For Jasper his schedule remains largely the same as last year when he had some solid success. He starts his season in Tasmania which is new and was the last race we picked for him. For this season we are looking at improvement in one day classics starting with Milano-Sanremo where he'll be supported by Ivan Siric, but he'll also be working with Dusan Rajovic this season alternating between those two lead out riders. The race that will most likely define his season will be the Grand Tour, as he's off to the Tour this year. Competition there should be fierce, but we expect Jasper to get more than one podium result in France.

Caspi wrote:

Looking forward to getting my ass whipped by Pogacar in Suisse.

cunego59 wrote:

I'm happy to avoid Siric in the Cheshire Cycling Tour with Bini (not great that he's at our goal race Roma Maxima though)

cunego59 wrote:

and only have to face Pogi in Colombia with Amezawa. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if you go 5/5 in goals, depending on who Pogi faces in Switzerland. Good luck!

For the most part Jaka takes over the role that was held by Schlegel with a very similar calendar. One main difference is that he will be going to both Grand Tours without Pogacar, but that's a change that we were always planning for. Outside the GTs where he'll most likely be hunting for stage results, the main hope for Jaka to have a good season is to be competitive in the one day races where he can hopefully put his strong stamina and resistance to good use.

Martin Hvastija:

In the early stages of season planning this race was meant to be one for developing unmaxed riders. Later we ended up deciding Jasper will start his season here so we came up with a squad to support him on the lone sprint stage. It was great to see him work so well with Dusan on their first try. After that Jasper showed some good legs to stay in touch on the hilly stage to finish 25th overall. We couldn't have asked for anything more.

Race score: 10/10

Martin Hvastija:

Jasper was simply off the pace for the entire race. He needed to surf the wheels, but his positioning and his legs were not good and he could barely scratch top 10 stage results. Without bonus seconds there was no chance at a decent overall result. Matic produced a very good effort on the final stage and made sure we got something from the race at the end.

Race score: 2/10

Martin Hvastija:

They say: "Good things come to those who wait." But Ivan hasn't just been waiting, he's been working towards this for years and this is the reward. The team did a really nice job controlling the race which allowed Ivan to conserve his energy until he found the perfect moment to make his move. We couldn't have started the cobbles season any better!

Race score: 10/10