Written by Finz of NightmareChaos
  
  Haute – Normandie
  
  The new tour started of with a bang. Many managers travelled to Le Havre to sign in for the new French cobblestone tour, Haute – Normandie. In horror they were all denied access. For some reason the organizers did not want them to enter the building and locked themselves in with the lights out and did not answer their phones. First there was disbelief but soon it shifted to anger and bands of angry managers flocked together and cooled their anger on anything they saw.
  Just before things got out of hand and the police charged into these out of control mobs, the OCM boss patched things up and, with a slight delay, opened the building and the managers could sign in again. Rumours say that it was all a media stunt, extra attention for this French tour but, we think it was just bad, I mean, French planning.
  
  World Tour
  
  Division A
  
   Velikiye Luki – Gruzdovo
  
  This was a great race, many big nations known for their cobble specialists, signed up for this race trying to get a great start of the World Tour season. A win, or result, would give their campaign a great start. But it was a new nation that took the lead from the start, Colombia put themselves up front and made sure no rider could escape before they did. Riders would fall down from the peloton eventually, giving the spectators a small lead group with all the favourites. In that group Colombia had two riders. No wonder that it was Colombian Estebe Mauri attacked near the end giving his teammate Oscar Arnal a great position. Because guess who jumped when they reeled Estebe Mauri back in, yes, Oscar Arnal went away never to be seen again, winning the first World Tour race. Reid Lenard finished before Cristobal Zubizarreta. Biggest loser of today was Belgium, they failed to sign up at all.
  
  1. Oscar Arnal, Cloud Atlas
  2. Reid Lenard, POM Wonderful
  3. Cristobal Zubizarreta, Drapeau Noir
  
  Division B
  
   Lozuvatka - Kryvyi Rih
  
  The cobblestone roads of Ukraine are host to the first division B race

of the season. Many riders arrived for this race to get a good result. Some team might even promote to division A with a good result. It was a very mixed and interesting peloton with riders from all continents of the world. Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa were present and Fiji and New Zealand represented Oceania. The weather was decent and a big group arrived in the last ten kilometer area when two rider escaped the peloton. Serkan Zeynel and Magnus Nordman jumped away in a last effort to avoid a sprint. At first the peloton let them go but, eventually realized that these two would beat them. A chase was formed and time was gained on the two but, they worked well together knowing that they would be caught if they did not. A last look at each other before the last corner and it was a sprint between the two. Serkan Zeynel was the better sprinter and he beat Magnus Nordman easily. Sam Velasquez won the sprint for third place just thirty seconds later.
  
  1. Serkan Zeynel, Hard Gaat Ie
  2. Magnus Nordman, Caixa Galicia
  3. Sam Velasquez, Eixample ATH
  
  
  Classics
  
  
  
  Zürich-Bern-Zürich
  
  One of the big classics is starting at the beginning of the season in Switzerland. Zurich-Bern-Zurich is a great venue for climbers in Top Division. With many climbs and five “Hors categorie” climbs it is indeed a race where only the best prepared riders can win. But it was luck that decided the winner, Ejnar Rosenborg was adventurous on the second last mountain and nobody saw him again. Climbing very light and taken all the risks in the descent gave him enough space to secure the victory on the last climb. Drazen Cetnik was second beating Venancio Bento at the line.
  
  1. Ejnar Rosenborg, Il Grillo
  2. Drazen Cetnik, Red Star
  3. Venancio Bento, sprint4live
  
  
  
   Vejle-Kobenhavn
  
  The mother of all races invited many teams from Top Division

and Zyte Division again. The flat race from the middle of Denmark to the capital always ends in a bunch sprint and it was not different this year. The big teams kept the peloton together and already at thirty kilometers before the finish the teams started to fight for the best places. In Kobenhaven it was Squiffinator who scrambled in front with a disputed way of cycling. It was allowed by the judges and that gave Burton Trickey a controversial victory. Leaving Dean Sinnott and Antonio Gabbrielli behind in disbelief and on place two and three.
  
  1. Burton Trickey, Squiffinator
  2. Dean Sinnott, Seeds2
  3. Antonio Gabbrielli, Pink Piyama
  
  
  
  Minsk CBGP
  
  While in Kobenhaven there was a disputed victory in Minsk there was a victory that was delivered from behind the green table. The judges appointed the winner and not the race. After 167 kilometers it was Arkady Gavrikov who passed the finish line first but, many teams protested. In the end it was decided that he received a time penalty and was thrown back to place seventeen. This gave Jeremy van der Aa his first victory in a classic. Max Ballette and Varro Aladar finished second and third
  
  1. Jeremy van der Aa, Eixample ATH
  2. Max Ballette, Cremtec
  3. Varro Aladar, Team CUBA
  
  Top Ten Transfers
  
  1. Inocencio Garcia from Hommerts Cycling Team to KAS KASKOL for 387K
  2. Kade Jennings from Team Trier to Yuri SuperTeam for 200K
  3. Vojtech Podhradsky from Scorpions POPRAD to Excess for 155K
  4. Charro Pires from Quick step minded to Welsh Phoenix for 135K
  5. Paul Herrmann from Gradient Levellers to Hells Grannies for 89K
  6. Erik Mencken from Team Jayco to fibsteam for 70K
  7. Orson Redebe from omega pharma lotto to team tdb for 68K
  8. Jules Van Caels from Cloud Atlas to Uber for 60K
  8. Felix Redmon from Scorpions POPRAD to Brumbies for 60K
  10. Pamfil Bojescu from Avangarda to Team Monster racing for 57K