We tried to ensure having a decent TTT set-up during the off-season, and it seems to have worked. The squad finished second in the infamous Copenhagen - Malmo TTT, only a handful of seconds after winner EA Vesuvio. Let's hope a (slightly) weaker version of this team can do similar stuff in Paris - Nice and the Giro later this year. The five riders that scored a nice 35 points per person were Vlatos, Erdenebat, Ocampo, Zmorka and Eaton.

First PTHC race of the year, first real stage racing test for Eastman. We also brought Costa Rican champion Marin for the sprints, but he was unable to get a top-10 result. Eastman on the other hand made sure to not get dropped on the flat and hilly stages, after which he raced to a strong fourth place in the longer time trial on the penultimate stage. The final stage, the only mountain stage, didn't go perfect. The team did well and set up Eastman for a good final climb, but the American didn't manage to do anything noteworthy.

Nevertheless, holding on with most of the other favourites was enough to finish 2nd in GC behind the fantastic Taylor Phinney. No stage results, but a good GC in the end. Lopez Nolasco in 41st and Osorio in 44th finished inside of the top-50. If we have to give this race a rating we'd say 6,5/10. Maybe we're being a bit harsh, but maybe it is what our riders need to perform (even) better next time!

We say this with the utmost respect for our six riders at the startline in Luxembourg, but out of the three races in the triple clash this was clearly our weakest line-up. We hoped for a breakaway appearance, but were unable to get it. Aular managed to pleasantly surprise us by rolling over the finish line in 18th and thus scoring some more points than we initally expected. Was a fun race to follow as a half outsider with some great reporting.

Fabianski wrote:
Agree that the mountain stage was a bit disappointing (finishing behind you-know-who )

Fabianski wrote:

I guess Eastman wasn't expected to get big stage results on the hills, not losing time must have been the tactics. Agree that the mountain stage was a bit disappointing (finishing behind you-know-who ), but I think he'll do better on long, steady, steep climbs than on this rather particular one. Marin definitely disappointing, hopefully he'll find his 2023 legs!

Aular in Grand-Duché is a surprisingly good result, as you mentioned; the amount of climbing involved seemed to play in his favour.

Great start this time, no way you'll relegate

redordead wrote:

The points keep rolling in

We went to Italy in the hopes of getting some stage results and a decent final GC with Higuita, but couldn't get it. Stage-wise we can't complain too much with three top-5s (including a podium) in three hilly stages, but with no or few gaps awarded/won, the Colombian went from a fifth place in the GC to a fourteenth during the final time trial. With no time trialists or stronger stage racers there we also didn't have any other GC cards to play. Marin had three sprint opportunities, but never did better than a seventh place. Still props to Osorio and Ruiz for some nice domestique work for our leader.

France was all about Giro preparation and a good GC for Eastman. The competition was hard, and the first mountain stage went far from ideal. The second mountain stage was also going in the wrong way, but then Lopez Nolasco stood up and helped Eastman resurface and even finish second behind an unstoppable Pogacar. The final stage was a team time trial and catapulted Eastman into the number two in GC, after Ocampo lead the rest of the team over the finish line as best team of the day. Our first ever TTT win and a great final GC result making one out of three races of the triple header into a success!

First monument of the year and it was Thomas Pidcock with a great ride for Xero Racing, together with Skujins and Vansevenant on the podium showing that puncheurs are still alive in San Remo as well. Our puncheur was Higuita, but a badly timed puncture didn't particularly help him when it came to positioning, finishing 26th. The whole team helped him get back, so we're left to wonder if other top-50 finishers Ruiz (15th) and Halvorsen (35th) would have done better if that puncture didn't happen. Hopefully we can try again next year!

First of all the bad news! We had two leaders in Nederland with Halvorsen for the sprints and Higuita for the hills. Sadly they didn't succeed in getting a good result, leading to none of both in the top-10 in the final GC. There have also been several cobbled races in March, but none has been a success. Most of the time our best cobbler Ulloa
finished only just inside the top-50, whereas he should be able to do better. In the second monument of the year, the Ronde van Vlaanderen, the Mexican finished 27th, which was more to the liking of our fans and sponsors.

Onto the good news! Praha was always going to be a very important race with our time trial set-up, and we managed to score well. Top favourite Wirtgen disappointed and Zmorka made sure to capitalize on that, finishing second in the prologue, long time trial and final GC. Apart from that he also won the green jersey. Sütterlin also inside the top-10 with a ninth place, and old dog Vlatos also made us happy with a 12th place. Erdenebat and Ocampo finished 27th and 29th and made sure we won the team's classification, with the Colombian second in the battle for white as well. Eaton in 41st delivered some extra points as well, and adding to that Aguilar Mendez' 53rd and Abolaji's 78th spot means we scored well over 500 points in the Czech Republic, at least somewhat salvaging our bad month of March.

Just like in our previous post we'd like to start shortly explaining how our last cobbled races went. As good as they could be actually. Both in Paris - Roubaix (26th) and Roma Maxima (top-35) our Mexican gangsta Jose Gerardo Ulloa tried his luck with some long range attacks and clearly did better than his first cobbled races of the season, where he barely got into the top-50. Loanee Healy missed the time cut in Roubaix, but we don't blame him.

We'll start with the bad news. GC Leader Eastman disappointed in the hills and more important the mountains, and even a good finishing TT couldn't make up for that, stranding fifth in the final GC, well below his capacities. Domestique Lopez Nolasco also didn't really do too well with a 37th spot in GC, having a 79 mountain stat.Not a single breakaway attempt all race, despite doing very subpar in GC, is a shame in that regard.

Onto the good news then. A fifth in the final GC is by far our best GT result ever, we were able to win the team time trial on stage 3 to win our second Giro stage in history, and team legend Marlen Zmorka won the final stage, an individual time trial, making it two stages in this Giro and three in total for the team. We would have loved to see him win a GT stage before he left us, so this feels very great. Speaking about legendary time trialists, Vlatos was of big help towards winning the team time trial, and abandoned the Giro before it was over. We don't blame him though.

A flat race, so sprinter Halvorsen was present. The race also presented an opportunity for the rouleurs, and they took it. In an interesting turn of events a big turn by our rouleur Ruiz ensured that Halvorsen was the only rider in the peloton able to join the three rouleurs up front near the end of the race. Big effort by Kristoffer as well, as he had no more energy to sprint for the win. Still a solid fourth place in the end, backed up by a 20th place from Ruiz. Special mention for Abolaji for his great work throughout the day.

With one climber in Italy having a rather bad race, it was up to Aular to prove himself in the mountainous GP Liechtenstein classic. He performed at his level, not on a great day but neither on a bad, and finished thirteenth in the end. Super domestique Higuita did alright with a twentieth place as well, with fellow countryman Osorio rounding out the top-50 on the day.

Some good domestique work by Higuita in Liechtenstein, and now he had the chance to shine himself in Holland. Domestique Eaton worked well all day, and in the end Higuita managed to finish tenth. A top-10 is what we hoped, and it is what we got. Our second best rider
Beltran was 50th.

A bit to the southwest of the Amstel Gold Race, a couple of days later in Wallonia was another chance for Higuita to prove himself. No work was done by our team this time throughout the day, and with around 20 km to go Higuita failed to leave the rest of the peloton behind him. After that he waited until the final climb of the Mur de Huy, on which he managed to finish eighth. Perhaps with another strategy he could have done better, but it's an improvement from AGR, and another top-10 in the bag in the end. Beltran once again our second best rider, albeit only 63rd this time, with nobody else in the top-100 showing we have a depth problem in the hills.

A little trip around Cologne on a flat parcours, so time for Halvorsen to shine in his final race before the Vuelta. Galvan Ramirez got some screentime by joining the break of the day, but in the end it all came down to the sprint between the favourites. Halvorsen never really came close to anything noteworthy and only finished sixteenth, with his lieutenant Ruiz in 60th. Nicht gut. Hopefully they like the Spanish warmth more.

Fourth monument of the year, and third Ardennes race in a short time span, as usual. Also as usual was Higuita being our leader and not really providing a lot of depth. The Colombian did very well, raced aggressive and was rewarded with a seventh place. We will hopefully be back for the same and even better with a trained Higuita next year. Best monument result of the season, also tying our best monument result in history with Manninen's seventh in Milano San Remo two years ago. Cologne breakaway rider Galvan Ramirez was our second best rider with a 61st place.