Quick Team Preview: Hincapie Racing Team

After coming on their most successful season to date, Hincapie Development is set for yet another strong year with most of the core roster back for another season under the direction of DS Thomas Craven.

Anoche se disputó la 2ª etapa con victoria del también americano Robin Carpenter (Hincapie SportsWear). [©VeloImages] pic.twitter.com/NpLePeC73j
— Pasión Ciclista (@cycling_passion) August 20, 2014

The team lost a few key riders including Chris Butler, who transfers to Smartstop, and Joey Rosskopf, who impressed in Utah and Colorado and got a ride with BMC. Also departing the team are criterium monsters Alexander Ray and Alder Martz along with Jake King (younger brother of Ben) and Thomas Wrona.

The team returns with a strong core including UCI race winners in Robin Carpenter and Toms Skujins along with Kiwi strongman Dion Smith, Ty Magner, Oscar Clark, Miguel Bryon and Aussie Joe Lewis. Skujins should be aiming at more UCI wins after his overall win in Beauce so look for him on hillier courses. Carpenter is starting what will basically be his first professional season as every year up until now, he has been in school this time of year. He moved to San Diego and should be ripping once spring comes around.  Magner and Smith should take up the sprinting duties while Bryon should be getting into a few of the kicks.

While they lost two big riders in Rosskopf and Butler, they are gaining a good chunk of riders including climber Rob Squire, TT stud Mac Brennan, climber Jonathan Hornbeck, Division 2 Collegiate Criterium winner Charlie Hough and Latvian strongman Andzs Flaksis.

Squire had a rough go of it in Europe with Amore & Vita and Ceramica Flaminia but bounced back nicely with Jamis last year. He could be a GC threat is the stars align. Brennan was 2nd in the North Star GP TT and 5th at Elite Nationals TT. Hornbeck showed some promise in Beauce and Gila has had shitty luck with a shitty team like Kenda. Flaksis had a "down" year last year with Latvian Rietumu but when he is on, he is like a freight train, especially in time trials.

Prediction: 6 UCI wins (15 overall)

South America News Shorts: Gaviria wins opening San Luis stage; Flores 11th in Tachira

Fernando Gaviria takes upset win over Cavendish in San Luis

Not much else to say that others already haven't said about Gaviria. He is an outstanding track rider and obviously has a brilliant turn of speed on the road. He already showed flashes of brilliance last year in his first full year on the road but what he did Monday was outstanding. And remember, he is just riding with the national team. He has no professional contract for 2015 and seems to be focused on the Rio Olympics.


Jhorman Flores rides to 11th in Vuelta a Tachira

Over the past few couple, I have mentioned to Jhorman Flores and winning the youth classification for the Vuelta a Tachira. Flores is one of the brighter Venezuelan youngsters coming up but without a strong schedule and a lack of a development pipeline, his name hasn't exactly been on the tip of people's tongues when talking about exciting South American talent.

Flores finished on the same time as 10th place Jose Alarcon, which was 5'50" behind winner and professional gnome Jose Rujano. Flores was supposed to be in the Androni talent pool since they struck their deal with the Venezuelan government but he hasn't been able to get much outside of Venezuela in terms of rides. Here is to hoping that he can get a chance to show himself somewhere in a U23 race where he might be able to get a contract for 2016.

In case you forgot, Raimondas Rumsas is still in cycling...

Motherfucking Raimondas Rumsas is still hanging around. Apparently using your wife and mother in law to shuttle drugs over the French border hasn't detered Rumsas from continuing in the sport as a director for the 2nd year Tuscan-based GFDD Altopack Titano. He was riding for this team on the Granfondo circuit only a couple of years ago.

I find the team a bit strange but they have a good amount of talent to work with. Hell even Michele Bartoli showed up to their presentation. They have listed their goal for their first year to be a top 5 amateur team in Italy. Along with Raimondas Rumsas as director, they have Raimondas Rumsas as a rider. His sons Raimondas and Linas are on the team even though neither have done much in terms of any big results.

Also joining the team for 2015 include Belorussian climber Aleksandr Riabushenko, Polish u23 TT champion Szymon Rekita, Luca Ceolan (who won the Coppa della Pace) and Marco Chianese, who is a fairly good climber.

It is just another example of the Italian amateur peloton will never be taken seriously and without a thoughts of doping unless they start weeding out the old dopers running the system.

Here is a link to their press release

Quick Team Preview: Armée de Terre

Instead of writing big long team previews literally going through every rider, I'm going to try a different approach of highlighting a few riders and key points about a team so that I can get through all that I want to cover with greater turnover.

Armée de Terre

Full roster

This team is a Twitter favorite with their camouflage kits but the team, which is literally The French Army, has been one of the strongest on the French DN1 amateur circuit for the past few years and will be making the step up to the Continental level for 2015.

El equipo ciclista de la @armeedeterrefr será continental el próximo año. #Ciclismo #cycling #cyclisme pic.twitter.com/q60iRMI2n8
— Puro Ciclismo (@PuroCiclismoO2) December 13, 2014

The team has been known for working very efficiently with one another and especially in some lower races, they have stacked the top 10 with the most I've seen is getting the top 7 in one race. While this is a new jump in competition, they have already raced in some French continental races and shown their worth. The squad took 61 wins on the road in 2014 as well as 65 other podium places. They boast alumni in Nacer Bouhanni and Julian Alaphilippe

The team only has a handful of U23s but they are a strong bunch. Bryan Alaphilippe is the younger brother of Etixx-OPQS's Julian and was a strong junior with 13 wins in the final junior season. He had a fairly quiet year last year but is a developing sprinter. Bruno Armirail is a time trial machine that is the current French U23 TT Champion. He isn't consistent but has a big engine. Kevin Lebreton won the opening stage of the Kreiz Breizh Elites and rides well on the French flat. David Cherbonnet was 2nd in a tight sprint in the French U23 RR and seems to ride well on tough courses; always being a rider that can stick around for a small group sprint.

The team is anchored by older riders including Yoann Barbas, Julien Duval, Yann Guyot, Jimmy Raibaud and Benoît Sinner.

Barbas is a climbing machine that won the Tour des Pays de Savoie in 2013 and was 4th their this past year.

Guyot won 17 races last year including the French amateur RR, a stage in the Tour de Bretagne, the UCI GP des Marbriers as well as the overall classification for the best French amateur rider. He isn't a high mountains rider but will be competitive on nearly any other surface and will be the team's anchor. Sinner is another big winner with 7 to his name in 2014. Sinner formerly rode for Agritubel but after a stint with Armée de Terre, he is back to the pro ranks and will be able to mix it up in bunch sprints.

Duval has spent the last two years at Roubaix - Lille Métropolé with some top 10s in big French races, most of which end in some sort of a sprint. Raibaud won the 2nd round of the amateur Coupe de France at the GP Buxerolles in a two-up sprint ahead of now-teammate Yann Guyot as well as a sprint stage of Rhône-Alpes Isére Tour.

Like most French teams, this team is filled with a bunch of scrappers along with a few gems. Like many others, they will get into the early breakaways and try to hold on valiantly in some races that are over their heads. While their roster is filled with riders that are trying to make a comeback or just even make it in the first place, they have a strong team that could surprise a few in the coming year. I'm sure we will head an on-air orgasm from Carlton Kirby about their kits and something-something "bringing out the big guns" will be said more times than my stomach can handle.

Another plus for the team is that they have hired Jimmy Casper as a sports director for 2015. He will certainly bring a depth of knowledge that they will be needing with the step up to the next level.

Verdict: 12 UCI wins

News Shorts: Ndayisenga wins Tour of Egypt prologue

Coming off his overall win in the Tour of Rwanda, Valens Ndayisenga took out the prologue of the back-from-hiatus Tour of Egypt. The young Rwandan, who is seen by this writer as the most talented Rwandan rider yet, beat out Francesco Mancebo and national teammate Janiver Hadi on the 8 kilometer course in the coastal city of Hurghada, which lies due south of the Sinai.

The race itself will boil down to a competition between Rwanda, Morocco and the UAE-based SkyDive Dubai, which is nearly all-Arabic along with Goku Mancebo.

Tour Alsace adds prologue

New for the late July French stage race is a prologue that could prove to be decisive before the always important stage to Le Markstein.

You can read more on DirectVelo

U23s getting their shot in Down Under & San Luis

It is still Tuesday somewhere. The seasons for many pros are just days away and with that some U23s are getting a golden opportunities to bump elbows with, if everything goes well, future colleagues. In Australia, composite and national teams were announced for the Tour Down Under and Herald Sun Tour while in Argentina, a few U23s are getting a chance at the Tour de San Luis.

Tour Down Under

The UniSA team is back with a mix of riders on the 2015 squad including U23 riders in double national champion Miles Scotson, Robert Power, Jack Haig and Alexander Edmondson. They are also joined by ex-World Tour riders Jack Bobridge and Steele Von Hoff as well as nationals bronze medalist Neil van der Ploeg.

Obviously this is just meant to get the younger riders some experience but with some of these riders, you have some riders that can ride in the top 20 overall. Jack Haig was 17th overall last year and best young rider. Robert Power can ride just as well as Jack Haig when he is on form so it would be quite a coup if they could both get into the top 20. This isn't looking at the obviously on-form Scotson, who torched both the time trial and road race at nationals with no one able to hold his wheel. They will be in the breakaways but if they took a stage win? Hell, with the U23 riders and a guy like Von Hoff with a leadout from Bobridge...I'm thinking too perfect world but it would be fucking insane.

Herald Sun Tour

Also announced was the roster for the Herald Sun Tour, which will be taking place from February 4th through the 8th down around Melbourne. For that, there is going to be a National Team as well as a Jayco-AIS team, which will feature riders that you will see in Europe.

The National Team features U23 riders Chris Hamilton, the MTB cross-over who won the U23 criterium title, and France-based Nick Schultz along with the Morton brothers, Von Hoff and elder statesman Cam Wurf. Hamilton hasn't raced much on the road and this will be a learning event for him. Schultz is a good climber so this shouldn't be a bad one for him.

The Jayco-AIS squad will have Haig, Power, Harry Carpenter, Ryan Cavanagh, Jack Beckinsale and Alex Clements. You know about Haig and Power. Haig was 3rd overall here last year thanks to getting into a big breakaway but Arthur's Seat will make it a different ballgame this year. Young team but getting Haig or Power on the podium should be the goal.

Press Release

Argentina

I'm not crying for you Argentina but I am weeping on the inside about how warm you are and how you are going to have some good racing soon.

Italy is sending a national side that includes U23s Davide Ballerini and Simone Petilli. Ballerini is a good all-arounder that can break away (he won a hard stage in the An Post Ras in 2014) and has a good sprint on him. Petilli can climb well but is still young so will just be looking to finish.

Colombia will be sending U23s in sprinter Fernando Gaviria as well as strong time Rodrigo Contreras. Argentina's national side will be anchored by Lucas Gaday, who just signed with Unieuro Wilier Trevigiani in Italy.

News Shorts: Mareczko takes 2 (so far) in Tachira

After waking up with a back stiffer than all hell on Monday, having a punch in the face at work and going to the PA Farm Show that night, I had to take a little pause on the blog side of things but a double Tuesday will be making up for that.

Last year, Jakub Mareczko started out nipping at the heals of Nicolas Marini of Zalf-Euromobil but once May rolled around, the Viris-Maserati rider began to trump everyone in the Italian amateur field in the sprints. Mareczko topped the year with the most wins in Italy and signed a pro contract with, what it was known at that time as, Neri Sottoli. Now known as Southeast Pro Cycling, the team took a journey to South America to start the season at the Vuelta a Tachira.

Mareczko has been making a name for himself already as he had taken two bunch kicks in 5 stages in Tachira and will be lining up at the Tour de San Luis with Italian National team. If you followed this blog at all last year, you must have gleaned some information about him from it. He has an explosive kick in the finale and has a very low tuck, akin to Mark Cavendish, to cut through the wind. He has beaten Caleb Ewan in a straight up drag race. He could get into the top 5 in San Luis on one of the flatter sprint stages but he will be at the back of the autobus once the climbs begin. A work in progress but could definitely be a threat.

Jakub Mareczko

Nickname: Kuba
Bio: Born in Jaroslaw, Poland but moved to Italy with his mother at age 5.
Coach: Michele Bartoli
Fun Fact: He likes to spend a lot of time with the mechanics to make sure his bike is set up perfectly.
13 wins in 2014