Rider of the Month: May

31 May 2017

Rider of the Month: May

With the team split between the Giro d’Italia and Tour of California, May was an intense month of racing for two sections of the team with numerous success stories.

The four nominees all enjoyed exceptional months, but it was Giro d'Italia maglia azzurra winner Mikel Landa who took home the award, with a comprehensive 79% of the vote.

Honourable mentions went to Geraint Thomas for his second place in the first time trial at the Giro, Vasil Kiryienka for his pair of top five finishes in the same discipline and Tao Geoghegan Hart, after he went close in the race to become best young rider in California.
Ian Boswell 

Excited to be taking the step up to leading the team on home soil, Boswell responded by leading his charges to top the best overall team classification at the Tour of California and producing some impressive solo displays. The highlight of his week was a stunning show of tenacity on the Queen stage, finishing fourth after refusing to give in on the unforgiving final kilometres of Mt Baldy and launching a last-gasp attack that was only just stopped by the eventual stage winner Andrew Talansky.  
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Philip Deignan

As well as proving superb support to co-leaders Mikel Landa and Geraint Thomas throughout the Giro d’Italia, which saw the former take home the mountain’s jersey, Deignan was a constant danger in breakaways which was most notable on stage 15. The Irish rider was part of a trio that were able to hold off the peloton half of the blistering 199km stage which took in the brutal Selvino climb - raced at the 11th highest average speed in Giro history -  only to be caught by the chasing GC contenders close to the end.    
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Jon Dibben

Having drawn praise from his teammates for his excellent work in the closing kilometres of races, DIbben took centre stage with his maiden WorldTour victory. Applying his track experience to the penultimate stage time trial of the Tour of California, the 23 year old former world champion smashed the rest of the field, with only two competitors being able to get anywhere near his time. Afterwards he revealed he had far exceeded his own expectations, admitting: "Beforehand I was speaking to Tao and I didn’t really know what to expect. I guess I’d have been happy with a top 20 so to win is pretty damn good!"
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Mikel Landa

“All aspirations were lost in one second, but knew I could still get something the Giro". Despite his GC hopes being dashed due to a freak crash with a police motorcycle on stage nine, Landa was true to his quote and was fortunate to be able to recover and reset his goals, finishing with a flourish of aggressive climbing displays that saw him leave the Giro d’Italia with the Mountains jersey, a stage win, two close-run second placed finishes and a third placed finish. 
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