In Monterrey we have our strongest team possible on the line, aiming for a Top 5. On paper we should be the 5th strongest team, so it should be more than possible. With some luck and power on the ascents even a podium might be possible in the TTT experiment.
On the first checkpoint things looked awesome. Our shirts were stylish, and so was our pace leading at that point.
To the second checkpoint, where the hills sadly were done, we lost some momentum. We fell from 1st to 4th, still only 8 seconds spare from the lead.
Could we recover with our team depth? Well, we put in a great struggle, but at the end of the day it wasn't meant to be better than 4th.
Still some great fork from the lime unit here, that showed a strong display of our power and teamwork here.
Positive Surprise:climbing closenenss - The team began in style. Leading at the first checkpoint was not expected, but outcome of the hard work we put into our uphill TTT train.
Negative Surprise:TTT stamina - we suffered a little at the end despite having many riders together at the end. Not a big deal, but with a little bit more engine-room we could've found the 15 seconds we were missing here.
Edited by Croatia14 on 07-02-2018 14:54
If he continues to perform poor Bazhkou soon may be a happy Slovenian receiving the nationality for awesomeness on the road. He could work well in a national team
With the climb mid-race we expected some influence of the great climbing abilities of our riders here. Svab was our test pilot to check the difficulties of the road. Stuff got interesting when Brajkovic hit the road.
And he did some perfect work! Over the climb he set a rather fast time, which he could take over far into the race. He took the provisional lead, but then was overtaken by Fominykh and Sergent, who both rode better on the flats. But then it was Brändle time.
After being behind early he set a great pace over the climb, leading afterwards by 30 seconds over Brajkovic. He fought till the end, taking the lead with an amazing ride.
Sadly one rider, Cornu, was faster. But still, we did an awesome job in competing for the big result. And both our leaders did a perfect job to use their strengths for a great result.
1
Dominique Cornu
Euskaltel
1h27'14
2
Matthias Brändle
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 37
3
Jesse Sergent
Compal-Merida
+ 1'01
4
Daniil Fominykh
Compal-Merida
+ 1'10
5
Janez Brajkovic
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 1'20
Goal: Top 5, Top 10 --> achieved
Points scored: 92 (Brändle 56, Brajkovic 36)
Manager's satisfaction rate: 9.5/10
Positive Surprise:Tactics Execution - The tactics were well set for a hard ride on the climbs to gain enough advantage. And our two leaders converted those perfectly to execute for a great result.
Last year was a race for the pure puncheurs, but this year there were plenty of non-uphill kilometers after the last climb. The perfect terrain for Marko Kump to shine?
Well, in a different role than expected. The break was kept on the short side, so no chances for them. But when Boasson Hagen went away, for some reason Kump was the guy to take up all the chase on his own. We still had 6 riders in the front group, so this action was beyond any understandings.
He even managed to catch him, but when he attacked again on the last climb Kump had his energy spent and nothing left to offer. Also our other leaders stayed back, so no action from us at all. Instead, bw swam with the pack towards the finishing line. Of course we positioned ourselves awful, with only a tired Kump close to the Top 10.
So it was no surprise we couldn't take anything towards our goal, not even a Top 10. Kump tried, but sprinted way too early suffering a lot on the final meters. At least some of our riders could make up for the issues with decent minors, like Mugerli & Polanc. Our minor hilly sprinters though very disappointing as well
All in all a big bummer in an awful race with pathetic tactics and execution. You may only wonder what the heck has happened to the team in this goal race. Do the trade rumours on some of the key riders had an impact on todays stage?
1
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Grieg - Eftel
4h46'58
2
Blel Kadri
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
+ 1'25
3
Mikhail Ignatiev
Ferrero - Samruk
s.t.
4
Damiano Caruso
Euskaltel
s.t.
5
Enrico Barbin
Ferrero - Samruk
s.t.
6
Christopher Juul-Jensen
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
s.t.
7
Diego Ulissi
Generali - EDF
s.t.
8
Maurice Schreurs
Orange Pro Cycling
s.t.
9
Pedro Miguel Paulinho
Berg Cycles
s.t.
10
Sascha Modolo
Ferrero - Samruk
s.t.
13
Marko Kump
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
15
Matej Mohoric
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
18
Matej Mugerli
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
23
Jan Polanc
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
43
Xavier Quevedo
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
61
Ramunas Navardauskas
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
69
Roy Jans
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
143
Jernej Svab
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 9'06
Season Goal: Top 5 --> failed
Goal: Top 3, Top 10, 2* Top 20, 2* Top 30 --> failed
Ringerike a sad sight with your riders screwing it up royally. After the TT races you're still in great promo positioning - time for more Kump brilliance, Mohoric and Quevedo scoring, Jans being almost as cool as Jams, and more lime green awesomeness to push for the PT in the business end #zeroturnaround
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
Weird tactics from the team for sure in Ringerike but you're still quite well off. July shouldn't see you lose too much ground. Still looking very good for a promotion push
@jandal7: Thank you for the confidence! Kump has only got 2 difficult races left though. We have to step up here and there though with our 2nd row riders to have a chance though, that is true.
@AbhishekLFC: Of course we are. We're looking decent, but I think we can be very happy if we stay in the Top 10 after all these HC and PTHC races that don't really fit us at all.
We felt that now is the time to take a look at the rankings, as we have hit our ceiling of ranking amazingness in june. As a promoted team we are leading the Top rankings inside june before the count-in of the time trial events and Ringerike. A big thanks to all of our supporters that have faith in the path our team is walking on right now. It is an honour to show our colours from the top of the table; and even if it will be only for a short time, we enjoy every second up here where lime is the colour to wear for the sun these days.
Team Rankings June 2017
Team
Total
RD
PpRD
Proj
1
2
Isostar - Adriatic
2430
88
27.61
3865
2
1
Newton Foundation
2086
82
25.44
3562
3
4
Berg Cycles
2061
84
24.54
3436
4
3
Grieg - Eftel
2018
77
26.21
3669
5
6
Fablok - Bank BGZ
1795
92
19.51
2731
6
5
Team UBS
1708
79
21.62
3027
7
7
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
1686
99
17.03
2384
8
10
Orange Pro Cycling
1684
83
20.29
2841
9
8
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
1554
99
15.70
2198
10
15
Ferrero - Samruk
1407
80
17.59
2463
11
9
Eritel - Sonatrach
1387
78
17.78
2489
12
13
Podium Ambition
1383
85
16.27
2278
13
11
Generali - EDF
1366
96
14.23
1992
14
12
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
1314
78
16.85
2359
15
16
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
1273
65
19.58
2741
16
14
Meiji - JR East
1238
79
15.67
2194
17
19
Euskaltel
1225
94
13.03
1824
18
20
Kraftwerk Man Machine
1185
73
16.23
2272
19
18
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
1161
93
12.48
1747
20
17
Netia - Vónin
1135
79
14.37
2012
21
22
Valio - DeLaval
1105
91
12.14
1700
22
21
Minions
969
86
11.27
1578
23
23
MOL - OMV Petrom
892
67
13.31
1863
24
25
Haute Route - Mavic
627
80
7.84
1098
25
24
Team Ticos Air Costa Rica
612
76
8.05
1127
26
26
Compal-Merida
486
89
5.46
764
Marko Kump of course still shines bright at the top of our individuals list. Everbody from our team has offered incredible efoorts to bring us where we are. That is even more visible looking at the fact that everybody besides colombian talent Jaramillo has scored for us already.
Tamijo wrote:
Congratulations Croatia14, mid-season already and all your nightmares blown away.
Can’t imagine that you are not in PT 2018 as things look by now.
Thank you very much Tamijo. It's an honor for us that such an active manager & reporter is following the development of our team with those positive feelings!
We neither took part in an attack, nor in the chase. Hence an anonymous race for us, with no coverage at all as we coudlN't position ourselves well enough when the race got interesting on the last five kilometers. Some really minor points, nothing more lime to see.
1
Sergio Luis Henao Montoya
Ferrero - Samruk
4h45'35
2
Fabio Duarte
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
+ 58
3
Florentino Marquez
Berg Cycles
s.t.
4
Merhawi Kudus
Eritel - Sonatrach
s.t.
5
Stefan Denifl
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
s.t.
23
Janez Brajkovic
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 2'39
Goal: Top 15, Top 30 --> failed
Points scored: 5 (Brajkovic 5)
Manager's satisfaction rate: 0.5/10
Negative Surprise:Brajkovic Mountain Classic Form - Again Jani sadly couldn't deliver his positioning and style to play out his Res advantages, instead he sat back for a low scoring race
We sent a pure breakaway team to Germany, basically our weakest squad all season. Still we hoped for our young squad around hilly sprinter Mansilla to raise our flag.
On Stage 1 we managed to join the breakaway. Poljanec managed to join the breakaway, and did really well there.
The breakaway got caught, and Mansilla failed to participate in the sprint coming in 35th. But with the bonus seconds on his first day in lime put himself up to 5th GC and 2nd U25. Great work by the youngster!
And even on stage 2 Miha did a great job joining the breakaway again.
While he again couldn't resist the pack with the break, he could however win both mountain sprints. That means that he led the ranking after stage 2, riding in polka-dot in stage 3.
1
Miha Poljanec
Isostar - Adriatic
11
2
Zhihui Jiang
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
7
3
Viktor Manakov
MOL-OMV Petrom
3
On stage 3 we took a day off. Poljanec couldn't defend the KOM from the pack, and our best rider was Laas, far down the ranking. The same result for us on stage 4, where we saved energy again with our best rider in the 3s...
112
Jaka Bostner
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 14'58
113
Martin Laas
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
114
Luis Miguel Mansilla
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
115
Ahmed Youssef Belgasem
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
116
Miha Poljanec
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
On stage 5 it was about Mansilla. We didn't attack the race, but cared about our sprinter. He for once did position well, to then sprint for 5th place in the PTHC race. Awesome!
1
Mark Cavendish
Kraftwerk Man Machine
4h47'41
2
Óscar Guerao
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
s.t.
3
Fabio Silvestre
Berg Cycles
s.t.
4
Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
Minions
s.t.
5
Luis Miguel Mansilla
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
The 6th stage was a breakaway one for us again. Belgasem was our man to take action.
He couldn't succeed finishing around P60, but he showed our flag once more. Stage 7 was again a rest day for us. And also stage 8 was nothing to see for us anymore, though our other stagiare finished on a respectable 47th place.
1
Rigoberto Úran
Minions
33h29'38
2
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
Festina - Dexia
+ 23
3
Tim Wellens
Spotify - Haglöfs
+ 1'19
4
Silvio Herklotz
Team Puma - SAP
+ 1'46
5
Daan Olivier
Aegon - Lavazza
+ 1'57
60
Ahmed Youssef Belgasem
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 26'46
That means absolutely no GC points for us, but we showed our jersey multiple times which is nice.
Goal: Breakaway appearance, TV time --> achieved
Points scored: 19 (Poljanec 6, Mansilla 5)
Manager's satisfaction rate: 5/10
Positive Surprise:Stagiares - Poljanec did an awesome job showing our jersey. He's really riding for a full contract with the early work in the attacks.
Negative Surprise:Late Stages - Where the breakaway would've had chances, we couldn't manage to jump over in the group.
Edited by Croatia14 on 13-03-2018 09:53
Potentially the best race all season for Brajkovic, and for Brändle some scoring potential as well. We sent a rather strong team to this triple-header race, sacrificing Deutschland for that. Potocki aims for white, while Brajkovic and Brändle have quite some ambitions inside the GC Top 15.
Stage 1:Jaramillo represented us in the breakaway. He did a great job and secured some early mountain points.
Our captains facing some real issues however: Brajkovic (12th), Brändle (24th) and Potocki (28th) all rode clearly under value.
Stage 2: This time young Tadej Logar represented us in the break of the day. No success but TV time for him. In the peloton Brajkovic did better today, fighting for his place and finishing 8th.
While he could consolidate at least now sitting 12th in GC, Brändle fell down even further as he finished 35th of the day.
Stage 3: We were not able to join the winning breakaway, eventhough it belonged to ZeroTurnaround Talent Days participant Novak. Sadly money talks and he rides for Euskaltel these days. Giaux failed his opportunity to sprint finishing 25th.
Stage 4: Again we went into the break, but this time it wasn't successful however. Jernej Svab tried his best though.
On the tricky finish Brajkovic came 10th without gaining or loosing time on any remarkable rider.
Stage 5:Jaramillo tried early to get away with a group, that was brought back in after 60 km though. After having the break caught as well Polanc made a move with 15 km to go to spice up the race.
He got caught 5km before the finishing line though, hence it was time for Brajkovic. He followed attacks all over the hilly climb, but at the end it was not enough. He could only close the stage out as 6th, loosing no time besides on Barguil though. Brändle conceding another 2 minutes.
Stage 6: Another flat stage, no breakaway success for us. Instead a 13th place for Giaux, nothing to see here.
Stage 7: The closing TT saw us having plenty of opportunities to move up with our riders: Brändle did decent but not great, finishing the day only in 6th 17 seconds down on the winner Sergent.
Brajkovic however had an absolutely atrocious day. While he was projected to go up to around 6th GC, he suffered for unknown reasons and only finished in 40th place, even behind young cobbler Jan Polanc!
Bitter day for him as he falls even one down to 9th on a day where he should've gone up. Our Austrian Champion limited his losses as 19th, while Potocki & Polanc kept their Top 30s. An okay day, but surely not enough in terms of fulfilling expectations.
1
Andrei Amador
Team UBS
25h02'52
2
Warren Barguil
Team Ticos Air Costa Rica
+ 2'35
3
Romain Sicard
Orange Pro Cycling
+ 2'40
4
Stefan Denifl
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
+ 3'02
5
Primož Roglic
Generali - EDF
+ 3'45
6
Sergio Luis Henao Montoya
Ferrero - Samruk
+ 3'49
7
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Euskaltel
+ 4'00
8
Fabio Duarte
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
+ 4'11
9
Janez Brajkovic
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 4'16
10
Pawel Poljanski
Fablok - Bank BGZ
+ 4'30
19
Matthias Brändle
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 9'37
24
Pavel Potocki
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 10'57
27
Jan Polanc
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 11'45
Goal: Top 5, Top 15, Top 30, Stage Top 3 --> failed
Positive Surprise:Breakaway attempts - Each of our youngsters took the opportunity to go on the run for a breakaway. All 3 couldn't count in major success, but they pinned another flag on the map of cycling.
Negative Surprise:Final TT - Brajkovic stuffed it up big time here. Also Brändle sadly coudn't achieve a big time result there, though preconditions for a home victory were set perfectly.
With Kump in the race we always aim for the top. Hence we have a strong team to support him, willing to prepare a reduced group sprint in San Sebastian.
We kept pretty quiet until the last hill. There we struggeled due to bad positioning. While our 2 leaders couldn't find themselves in the first group, it was Quevedo that made it over.
Our two Slovenian leaders were in a later group. And while at the front we couldn't keep up with the best, in the back our Slovenians could connect to the next group too late. At the end Quevedo was our best finisher in 14th.
Mohoric (18th) and Kump (23rd) also shockingly down the order given the track that fit both very well. At least Mugerli could get some minor points as well.
Positive Surprise:Xavier Quevedo - Finally our Venezuelan stayed on his bike. With a decent effort he managed to be our best rider, eventhough he had some positioning issues before the final climb.
Negative Surprise:Kump in Hills - He continues to fail epic in the hilly races. How can one miss out that clearly when he's a Top 5 candidate. Well, there is PCM15 AI, something you can't do anything about. Hill training incoming, so that he's finally recognized by the game as a contender and ready to dominate.
I guess those are races you would rather forget about
Despite the nunber of race summaries you have done the manager satisfaction scale still feels super weird. In Austria Brajkovic finished just about where he was reasonable to he expected with very consistent racing in the mountains and only a bad TT to miss out the top5 gc by half a minute. Giving that a 2.5/10 is very harsh.
Monterrey TTT 
Isle of Man ITT 
Ringerike GP 
#zeroturnaround
Kenya Mountain Classic 
Deutschland Tour 
now it's done 
Clásica San Sebastian 
