February was quite an up-and-down for us - starting with a big letdown in Hong Kong, and ending on a high with our second C2HC podium of the year in a one-day race.
With 24 race days, March will be the second most busy month of the year - and it's mainly going to be one for the sprinters! 16 flat stages, 4 short to middle length ITTs, 3 hilly stages and one mountain top finish - that's going to be our month!
Five stage races are on the menu - let's take a look at the profiles and our line-ups:
Mar 01 - 04 | Barbados Cycling Festival (HC)
Spoiler
We will start the month with our second HC participation, this time in Barbados. We won't go there to chill out, though, but to confirm our strong result in the first HC race of the season! Again, it's a flat one - and we'll send our fastest man to the Caribbean:
Rider
Spr
Acc
Res
Rider
Spr
Acc
Res
Theo Reinhardt
79
84
66
Max Walscheid
74
75
70
Issiaka Cissé
78
77
67
Leonardo Basso
71
69
73
Manuel Stocker
76
77
73
Stefan Bissegger
69
70
69
For sure, Theo Reinhardt wants to show everyone that his 4th place in Down Under Classic was not just a once-in-a-lifetime result. With proven leadouts Issiaka Cissé and Manuel Stocker, he gets the support he needs to shine - let's see what he can do here! Consistency will be key to get a notable GC result, which we can absolutely expect from him. Let's upset those PCT sprinters again, Theo!
However, an almost identical line-up in Ireland didn't work out at all - we surely hope the riders and our DS have learnt their lessons and will execute things as we planned them!
Expectations: Top 15 GC, 3x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: N/A
Mar 03 - 06 | Jelajah SKL (C1)
Spoiler
You may ask how this race made it into our calendar - and so do we, actually. We probably overlooked the hilly stage, sending no real GC contender - but we'll still have some firepower:
Rider
Hi
Spr
Acc
PL
Rider
Hi
Spr
Acc
PL
Fabian Lienhard
75
73
76
70
Tom Scully
67
79
80
77
Cyrille Thièry
74
72
73
65
Pedro Merino Criado
68
77
79
56
Nico Brüngger
73
65
66
69
Benedikt Mundle
65
59
69
55
It should be quite clear that we're targetting the two short ITTs and the flat stage with Tom Scully. However, we're not sure how much of an impact that small hill on stage two will have - we're hoping he'll make it across!
For stage three, we bring both Fabian Lienhard and Cyrille Thièry, who both are aggressive riders and decent puncheurs. We're hoping to go for the KoM jersey here - and maybe even for the stage win? If we can do it, especially Lienhard should have a shot at a good GC result!
Expectations: Top 15 GC, 2x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: N/A
Mar 09 - 13 | Circulo de Juarez (C1)
Spoiler
One more pan-flat stage race without a time trial - not much hesitation about our line-up:
Rider
Spr
Acc
Res
Rider
Spr
Acc
Res
Theo Reinhardt
79
84
66
Stefan Bissegger
69
70
69
Issiaka Cissé
78
77
67
Gino Mäder
67
63
72
Manuel Stocker
76
77
73
Nico Brüngger
63
66
70
Max Walscheid
74
75
70
Benedikt Mundle
59
69
73
All in for Theo Reinhardt again! There aren't many changes compared to the Barbados roster; the most important one should be Benedikt Mundle joining the team in Mexico. He's our man to chase down breakaways and bring Theo into perfect position with 3km to go, whereas Issiaka Cissé and Manuel Stocker should take over for the final sprint preparations. In theory, that sounds fine - let's see how it works out on the road!
Expectations: Top 10 GC, 4x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: N/A
Mar 22 - 27 | Tour of Eritrea (C2HC)
Spoiler
They had to wait for quite some time - but our climbers' time has finally come! We're sending riders to compete on every single stage of this first C2HC stage race of the year, as you can see in our roster:
Rider
Mo
Hi
Res
Rider
Spr
Acc
Res
Mirco Saggiorato
77
73
74
Theo Reinhardt
79
84
66
Andrea Manfredi
78
65
73
Issiaka Cissé
78
77
67
Hermann Pernsteiner
75
77
71
Manuel Stocker
76
77
73
Gino Mäder
73
68
72
Cyrille Thièry
72
73
73
In his final prime season, Mirco Saggiorato will be our leader for such hybrid stage races. Although he isn't our best pure climber, he is much stronger on the hills than Andrea Manfredi, who will hopefully pull his designated leader up the mountain on stage 3.
The reversed stage 3, which is stage 4, will then rather be Hermann Pernsteiner's target. In fact, if he manages to get a decent result on stage 3, the Austrian could become our captain - especially given that the final stage will definitely be one for the puncheurs.
Then, we again bring Theo Reinhardt along with his standard leadouts Issiaka Cissé and Manuel Stocker for the three flat stages. The question will be if the peloton will be strong enough to keep escapees at bay - we hope yes! Cyrille Thièry will get all the freedom he wants - we definitely expect him to attack! The same holds for Gino Mäder, of whom we expect a decent result in the U25 standings.
Expectations: Top 15 GC, 4x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: 36th GC, 5th stage place
Mar 26 - 30 | Tour of Uppsala (C1)
Spoiler
3 more pan-flat stages plus a prologue - check. It's Scully-time again, for sure:
Rider
Spr
Acc
TT
PL
Rider
Spr
Acc
TT
PL
Tom Scully
79
80
63
77
Leonardo Basso
71
69
72
72
Pedro Merino Criado
77
79
56
56
Nico Brüngger
63
66
73
69
Max Walscheid
74
75
61
71
Stefan Bissegger
69
70
69
68
Fabian Lienhard
73
76
66
70
Benedikt Mundle
59
69
55
55
Unfortunately, this race doesn't provide the sprinter-friendly bonus seconds (for the Top 10), meaning that we'll be struggling getting a good GC result. However, Tom Scully should be able to do well in the prologue and the three flat stages. The longer ITT on stage 4 is just a bit too long for him to expect a decent result - but we won't be angry if he surprises us!
His main leadout will again be Pedro Merino Criado, and maybe Max Walscheid will be in the mix, too. Benedikt Mundle's task will again be to hold everything together and to bring Scully into position.
Expectations: Top 20 GC, 3x Stage Top 10
Best result so far: N/A
It's a really busy month, covering almost 1/6 of our total race days - which means that we'll have a pretty clear image of what we can aim at after all these races. Let's hope everything goes well, and the points keep coming in!
Moscon was very impressive! Too bad that the one day Kelderman isn't feeling his usual self, you bump against a Quevedo with super legs.
March is super quiet for me, so we'll only be seeing each other in Eritrea. Strong set-up for Reinhardt over there. Ras Tailteann could be forgotten very soon.
So far, we had seen two different faces of Theo Reinhardt this year: 4th in the season opener in Down Under - an HC race, nota bene - and a complete no-show in Ireland, where we competed in a C2 stage race.
In Barbados, we were pack to HC racing, for the second (and second-last) time this year. With an extremely packed sprinters field, we were wondering if Theo would even participate in the sprints - or if we'd leave with zero points.
Fortunately, he decided to do the former on stage one. Although he didn't get any help by his teammates, he sprinted to 7th place - a promising start! We could clearly see that he can't keep up with the absolute top sprinters, but that was to be expected. What was more worrying was to see all our other riders far back in the peloton, not a single one trying to support their leader!
We were then hoping for some breakaway attempts on stage two, with two category 2 climbs - which would have a perfect opportunity to grab our first ever KoM jersey.
However, we were passive once again, as unfortunately in most of this season's races so far. A missed opportunity - and even more! As none of the other riders cared about helping Theo or just being well positioned in the pack, they were all caught behind a split - meaning that all hopes for a good team result or for a notable GC result by getting a few bonus seconds were gone.
Fortunately, Theo Reinhardt once again saved the day, repeating the previous day's 7th place. Again, a very good result against this competition!
The pattern was unfortunately the same on stage 3 - five riders doing nothing, all hoping for Theo to deliver. However, this time he missed out on the decisive move - and as no-one was there to help him, the sprint on that day was already lost before it really started. He still managed to get 13th - which meant no bonus seconds, but at least a few points for the points standings.
However, we could still be happy with his 12th GC place at that time - but we were of course hoping for a great last stage! And the pictures we got from the Flamme Rouge were really promising, as he was in great position. Even with a few meters left, he still was in contention for a stage podium - but finally had to settle for a still very good 4th place! Of course, again without any support whatsoever...
Overall, three Top 10 results in four days was what we had hoped for - and we got exactly that. Which was worth a 10th place in the GC for Theo Reinhardt! He added an 8th place in the points standings (equal to an additional point) and definitely proved the world he can still do well at this level - although he didn't show it that much when riding for Team UBS.
What was really concerning, however, was the rest of the team not caring at all. We brought our strongest possible support - but Theo had to do all on his own. With more or less the same team going to Mexico soon, we really hope they can step up and finally do their work!
Theo Reinhardt sprinting to 4th place in the closing stage
Our first two races in Asia - Hong Kong Challenge and Colombo Classic - didn't go too well. And the profile of Jelajah SKL is surely not one that suits us best, either. A flat stage with a hill on the final 10km, a hilly stage - surrounded by a prologue and an epilogue. It's a funny race design, but well...
However, we knew that our sprinter Tom Scully can ride fast in short time trials, too, hence our hopes for three out of these four stages were on him. And we can say that he delivered. 14th place in the prologue was a fine result - and our best so far in non-mountainous time trials! Fabian Lienhard did pretty well, too, losing only 9 seconds in 39th place.
On stage 2, the last hill then brought the expected chaotic sprint, with two Farfetch riders finally going clear and taking 1-2. Tom Scully was well positioned on that last ascent - and even though he missed out on the decisive move, he still got the maximum out of the stage by taking 3rd place - scoring his first points for us! Moreover, thanks to his good prologue result, the bonus seconds made him move up to 3rd in the GC! Fabian Lienhard participated in the sprint as well, taking 10th place.
Our hopes then were twofold for stage 3: on one hand, pull Scully across the hills up front, and on the other hand joining the breakaway to possibly take the KoM jersey.
To make it short: none of these materialized. Although Scully is stronger on the hills than some other riders who did indeed make it inside the pack, he inexplicably was dropped very early. And nobody even tried to join the breakaway. Sigh...
At least, both Fabian Lienhard, who went on to finish 8th, and Cyrille Thièry (25th) were able to stay in the first group, moving up to 13th and 22nd in the GC. Meaning that the former now had a great short of achieving our Top 15 goal!
However, our best bet for the closing stage was once again Tom Scully, who absolutely wanted to redeem himself after the weak showing on stage 3. And that's exactly what he did, taking 6th of the closing stage, which as well made him move up to 4th in the points standings! Some rather unexpected, yet highly welcome points for sure!
And while Cyrille Thièry lost two spots in this epilogue, as had to be exepcted, Fabian Lienhard went the other way round and even gained a spot on this closing stage! With 12th and 24th, we finally got two notable GC results, a stage podium and a total of four stage Top 10 places - well done, team!
The only fly in the ointment is the unacceptable passivity of our riders, who were not even trying to join a breakaway once again. Although we can't count on getting points from these, we at least want to give it a chance, having absolutely nothing to lose by doing so! Let's hope we will indeed see some more action by our boys later this month - in Mexico, Eritrea or Sweden. While we score a good amount of points regularly, we're still waiting for a Farfetch-like overperformance - and we're sure it's possible!
Tom Scully takes 3rd on stage 2, edging out Houle and Zabel!
Interesting start for you. Underwhelming at times in C2, but scoring well in C1 and HC against tougher competition. Of course, the higher amount of points up for grabs there can make up for a lot. I expect you to be near the top of the rankings.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Guave He sure was impressive, yeah. And I do really hope (and actually expect) that he'll get a win sooner or later - be it a one-day race or a stage win.
Ras Tailteann is pretty much forgotten already, with Reinhardt showing really consistent results at HC level. Let's hope he can do the same in C1/C2HC/C2.
bbl HC races are almost over for us, with only one remaining, so I'm glad the ones we already had went well. Reinhardt apparently was the right choice for those.
C2 wasn't that underwhelming, by the way; we had a good depth result in Colombo, and we scored about the same amount of points in Ras Tailteann as we did in Jelajah. But yeah, the results in Asia feel better than those in Ireland
After the Caribbean and Asia, we continued our March journey in North America, with a sprinter stage race around Juarez, Mexico.
With no time trial on the menu, Theo Reinhardt was our undisputed leader (on paper, as a similar lineup didn't work out at all in Ireland...). Issiaka Cissé and Manuel Stocker were his designated leadouts, with Benedikt Mundle being our man for the tough work on the flat.
The race kicked off almost perfectly for our sprint leader. Whereas the rest of the team was absent and finished far behind in the peloton, Theo Reinhardt was well in the mix, even had the lead for a few seconds - and held on fend off Manninen in the battle for 3rd! It was the German's first podium of the year, beating many, many strong sprinters - great work!
Theo Reinhardt edging out Manninen for 3rd place on the opening stage
However, on stage 2 we clearly saw what the absence of support can do when you're not well positioned. As in the opening stage, a select group of sprinters were able to create a gap - with Theo being on the wrong side of it this time. He still tried, and at least got one bonus second by taking 10th place.
The team then decided to finally step into action on stage 3, building a sprint train for the first time this season! It looked great with about 600m to the line, as Theo Reinhardt left Issiaka Cissé's slipstream - but the fine-tuning wasn't perfect yet. Theo was in the wind too early, dropping all the way back to 6th. Which is still a good result - 3rd Top 10 place in as many stages!
But what was much better news was Cissé taking 7th place - and 6 bonus seconds, bringing him close to the Top 15 in the GC and almost ensuring some GC points in the end! Theo held onto his 6th place, being on-track for our target Top 10 finish!
Theo Reinhardt and Issiaka Cissé take 6th and 7th on stage 3
The same evening, the team analyzed in-detail what went wrong, and then decided on a slightly different strategy for stage 4. Max Walscheid and Manuel Stocker should lead out the sprint for Theo Reinhardt - and boy, they did an amazing job! Theo Reinhardt led the race a few meters ahead of the finish line - but in the end lost the stage to Ewan by an inch or two. It was a bitter-sweet result - a 2nd stage place in this stacked field was of course a great result, but missing out on our first season win definitely hurt. As a consolation prize, Theo at least received the green jersey - and more importantly, moved up to 2nd in the GC, trailing Ewan by one tiny second! We were one second away from our first ever GC win - could he get that one on the closing stage?
Another sidenote on that stage: Stefan Bissegger won the last intermediate sprint, moving up to 3rd in the U25 standings, one second off the lead!
Theo Reinhardt being narrowly beaten by Caleb Ewan on stage 4
Unfortunately, the team somehow forgot what worked so well on stages 3 and 4, and didn't even try to lead out Theo Reinhardt. And so, it almost had to go wrong - it did. Our sprinter only managed to finish 11th, missing out on the decisive move just like on stage 2. With no bonus seconds gained, he dropped down to 5th in the GC - which is still a huge success of course, but getting "just" 8th place would have been 2nd in the GC...
Being the "best of the rest" didn't help Theo Reinhardt defend his great GC position on the final day
But we definitely don't want this final impression to be the one that lasts. Sure, we were incredibly close to our first GC win, and this would have been amazing. But even the results we take home now - 2 podium finishes, a total of 5 Top 10 stage finishes, 5th (Theo Reinhardt), 15th (Issiaka Cissé) and 25th (Stefan Bissegger) GC places - are way more than we could have hoped for! Furthermore, Reinhardt took 3rd in the sprint standings, with Bissegger taking the same place in the U25 standings. All in all, we leave Mexico with close to 100 points from these five stages - we definitely can say we're still on track!
Now, we get a one-week break, before we tackle the first mountains of the year in Eritrea. Hopefully, Theo Reinhardt will have recovered by then - and he still has to prove us he can perform well even without PCT participation! Stay tuned!
In my eyes, taking part in both Circulo de Juarez and Jelajah SKL was a balsy decision but Reinhardt just blooms in this environment. Nice amount of points for a CT team in C1 division. Very nice!
Our extra-European tour continued with our first out of four stays in Africa, more precisely in Eritrea. With three flat stages, our primary goal was clear: getting stage wins and the green jersey with our top sprinter!
It started very promising on stage one, where we built a real sprint train for the first time this year. However, it quickly became obvious that it was indeed the first time, so the fine-tuning wasn't quite there yet. Theo Reinhardt was in the wind way too early, and while he was in 2nd place for quite some time, he finally dropped down all the way to 8th. First stage, first bummer. But a lot of learnings of what had to be improved on the next day!
But you guess it... As many other teams already this season, we miserably failed on the second day. Yes, we were even able to hit the front this time - but even earlier than the day before. Which resulted in yet another big disappointment, with Theo Reinhardt only taking 10th place - even outside the points. The green jersey - our main goal - was already gone by then...
Well, all focus on the climbers then, as a decent GC result was of course still possible! And on day three - including that extremely long final climb - Mirco Saggiorato made us dream not just of a decent, but of a fantastic GC result! Supported by an amazing Hermann Pernsteiner - who finished in the first big group including most of the favorites - our Swiss oldie narrowly missed out on the win, taking 2nd place behind Keinath! Which also saw him in 2nd place in the GC after this queen stage. With a 7th stage rank, his Austrian domestique made it a truly great result for us - and we even took over the team standings!
Mirco Saggiorato edging out Warbasse for 2nd on the queen stage
The best news was actually that the main terrain of Hermann Pernsteiner was yet to come - the hills. Among the top GC riders, he definitely was among the strongest - but Mirco Saggiorato is no slouch, either! Nonetheless, while we got a huge result on stage 3, things clearly didn't play out in our favor on day four. Pernsteiner inexplicably lost contact early on - he must have been on a horrible day - and while Saggiorato was able to limit the damages, he still didn't manage to stay inside the front group, dropping to 8th in the GC. Still, with Pernsteiner in 19th and surprisingly Andrea Manfredi in 23rd, we were still well on track for scoring a solid depth result.
Stage 5 then was redemption time for our sprinter department. And finally, the third attempt was pretty fruitful! Manuel Stocker and Issiaka Cissé did what they had done many times last year, and brought Theo Reinhardt into a great position going on the final meters!
Unfortunately, as on stage 3, a Philips rider prevented us from winning for the first time this year. Theo finished 2nd on this stage, delivering our second stage podium of the race, and showing that he is indeed capeable of doing well in CT racing. Which was actually the main point to take with us in an otherwise sub-par race by our sprinters.
Theo Reinhardt losing the battle for the win against Boev
So we were still waiting for our first win of the year - and the hilly final stage looked perfect to change that! Unfortunately, Cyrille Thièry again didn't join the breakaway on what could have been a perfect terrain for him, but Hermann Pernsteiner, Mirco Saggiorato and, surprisingly, Andrea Manfredi all were able to stay inside the pack unti the last incline. As all the others, we didn't try a long-range attack - which we would have needed to maybe climb some spots in the GC. Nonetheless, Hermann Pernsteiner was in a great position heading onto the last kilometer - but as our sprinter, he launched his final push too early and clearly faded towards the line. He managed to grab a second 7th place, after he already (surprisingly) did so on stage 3. Mirco Saggiorato did a great job by staying with the puncheurs - but so did all the others, meaning he wasn't able to gain any places in the GC.
So in the end, Mirco Saggiorato took home our best GC result, taking 8th place. Hermann Pernsteiner in 14th and Andrea Manfredi in 21st scored some valuable points as well - as did Theo Reinhardt by taking 8th place in the points standings and Gino Mäder by doing the same in the U25 classification. And as a bonus, we finished 2nd in the team standings, which was worth some more points as well! All in all, we were way above our goal of 10 points per Race Day, taking almost 90 points in 6 days.
On the downside, we clearly missed out on the green jersey - and we're still waiting for our first "real" win of the year - not counting the team standings win in Ireland. Let's bring it home soon - it seems that the first one is always the hardest!
Not the stage win you hoped for but once again solid points in a field/GC which isn't even your "specialization" with Masnada still not in the team. I really believe that's one step closer to promotion once again for you this season Congratulations!
Nemo Thanks for the congrats, I appreciate
Eritrea went wrong in terms of sprints, but pretty well in terms of GC, so we still got the points we were hoping for. I guess that race would be well suited to a hybrid like Masnada, for sure - but I hope he won't be racing here next year, if you know what I mean
redordead I guess Pernie losing contact on stage 4 was due to bad positioning, that definitely shouldn't have happened. Had he been the team leader, I guess he'd have stayed up front. Well... the good thing for us is that even when things go wrong, this year we have a pretty good depth so someone else can jump in
Back in Europe! A Stage race in Scandinavia completes our round-the-world trip in March. With a prologue and three flat stages, this one seemed to be almost tailor-made for Tom Scully - except for the long time trial on day 4, of course.
But, let's make it short: our Kiwi sprinter had a true no-show, his best result in the whole race being a 26th place in the prologue. Especially his attitude on stage 4 - where he finished in the bottom 10, losing more than 9 minutes and being beaten by our worst time trialists!
The team management has decided that such underperformance and especially the attitude going with it is unacceptable. After deliberation, no disciplinary measures are taken this time, but a clear reaction is expected in Hungary for his next race!
But as often when a leader doesn't deliver, others can jump in. And this time, Benedikt Mundle definitely deserves the title of the "most aggressive rider" of the race! He attacked on all three flat stages - and brought home the KoM jersey! This is only our second KoM shirt after the one from Tour de Romandie last year - and definitely is an unexpected success by our "flat beast"! We indeed did have hopes to bring it home - but those were rather on Fabian Lienhard's shoulders. The Swiss didn't show his attacking spirit, though.
GC-wise, nothing worth noting can be said. With Nico Brüngger finishing 71st in the time trial, it was clear that no-one would make the Top 30. A bit disappointing, however, was that Stefan Bissegger wasn't able to keep up with similar/weaker time trialists, hence scoring no U25 points.
Overall, we leave with mixed feelings. While winning the KoM jersey of course feels great, Scully's no-show is pretty worrysome. But we're convinced we'll find what it takes to make him pull off some great results in his next races!
Benedikt Mundle bringing home our second ever KoM jersey!
March Summary
In February, the final race of the month was the best - this time, it's the worst. However, we had some great results in Barbados and Mexico by our top sprinter Reinhardt, and even Scully added a podium and another Top 10 finish in Malaysia/Singapore. Eritrea saw a strong season opener by our climbing department, and even a race where we completely messed up with our actual goals (Uppsala) still brought us some decent points. With an average of 12.7 points per race day, we're still above the goal of 10!
And that shows in the rankings! For the first time in team history, we top the CT rankings after three months, totalling already 636 points out of 44 race days! While our closest rivals have competed in less races so far, we still have a decent margin on them - and so far a stronger PpRD ratio. Most importantly, the gap to 6th place is already above 200 points, with less race days used - we can really say that things are going very well for us so far! While we don't expect to be at the top by the end of the year - as some less suited races and most (low-scoring) C2 racing are yet to come - it really looks like our boys have a great shot at promotion already this year! Let's keep rocking, although April will be much calmer for us!
And something else is worth noting: every single full-contract rider has scored at least one point so far - something we didn't achieve last year! Congratulations, boys!
Congratulations again! Reinhardt has been doing some great work, but so has the rest of your team. After a very strange second stage (regarding the breakaway) in Uppsala, it was nice to see Mundle ensure the KoM victory for a CT team. Probably one of the easiest wins of his life (and the only one? ).
Also nice to read everybody has scored at least one point (already), can't say that from my cycling team called FC Baugnies
Although not everything went as he had been hoping for in March, we still saw our name on top of the rankings - giving the whole team a huge boost for what's up next!
Next are three races that suit us pretty well, and then one on those strange roads. But let's tackle them one after the other. A total of four one-day races mean 1/3 of March's race days - so a rather calm month for us!
Apr 08 | Betonexpressz GP (C2HC)
Spoiler
Our first race of the month leads us to Hungary, where Marco Guillén got us an amazing 2nd place last year. And if he was able to survive the hills, this year's lead sprinter should do so, too:
Rider
Spr
Acc
Res
Rider
Spr
Acc
Res
Tom Scully
79
80
70
Cyrille Thièry
72
73
73
Pedro Merino Criado
77
79
68
Stefan Bissegger
69
70
69
Manuel Stocker
76
77
73
Nico Brüngger
63
66
70
Max Walscheid
74
75
70
Benedikt Mundle
59
69
73
After a big letdown in Sweden, Tom Scully directly gets a chance for redemption. There's really no excuse here, as we even bring Manuel Stocker to help Pedro Merino Criado preparing the sprint. Our greatest fear is that Benedikt Mundle will again try something on his own - which would likely end up as it did in Australia. If he decides to tear the pack apart and bring Scully into a great position instead, that could be a great race for us!
Expectations: Top 5
Best result so far: 2nd (2019, Marco Guillén)
Apr 10 | GP Izola (C2)
Spoiler
After a long break in March - despite the full calendar - the puncheurs will finally step back into action. Yet, due to the last part of the profile looking rather easy, we send a mixed puncheur - sprinter team:
Rider
Hi
Spr
Acc
Rider
Hi
Spr
Acc
Gianni Moscon
79
59
73
Theo Reinhardt
67
79
84
Hermann Pernsteiner
77
61
72
Issiaka Cissé
63
78
77
Fabian Lienhard
75
73
76
Manuel Stocker
65
76
77
Cyrille Thièry
74
72
73
Gino Mäder
68
67
63
If we get a hard race in the first half, Gianni Moscon should easily survive and even have enough left in the tank to launch an attack on the final kilometers - as he definitely doesn't want a bunch sprint to take place. Hermann Pernsteiner is here to protect him, whereas Fabian Lienhard and Cyrille Thièry both are decent sprinters and could go for yet another decent place.
On the other hand, if the race is really easy, Theo Reinhardt could well be in contention for the win. In hindsight, we should probably have swapped the sprinter line-ups between Hungary and Slovenia, but we are confident that Theo can still do well, despite his very bad climber skills. Issiaka Cissé and Manuel Stocker, his leadouts, will struggle even more - let's see if they'll have enough left to do some kind of sprint preparation.
Expectations: Top 5
Best result so far: N/A (new race)
Apr 19 | Coppa Placci (C2)
Spoiler
After Trofeo Laigueglia, this is our second goal race of the season - a Top 10 is expected in this hilly classic. The following riders are expected to bring home such a result:
Rider
Hi
Acc
Res
Rider
Hi
Acc
Res
Gianni Moscon
79
73
77
Mirco Saggiorato
73
72
74
Hermann Pernsteiner
77
72
71
Leonardo Basso
72
69
73
Fabian Lienhard
75
76
72
Gino Mäder
68
63
72
Cyrille Thièry
74
73
73
Stefan Bissegger
66
70
69
The course having changed a lot from last year, it's difficult to estimate how the race will unfold this year. What is sure is that this year's profile is better suited to pure puncheurs than to hybrid riders - but with Gianni Moscon and Hermann Pernsteiner we do anyway have two riders who don't care too much about a bit of climbing.
As it's a goal race, we send our six strongest hill riders, hence the support provided by Fabian Lienhard, Cyrille Thièry, climber Mirco Saggiorato and Leo Basso should be good enough to protect the leaders and to control the race. And we won't say no to some more depth result, for sure!
Expectations: Top 3
Best result so far: 14 (2019, Cyrille Thièry)
Apr 24 | Lincoln GP (C2HC)
Spoiler
The good news about this race: 4/7 of our cobbled race days will be done after it. Let's look at who will get tortured this time:
Rider
Cob
Hi
Spr
Rider
Cob
Hi
Spr
Leonardo Basso
73
72
71
Cyrille Thièry
60
74
72
Issiaka Cissé
63
63
78
Manuel Stocker
59
65
76
Benedikt Mundle
62
65
59
Pedro Merino Criado
57
68
77
Maximilian Walscheid
61
62
74
Fabian Lienhard
55
75
73
Our lineup would be fine for a non-cobbled race with the same profile - but it's about all we have to offer in terms of cobbles skills. Our hope will again be that Leo Basso can make use of his well-balanced skillset to score some minor points - and maybe one of the better puncheurs could try something early on and then hope for a slow pace. But it's not a race we have chosen, so we won't be mad if we can't get any points out of it.
Expectations: Top 20
Best result so far: 34 (2019, Patrick Gamper)
With only 4 races scheduled this month, some of our competitors might catch up a bit with us this month - but as we said in the March review, the gap to the first non-promoting spot is already pretty solid. Let's try to extend it further, despite the few races - we do have what it takes to score well in three out of these four races!
After a disappointing showing - or rather a no-show - by our sprinter Tom Scully in Sweden, he got his next chance to shine in Hungary. In this flat-rated one-day classic, team legend Marco Guillén - riding for Los Pollos Hermanos this year - sprinted to 2nd place last year. Which of course meant that Scully, who is superior to the Costa Rican in pretty much everything that doesn't involve pure sprinting speed, didn't need to fear the speed bumps at all.
Furthermore, we provided him a great leadout squad, including Manuel Stocker, Pedro Merino Criado, as well as flat beast Benedikt Mundle.
But while that sounded great in theory, we could already see that the duo Scully - Mundle doesn't work out at all, be it in Great Ocean Road Classic or in Tour of Uppsala. Once again, Mundle decided to not do any work in our sprinter's favor, but to launch an attack on his own.
And just like in Australia, he actually initiated (or at least participated in) the race-winning move - but was again not part of the winners. In fact, he was reeled in and finished down on 20th place.
This meant that Tom Scully wasn't protected at all on the closing kilometers, all other team members having been distanced earlier. And so, he only finished 13th - another extremely disappointing result in a flat one-day race. It's far off the Top 5 place we set as our internal goal, and not even getting a Top 10 result after having been rated the 2nd strongest sprinter team in the season previews is unacceptable. For sure, it can happen now or then - but two out of two is not very encouraging.
What is even more worrying is the fact that Scully and Mundle are sharing a lot of their race calendars. Scully hasn't been sprinting well so far - with one exception in Jelajah SKL - that's a fact. On the other hand, Mundle has regularly destroyed the sprint preparation by trying on his own instead of fitting the role of the pacemaker. By now, it is questionable if any of these two will get a spot in next year's roster - there's still plenty of time for them to prove they do. Up to them to step up - and to finally collaborate and deliver!
Fortunately, unlike in Sweden, this was just a one-day race - and we actually scored a few points. But now we want our puncheurs to show the sprinters how it's done!
Benedikt Mundle pulling later race winner Naesen (among others) away from the pack...
Indeed strange how Quispe managed to hold off riders like Mundle. Guess he had a very good day though. I definitely won't complain But still, only a small bump on the road to promotion (or the title?) for your team!
Nemolito wrote:
Indeed strange how Quispe managed to hold off riders like Mundle. Guess he had a very good day though. I definitely won't complain But still, only a small bump on the road to promotion (or the title?) for your team!
Yeah, hopes for promotion are getting pretty high now. For the title, Scully has to perform better, as Reinhardt has done much more races so far. But of course, anything's possible, as long as we keep scoring (even though sometimes it's just minor points, those count in the end, too).
We have just noticed that we haven't posted our update about the one-day hilly classic in Slovenia yet!
Well, as you may guess, we didn't quite get what we were hoping for from this race. With the course targetting puncheurs on the first and sprinters on the second half, we expected a messy race and a random outcome.
It finally wasn't that random, as the puncheurs clearly bossed this race. Kelderman won once again - which usually means that Gianni Moscon shouldn't be far away, either.
But he was. He apparently didn't have his best of days, being unable to follow the race winner's move on just slightly inclined roads - then tried to chase him down, but didn't get any help. And as expected, he didn't stand any chance in a sprint on flat roads, finally finishing on a disappointing 11th place. Behind a lot of guys he'd easily beat on the hills - but not in a messy finale like this one.
At least, Hermann Pernsteiner made it two in the Top 15, claiming 15th place. However, with this race being rated only C2, this result clearly doesn't bring us as many points as we were hoping it would. And if the profile remains the same, it's pretty likely that we won't choose to come back here if we don't have to.
However, the next hilly C2 race - Coppa Placci, one of our goal races - should suit our puncheurs better, having an uphill finish! Stay tuned!
Gianni Moscon trying to convince other riders to help with the chase - to no avail...
Barbados Cycling Festival (HC)
Jelajah SKL (C1)
Circulo de Juarez (C1)
Tour of Eritrea (C2HC)
Tour of Uppsala (C1)
Betonexpressz GP (C2HC)
Marco Guillén)
GP Izola (C2)
Coppa Placci (C2)
Lincoln GP (C2HC)
