 from a mid-stage attack. He finished 31st in the GC.

Again a passive race from Gaday through the attacks to conserve energy. A late attack rewarded the winner while Gaday finished 5th best in the main group for a final result of 7th.

A return to the cobbles but not a profile which suited Gaday as he could only manage 14th.

A fairly anonymous 5 days from the team with only 1 Top 10 finish coming on the final stage from Storer. A few points scored though with Conci 12th in the GC and some depth from Cosnefroy 23rd and Storer 25th.

PTHC cobbles and Gaday was right at home. Although the winner would end up taking it by a minute, Gaday finished in the second group on the road to secure a vital 4th to put our month back on track.

Gaday had little rest before he hopped across the channel with his support crew to France where he managed his best result of the season to date. A first podium for him in the Hunter Valley purple!

Back to the C2 and it wasn't our day. Monk would puncture mid-way through and use a lot of energy to catch back up. He could only manage 13th despite being a pre-race favourite.

		Points	PPRD
HC	Strade Bianche	0	0
PTHC	Vuelta a Colombia	25	4.2
HC	Macskako Kerekparverseny	12	6
HC	Tour of Norway	65	13
PTHC	Cheshire Cycling Tour	90	45
C1	1 Jour de Dunkerque	46	23
C2	Geraardsbergen-Bosberg	7	3.5

of the Month: Lucas Manuel Gaday
of the Month: Chen Shikai

Manager Comment: 2 great days in the saddle for Gaday but it was otherwise a tough month for us, with a very disappointing Colombia. We were 16th of all teams within the month, despite racing most available race days, and as a result we dropped down to 17th in the overall rankings.

The month started with a cobbled C2 clasci where Monk once again disappointed as he could only manage 7th.

A hilly classic in China was next up and Storer battled as he could only manage 21st with Miquel 26th.

A week in Poland and what a week it would be.

Gerben Thijssen came up trumps on Stage 4 with his second stage win of the year.

It was then over to Storer who managed 8th on Stage 5, 5th on Stage 6, and topped off the week with a stage win of his own on the final day.

This would propel Storer up to 2nd in the GC, finishing only 7 seconds behind race winner Powless. Conci also scored a few points with 19th.

A time-trial heavy first few stages in Slovenia followed by a few days in the hills.
Castrillo managed 6th on the opening stage which got us off to a good start.
The team managed 3rd in the TTT on Stage 2 which would ultimately be the reason we won the Teams Classification here.

In the GC, Nicola Conci was well positioned from the TTs and rode well in the hills which meant 3rd in the GC for the Italian. GOAL ACHIEVED!

3 days in the C2 cobblestones and Monk should have been well positioned to fight for the win. 12th was all he could achieve.

Another C2 cobbled classic and Monk this time managing 7th. Still unable to make the Top 5.

No luck in this classic for Storer who would finish just outside the Top 20.

Very much a flat classic for the sprinters but no! It was our surprise of the month as Henry Alberto Sam joined the late efforts and took 4th!

The home race for Jakobsen and a solid performance at PTHC level for our lead man as he would take 8th place.

The final C2 race of our season and a final cobbled classic. Again, Monk unable to capitalise as he could only manage 8th.

		Points	PPRD
C2	GP Herning	17	8.5
HC	Badaling International	10	5.0
C1	Tour de Pologne	144	20.6
PTHC	Tour of Slovenia	259	51.8
C2	Tour du Faso	12	4.0
C2	Lincoln GP	17	8.5
HC	GP Wallonie	5	2.5
HC	Lisbon Classic	78	39.0
PTHC	Veenendaal - Veenendaal	54	27.0
C2	Dwars door Vlaanderen	14	7.0

Nicola Conci (Slovenia), Michael Storer (Pologne)
Henry Alberto Sam (Lisbon)
Cyrus Monk (C2 cobbles..)

Manager Comment: We scored very well in the 2 big stage races, especially Conci in the PTHC Tour of Slovenia but Storer's Tour de Pologne efforts were stellar also. A couple of classic results in Lisbon and Veenendaal made up for some more disappointing results in the hills and C2 cobbles.
All in all, we topped the charts for April with over 600 points and 21PPRD, the promotion form we wanted to see! Such a big month saw us jump up to 5th in the PCT as we head into May.