Eddie Dunbar has gone a bit under the radar, after several big signings that the team made during transfers, but it's quite important to remember that Eddie is the biggest talent that the team has ever signed. The team has payed 150k to secure the young Irishman, who is predicted to become a great rider in the future. His already decent mountain, punchy and tt skills gives him a lot of possible developments, and that, combined with future training, could make him a very valuable rider for the team in the coming years
Current Stats
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
ACC
FG
DW
PL
66
68
71
70
67
70
69
58
60
65
61
70
70
Development Possibilites
1. All-in Hills
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
ACC
FG
DW
PL
69
72
80
71
75
74
73
58
63
73
68
73
71
Some people could think that this is the most straight-forward development for Eddie, making him a 80 puncheur, but if you take a closer look, he wouldn't be a rider worthy of further training, thinking of his sub-par flat, and not super-shining back-ups, compared to the riders meant to dominate hills in the coming years
2. Timetrialist
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
ACC
FG
DW
PL
73
69
74
79
74
79
76
58
60
65
66
71
79
This is an interesting choice for Eddie, as he wouldn't be just a 79 TTer, but also 74 in hills, and with great back-ups, like 79 res, which would make like a worse version of current Coppel or Ignatiev. But the low flat and the nule acceleration could reduce the scoring posibilities
3. Stage Racer
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
ACC
FG
DW
PL
69
77
76
77
74
77
76
58
60
68
62
71
77
I have to say this is a development i like a lot, but also it would take some training to make him a decent PT rider, not only a PCT rider. He would really shine in PCT when maxed, but the question is if we would like to still be in PCT by 2021 The good thing is that it allow different possibilities of training, like training just hills or mountain, or try to make him a very complete rider, a worse version of a rider like Gesink
4. Punchy mountains
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
ACC
FG
DW
PL
67
76
80
71
71
75
76
58
60
72
69
73
71
This training is the main reasons why the pure hills development isn't a real option for Eddie. Yes, with that low stamina he would never be a contender for the big hilly classics, but his dual strenght would allow him to perform in different races that the pure puncheurs, with the hilly stage races with a mountain stage being a good type of races for him, similar to the current Kwiatkowski
5. Punchy stage racer
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CO
SP
ACC
FG
DW
PL
69
76
78
75
73
77
76
58
60
70
67
71
75
Let's call this the "light-Trofimov" development. Compared to the punchy mountain development, Eddie would lose a bit a strenght in the hills, but he would gain a lot in TT's, making him a greatly rounded rider, who with some training, could emulate the skills of aging legend Yuri Trofimov.
There are more possiblities of training, but none of them would probably use his current strenghts at the best level, and Eddie would fail to be a great rider in the future
I'm curious what you'd pick?
Would you prefer 73 MO, 74HI, 79TT ?
Spoiler
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
71
73
74
79
74
79
76
58
60
67
64
71
79
Personally I'd likely go with the punchy mountain one but he's another one of those talents that are very tough to decide. I'm not super excited with his backup combination after developing the punchy mountain way so the option above might be a very reasonable option to take for him.
@Yellow Jersey Will see, i haven't decided yet which will be his final development
@SotD
@knockout Yeah, that's a development i found out after SotD's comment. He could become with some training a rider like Omar Fraile. I don't really know if i would like this option, while it's way better than the normal timetrialist option. Honestly, i like more that punchy stage racer development
Finally we are able to publish exactly which will be our calendar for the 2018 MG season. Soon we'll be able to reveal where our leaders will be present, but you may be able to figure it out given our calendar. Our first race will be the season opener in Australia, the flat HC Down Under Classic, and we'll close the season with the season ending in Japan, with the hilly HC Japan Cup
January
4 races and 12RDs in January, with a flat classic, a hilly stage race and two mountain classic. We hope to start the season with some decent scoring races, before a month that could be really important for our season
Down Under Classic
HC
10-Jan
Tour Down Under
C1
14-Jan
19-Jan
Apex Mountain Classic
PTHC
28-Jan
Clasique Pico Basile
C1
31-Jan
February
Second month of the season, and the month most crowded for us. Several clashes, including a triple header, and a total of 32RD's this month. This month could be our make or break moment of the season
Tour of the Middle East
HC
05-Feb
08-Feb
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
PTHC
06-Feb
Tour de Pologne
HC
08-Feb
14-Feb
Ras Tailteann
C1
10-Feb
12-Feb
Gent-Wevelgem
C1
10-Feb
Viana do Castelo
C1
14-Feb
Volta a Catalunya
C1
18-Feb
23-Feb
Etoile de Besseges
C1
25-Feb
27-Feb
Hong Kong Challenge
C2
25-Feb
27-Feb
March
After a very hectic month, we are back to a more quiet month in March, with several one-day races, focusing a lot in cobbles
Roma Maxima
C1
03-Mar
Le Samyn
C1
10-Mar
Vuelta a Colombia
HC
11-Mar
16-Mar
Strade Bianche
PTHC
20-Mar
GP Herning
HC
31-Mar
April
This is the month where we are skipping a race to avoid a triple clash, so Veenendaal-Veenendaal isn't anymore in our calendar. Apart from that, a month focused on mountain/hills + tt and flat classics.
Tour of Vancouver
HC
01-Apr
07-Apr
Tour of Ukraine
HC
13-Apr
15-Apr
Lisbon Classic
PTHC
26-Apr
Sochi Cup
C1
27-Apr
Corsica International
C1
28-Apr
30-Apr
Philadelphia International Classic
HC
29-Apr
May
May sees the team racing in the final C2 outing of their season, while also having a couple of PTHC hilly stage races. And most importantly, the home race for our team leader Merhawi Kudus. Probably no doubt that he'll be there to try to improve his Top5 from 2017
Scandinavian Open Road Race
PTHC
12-May
14-May
Berlin ProRace
HC
16-May
Tour of Eritrea
C1
19-May
24-May
Giro del Trentino
C2
19-May
21-May
Tour of Norway
PTHC
27-May
31-May
June
Pretty boring month tbh. We only have a couple of cobbled races and a hilly tour in South Africa. Oh, and that race in Netherlands that i'm taking part because of... i'll try to figure it out someday
Malopolski Wyscig
PTHC
03-Jun
GP Kigali
HC
05-Jun
Tour of South Africa
C1
18-Jun
23-Jun
Ronde van Het Ijsselmeer
C1
26-Jun
July
A quite strange month, having only 4 races, but being a one-day race and a stage race in both mountains and hills
Bayern-Rundfahrt
C1
11-Jul
14-Jul
Kenya Mountain Classic
HC
20-Jul
Tour of Beijing
HC
26-Jul
29-Jul
Nantahala Classic
C1
26-Jul
August
The clashes are back, as we didn't have one since May. That's something we've worked on our calendar, except for that hellish month of February. We also have two big stage races in Austria and Portugal.
Macskako Kerekparverseny
C1
04-Aug
Clasica San Sebastian
HC
07-Aug
Osterreich Rundfahrt
HC
07-Aug
13-Aug
Volta a Portugal
PTHC
11-Aug
21-Aug
Baltic Chain Tour
C1
17-Aug
21-Aug
September
While several PCT teams focuses on Tour of America this month, we have decided not to send a squad here, so it will be a very slow month for us, not being present either of some PTHC races that were in bands we didn't choose
Tour of Britain
C1
01-Sep
05-Sep
Rheden GP
PTHC
27-Sep
Milano-Torino
C1
29-Sep
October
Finally we'll reach the end of the season after 10 months of intense racing. We'll have a big PTHC race in Morocco and a couple of hilly classic, including Japan Cup, the race that ends the season
We are finally able to publish our big leader's schedule for the 2018 season, Merhawi's first season in Repsol colors. There's no surprise that being our mountain goat this season, he'll be the rider meant to lead the team in all the important mountain races. Also, i guess no one will be surprised that his personal main goal of the season will be to win Tour d'Eritrea, his home race, a race that suits him very well, though there are better riders for that race.
Merhawi will make his debut for the team in Canada, in the Apex Mountain Race, where he'll face some of the best climbers in the world, as it's a PTHC one-day race. Inmediately after the race, he'll fly to Ecuatorial Guinea, to race Clasique Pico Basile, another mountain one-day race, but this time in C1 level.
Despite the heavy filled February for the team, with a total of 32RDs, he'll only show up in the HC stage race, Tour of the Middle East, where he'll hope to exploit his MON/HILL combo to get a great result.
He'll be back in March to take part in the biggest showdown of mountains in the HC calendar, Vuelta a Colombia, 6 days of hell in the South American climbs.
In April, Merhawi will only race in France, in the 3-day race Corsica International. This means he won't participate in a HC mountain stage race as Tour of Vancouver is. The main reasons to his absence is the lack of a TTT team to support the Eritrean in the closing stage of the race
In May as we already said, he'll race in his country, trying to win Tour d'Eritrea. After Eritrea, he will have raced 23 out of his 43RDs in the season
After some vacations during the month of June, he'll rejoin the competitive racing in the HC one-day race Kenya Mountain Classic. He'll also take part in the hilly classic Nantahala Classic, as he had two spare RDs, and with the expected easier competition thanks to the clash with Tour of Beijing, Merhawi might have a chance to get a surprising result. This will be the only time in the season where he won't be leading the team in a race he does
In August he will go to Austria to race Osterreich Rundfahrt, the final race in PCT level of his season.
And after almost 2 months of rest/preparation, he'll be ready to race a PTHC stage race in Morocco, Tour du Maroc
The team has tried to give him a calendar that exploits his dual abilities in mountains and hills, while also sending him to several stage races to make use of his U25 availability
@Abhishek I guess it's not something unexpected. There aren't infinite RDs for climbers in PCT
Jurgen Roelandts schedule anounced
Second rider that sees his calendar for the 2018 season published, and it's our "lone wolf" in the sprints, Jurgen Roelandts. I'm already regretting about a couple of decisions i made on his schedule, like missing out on two C1 flat classics, but we'll see if Jurgen can perform in the flat one-day races he'll race
He'll start the season in the team's first race in PCT level, the Down Under Classic. He won't leave the country after the race, because he's due to participate in Tour Down Under
In February he's going to take part in two 3-day races. The first one a sprinter fest in Ireland, with the Ras Tailteann, a stage race that favours sprinters but where in the last stage the worst climbers could suffer to make it to the sprint, and that's where he excels. Then he will race Etoile de Besseges. I know it's a big risk not being any proper flat stage in the race, but the first one doesn't seem too hard, and might end in a reduced sprint, where Jurgen should be a favourite for the stage win.
He'll be back in April to compete in PTHC level for the first time in the season, in the flat classic Lisbon Classic. He'll also try to get a good result in US roads, in the Philadelphia International Classic
In May Jurgen will race two races, a flat classic as it's Berlin Pro Race, and the PTHC stage race Tour of Norway.
After some rest time, during which he should be doing a one-day race in Netherlands that the team will be racing, but he doesn't , he'll be back to racing in German roads, for the Bayern-Rundfahrt. We expect a low quality startlist in terms of sprinters, given there's only one flat stage
In August he'll do the Baltic Chain Tour, where he'll have to fight against the top sprinters in the division in several stages after a hard cobbled prologue.
Now in October, he'll do his final PTHC race of the season, Tour of Maroc, hoping for a weak field of sprinters that allows him to fight for Top3/Top5 in the flat stages. And then, he'll take part in Barbados Cycling Festival, a race made by and for sprinters.
As i already said, probably some weird decisions in his planning, like skipping a one-day race that the team is subscribed, or sending him to some races where he might not have a chance to score due to strenght of the field, but it's also the first time we have to manage a sprinter like Jurgen
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." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Don't be sad for that, Roelandts would beat VDS in any given day
Vanmarcke and Bystrom schedule anounced
SEP VANMARCKE
Sep is our leader for the cobbles this season, though he'll only have a real domestique in Fabien Taillefour. That's why we won't put too much pressure on him on giving us big results despite being a Top5 cobbler in PCT. We just want him to give us a constant stream of Top10 in cobbles. Obviously we weren't planning on a cobbled leader, otherwise we would have choosen HC Band 3, which had a cobbled stage race. His calendar outside cobbles is at some points weird, with his inclusion in Tour of Norway's team being strange.
In the cobbled side he'll be riding everything he can ride in cobbles. All 3 PTHC races with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Rheden GP and Malopolski Wyscig, HC classics GP Herning and GP Kigali and C1 classics Gent-Wevelgem, Viana do Castelo, Roma Maxima, Le Samyn and Macskako Kerekparverseny. He'll also be tried to do something in Baltic Chain Tour's cobbled prologue. The only questions about his cobbled planning were if going to Cyprus, which we refused, and the clash between Roma Maxima and 4 Days of Panne. Thinking that the best cobbler would be in De Panne looking for bigger points in a cobbled stage race, we hope that the weaker oposition allows Sep to take his first ever pro win in Italy, in a route he has taken great results in PT level when it was used for Strada Appia Antica, like a podium in 2016.
He'll be present in the flat classic trying to support somehow our sprinter Jurgen Roelandts, and pretty much his calendar is over, despite not filling every of his possible RDs. A better planning for him is something that the management will have in count for 2019 season
Down Under Classic
HC
2
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
PTHC
2
Gent-Wevelgem
C1
2
Viana do Castelo
C1
2
Roma Maxima
C1
2
Le Samyn
C1
2
GP Herning
HC
2
Lisbon Classic
PTHC
2
Philadelphia International Classic
HC
2
Berlin ProRace
HC
2
Tour of Norway
PTHC
5
Malopolski Wyscig
PTHC
2
GP Kigali
HC
2
Ronde van Het Ijsselmeer
C1
2
Macskako Kerekparverseny
C1
2
Baltic Chain Tour
C1
5
Rheden GP
PTHC
2
Barbados Cycling Festival
HC
4
SVEN ERIK BYSTROM
The young Norwegian puncheur is our leader for the hills this season. We feel bad for him to have the responsability of achieving three Win Goals this season given he isn't probably a Top10 puncheur in PCT. Anyway, we think that with the big support he'll have, he might outperform similar riders with weaker support.
His calendar is basically made by the most fitting races for his style, which is all hills. He'll race very few PTHC RD's, only in our PTHC race goal in Strade Bianche and in his nearly home race in Scandinavian Open Race. He'll be participating in 3 HC hilly classic, with Clasica San Sebastian, Giro dell'Emelia and Japan Cup, while also two HC stage races in Tour de Pologne and Tour de Beijing. After that, he'll also race in some C1 classic, like Sochi Cup or Milano-Torino, and more C1 stage races, like Tour Down Under, Etoile de Besseges, Tour of South Africa and Tour of Britain. In general, he has tried to avoid stage races with TTs, given his terrible abilities in a TT bike, though once we run out of pure hilly races, he had to take part in some Hilly/TT stage races too.
We hope that he can give us consistent Top10 results, and maybe the odd Top5 result. Obviously, if the miracle result come in Pologne, San Sebastian or Japan Cup it would be amazing given that we have Win Goals there. It seems like we have a lot of confidence on Sven
The racing is about to start, and we can't wait to see our riders in the action. We have 12 RD's in January, and we have hopes for good results in all of them
Down Under Classic
75 flat kms will start our first season in PCT, and this race will also be our first ever HC show. Jurgen Roelandts leads the team hoping for a Top10 finish. Sep Vanmarcke will be the main support, and he'll have the freedom of going into the attack if possible.
Eddie Dunbar, our new young talent, will make his professional debut in this race. The rest of the team will be Stefano Agostini, Sean McKenna, Andres Paez, Miltiadis Giannoutsos and Ryan Christensen
Tour Down Under
First stage race of the season, and first oportunity of leading for Sven Erik Bystrom. There's a new route for this race, making it less predictable after removing the finish in Willunga Hill, and hopefully he can benefit from being a second-tier favourite to be able to attack. And if the hard hilly stages all come to an sprint, he's not slow in a sprint, and with his good kick, he could challenge for even a stage win against the better puncheurs. With him, the full hilly squad with Sergio Barrio, Guillaume Levarlet and Antoine Duchesne all looking to support Bystrom in whatever needs he has, while also trying to get some good GC result.
For the sprints we've brought Jurgen Roelandts, who was already in the country after Down Under Classic. It's likely that some top sprinters will show here, but we have hope that he can get a Top5 stage result in a couple of sprints, and the less flat stages favours him a lot against the pure sprinters.
The squad is completed with youngsters Andres Paez, Cristian Rodriguez and Ryan Christensen
Apex Mountain Classic
Our first ever PTHC outing, and it's the first chance for our new top leader, Merhawi Kudus to shine. The only issue is that is likely that most of the top climbers in the world will be present in the race, so we would be happy with a Top15 result.
Obviously, Valens Ndayisenga, Jakub Novak and Rafael Serrano will all be in the race supporting our Eritrean leader, and maybe getting some minor points in the process.
The squad is completed by talents Jaime Roson, Sean McKenna, Cristian Rodriguez and Eddie Dunbar
Clasique Pico Basile
Finally the first race of the season where we can say we have a real contender for a win. Merhawi Kudus will lead again the team, looking for his first win of the season, or maybe more realistic, a podium. There's no Pluchkin in this race, so a chance for the mortals to win a race.
As a couple of days before in Canada, Valens Ndayisenga, Jakub Novak and Rafael Serrano will be the main support of Merhawi, and i think this time Ndayisenga has a chance of getting a nice result behind his leader, maybe a Top15/20, which can give us depth points from the race
The squad from Apex is almost the same, with the only change being Miltiadis Giannoutsos and Ryan Christensen joining the team instead of Rodriguez and Dunbar, which means that Jaime Roson and Sean McKenna will be there too. A really strong squad imo, as we might have to control the race as one of the pre-race favourites
In general, a month where we hope to start to score some points, probably not big points yet, as that should have to wait to February, but we'll get to see three of our leaders in action in this month and with suitable races for them
The season is finally underway, and things have gone our way in the first two races of the season in Australian soil, as in both Down Under Classic and Tour Down Under the team got a 4th place, with Jurgen Roelandts and Sven Erik Bystrom being the authors of these great results
DOWN UNDER CLASSIC
Our goal was a Top10 with Roelandts for this race, a rider in the breakaway, or a late attack by Vanmarcke.
In a very windy day, Ryan Christensen tried his luck in the BotD, but his group got caught way before the final stages
After this, it was all down to Jurgen to try to get in a good wheel and sprint after the tricky circuit's corner ended in the final 800 metres
While in the front, Mohs and Van Asbroeck were fighting for the win, Jurgen was sprinting for a chance of getting in the podium, something that would eventually be denied by local hero Ewan
Erik Mohs took the win in the season opener for PCT teams in Adelaide, and Jurgen sprinted to fourth, getting his and the teams first points of the season. 70 points! We could not even dream of getting so many points from this race, so it's a total success. Only time will say if this was just a lucky day for Roelandts, or if he'll perform at a similar level all season
1
Erik Mohs
Fablok - Bank BGZ
1h28'27
2
Tom Van Asbroeck
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
s.t.
3
Caleb Ewan
Podium Ambition
s.t.
4
Jurgen Roelandts
Repsol - Netflix
s.t.
5
Lahcen Saber
Philips - Continental
s.t.
88
Sep Vanmarcke
Repsol - Netflix
s.t.
122
Sean McKenna
Repsol - Netflix
s.t.
138
Ryan Christensen
Repsol - Netflix
+ 4'16
150
Andres Paez
Repsol - Netflix
+ 4'16
168
Stefano Agostini
Repsol - Netflix
+ 4'16
177
Miltiadis Giannoutsos
Repsol - Netflix
+ 4'16
187
Eddie Dunbar
Repsol - Netflix
+ 6'17
TOUR DOWN UNDER
First stage race of the season, and also first C1 race. 6 days favoring sprinters with abilities to go through hills, and it happens that we have one of those. So the goal was to get a Top10 in GC with either Roelandts or Bystrom, with Top5 stage results, and some depth scoring with either Barrio, Duchesne or Levarlet.
In the first days, Jurgen didn't have the legs of DUC, and after 4 stages, his best stage result was only a couple of 7th places. It was more important that both Jurgen and Sven were in a select group of riders within stricking distance of the GC podium, and the Willunga Hill stage was left yet, despite not finishing in the top this season
But then this happened in the Willunga stage. Duchesne got in the breakaway as he had some time lost in GC, and while Jurgen couldn't stay with the favourite's group and Willunga's climb, Bystrom had a great recovery in the flat roads, and being lead-out by Duchesne in the final km, and he finished third in the stage, and thanks to the time he got by both bonus and the real gap time, he rised to 3th in GC!
Shamefully, Ewan robbed us from the teams first GC podium of the season after winning the final stage, where Jurgen was fourth, hence Sven dropped down to 4th in GC, which is still a great result. This together, with Jurgen and Antoine in 20th and 24th in GC, the team finishing 2nd in the Teams classification and the points won during the stages, means that we got 93 points from this 6RDs. A solid team effort, it can't be denied
1
Cyril Gautier
Valio - DeLaval
16h52'38
2
Diego Ulissi
Generali - EDF
+ 38
3
Caleb Ewan
Podium Ambition
+ 1'15
4
Sven Erik Bystrom
Repsol - Netflix
+ 1'21
5
Simon Yates
Podium Ambition
+ 1'27
20
Jurgen Roelandts
Repsol - Netflix
+ 3'32
24
Antoine Duchesne
Repsol - Netflix
+ 4'02
50
Cristian RodrÃguez
Repsol - Netflix
+ 4'57
84
Sergio Barrio
Repsol - Netflix
+ 8'03
89
Guillaume Levarlet
Repsol - Netflix
+ 8'03
137
Ryan Christensen
Repsol - Netflix
+ 15'42
139
Andres Paez
Repsol - Netflix
+ 15'42
So after two races and 8 RD's, the team is placed 6th in the PCT Ranking, with 163 points, just 6 points behind the last promotion places, and more than 150 points ahead of the relegation zone, and 106 points ahead of our Goal place, the 10th place. A really great start given that our team leader Merhawi Kudus is yet to start his season, which will happen very soon, as he'll lead the team in the next 3 races, Apex, Pico Basile and ToME
The month finished with two mountain one-day races where Merhawi Kudus was making his first appaerence with his new Repsol colors. He could have gotten more in Apex, but a podium in Pico Basile (the first podium of the season in a GC/classic for the team)
APEX MOUNTAIN RACE
For this race, which ended in a descent after a monstrous climb in Canada, seeing the startlist we had hopes of a Top10 finish for Kudus, with our other climbers giving us some depth scoring
Dombrowski and Taaramae attacked in the main climb, leaving everyone behind, including Kudus, who took care of some chase in lower groups trying to catch up to Uran's group
But while Dombrowski beat Taaramae in the sprint for the win, Kudus was trapped in a big group who fought for the final Top10 spots, and not being the best descender in the peloton, he struggled with positioning and could only finish 17th, bringing home only 15 points. Both Ndayisenga and Novak finished outside Top30, only getting two points each for their performances. An under-par race surely, but we can't really expect big results from fights against PT teams in classics
1
Joseph Dombrowski
eBuddy
6h01'18
2
Rein Taaramäe
T-Mobile
s.t.
3
Aleksandr Pluchkin
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
+ 59
4
Timofey Kritskiy
Team Tinkoff
s.t.
5
Warren Barguil
Moser - Sygic
+ 1'17
17
Merhawi Kudus
Repsol - Netflix
+ 3'08
31
Jakub Novak
Repsol - Netflix
+ 6'27
36
Valens Ndayisenga
Repsol - Netflix
s.t.
51
Rafael Serrano
Repsol - Netflix
+ 6'40
123
Jaime Roson
Repsol - Netflix
+ 14'27
152
Sean McKenna
Repsol - Netflix
+ 24'15
166
Cristian RodrÃguez
Repsol - Netflix
+ 32'52
173
Eddie Dunbar
Repsol - Netflix
s.t.
CLASIQUE PICO BASILE
Another one-day mountain race for Kudus to lead, this time in Ecuatorial Guinea, and with a mountain top finish. With a surprisingly weak startlist for a C1 race like this one, a podium was very much possible, and even a win wasn't a really long shot
Ndayisenga and Novak worked hard in the first part of the climb, making a heavy selection in the main group
Kudus followed an attack of Henao, the pre-race favourite, and both stayed ahead of everyone else until the end. Except for Denifl who paced himself nicely to catch the duo inside the final km
But Henao then showed his strenght, by sprinting from 800 metres to go, while Kudus couldn't follow the Colombian, and was even passed by Denifl, having to settle for a third place, which can't be denied that it's a great result. Even more knowing that Ndayisenga managed to finish 11th and Novak 22nd, which makes even more points, a total of 60 in this race
1
Sergio Luis Henao Montoya
Philips - Continental
6h52'09
2
Stefan Denifl
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
+ 13
3
Merhawi Kudus
Repsol - Netflix
+ 15
4
Natnael Berhane
World Cycling Center
+ 1'14
5
Ki Ho Choi
Meiji - JR East
+ 2'27
11
Valens Ndayisenga
Repsol - Netflix
+ 5'33
22
Jakub Novak
Repsol - Netflix
+ 9'28
30
Rafael Serrano
Repsol - Netflix
+ 11'25
60
Jaime Roson
Repsol - Netflix
+ 15'44
69
Sean McKenna
Repsol - Netflix
+ 20'29
78
Miltiadis Giannoutsos
Repsol - Netflix
+ 24'22
105
Ryan Christensen
Repsol - Netflix
+ 48'27
January was not a month where we had much hopes of scoring big, but after great results from Roelandts, Bystrom and Kudus, we find ourselves in the promotion places and with almost 250 points scored in our first 12RDs. We might even have a chance to become PCT leaders in early February, as we have a couple of important races in OHN and ToME where he could easily outscore everyone around us in the rankings. Our gap to our Goal is already 125 points, and 225 to the relegation zone. Definitely an amazing start of our debut PCT season
I think I already like this little rivalry It's 1-1 after DUC and CPB. ToME should be fun again
Great start to PCT for you btw! Results like Bystrom's and Roelandts's so far is exactly what I was imagining as a possibility when I mentioned that it's a fun situation for you to be in