A tight knit squad of 7 showed up on the shores of Rhodes, Greece to contest this 2-day slugfest around the medieval island that has seen conquest upon conquest dating back to the 8th Century B.C. But rather than carry swords and arrows the Aevolo lads brought only their Legs of Steel and Wills of Iron to measure themselves against some of the finest European Pro Continental & Continental teams including COOP - Repsol, Team Voralberg, Lotto Kern - Haus, Ef Education Nippo, Dauner - Akkon and ATT Investments.

​

Stage 1 was a 180km day with 3 KOM climbs and some crucial sections along the exposed shorelines running along the southern parts of the island of Rhodes. According to Sports Director Michael Creed, the result was a "Bit of a so so day. Evan crashed early but he managed it well, he but got some bottles for the team so really helped the guys. Xander, Toby, Leo, Sean looked pretty good leading into the left hand turn with 2k to go but Sean crashed which killed a lot of their momentum. Xander managed a top 20 but the others were caught behind the crash. Maybe a discouraging day but not any reason for alarm bells. Pretty normal first day of the year especially with International travel and all that".

​

The squad woke up to a downpour on day 2 which featured a hectic 168km stage featuring 7 climbs of a tidy berg just outside of the ancient town of Dimylia. According to Creed: "It was a good day, not too aggressive, pretty relaxed racing. The guys got into the final climb in good position, 5 of the guys hit the finale in the top 30 and Xander was top 10". Indeed, New Zealand recruit Xander White placed 7th, moving him into 7th on Overall GC and 2nd in the coveted Best Young Rider Classification. As an aside, the team was 4th in the Teams Classement which is not a goal of the squad, but more a confidence boosting result so early in the season against the Europeans.

​

Next up is the Rhodes GP on March 11. 

​

#LetsGoChamp