March recap – Success across all three programs

After a successful season start for all three of our programs further afield, all three of our programs were back in action across Europe in March.

The month started in the best way possible at the GP Criquielion for the Men’s program. In challenging Belgian conditions, the team controlled the race throughout the whole day and left neither the breakaway nor some of the attackers in the final a chance for the win. After a nice lead-out, Sam Welsford ended up in a nice position to finish off the team’s work in a dominant fashion and sprinted to the team’s fourth victory of the season.

 “We took a lot of responsibility in the chase today, then covered every move in the finale and the guys delivered me perfectly. We deserved that today. It’s how we’re working as a team, showing good teamwork and commitment to each other so hopefully, if we keep working like this then we’ll get more wins on the board soon”, a happy Sam Welsford said after the finish.

Only 24 hours later, at the GP Jean-Pierre Monseré, the guys came close to repeating what they did before. In a hectic race, the team took the race into their hands again and brought Sam into the sprint in a good position so he could finish third and take home another podium from Belgium.

 

Meanwhile, the Women’s program took to the start line at Strade Bianche. There, we saw what was an expected hard race on the gravel roads of Tuscany. Pfeiffer Georgi was part of a bigger chasing group behind the leading duo and fought her way up the steep ramp in Sienna, where she finished in a solid ninth place.

Next for our Men’s program was  Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice, two challenging one-week races, where the team showed some strong performances. In France, close to his home, Romain Bardet and the team demonstrated some solid climbing legs, with the Frenchman eventually finishing seventh in the final GC. Over in Italy, Andreas Leknessund opened a tough week with a good eighth place in the rainy opening time trial, while Alberto Dainese closed the week with a nice podium in the final sprint on stage seven.

This was not the only strong showing by the team that day. Over in the Netherlands, at the Ronde van Drenthe, our team colours were in the midst of the action too. While Tobias Lund Andresen took home his first podium as a professional, Sam Welsford and Casper van Uden finished in the top 10, rounding off what was another remarkable team performance.

The Men’s program continued to surf the wave and were rewarded with two more podiums at Bredene Koksijde Classic with Sam and Milano-Torino with Casper. In both races, the team showed some really good racing and teamwork, which is the foundation for what has been a successful period of racing in the one-day races across Europe.

The Women’s program showed the same energy throughout the next block of big one-day races. At Trofeo Binda, their attacking approach was rewarded with seventh place for Elise Uijen and Juliette Labous finishing not far behind her.

A few days later the tactics played out perfectly. At Brugge-De Panne, the team took the race into their own hands again and forced the decisive splits with 60 and 12 kilometres to go. Megan Jastrab prepared Pfeiffer Georgi’s winning move perfectly and with seven kilometres to the finish, the British rider launched her attack and went solo to take home her first WorldTour win. Megan sprinted to fourth from the chasing group, rounding off what was a perfect day of racing.

“Megan attacked first to set me up then blocked and covered from behind, and I just went as hard as I could. My legs were on fire but I just gave everything, I had Albert on the radio giving me encouragement which really helped. It was head down all the way to the line. It’s just great to win in this way with the team”, Pfeiffer described the final after the race.

With the same attacking mindset, the Women’s program also shaped the race at Dwars door Vlaanderen. Both Pfeiffer and Megan attacked in the final before Megan sprinted to a strong second place after a nice lead-out by her teammate – another strong team performance rewarded with the first WorldTour-podium for the US rider.

March also saw the Development program with their first stage race of the season at Olympia’s Tour. The start was promising, with Vlad van Mechelen finishing second in the fast-opening time trial. Fighting some bad weather conditions over the following days, the guys learned a lot. Patrick Eddy finished in a fine eighth position on day three, but the race was not over yet. On stage four, Enzo Leijnse went on the attack in the final, dropped his companion with three kilometres to go and won his first race with the team.  An emotional victory for him and the team and the highlight in a week full of learning for the Development program.

We can look back on some great offensive and entertaining racing with success across all three programs in March. Now we are looking forward to building on that in April when the classics season will come to an end with three the three Monuments as highlights before we come closer to the first Grand Tours for Men and Women in May.