I was very happy with my performance in the race as most days we did some pretty steep and long climbs. I prepared really well and knew my form was good. I am happy with my performance but this was totally new territory for me so I had no idea what the result was going to be. I finished the race 40th which might not make the headlines but because of my age and the quality field at such a tough race, the team is really happy. I feel like I took so much away from the race. Especially in terms of the training. I now have a better idea of what power I will need to be able to do to stay in the front group.

I am back in Italy now after returning from the Tour of Norway yesterday. I am tired as it was a really hard race. A lot of the racing was made on the flats in the wind which doesn’t really suit me but this was one of the races I learnt the most. There was one hilly stage in which I finished in the second group, just behind a group of 14 riders who got away. It was a crazy fight for position for 10km leading up to the climb. When you start the climb you just put your head down and go at 100% until you get to the top and then you see in what group you end up in. The ride was enough to keep me in the top end of the field and I finished 24th overall.

For now I think the biggest goal is just to stay consistent for the rest of the season. As this is my first year I will be racing for a full season and not just 3 months like the previous 2 years. My next races for now is the Tour of Korea and then the Tour of Austria which will be a tough race. I hope to write to you with some more good news in the next few weeks.

Louis Meintjes

Louis Meintjes leads the team in the TTT in TrentinoLouis descends alongside Meron Russom

The Tour de Lankawi went well for me and the team. I managed a top 20 overall in the GC and the team won the Team Competition overall which was a very important result for the team that shows we have depth. I have managed a 6th overall before in this tour but on the Genting stage this year I decided my team-mates had a better chance on the overall GC and set a good tempo for the first half of the climb. I still managed a good result and I’m happy with that.

In the Tour of Taiwan we got a stage win with Tsgabu Grmay and he and Louis Meintjes managed top 5 GC results overall for the tour. The team also managed second on the team GC. I was again a supporting rider for the tour and I was happy to be able to assist my team-mates in achieving very good results for the team.

In April it was off to Europe and with three tours under my belt it was very good preparation for the EU season. My first race was Giro del Trentino and the line up for the tour consisted of the best in the business. Most of the favorites for the Giro d’Italia was doing Trentino as final prep.

I got the best result of my career in the first stage of Trentino getting into a winning break and managing 7th on the first stage of a 2.HC tour in Europe. I am very happy with the result and it gives me a lot of confidence for the future. The Team also managed to do a very good Team TT the same day to put me into 4th overall on the GC. That for me was one of the best moments in my career. Racing against guys like Wiggins and Nibali and being 4th overall after the first day is just one of those things you need to remember as they don’t happen a lot. The rest of the tour was hard but I fought hard and gained a lot of experience .

I also managed a good result in Giro Toscana, a race where it was raining the entire day and quite a technical race with a lot of climbing and descending in the rain. I could go fast on the descends making up spots and saving energy for the next climbs and that is one of the skills needed to excel in tours and racing in the rain.

Tour de Picardie was my next tour for the season. The race is organized by ASO the organizers of the Tour the France. Its was important for us to get a good result as the main goal for the team is to do the TDF in the next 2 years. My job for the race was a support rider for our sprinter Kristian Sbaragli and he managed to get 2 top 10 results for the team which we are very happy about.

I also made a good attack on the last day 25km from the finish on a short climb. I felt very good and was very happy to be able to feel well in the last 25km of a tour and to be able to attack on my own and hold of a chasing peloton for a couple of km’s.

These small efforts and achievements are good for my mindset and gives me a lot of motivation for the following races as I know i have something to offer.

All in all as I say we missed a result in the race but I was feeling really good. Even on the mountain stages I feel like I was climbing really well and I am coming out of Turkey with a great feeling. The most important thing now is to recover. We have a lot of German races coming up in May which are my next goals. It starts tomorrow with Frankfurt. It’s a really hard race but there’s a good chance we can get a good result there and I am really focussed for this race so lets see what happens.

Gerald Ciolek

Sport Director Jens Zemke was very proud that the team could make a leadout train against the best in the world

Anyway enough of the ugly issues and onto the good stuff. I’m back in RAINY Lucca and off to go race 4 days of Dunkerque Wednesday to Sunday. I can’t wait to pin a number on my jersey again. It has been frustrating but the down time will do me good and I know I will bounce back as good as new. The last race I did, it was snowing and raining like crazy (Milan – San Remo) so you can imagine I’m chomping at the bit to get into the thick of things again but I’ll have to behave and make sure I take it easy to build back and not destroy the progress we have made over the last 5 weeks on my health. I don’t want to have to go through all of that again.

Anyway I know this is a short and sweet blog but I haven’t got much news this month besides my bad health issues but look forward to this being a monthly thing and hopefully next month I’ll have some great stories to tell of the racing coming up. For now, I really look forward to catching up with all my team mates again and sharing a laugh…

Cheers

Jay Thomson

Many teams started their line ups that will participate in the Giro d’Italia in two weeks time and therefore it was an important test for all of them. It also means these riders were in top condition.
It was really hard to keep up with these riders and teams whose main goal is just around the corner.

For Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung, it was a good learning experience. Many of our riders were making their debut in the European calendar for the year and they did this with a lot of world class riders.
The guys attitude and presence in the race was remarkable every day.

The team time trial of stage 1b was outstanding taking into account that for some it was their first time on the TT bike in a race this year and it was the first time we were all together this year.

Personally I have not found my best form. After Coppi e Bartali I needed eight days of rest to recover from health problems that came dragging (some of them from Malaysia), thus breaking my training program.
However, I got better everyday in Trentino and should be back to my best in the upcoming races.

I must say that I am very happy being part of this team. When you surround yourself with great professionals whose main concern is the well being of the cyclist, using all means at their disposal in order to help you get the best of themselves both on and off the bike, one can only feel grateful and happy to belong to this team.

Sergio Pardilla

It was really encouraging because a number of WorldTour teams started the race. The team did very well as we had five guys in the top 30 throughout the race so it wasn’t surprising that we won best team prize.

From there I went back to South Africa to prepare for Tour de Taiwan, a race we just finished. I am really happy right now as I got my first professional victory in this race. It’s really great too as it’s the first victory for Ethiopia in professional cycling. It was on stage 5. We finished up a hill. I won’t call it a mountain as the stage profiles were maybe a little misleading. We sent a team of climbers to the race but none of the hills were really long or steep enough for us to make a real difference so we just decided we would be aggressive and try to take the racing to everyone.

My teammate Louis Meintjes and I were both in the top ten going into stage 5. He was second on GC so the plan up the last “hill” was for me to attack then hopefully the other GC guys would be watching him. I went with 5km to go but they reacted and brought me back. I attacked again with 3km to go when the road kicked up and this time got a gap. It was nice to hear the race leader say they were all in the red and couldn’t respond. I was feeling very strong and just rode solo to the end. That’s the best way to win I have been told haha. I will remember that day forever. I am really happy that African cycling is growing. The World Cycling Centre in South Africa run by JP van Zyl is really making a difference. From there, African riders now have the opportunity to ride for Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung. This was only a dream of our team owner Doug Ryder a few years ago now the world can see that Africa can compete with the best in the world.

I am back in South Africa after the race. I am hoping to go to Ethiopia for a bit to celebrate with my family and friends. I know they will be proud of me as they have supported me for a long time. I am hoping this victory will also show the other Ethiopians on our feeder team that anything is possible. There is a lot more to come from Ethiopia. Watch this space.

My next race is the Giro de Trentino in Italy. I know racing will be harder in Europe for sure but I am ready for it.

Tsgabu Grmay won stage 5

All photos: Aaron Lee/Tour de Taiwan

Today we rode aggressively again. Jacques went into the first move up the first climb and for the first time this tour, the peloton let them have 3mins. But then they panicked and chased it down immediately as the time gap grew. Close to the finale with 30km odd to go I tried to ride away. Again a good group formed but there’s always one or two riders who don’t roll with us and that demotivated everyone and yet again we got caught. We had a good leadout train ready for Louis and Tsgabu for the finishing climb but 3km to go a sharp right hand corner ruined the plan as myself and more riders overshot it and had to go turn in the traffic. Non of us went down but Louis and Tsgabu lost a lot of positions which cost effort to make up.

Tomorrow we have some climbs but non of these climbs are pure climbers mountains for Louis or Tsgabu. We will watch the early moves early on and  see what we can do on the climbs!

Its been a great experience racing in Asia. New country, new food, new racing style. Love it. Its tough getting into the new time zone as we are 6 hours ahead of South Africa but everyday we find it easier.

Johann van Zyl

It started at the start village. I went to sign on along with Doug Ryder, our team principal. He was on a Qhubeka bike while I was on the Trek Madone. All the way back to the bus, people were stopping me every 20 metres. Doug was in front and every time he looked back I wasn’t there as someone else grabbed me for a chat.

The racing started out easy. The first 30minutes was very easy. I really wanted to go into the break and thought I had the legs for it but our director, Jens told me he needed me in the bunch to look after Gerald and Andy as much as I could. After 30 minutes it got harder and harder. 70km into the race, the team was all together and I was keeping the guys out of the wind. All of a sudden there was a crash and Sergio, Martin and I went down. I am not sure what happened as it was raining so hard and you couldn’t really look ahead of you.

I broke my bike and called for my spare bike on the radio. We were car number 20 in the convoy so it took a while to get my second bike. I was waiting for Martin but he broke his shoes so his race was over. I caught up to Sergio and it took us 22km to catch up to the peloton. The racing was really hard at this point and we just managed to latch onto the back. It was snowing, it was wet and the rain kept coming down. I was riding with my eyes closed at some point because there was no visibility with sunglasses but when you took them off the snow went into your eyes.

I didn’t know the organisers were stopping the race and I saw our team pulling off and other guys pulling off but I thought I am not giving up in this race. I am going to carry on because this is all I dreamt of. By the time I got to the last team bus down the road I realised the whole peloton was pulling over and realised what was going on.

I was so cold I could not take off my gloves or any of my clothes. Our director, Jens had to undress me as my fingers were frozen. Our staff were so organised. We had showers on the bus and they had fresh kit for us to get into which felt so good. This team is so professional, I was very grateful to be part of it.

Before the race got started again I spoke to some of the big names like Boonen and Farrar. They were really friendly and it was an incredible experience chatting to them. I was still feeling good and motivated after the race started again but the race was so hard. I didn’t even have a chance to eat or drink. I was looking after Gerald and Andy and kept them out of the wind. It was great racing with them as they taught me where to sit and what to do. I kept asking them what to do and they told me when to move up. I learnt so much from them yesterday, they are incredible guys.

With 50km to go I went up to Ciolek and told him I was dead. He asked me to get him gloves but he could see I was finished. I helped him with the gloves but I couldn’t anymore, he had to come back to the team car to get them.

While the racing and weather was so hard I was thinking why am I doing this, this is horrible. But then I thought this is what I’ve dreamt about. If I want to be a professional in Europe I have to endure days like this. Gerald winning was just unbelievable. I can’t believe I was a part of it all.

I am back in Lucca now. My next race is Coppi and Bartali on Wednesday. Living the dream.

Songezo Jim

The first race here for me was a tough one with freezing weather, wet technical roads, gutters, cobbles and a 200 strong competitive field all wanting to ride at the front. This first race, Ronde van Drenthe did not go well for me but I believe it takes a race or two to find my legs. Youcef and Johann did well by finishing, as only 32 riders completed the course.

The snow here has been a little different to South African weather. It is really cool to see the country side and towns covered in white. We have had two races that have been cancelled due to the snow and bad weather conditions. I am impressed with the race organisation when it comes to these decisions as there are no ifs and buts; they declare it unsafe with plenty of notice.The staff have been great here preparing us riders and the equipment for the races and during day to day activities.

The snow and ice outside makes it impossible to train safely on the road so we have training sessions on the indoor trainers with hard intervals prescribed by our coach. These hard sessions are to maintain our fitness. We also do core strength sessions as per our normal routine. Yesterday we visited the Centrum Ronde Van Vlaanderen Museum as a team to get out the house and have a change in scenery. This was a great team bonding experience where we saw many interesting things and shared many laughs.

I am looking forward to some good weather and the upcoming races.

Bradley Potgieter

Now I have 3 races in my legs already after 1 year off the bike, but to get to the first race was a long and hard way back. I started my preparation for this season already in October when the team told me they wanted me.

First of all I had to build a base, which takes a lot of time and long hours. This took from October until December including a nice training camp for 3 weeks in South Africa.

In January it was even harder because of the cold weather conditions in Germany, but in total I did a lot of treadmill and gym training to bring the power back.  Then there was again a training camp in Lucca to do the fine-tuning.

The speed in the peloton is still very high, but with the really nice equipment of the team with Trek Bikes, Zipp Wheels and SRAM components it was a bit easier to come back to this level. In my opinion I think I am able to race on the highest level of cycling again, but I still have to improve a lot to come back to the shape of 2009.

I’m really confident that I will be back to the level of 2009 quick, I just need more races in my legs now and then it’s possible.

From race to race I feel better and better, for example in Trofeo Laigueglia I was suffering after 150km and one week later already I finished one hard Belgium classic (Het Nieuwsblad) and in Le Samyn. I was in the first group and I finished 40th. I think everybody can see an improvement so far. Or not? Haha.

Back to main races at the moment, the classics. We are a group of experienced and young guys, but we show that we can play the game in the races. The young guys like Youcef, Ferekalsi and Johann want to learn and they improve from race to race. It’s really nice as a young guy like me to give these guys my experience.

See you at the races.

Martin Reimer