Tom Danielson took home the King of the Mountains classification at the Volta a Catalunya, along with the Most Aggressive Rider award — both thanks to his bold back-to-back breakaway rides. As well Dan Martin nearly captured the final stage win with an aggressive attack in the last five kilometers, only to be caught in the final meters. He still finished in the top ten overall rounding out a successful week for the team in our “home-away-from-home” race.

“This week has been an incredible experience,” said Danielson. “I feel like I progressed as a rider learning to be more confident and take more risks. Johnny [Weltz] and Robbie [Hunter] really encouraged me as did the team all week. My favorite was coming back to the bus each and Alex Howes complimenting me. When Alex is impressed you know you did something!

“On top of being super aggressive I enjoyed being a teammate for a group of guys I know well. I have done many Voltas with Dan and Ryder and love working with them. I also saw a very strong Dan Martin who seemed to get stronger and more confident each day. Looking forward to seeing him in the Ardennes Classics! On to the next race in Vuelta Pays Vasco where I’m looking forward to some more hilly terrain to keep building my form! All heart.”

“I knew the last stage suited me with the short climbs and hoped that by attacking from afar I could benefit from the GC guys watching each other,” said Dan Martin.

“But as it turned out they shut my first attack down immediately, so I managed to find another opportunity to attack. I hoped being a little further down on GC would mean the race would stall a bit and that happened, but the headwind from 2km until 1km to go didn’t help. The last kilometer was super fast and the peloton just carried more speed, and easily. I’m gutted to come so close as we started the stage aiming to win but the most important thing is we tried, we were aggressive and had no fear to attack, and we came really close to pulling off victory.

“The team really picked ourselves up after the crosswind stage. That is the most important thing and I wanted to try pay them back for the hard work with the win today but at least we put on a good race and showed we never give up. Its still nice to finish top ten and I’m really happy with my condition moving towards my objectives at the Ardennes Classics.”

Director Sportif Johnny Weltz was impressed with the team’s efforts for the entire week, showing the early season form is developing on track.

“We had a really good week here. We were in the mix for a stage win in five out of seven stages. Tommy D was riding fantastic as the most aggresive rider in the field and winning the KOM jersey by a lot. We were also in the mix for the winning the GC, with Dan finishing 10th and we finished third overall in the team GC.

“We saw a lot of good things and the guys jumped to another level in their racing condition. I’m very happy with their effort.”