A disappointing race for us. We had a pretty good first week, with a couple of 2nd places, but after that it was all downhill. Avelino and Machado finished repeatedly outside the top10 and more than half the team abandoned. Machado was pretty poor losing in every instance of mountain racing to his direct rivals.
Points-wise it is a bit crushing to see us finish on par with Evonik and with half the points of Festina. Even though we were one of the best of the relegation candidates, we needed bigger differences to the likes of Volvo or Desigual who have/will deliver elsewhere, especially considering this is the sole GT with our absolute leader Machado.
Lots of other teams affected by bad luck: Aegon with Groenewegen, Aker with Ciolek (who managed to be surpassed by the former), Berg with Cattaneo and UBS with Amador. Others with a good wind blowing behind them like Evonik with Vosekalns, Meiji with Choi, Moser with Hirt and Phillips with Saber.
All in all a stupendous race as ever. Thanks for all the effort with the reports roturn. And congrats to SN for this massive performance from his beloved Schleck!
Really was a great race for us. Think this was actually probably our 2nd best Grand Tour result ever, after the Giro a few years ago, when Cunego iirc got 3rd of 4th for us. Too bad I cant keep the points to help me promote from PCT
It really underlines our problem in this race. Of all eight sprinters with a sprint stat of 80, 81, 82 or 83, Ciolek got the least points. It's kind of ironic that the first rider on the list of sprinters that scored worse than him, was his leadout Scully
Hopefully he'll rest up and be ready for his tasks in the second half of the season, as he gets to wait for a long, long time before he's back in action.
ember wrote:
Thank you for the quick points update, roturn!
It really underlines our problem in this race. Of all eight sprinters with a sprint stat of 80, 81, 82 or 83, Ciolek got the least points. It's kind of ironic that the first rider on the list of sprinters that scored worse than him, was his leadout Scully
Hopefully he'll rest up and be ready for his tasks in the second half of the season, as he gets to wait for a long, long time before he's back in action.
He usually does best when he's not among the biggest favorites imo - So you still got a lot of potential for scoring with him, although it must be a huge letdown to see him this poor in a race where he should have split the wins with Groenewegen and Demare looking at the strength of riders - maybe Avellino too.
Decent mid-table scoring for us here and that's fine in a race without Madrazo, Ginanni or Teunissen.
Bibby, Formolo and Kruijswijk weren't spectacular, but they consistently did what they had to do and ended up in respectable GC positions, winning the TC in the process.
Congrats to SN on another Schleck GT win. Even after declining he still shows his class. And thanks to roturn for the great reporting job, despite it being frustrating.
A little late to the race-ending discussion but here goes...
Congrats to SN on a great win by Schleck. Can't keep him down!
As for us, firstly, we got a train in the last two sprint stages which is a first for this season, and hopefully not the last. Saber had a great race and got a stage win to boot
Henao just missing the Top 10 is a bit of a downer having not once really attacked and just preferred sticking to the tails of the favourites on stages where he finished high. Costa and Navardauskas were not able to take advantage of the hills as we had hoped but the latter made it up a bit on the flats while the former had a good ITT. Per with a couple of breakaway appearances, never one to be out of the limelight for too long. I guess I'm happy with how things went here and the fact that we were not anonymous.
Thanks for the excellent reports roturn all through. Enjoyed the race and our first appearance in a GT
- So you still got a lot of potential for scoring with him, although it must be a huge letdown to see him this poor in a race where he should have split the wins with Groenewegen and Demare looking at the strength of riders - maybe Avellino too.
