Just about secured a top 10 finish by the skin of our teeth. Not a bad start to our second coming in the MG; the level has clearly increased a lot in the past ten years and there’s no such thing as an easy race at the CT level anymore. A real lack of standout results with only three stage wins all year was countered by fairly steady scoring from all leaders, Gibbons in particular. If we can start adding wins to the solid stage performances we’ll be in a position to aim slightly higher next year, however the squad clearly needs a big overhaul and the competition is certainly not getting any weaker.

As for the individual rankings, not much to report. Pierre Paolo Penasa slightly stealthily our highest scorer with a string of stage and more importantly GC placings in and around the top 5 without ever looking likely to win. Sven Erik Bystrom came closer to winning but also had some catastrophic off days, which would explain his slightly lower placing compared to PPP. The last of our three leaders in Gibbons actually managed tow in a stage and a green jersey, and had a few more nice podiums, but as a bit of a stage placement merchant without much hope of GC placements or consistent stage wins, his scoring potential was always limited.

The rest of the team didn’t really score any points of note, with most other points coming from random lucky wins/high finishes rather than anything planned out. It’s clear that the team will be undergoing a massive transition, with the top two scorers declining, and a review of the overall team set up may be in order.

As mentioned above, just the three wins on the road this year, plus the green jersey at Herald Sun for Gibbo. That was without a doubt his best race on the year with a stage win and a podium as well as the points jersey, and arguably the best race for the team too.

The two best individual stages by a country mile: stage four at the Tour of Luxembourg, where we celebrated not only a win, but also places four, seven, and ten on the day, as well as a famous 1-2 from the break on stage five of the C1 Tour d’Andorra, where the otherwise anonymous Juan Ernesto Chamorro and hometown hero Tsgabu Gebremaryam Grmay took the whole field by surprise.

Our full palmares can be found at the beginning of our HQ, finally updated for the season.

WIN: Volta a Catalunya
Our first goal being the win goal was never going to be easy, and in the end we never really looked capable of pulling it off. Pierre Paolo Penasa picked up a respectable fifth place finish, only a minute down on GC but also never looking like seriously challinging the all-dominant Jorgenson. Let’s hope the sponsors are happy with the 5th place and don’t insist too much on the required win.

Top 5: Tour of Eritrea
Taking on C1 opposition for our next goal was unlikely to make the task at hand any easier than in Catalunya, but we had some hopes that racing infront of as close to a home crowd as we were going to see this year would give us some extra strength. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Penasa was a complete non-factor in the race, finishing more than 20 minutes down on the decisive stage and the GC. In fact, none of our boys even cracked the top 100, sparking initial concerns that they had been disappeared due to political tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia as the team manager could not find them on the results list.

Top 10: Monterrey TTT
We thought we could assemble a decent TTT squad. We were wrong.

Top 5: Giro del Trentino
Our final goal race of the season came in Northern Italy, where local lad Pierre Paolo Penasa was supposed to secure a top 5. A fourth place on stage two proved enough for this as the breakaway took the spoils on day three, with PPP finishing safely in the yellow jersey group. A typical triple P ride this season: unspectacular, but gets the job done, without ever threatening a big result. In other words: You ask PPP for a top 10, he gets you a top 5. You ask PPP for a win, he gets you a top 5.

Top 10: Team Standings
This could barely have been any closer, a mere two points separating us from some troublesome turtles in 11th place. We started the season slow, then really picked up steam, to the point where late in summer, a surprise promotion push was not out of the question. A shocking September followed, leaving our hopes of a top 10 finish hanging by a thread. In October, we did just enough to recover and reach our goal. 2/5 goals is not a terrible return on the season, but it’s doubtful whether the sponsors will accept another such showing, especially as the choice of goals was not overly ambitious.