So far we've failed all our 6 objectives, at least half-fulfilling 3 of them. The overall confidence of our new sponsor has dropped a bit, but we're still "in the green". As we should be, I believe, after all we are currently 6th in the WT team rankings with 258 points. Lampre is still without a single point, FDJ has 9, Garmin 10, Giant 22, Belkin 41, Katusha 57 points.
Sagan leads the individual rankings with 370 WT points, followed by Degenkolb (280) and Vanmarcke (270), Romeu ist still 12th (120). The recently mentioned Sustronck is 8th (170), Yupanqui 14th (113).
We are bound to fail the next (4-star) objective as well, a top 5 finish in Amstel Gold is out of the question, meaning we will have missed every objective so far and the sponsor isn't terribly happy with the nationalities of the riders, either. But I have no worries in the long run, stage racing, especially Grand Tours, are our forte and then things get (a lot) easier in the second half of the season.
Our punchers were in good form for the Ardennes Week but top 10 results are hard to come by. Romeu and Gross have HIL 80, but there are plenty of riders who are better uphill and overall.
As expected, the Amstel Gold Race was simply too tough for our men. Romeu finished 14th, 2:17 behind Dan Martin, who held off Ulissi. Bardet, who has developed into more of a puncher than a climber in this career, beat Kwiatek and Mollema to 3rd place.
The Fleche Wallone was an odd duck this year, the variant classified as mountainous, though I cannot fathom why. It was definitely to our team's advantage, there were no late attacks before the final ascent up the Mur de Huy and our riders were at the very front of a group of 34, spread out across the road and making it difficult for others to pass us. Only Mollema and Henao managed to escape immediately and the Dutchman beat the Colombian to win the race. We ended with 3 riders in the top 10, Gross 6th, Mayordomo 8th and Romeu 10th with no time gaps in the group of 32 riders.
A group of 6 riders took off in the finale of La Doyenne and once more Martin beat Ulissi to victory, Rui Costa took 3rd place, he was followed by Betancur, Henao and Simon Yates. Our men were in a group of 20 riders still competing for the rest of the top 10, Romeu finished 14th again and Gross narrowly missed the top 10 as 11th.
While we did miss yet another objective, the sponsor at least deemed a top 25 finish in LBL as notable (though not a top 10 in the Fleche Wallone).
The Tour de Romandie was a big surprise, this is what happens when you don't check out the whole course of a race and apparently, neither did the other teams.
The short prologue was won by Dumoulin, our riders lost up to 48 seconds. Stage 2 to Leysin was hilly and we once more sent Puccio into the breakaway, I don't mention him much, few of our riders will have been present in as many breakaways as the Italian puncher - and nobody was less successful than him, he is still without a WT point. And once more the breakaway was caught, Rui Costa won 11 seconds ahead of Spilak, Kelderman and Talansky, with our riders another 29 seconds behind in a big group.
The third stage was hilly once more and two riders, El-Fares and our ex-rider Irgalin attacked immediately and since Olivier was near the front of the peloton, we let him join the duo. 4 more riders attacked a little later and still the peloton didn't react and gave the breakaway a long leash, it had an advantage of 9 minutes with 110 km to go. And since it included some decent punchers the chances were high we'd make it to the end.
Olivier (HIL 75) barely held on to El-Fares and Irgalin on the last cat. 1 hill but was able to surprise both of them with a late attack and won the stage.
(Still all that pink, but now I'll finally edit it.)
Concentrating so much on Olivier I was upset that I missed the attacks of the best riders from the peloton, with most of our men losing 90+ seconds, Reichenbach even 3 minutes. But the top favourites arrived 3:32 behind Olivier. And as I only realised at that point - there are no mountains in this year's Romandie, in fact, just two more flat stages and a hilly ITT, just 20 km long.
Nothing happened on the flat stages and Olivier only lost 1:28 in the ITT so he wins the Tour de Romandie! Wow, we certainly didn't expect that. Irgalin is the runner-up, Rui Costa has to settle for 3rd place.
Spilak wins the points competition, Movistar's young Txiki Gago the mountains jersey, our Gael Foure is the best U25 rider again. Ag2r beats us by just 3 seconds to win the teams classification.
Without any mountains it wasn't much of a preparation for the Giro, but this unexpected victory gives us new confidence and pleases the sponsor, too.
Thanks, guys. Was quite the mood swing from "oh no, Olivier won't win the stage and everybody else lost time because I wasn't watching" to "yes, he does win the stage and will even win the whole Romandie."
Ok, from now on the only pink you'll see on 8 Up will be the leader's jersey of the Giro. Ok, that probably won't happen this year...
This year's Giro d'Italia offers lots of climbing and only one flat ITT on the final day. Our two captains are Reichenbach and Elissonde (both MON 80) and ideally, we'd like them both to make it into the top 10. They will be supported by Olivier (76), Munk (77), Nerz (77), Brandzaeg (75) and Foure (74), while Sepulveda and Puccio are free to attack on hilly stages.
In the previous two editions we were able to win the opening TTT, but this time we were only 8th, 50 seconds behind Astana. But the first hilly stage was a good omen, Villella won, but Reichenbach and Elissonde were 2nd and 4th, timing their uphill sprint well from the top group of 18 riders.
Winning a stage of the Giro was a sponsor objective and finally we were able to fulfil one on stage 7, the first mountain stage, just 100 km long with one cat. 1 climb and a mountaintop finish finish in Montevergine. The short stage seemed like the perfect chance for Steffen Munk (MON 77, STA 61). The escape group was 9 riders strong, but nobody had more than MON 74 and Monk delivered, beating Velits by over a minute.
Elissonde and Reichenbach ended in a group with all the favourites, only Aru gained 24 seconds on us. Stage 9 saw us climb the Etna from two sides, long climbs, but with moderate gradients. Aru, the man in pink, won the stage by 12 seconds ahead of Boswell, Elissonde and Reichenbach were 3rd and 4th, leading a group of 34 riders who lost 30 seconds. So far, so good.
Stage 11 was 149 km long, nearly none of them flat, up- and downhill all day long. Sepulveda made it into the early breakaway, his main rival was Velits (both HIL 79). The Slovak took the mountain points, Sepulveda saved his energy for the finale. The peloton got very close, but Sepulveda won the stage by just 9 seconds ahead of Moser, 18 ahead of Villella.
(Note the new green in our outfits.)
Reichenbach and Elissonde were part of a group of 13 riders some favourites missed and moved up to 5th and 6th in the GC. And they continued to impress, two days later they arrived on the Grossglöckner as 4th and 6th. Boswell won the stage ahead of the man in pink, Aru, his Astana team mate Kelderman was 3rd, our captains were part of a group of 6 riders, 2:10 behind Boswell. Two top 10 finishes were becoming more probable every day.
Stage 14 finished atop the mighty Zoncolan. Astana put its strength on display, 4 riders would end the Giro in the top 10, 6 would make the top 14.
Our captains were able to hold on for a long time, Aru won ahead of Kelderman, Nibali was 4th, only Boswell squeezed in between. Elissonde was 5th, 1:09 behind, Reichenbach 7th, another 26 seconds back.
Stage 15 up to Gardeccia was even tougher than the previous stages, 227 brutal kilometers. Foure (MON 74) was in the breakaway which built up a lead of up to 28 minutes, I was hoping his high stamina and excellent freshness might make up for being a worse climber than the other members of the escape group, but Danilo Wyss took the stage, Foure came second with his energy completely depleted, 2:46 behind.
The two riders at the top of the GC, Aru and Boswell (both MON 84), separated from the rest on the final ascent to the finish and extended their lead. Majka (MON 81) was nearly able to keep up with them, he finished 19 seconds behind and now holds the last podium spot. Otherwise, Reichenbach would have claimed 3rd place at this point, he distanced Aru's team mate Nibali, who previous held that position by 25 seconds. Still, Reichenbach is 4th at the moment, Elissonde lost some time, 52 seconds on his team mate, but he remains in 6th place. Kiserlovski is 21 seconds behind him, with Kelderman, Herklotz and Uran completing the top 10 at the end of the second week.
The first stage of the last week was a mountain TT up to Nevegal. With a flat first half and a steep second part I was hoping to challenge for the top spots with my two top climbers, however, they ended in realistic 9th and 10th places with all the other top 10 riders ahead of them, they were 48 and 49 seconds behind the winner, Boswell, who beat Aru by 2 seconds.
Stage 17 was 226 km long over undulating terrain leading over a cat. 1 and a cat. 2 climb and then downhill to the finish line. We gave Dominic Nerz (MON 77) the opportunity to slip into the breakaway, but were horrified to see Schuermans (MON 83) join the group. Thankfully, as his position in the GC implies (he's already over an hour behind Aru) he wasn't on form and was one of the first riders to be dropped. However, Tour of Turkey winner Jeannesson (MON 76) proved to be tough competition, dropping Nerz with an attack on the final climb. Nerz risked everything downhill to catch up again, which he did with little over a kilometer to go and he still had just enough energy left to pass Jeannesson and claim victory.
Further back, Astana was once more in control and our captains barely held on, but managed to stay in the group of 8 riders which finished 2:14 behind Nerz. Boswell lost over a minute, but remains on the podium for now, Kiserlovski 3 minutes, Sky's young captain Herklotz really suffered and finished 8:51 back.
Stage 18 looked like it would be indecisive, 147 km long with a single cat. 2 climb near the finish line. Puccio got yet another chance to finally score his first WT points, but the break was caught on the climb. The pace was brutal, our protected captains led into the climb and when they dropped even the man in pink, Aru, they accelerated.
But Aru and his strong team quickly returned and upped the pace on us. Many were struggling to make it and then stay in the top group of 17 riders on the summit. We trusted Astana to set the pace but they didn't react to a late attack by Majka and Kiserlovski, who joined Waeytens and Villela, remainders from the breakaway. They gained 43 seconds on us. But I only realised after the race was over that Boswell had missed the top group entirely, he finished 5:32 behind winner Waeytens which was enough to fall back behind both our riders, so Reichenbach is now on the podium!
The mountaintop finish in Macugnaga wasn't difficult enough to produce any time differences between the top 10 riders. Herrada won the stage from the breakaway, Olivier was 2nd, 46 seconds behind.
The final mountain stage to Sestriere was extremely long, 240 km, over 200 km of which were flat as a pancake. But the tough finale over the Colle delle Finestre and then to Sestriere was exciting. Nerz was in a breakaway that was never given more than 6 minutes advantage and was caught a long way out. We led into the narrow climb again but when Astana got serious we were dropped.
Aru had set a brutal pace and Kelderman, who was 7th before the stage, was the last one to help Aru and he had enough energy to finish behind his leader and in front of everybody else and was suddenly 2nd in the GC. Our captains were in the next group with Boswell, 3 minutes ahead of Majka, but that wasn't enough to push him off the podium.
The flat ITT on the final stage in Milano dropped our riders down to 5th and 6th position. Aru was the certain Giro winner before the stage, Kelderman cemented his 2nd place, making it a 1-2 for Astana. Aru also won 3 stages and the points and mountain jerseys on the way. Majka lost a few seconds to Boswell, but it was enough to retain the last podium spot. Elissonde slipped past Reichenbach with a slightly better TT performance. Herklotz as 10th overall was the best U25 rider.
A great performance by our team in green. We won three stages, managed to place both captains well inside the top 10 and came 2nd in the teams classification, though we were 41:50 behind Astana. We're back up to 5th place in the WT team rankings with formidable 538 points. We have 4 riders with over 100 points each: Elissonde, Olivier, Romeu and Reichenbach.
Yeah, that was a tough Giro and a great result for both our riders. The top 5 finish was noted by the sponsor, of course. A few times 8 Up was even leading the peloton, though Astana's dominance was oppressive.
Yes, Bernar will try and prove himself in the TdF and Vuelta, in fact, a Luxembourgish duo will get a shot, because Birtz has improved to MON 80, his maximum, since the start of the season. Both are just 24 years old, Bernar remains the slightly better climber (81), but while his TTR is good (72), Birtz's is even better (80). They'll split up for now, with Birtz riding the Dauphine while Bernar goes to Switzerland.
Just another quick look at the best climbers in the world under the age of 26:
I included Sprague since he's the only rider with MON 78, everybody else still has less, but he certainly could only fulfil a supporting role for now. Of the 5 best young climbers Team 8 Up has three, we certainly wouldn't mind adding Herklotz and Mohoric to our team as well, both contracts are running out.
Our three youngsters will start their WT season now, we can't wait to see how they'll perform.
Thanks, Rafid! The team has come a long way from its humble beginnings, now challenging for top 10 results in the Grand Tours.
Elissonde and Reichenbach return for the Dauphine, looking to make the top 10 again. They'll be joined by Birtz, who we took on as a trainee 3 years ago and has now turned into a good, maybe even great stage racer. This Dauphine isn't ideal for him, with only 10 km against the clock, in the opening prologue. It was won surprisingly by a fighter, Alexis Gougeard, Birtz and Foure were 4th and 5th.
The first of three mountaintop finishes waited on the next day. With five riders able to protect our three captains we could allow somebody to join the early breakaway every day. Brandtzaeg got his chance on stage 2 and collected 24 mountain points, but was caught before the final climb up the Col du Beal even started. Our three protected men did very well, losing time only to stage winner Betancur, finishing with Rolland and Froome, 34 seconds behind.
Mezgec won stage 3 in a mass sprint, the next stage to Gap was hilly, Foure joined Kadri and the 22 year old Gendron to form an all-French breakaway. Foure was able to drop his two compatriots on the late hill and celebrates his first WT victory.
Brandtzaeg got another chance on the hilly stage 5 to La Mure, sadly he was up against Simon Yates (HIL 82 AVG 79). The good news: He arrived together with Yates. The bad news: Four top riders caught them in the end and Brandtzaeg was only 6th, still no WT points for him. More bad news: The top riders were Porte, who wins the stage, Bardet, Betancur and Dan Martin, who were 62 seconds faster than our captains, with Froome and Rolland in between the two groups.
Peter Sagan wins from a mass sprint on stage 6, two tough mountain stages remain. The attacks on stage 7 started immediately and none of our riders were near the front. A shame, because the breakaway would survive. 4 of the 5 riders were French, Hardy wins ahead of Gendron and Gourgeard. Betancur and Froome finished just 27 seconds behind, Rolland, Porte, Pinot and Kennaugh were next, our riders lost up to 90 seconds against the best, though we did finish ahead of Dan Martin, Contador and Bardet.
Our riders were 5th, 7th and 8th ahead of the final stage to Courchevel. Nerz (MON 77) became part of a larger breakaway, his main rival was Taaramae (78). But with good energy management he was able to drop the Estonian on the final climb and win by 1:04.
But our captains could not keep up with the six best riders, who arrived in one group, just seconds behind Taaramae, while we were 2:31 back. In the final GC Birtz ends 7th and wins the white jersey, Reichenbach is 8th and Elissonde 9th. Three riders in the top 10 is a great result. It also meant that Team 8 Up wins the team rankings by an impressive margin, a whole 28:51 ahead of Movistar. Plus two stages thanks to Foure and Nerz.
The clear winner of this year's Tour de Suisse is Michal Kwiatkowski. He won every of the four mountain stages, gaining time on all his opponents on each stage. The mountain jersey went to Geschke, he collected all his points on the final day. The points jersey was won by Bob van Dinteren, who turned professional at the age of 20, was 3rd in the Continental rankings in his second season and now, three years later, he has won his first WT stage and was on the podium in the other three mass sprints.
We arrived with the team that will race TdF and Vuelta (for those who don't know me by now, I'm a very lazy season planner). It includes three strong climbers: Bernar (MON 81) and the two Danes, Olesen (80) and Hansen (79). Vidal Elizondo won the first WT for the group with a 5th place in the ITT on stage 2, a great result considering the competition and his TTR 74. Hansen, however, with his TTR 57, was third worst in the ITT, losing 7:55 on the winner, Jungels.
He was able to redeem himself a day later on the first mountain stage, won like all the rest by Kwiatek, Olesen, Bernar and Hansen were at the end of next group, 24 seconds behind, together with Mollema, Boswell (MON 84) and Chaves. Exactly one minute ahead of riders like Rui Costa (82), Kreuziger (81) and Van Garderen (82).
Stage 6 led over an HC climb before reaching the final undulating ascent to Arosa. Our strong climbers managed to stay in the top group that would separate inside the last 2 km. We saw that the top flattened out and an attack leading into a sprint should work well. Mollema was just 5 seconds behind Kwiatek, Bernar was a strong 3rd, 10 seconds down. Olesen was 4th, another 8 seconds behind. Next were Rui Costa, Boswell and then Hansen, 45 seconds behind. Kreuziger lost 1:24, Dombrowski 3:08, Talansky and Chaves 3:17, Van Garderen even 5:19. Bernar is sitting in 3rd place and if he continues like this, he'll remain on the podium. Olesen is also on his way to make the top 10.
The penultimate stage led up to Verbier and saw a nearly identical result as stage 6: Kwiatek won, Mollema was 27 seconds behind, directly followed by Bernar and Olesen, ahead of Boswell, Costa, Van Garderen, Dombrowski, Hansen and Kreuziger.
Which left just the final stage, 95.6 km short, but across three high passes. Kwiatek won ahead of Dombrowski, Boswell and Van Garderen. Costa led the next group over the finish line, 44 seconds behind, and it included Bernar and Olesen. Hansen was two groups further back, a minute behind his team mates. (Full disclosure: By accident I hit the wrong button and simulated the stage. Thankfully, the result was similar to the previous stages.)
Bernar ends the TdS on the podium, a great result for our newcomer. He won the white jersey in the Tour two years ago and has now proven what a great rider he turns out to be and he still has room to grow (though not in MON). Olesen dropped a place and ends 6th, also a very strong result by another young rider. He won the white Tour jersey a year after Bernar and was 11th in last year's Vuelta and he's not reached his limit yet, either. Hansen is 15th, not bad considering how much time he lost on the 2rd stage. Bernar is the best U25 rider and 8 Up wins the team competition again, this time 20:10 ahead of Ag2r.
It is looking frightfully promising for the Tour de France. We can hope to place Bernar and Birtz in the top 10, even win the teams competition. Currently, we have started contract talks. The sponsor is very happy with our performancce and our wage budget rises from 309k to 442k. We are hopefully able to hang onto Birtz, his demand of 51k is reasonable and have offered contracts to Herklotz, Mohoric and Schuermans (MON 83). Full report when the signings are finalised.
Our riders brought home four national titles. The easiest was the Danish title for Olesen, Reichenbach had no problem winning the Swiss title, Warbosse came out top in the USA. Olivier had the toughest fight in the Netherlands, the escape group was 14 riders strong, the course flat with some cobblestones and Olivier needed all his skill and luck to take the win. Hita was 2nd in Spain, winning the sprint from the reduced peloton, but Oscar Olandris, a strong fighter, won with a late attack. Elizondo was also 2nd in the ITT competition.
Ok, that probably won't happen this year...
