May began with the continuation of the Ardennes classics, Fleche - Wallonne and Liege - Bastogne - Liege. We had the two Scandinavian PTHC races too, with the Open Road Race in Sweden as well as the Tour of Norway. And of course, Grand Tour #2, the Vuelta.
In Sagan, Ginnanni and Ponzi we had three different winners of these races. This put their teams amongst the Top 5 scorers across the triple, but the top scoring team were Strava, while Tinkoff came away with the 3rd highest total of points.
Team
AG
FW
LBL
Ardennes
1
Strava
164
201
229
594
2
Moser - Sygic
265
146
117
528
3
Tinkoff Sport Academy
214
168
143
525
4
Hugo Boss
35
129
359
523
5
Gazelle
111
275
84
470
6
Festina - Dexia
130
55
261
446
7
Pendleton's
126
88
175
389
8
Evonik - ELKO
142
139
103
384
9
Team Puma - SAP
144
176
40
360
10
Jayco - Cobra9
87
106
159
352
11
Ayubowan!
85
64
201
350
12
Aegon - Lavazza
72
90
185
347
13
Vesuvio - Accumalux
148
70
95
313
14
eBuddy
87
83
82
252
15
Aker - MOT
63
78
63
204
16
Porto - Prio
97
58
45
200
17
Spotify - Haglöfs
69
82
40
191
18
Wiesenhof - Andritz
45
55
84
184
19
Nemiroff - ABBYY
45
50
84
179
20
Iberia - Team Degenkolb
40
47
40
127
21
RBC Pro Cycling
40
40
40
120
22
Project: Africa
10
10
10
30
Skujins took the win in Scandinavia to help Evonik to 207 points. Hugo Boss took 198, and Strava again did well in the hills for 194. Then a gap to the next best scorers, Ayubowan and Aegon taking 90.
In Norway the story was Festina - Dexia. Three stage wins, and the GC victory, they came away with 395 points, the highest total in a PTHC race to date for a single team. Trofimov may have disappointed but Tinkoff still took 182 points, with Spotify and eBuddy also passing the 100 mark.
While the Giro delivered 9888 points to the ProTour teams, the Vuelta did not see as strong performances from the wildcards, so in total PT teams scored 11148 points. And 17% of those go to just one team, with Vesuvio - Accumalux massing a total of 1938 points, thanks to the overall victory of Schleck, 4 stage wins, other stage performances and long periods in the lead of the three main classifications.
Dombrowski almost took victory at the end, and this did help Pendleton's to 1062 points. Nemiroff picked up 928, and Gazelle 885, while there was 757 for Aker - MOT. The top individual points scorers came in GC order, with Schleck, Dombrowski, Pluchkin and Madrazo, then Machado, Kritskiy and Lecuisinier. Sprinters Groenewegen and Enger were next, and the Top 10 is ended by Monsalve - making the Top 10 of individual scorers for the second GT in a row.
Team
SORR
NOR
Vuelta
Aegon - Lavazza
90
14
695
Aker - MOT
0
0
757
Ayubowan!
90
0
337
eBuddy
0
108
293
Evonik - ELKO
207
0
273
Festina - Dexia
34
395
496
Gazelle
0
0
885
Hugo Boss
198
0
191
Iberia - Team Degenkolb
12
0
55
Jayco - Cobra9
0
0
347
Moser - Sygic
0
0
322
Nemiroff - ABBYY
0
0
928
Pendleton's
60
0
1062
Porto - Prio
0
0
592
Project: Africa
0
32
0
RBC Pro Cycling
0
73
254
Spotify - Haglöfs
9
122
436
Strava
194
0
146
Team Puma - SAP
0
79
283
Tinkoff Sport Academy
0
182
496
Vesuvio - Accumalux
0
0
1938
Wiesenhof - Andritz
12
0
362
At the top of the standings Moser still lead, but their advantage has reduced. Hugo Boss moves to within 650 points, but more notably, the Norway-led Festina have come close to halving their previous disadvantage - to now trail by 695.
Close behind these two chasers are the Vuelta's top scorers. Pendleton's now up to 4th, while Vesuvio climbing 14 postions, from the relegation zone of 19th into 5th. Vesuvio actually have the 2nd highest PpRD score at this point of the season, 41.26, compared to Moser's 49.62.
There's a gap of nearly 500 points to 6th place Aegon, who climb 1 position, while Evonik and Jayco both dropped down three places. Gazelle's main GT sees them enter the Top 10 in 9th - very nearly 8th. Aker hold onto their Top 10 position, while Strava fall out of it - but do enjoy an advantage of 294 points to 12th place below them.
And this is where it gets very close, with only 345 points separating 12th through to 20th. And in 12th we have a tie, Spotify holding position, now joined by Tinkoff who have climbed up 7 places. Puma have slipped 4 places to 14th, while Machado's Vuelta was only enough to lift Porto two places higher - now just above Ayubowan.
eBuddy clinging on to the final safe position of 17th, currently only 16 points clear of the relegation zone, where RBC now find themselves having fallen 7 places from 11th place. Nemiroff will be most disappointed to still find themselves here, their best scoring race only enough to take them to 19th, tied on points with Wiesenhof. Gesink, Phinney and Taaramae all have multiple races to come, and their teams will be looking to them to bring them higher in the table.
Iberia suffered the great misfortune of Faiers abandoning the Vuelta early, and the rest of the team could only manage 55 points in the duration of the race. They now find themselves cut adrift slightly in 21st, more than 200 points behind the next team.
Team
Total
RD
PpRD
1
1
Moser - Sygic
4714
95
49.62
2
2
Hugo Boss
4085
108
37.82
3
3
Festina - Dexia
4021
105
38.30
4
6
Pendleton's
3985
102
39.07
5
19
Vesuvio - Accumalux
3920
95
41.26
6
7
Aegon - Lavazza
3434
105
32.70
7
4
Evonik - ELKO
3398
108
31.46
8
5
Jayco - Cobra9
3199
95
33.67
9
14
Gazelle
3196
95
33.64
10
9
Aker - MOT
3154
95
33.20
11
8
Strava
3045
108
28.19
12
12
Spotify - Haglöfs
2753
105
26.22
13
20
Tinkoff Sport Academy
2751
98
28.07
14
10
Team Puma - SAP
2690
92
29.24
15
17
Porto - Prio
2663
95
28.03
16
16
Ayubowan!
2631
102
25.79
17
15
eBuddy
2507
92
27.25
18
11
RBC Pro Cycling
2491
98
25.42
19
21
Nemiroff - ABBYY
2406
95
25.33
20
18
Wiesenhof - Andritz
2406
102
23.59
21
13
Iberia - Team Degenkolb
2199
108
20.36
22
22
Project: Africa
301
105
2.87
Month off for Bewley, month on for Schleck. Last year's individual rankings winner rises back to the top spot. 1689 points from the Vuelta, for a total of 1818. Dombrowski and Pluchkin are into the Top 5.
Bakelandts is able to maintain 6th, and Trofimov gain one to 7th, as they move ahead of Sagan in the table, as the highest scoring puncheurs, with Ponzi now 9th. Swift is now the only out and out sprinter in the Top 20, but a month off sees him fall from 4th to 12th.
Other Vuelta scorers are Madrazo in 11th, Velits in 13th (although mainly thanks to the Giro), Lecuisinier 18th, Monsalve 21st, Groenewegen 23rd and Machado 27th.
Almost same points from Vuelta as Giro. Grand Tours don't suit us. Hopefully the Tour will bring some more points with our puncheurs and Boekmans hopefully doing something. But don't expect too much. Our forte lies in small races and classics. Bakelants with a great month, imagine our points tally if he scored a win in those 4 races, hm. Too bad. But still, coming out of the Ardennes Classics with most points, is cool tbh. We need some luck down the road, then maybe it will be possible for us to stay abroad. Perhaps he can reignite some winning sparks in the stage races to come.
11th is good for us, but most race days, so the 300 points lead will be easily gapped by some teams towards the end of the season. Taaramee should bring fire to the tour, not sure how other teams will perform.
Thanks for the detailed update, SN.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Expected drop with Vesuvio and Pendle scoring big at the Vuelta. Still happy with the pprd after a lame Ardennes campaign from Bobridge. The TdF will probably go worse, but it's looking good atm. Still unhappy about Bobridge and Durbridge in particular.
Morton please avoid a T-A disaster at the TdS. If he does well, we should be on track for at Top-10. Still at way to go though. Would definitely welcome some more breakaways at the Tour. Those points help to make up for our losses so far.
Still 12th is a nice surprise. Cant remember when doing the planning that we had any month/period that would be significant stronger then any other.
Only that the Ardennes would be a bad period for us and now that time is over.
Abal only got 1 race left after his double GT, hope he can keep on delivering positive results. Other races and Tour de France we our putting our hope to Tim Wellens, he failed big time in California I hope that was just a exception.
We sure got some teams behind us that will pass us when TdF is over but we are still aiming to avoid relegation, our most important goal this season.
The important part here is that we are within striking distance. The extra points from Egger in the Vuelta is important. If Taaramae can perform well in TDF and TDS we should get a big enough gap to save ourself.
Pretty happy with where we are at the moment 18th but so close to safety with Phinney having loads of Racedays left I just can't see us being in trouble unless something goes wrong with all 3
Veulta and Giro have been okay but wow Ardennes wise we were awful and probably need to invest a little in the hills next season a plus note in Norway Florian Morisot with a top 10 gained us a nice little haul that was unexpected
Looking OK for us. We know that with what races especially Bewley have left it won't matter though, as even a TdF win by Spilak won't be enough. We have too many holes in our raceplanner in the upcoming events, so we will move down already in the upcoming month, which will be bad for us.
Also, I have noticed a small mistake in the update concerning Tour of Norway.
Also Jerome Coppel is missing 2 points in the individual by my calculation, so I guess that maybe his 2x 1 point for being 3rd in the points classification after stage 3 and 4 haven't been calculated. Like said, not much of a deal, but when I have the calculations already, I might aswell use them.
I have some errors in the Vuelta aswell, not around my own team but some teams are more than 100pts off, so I'll make a recount at some time also - but for all I know the mistake is on my table, as I only calculate by head after each stage for other teams than mine.
Heine wrote:
The important part here is that we are within striking distance. The extra points from Egger in the Vuelta is important. If Taaramae can perform well in TDF and TDS we should get a big enough gap to save ourself.
Prays
Looking at the points you have scored so far and the races to come for you, I would be surprised if you don't end up in a safe 5-10 position at the end of the season
SotD wrote:
[quote]Heine wrote:
Looking at the points you have scored so far and the races to come for you, I would be surprised if you don't end up in a safe 5-10 position at the end of the season
Can you repeat that prediction for my team as well while you're at it?
Thank you for the update, SN, and congratulations on a brilliant Vuelta points wise too!
Pretty happy to see a gap open up behind us, down to 12th place. Holst Enger's wins in the Vuelta definitely the big key, as it now seems like we can aim for a higher placing at the end of the season, and stop looking behind and even get involved in the fight to avoid relegation.
Seeing Holst Enger suddenly be our best scorer tells a lot about our scoring, I think. We've no riders in the top 30, but then 12 riders from Holst Enger in 36th down to Stake Laengen in 131st. Thinking of next season and to improve from here, we'll need one of them/another rider to be a heavy scorer and still keep the depth for various terrains.
Sounds easy, but will definitely be very challenging, maybe even impossible Though, I'm happy we're doing this decent, having transformed from relying heavily on a few riders to be a lot more about depth points.
At the top, I think I disagree with SotD, who says it's all done and dusted. If Spilak goes on and win the Tour, surely Festina is back in it, and then they could be in the driving seat as well, I think. Though, I've no clue about the upcoming races and their lineups. And then there's Sagan too of course, if he can continue similar to what he has done this far, it will be very difficult to catch them for any team. But as it stands now, I think this still is a fight, mainly between Moser and Festina.
Then there's Pendleton's who must be a favourite for third now, I think, as they've got a proper leader for all terrains, and even with few race days left for Dombrowski, they should be able to hold their own with all their other leaders running around bringing home the needed points.
Heine wrote:
Looking at the points you have scored so far and the races to come for you, I would be surprised if you don't end up in a safe 5-10 position at the end of the season
Can you repeat that prediction for my team as well while you're at it?[/quote]
I don't think there's much chance of you relegating, but whether or not you will make it into the top 10... Hmm... You'll need Demare to step up to the plate, but I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to.
You will have a relatively competable team everywhere I'd imagine, and if you go on to win Portugal, there's some good points there. It's not like you are far away.
At the top, I think I disagree with SotD, who says it's all done and dusted. If Spilak goes on and win the Tour, surely Festina is back in it, and then they could be in the driving seat as well, I think. Though, I've no clue about the upcoming races and their lineups. And then there's Sagan too of course, if he can continue similar to what he has done this far, it will be very difficult to catch them for any team. But as it stands now, I think this still is a fight, mainly between Moser and Festina.
Then there's Pendleton's who must be a favourite for third now, I think, as they've got a proper leader for all terrains, and even with few race days left for Dombrowski, they should be able to hold their own with all their other leaders running around bringing home the needed points.
I think I'm right on the money. It might not be a huge 700+ point margin at the end if we win the TdF, but if we don't they will win easily.
Spoiler
This month I'm not scoring anything really. I'm not sure Moser will score much either, but I would be surprised if they don't score atleast equal to me. Hugo Boss might close in having Alarcon in race, while Pendleton's and Vesuvio definately will - I suspect both Dombrowski and Schleck will be in Switzerland. So at the end of June I would expect us to be 5th, and have 5 teams within 800 points, with the first 4 within 500 points or less.
Then in July we might take the lead back having just two races, both of which suits us well... It's unrealistic to think that we will be scoring higher than Vesuvio even if winning the TdF as we don't have those 2nd tiers to pick up 2-300 points. So let's say realistically we score 1500 points, and then take 2nd and 10th at Praha (I suspect that both Fiedler and Phinney will be there) then I will be scoring 1800-1900 points in July. That will lift us to ~ 800-900 points ahead of Moser.
But then their reign starts again... Bewley at GP Moscow and East Midlands scoring 4-500 or so points, while we score 100 at most. They have Portugal securing 200 or so from Hirt, while we might score 250 from Deutschland, so that is a deficit of 350 points, so a lead of ~500 points.
Then September where Ukraine is probably a 200+ scoring for Sagan, while Bewley will win TONE and Rheden securing them something like 600 points from those two races, while we get a bit from TONE (let's say 150 points if David performs). That is putting Moser back in the lead by 150-200 points.
Then the final month. None of us will score anything in the TTT, Bewley will score 200 in Lisbon, with us not participating putting then 350-400 points ahead, which would then take us winning Tasmania again, but like before I expect both Fiedler and Phinney this time, so a realistic outcome is 300 points, and then we have to beat Sagan and Vakoc in Lombardia by 100 points, which we basically haven't done all season with just one exception being Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
All of this is only if we win the Tour de France - which we obviously won't as it will go to Taaramae. Looking at how Spilak performed last season, he will probably be 3rd behind Gesink.
I do agree on Pendleton's for 3rd though. Having Dombrowski and Nibali for this upcoming month. Nibali and (I guess) Lutsenko for the Tour and then reasonably strong teams for both cobbles, sprints and hills in the remaining races, they might not be far off in the end. Although I do believe they will be short of top 2, like you also say. I wouldn't write off Aegon for 3rd either yet. They have a very well balanced team and I think there's quite some racedays left for Dekker, Keizer and Swift.
Not sure what to take from this. We seem to be caught in no man's land right now with the top 5 looking to be in far distance and relegation also completely out of the picture. Still the ranking looks better than it really is as the double header of Suisse / Dauphine will be horrible for my team. Also we have more RDs used than our rivals in the rankings.
Not particularly happy about Schlecks huge race as I hoped to beat Vesuvio this season which might turn out to be more difficult than i hoped with a 500 point advantage for them right now.
The title fight is still very close. SotD is painting an underdog picture but the race is far from over if Spilak delivers in the Tour.
Hugo Boss up there is really cool!
Looking forward to see the relegation fight unfold. Quite a few teams down there that still have massive leaders race days left (TDF!) So the rankings can still change a lot.
SotD wrote:
Looking OK for us. We know that with what races especially Bewley have left it won't matter though, as even a TdF win by Spilak won't be enough. We have too many holes in our raceplanner in the upcoming events, so we will move down already in the upcoming month, which will be bad for us.
Also, I have noticed a small mistake in the update concerning Tour of Norway.
Also Jerome Coppel is missing 2 points in the individual by my calculation, so I guess that maybe his 2x 1 point for being 3rd in the points classification after stage 3 and 4 haven't been calculated. Like said, not much of a deal, but when I have the calculations already, I might aswell use them.
I have some errors in the Vuelta aswell, not around my own team but some teams are more than 100pts off, so I'll make a recount at some time also - but for all I know the mistake is on my table, as I only calculate by head after each stage for other teams than mine.
I can check the file for Norway later to see the Festina breakdown. Likewise for the Vuelta, if you can say which teams may need checking? The ranking counts are largely automated, so always worth QAing if any doubt.
SotD wrote:
Looking OK for us. We know that with what races especially Bewley have left it won't matter though, as even a TdF win by Spilak won't be enough. We have too many holes in our raceplanner in the upcoming events, so we will move down already in the upcoming month, which will be bad for us.
Also, I have noticed a small mistake in the update concerning Tour of Norway.
Also Jerome Coppel is missing 2 points in the individual by my calculation, so I guess that maybe his 2x 1 point for being 3rd in the points classification after stage 3 and 4 haven't been calculated. Like said, not much of a deal, but when I have the calculations already, I might aswell use them.
I have some errors in the Vuelta aswell, not around my own team but some teams are more than 100pts off, so I'll make a recount at some time also - but for all I know the mistake is on my table, as I only calculate by head after each stage for other teams than mine.
I can check the file for Norway later to see the Festina breakdown. Likewise for the Vuelta, if you can say which teams may need checking? The ranking counts are largely automated, so always worth QAing if any doubt.
Main issues are with Vesuvio, Nemiroff and Pendleton's hence why I think I might have forgotten a stage. Seems like a very plausable explanation, and then some minor mistakes here and there within 20 or so points. Nemiroff was the big mistake for me...
I will go through all stages and make a write up about the mistakes if I find any. No need to go through them before I doublecheck my own file. The Norway thing must be a mistake in the file though. I have gone through 4 times now, with the same result.
The Vuelta has was a nice race to us, unlike the Giro. Obviously having had sent Machado to Italy would have another story, but this keeps us in the mix for avoiding relegation. Not sure though who's going to rival us:
RBC, Wiesenhof and perhaps ebuddy are sure to catapult themselves once their leaders enter the scene again.
On the other hand I'm not sure Iberia and Nemiroff have enough scoring race days to unearth themselves.
From there up to Spotify, maybe Strava it looks like Battle Royal between every team.
TdS is going to be important to us next month.
Though, I'm happy we're doing this decent, having transformed from relying heavily on a few riders to be a lot more about depth points.
