The month of May saw the team first in action with their Women’s program at La Vuelta Femenina where after a solid opening team time trial on the first stage; a rip-roaring performance saw Charlotte Kool sprint to the win Pilar de la Horadada – securing her first win with the team in one of the biggest stage races on the calendar. The following day saw some more strong teamwork rewarded with Kool taking second place, before the climbers came to the fore in the following days, with Juliette Labous confirming her status as a strong GC rider by taking seventh in the overall standings come the end of the week.
As La Vuelta was concluding, the Giro d’Italia kicked off for the Men’s program. You can recap week one and week two’s action but via those two links, but heading into the final week of action the team had spent five days in pink with Andreas Leknessund and had achieved several top results as a group so far. However, the closing few days would see the cherry put on the proverbial cake as Alberto Dainese powered to the win in his “home-stage” in Caorle after some exceptional coaching and work from the staff behind the scenes, who helped get Alberto through some tough moments on stage 15 – all of which you can see in our Follow The Stripes – Giro d’Italia: Episode 4! With the stage win secured, the team continued to hunt for more results but also supported Andreas as best as possible in the GC battle with the young Norwegian fighting through the mountains and battling up the savage gradients in the final time trial, after a perfectly laid plan by the team, securing what would be an exceptional eighth place on GC. The final day in Rome saw Alberto claim a fine fourth place, before some well earned and deserved celebrations amongst the staff and riders after almost four weeks together in Italy; fighting for each other day in day out.
