Feature – 2015 Road Season Review Pt1

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VeloUK looks back at the Men’s road season month by month to see who the big winners were in Britain and in the European pro peloton starting with January

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Feature – 2015 Road Season Review Pt1

January

Here in the UK, the road season was still something the riders were aiming for with the first British ‘classic’ not until February. In Australia however, they started their year with the Bay Crits and in the mix were riders from Britain and British teams.

In race one, Ian Bibby (NFTO) (below)  gave a glimpse of what was to come with third whilst Kristian House (JLT Condor) was 9th and Steele von Hoff (NFTO) 17th in races that pro team Orica GreenEdge were making brutal.

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Race two of the four events saw Kristian House finish in 7th, Tom Moses 12th and Steele Von Hoff 22nd. Race three was better for Aussie Von Hoff as he went head to head with Caleb Ewan who has had a mega 2015 with 11 professional victories and whilst Ewan beat Von Hoff into second place, revenge was coming soon for the NFTO rider.

In the final race of the series, Steele Von Hoff was showing what was to come in the Aussie Championships with 6th place whilst Kristian House was 10th.

Whilst the Brits waited for the Sun Tour Down Under, the Aussies went into battle in their road championships where Steele Von Hoff (below) came away with one title in the Circuit Race and ninth in the Road Race won by Heinrich Haussler. In the Aussie TT Championship, Richie Porte beat a rider who has been on fire in 2015, Rohan Dennis.

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Photo: John Veage/Cycling Australia

Next up was the first World Tour race, the Tour Down Under where Steele Von Hoff showed what he can do against the World’s best with a victory on stage 4. Overall, the race was a win for Aussie Rohan Dennis from Richie Porte and Cadel Evans. First Brit was Geraint Thomas in 32nd.

When it came to the stages, Jack Bobridge, Juan Jose Lobato, Richie Porte amd Wippert Wouter along with Von Hoff, were the first big winners of 2015.

Over in Argentina, Mark Cavendish had his first win at the Tour de San Luis whilst Peter Sagan had his season start as well with second on the final stage. Overall, local rider Daniel Diaz won from Tejay van Garderan and Alex Diniz with Alberto Contador in 4th. Vincenzo Nibali was 10th and Michal Kwiatkowski 12th overall.

Back in Europe, the season kicked off on the 29th in Mallorca with Matteo Pelucchi denying Viviani his first win in Sky colours in the first race of the series on the island. Ben Swift was 7th, Andre Greipel 8th and Sam Bennent 10th. A rider who was to win the Aviva Tour of Britain in September, Edvald Boasson Hagen was 19th.

Also in the results list were riders from the Great Britain team with Tour Series round winner in 2014 Matt Gibson leading the way in 32nd place. There was much better news the next day though when Britain’s Stephen Cummings beat none other than Alejandro Valverde to win race two. Good one Stevo!

The last day of the month saw the third race and Valverde got his win when he solo’d to victory ahead of Tim Wellens and Sky’s new signing Leopold Konig. The season was underway and a sigh of relief could be felt around the world ;-)

In the next part, who the hitters were in February … coming soon on VeloUK.net

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