Yeah, I imagine that WT was really too high level for him but in CT is just amazing at least until now.
He really surprised me with his performance in each and every race.
With the Amstel Gold Race the World Cup competition has reached the half-way mark. Here is Sagan's scorecard:
Sagan 2020
Pos
Pts
Palm Classic
Sprint
WT
3
60
Clasica di Tirreno - Adriatico
Sprint
CT.1
10
12
Milano - Sanremo
Sprint
WT
10
12
Vattenfall Cyclassics
Sprint
WT
Paris - Tours
Sprint
WT
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Cobbles
WT
4
50
Gent-Wevelgem
Cobbles
WT
16
5
Ronde van Vlaanderen
Cobbles
WT
9
14
Paris - Roubaix
Cobbles
WT
1
100
Richmond Criterium
Cobbles
CT.1
Strade Bianche
Hills
WT
5
40
Roma Maxima
Hills
CT.1
1
100
Amstel Gold Race
Hills
WT
3
60
Liège - Bastogne - Liège
Hills
WT
Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian
Hills
CT.1
Bucaramanga Classic
Hills
WT
Il Lombardia
Hills
WT
x
x
Trofeo Campania
TimeTrial
WT
x
x
GP Luxembourg
TimeTrial
CT.1
Chrono des Nations
TimeTrial
CT.1
x
x
Total
453
At this point last season he had accumulated 388 points, we are proud to report that he scored even better so far in 2020. Next up is LBL where we don't expect much, later he will miss 3 of the 20 races, the two long time trials as well as Il Lombardia, which Majka will captain. Cavendish also rides the sprint races so Sagan will only play second fiddle in Hamburg and Tours.
However, he has four further opportunities to score well: GP Luxembourg (5th last season), Richmond (3rd), Bucamaranga (3rd) and the Clasica San Sebastian (which he missed last year).
Here we are with the start of hottest races of the season for our team! Phinney takes the field, and he will be very busy with 4 classics, including 3 WT level. GC riders will compete just for 3 days at Criterium International, while calendar is filled with other 2 CT classics for sprinters. Time for real evaluation of the team, how far can we go?
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Bingo! Phinney strikes it at his debut with the most important victory in team history: a home WT classic!
Unfortunately the team lacked in supporting him in final kms, and he looked struggling on last cobbled sectors, forced to take water on his own in a crucial phase of the race, while GVK was forcing the pace. This also will result in poor deep score.
But in the end there's no space for complaints, perfect positioning in the last km, and winning sprint among a selected group with the best riders.
Clasica Tirreno Adriatico
The race starts well with Zingle joining the break, but in the end it was quite selective for our team. Hofland managed to arrive with the peloton, which was anyway fighting for the 3rd place after that a couple of riders were able to leave the rest, but he reported some cramps at the finish, preventing him to sprint in the best condition achieving just a 20th position.
Dwars door Vlaanderen
The only CT cobbled race of the month, the team is the best we can line up for this terrain. Van Goethem jumps into the early break, which survives for many kms. Again GVK makes it hard, but this time more riders were able to endure to the finish. We approached the last km with 3 riders in the main group, but the tricky finish didn't allow Phinney to sprint properly and collecting a mere 11th. Broeckx who was supposed to drive him for the final meters found himself in a good position catching a good 7th. Even Stuyven who was in the main group, managed to get into top15: 14th. Good deep scoring for this race despite we were quite far from the podium.
København Byrundtur
Second classic suited for sprinters. Again Nass shows his estrus, attacking from the beginning, with 5 men breaking away. Like the past year when Hofland and Bille stretched the peloton with a definitive move, again a couple of riders stray away to the finish line. Moreno is a bit late, and ends up just a step behind the podium.
E3 Prijs Vlaanderen - Harelbeke
Back on the cobbles, back at WT level. The race was quite in control for our team until GVK inflamed it on Oude Kwaremont. Many riders weren't able to keep the head of the peloton, and also Phinney had to work hard to hold the wheels. After the last selection there are still just 7 riders in front, and Taylor is there, who eventually finishes in 4th position in a fair sprint. In the second group Declercq and an exhausted Stuyven managed to arrive 16th and 18h. Last point is grabbed by Broeckx 39th.
In France we line up one of the best mountain team, hoping that Talansky can outmarch pure climbers on the TT, and then defend his gap on the last stage, despite the high level of the startlist.
We are not expecting so much from the first stage, just keep safe and save energies in the middle of the peloton, so it was, in a very fast day.
Great ride by Talansky who got the win in the TT, we were believing in a good results, but this is amazing!
Unfortunately he had a bad day during the last stage, struggling on the last climb and arrived outside the top10 more than 3 minutes behind the stage and eventually tour winner Herklotz. Engeldinger, who has been important for Andrew in supporting him, wasn't enough to maintain a top10 spot, with both leaders finishing 11th and 12th in GC. Good race for Bakelants 14th. In team ranking we obtained a great 2nd, just15" behind Pedal Africa.
Gent . Wevelgem
Last race of the month, back home in Belgium. Wauters attacks in just two men breakaway. The team looks quite distracted, losing members here and there when the race goes harder, and Phinney remains alone in a reduced peloton. In the last Km he has to fight hard to maintain position but he is very unlucky in choosing the side of the road where he gets bottled behind, almost brushing barriers. Forced to stop pedaling, he didn't sprint to the line at all finishing last. This is the worst result for him in classics until now. Broeckx and Stuyven arrived outside the top20 but scoring few points.
Aleko: A fascinating race we have avoided so far but look forward to this season. Allrounder Lasse Norman Hansen was 14th in 2019, maybe he repeat that performance.
Lincoln: The only WT classic on British soil is our home race and it's also our second focus race. Everything rests solely on the shoulders of Peter Sagan, though Stannard and Dibben could score minor points. Sagan has won the race three years running, it suits him perfectly.
Giro: Tao and Ruben share the leadership for the Italian Grand Tour. They are joined in the mountains by Simon, Guerin, Lowsley as well as young Gao Lei. Arndt is our sprinter, though without any support. It's the third consecutive GT for Geoghegan Hart, he reached the top 10 in last year's Tour and Vuelta, it'd be impressive if he could do the same in the Giro.
Sochi: Having rested since the Basque Tour, Majka is back in action for our third focus race. He is the top favourite for the first time, let's hope he doesn't cave under the pressure, winning our first WT stage race would be huge. But there is a TTT ahead of the queen stage which will put him on the back foot, plus his hill and mountain support is very limited. Nonetheless, if he misses the podium we'd be very disappointed.
Jersey redesign: We have started work on the 2021 BP jersey. In the 2020 version the logo and the rest of the jersey don't separate very well. After some experimentation we came up with the following idea:
@Ripley We clash in Aleko, so good luck to me! Seriously, good luck on your races! I like the new jerseys, particularly the second one, the one on the right.
As for the new jersey (the one on the right): I came up with the idea of superimposing two logos on two of each other, one large, one small, and that's how I got the extra layer of "leaves" which I coloured white. I'm pleased with myself it actually worked, it seemed a pretty wild theory.
The information appeared like a bolt from the sky. It's not confirmed yet, but according to few cycling newspages, CCC is about to end sponsorship at the end of the current season. We are not quite sure what it means for the future of this team and Polish cycling. CCC has been with this team since it's creation in 2016 having 35 wins (so far) throughout this amazing journey finally archieving what seemed impossible - WT promotion. CCC had massive struggle in transfer season finding new names to join this team. The fact is, it was all about money. CCC had the lowest budget between WT teams for current season and that probably was main reason many riders had to leave this team. In return CCC was able to find required 25 riders but management wasn't happy with how transfer season turned out for CCC. We aren't sure, but it might be another reason why CCC is about to leave after this season. In 2019 CCC Sprandi Polkowice in some sort of miracle wasn't relegated so in this year many riders got more of a freedom in terms of their calendar and maybe searching for a new team. Riders are fighting hard on the road for the team to not get relegated after current season ends. We don't know yet if CCC will completely close the project or just sell it's license to new sponsor. We will keep you updated.
In the meantime CCC Sprandi Polkowice management is presenting to you a bit of recap of spring campaign by CCC riders excluding secondary classification results:
Ronde: On this tame variant it was a mistake for Sagan to attack with 18 km to go. He couldn't cause a further selection and even continued pulling the group once the others caught back up to him. His sprint from the front was over as soon as it started and the other 8 riders left him behind by a whole minute.
Ster ZLM Tour: We struggled to bring Cav into a good position on 4 out of 5 stages: 13th, 11th, 17th and 10th were very disappointing results. Thankfully, on the second day everything worked perfectly and he won that stage. It allowed him to finish 6th overall, though he was only 10th in the points ranking. On top of the stage win we were also happy with our youngsters, Wagner finished 13th, Diederich 22nd, right behind Dibben.
Paris-Roubaix: It's pure joy to report that we won our first ever monument! The sly fox Sagan did everything right this time. He reacted quickly to any late attacks and outsprinted Vanmarcke for the prestigious victory. A massive win, our biggest ever, making our new sponsor very happy.
Campania: All three of our riders could have finished outside the top 45, we had to hope that one of them has a TT performance of a lifetime. And Lasse Norman Hansen did, 21st is an excellent result for him. Which makes it yet another race where we did better than last season, Geraint was only 28th.
Amstel Gold: Sagan could not quite defend his title. He was at the front of the group at the crest of the Cauberg and started his sprint early in the hope nobody could hold onto his rear wheel. But Simon Yates and Mollema did and outsprinted him. Of course, 3rd is another great result nonetheless.
Fleche: Sagan finished 13th, a fair result considering there wasn't much of a selection before the final Mur. Still a lot better than last season, back then our best rider was Hardy as 44th.
LBL: The race was similarly passive, but this time it probably helped Peter, he was 11th, a very good result for him. Altogether he's had a great season so far, he was very consistent. Garcia, promoted from our dev team, represented us in the breakaway and held on to finish 34th.
World Tour Scoring 2020
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Total
Majka
169
169
Cavendish
2
420
167
589
Sagan
150
544
629
1323
Hart
132
132
Fernández
30
4
34
Stannard
23
6
29
Arndt
Dibben
46
80
126
Pöstlberger
4
4
Cano
27
27
Wagner
70
70
Simón
3
3
Guerin
Garcia
7
7
Christian
2
3
5
Lei
Meyer
2
2
Hansen
18
18
Lowsley-W
Cuming
McCluskey
Diederich
17
17
D. v. Winden
5
5
S. v. Winden
Birch
Total
184
169
1200
1007
2560
RDs
7
6
20
17
28
19
23
19
33
8
180
Pts/RD
26.3
28.2
60.0
59.2
51.2
WT Rank
13
12
3
2
2
Another great haul from Sagan, also nice to see that other riders got onto the scoresheet. Arndt is our sprinter for the Giro, I hope he'll finally start scoring, he was invisible so far. Stannard extremely disappointing, though I should be happy that the much younger Dibben already scored more points than in the whole 2019 season.
This will likely be the most important month of the season, we need a great push in rankings if we want to believe in promotion. Cobblers team is again very busy, with the two monuments where we got the wildcard, plus another CT.2 classic and two short stage races, in particular there's the focus race of De Panne. Phinney also scheduled for Campania ITT, a WT event. For climbers and GC riders there are Trentino for CT.1 category, and our first mini-GT in South Africa. Last but not least, there's Ster ZLM Tour, a flat WT stage race, the chance for sprinters, but considering the startlist, we don't have many expectations. A special consideration to Rheden GP as focus race too.
Tour of South Africa
This mini-GT starts with plenty of enthusiasm, knowing that Engeldinger is one of the best climber on the field. The plan is to limit the losses in the prologue, and then attack on the mountains.
The start is not one of the best but luckily the short distance don't make heavy gaps.
After a couple of quiet stages for us, Charles takes 4th stage with a great uphill sprint, giving us a boost of confidence for the further stages. Again another stage where we rode safely in front of the pack, and then the uphill TT, with a decent 5th place, but quite far from the winner who shows his good shape. We approach mountains knowing to play aggressively, but something doesn't work, Charles is driven to the finish 3 minutes behind the winner by Bakelants, resizing our expetations. In 9th stage is the same story, or even worse, Charles never looks able to follow the best riders and reaches the finish line 26th again more than 3 minutes behind.
It looks like a complete disaster, but a day later he take advantage of being out of GC contention, and storms for a second stage win. Everything regular in last stage, Van Zummeren joins the break, but it's again sprinter stuff at the finish. Engeldinger close it at 9th place in GC, while Bakelants in 16th. For sure not what we expected, and again seems that something is not working well on the climbs like earlier in the season. We should work on it.
Ronde van Vlaanderen
Here we are with the first monument in just a week. The profile of this edition doesn't look the best to make selection, and our plan is to bring Phinney as far as we can with the best guys, and try to win in a reduced bunch sprint. Many sprinters were able to keep the pace until last kms, so Taylor tried to surprise everyone with a solo move. Unfortunately riders behind succeeded to organize a successfull chase, bringing back some fast wheels who didn't condone that move. Taylor was anyway good enough to sprint for the 3rd, that's an awsome result for us! Declercq 16th, Stuyven 28th, Broeckx 29th and Wauters 47th score some deep points.
Ster ZLM Tour
Sprint race in 5 stages. We realize that the field here is too strong, so we try something with breaks. In first stage is Nass who join a three-men attack with not luck. Then nothing until 4th stage with Declercq, the break reach the finish with the peloton very close to a comeback. He isn't a fast rider, in fact ends the stage with a 4th place. In the last stage it's Zingle's turn. Again the break holds on to the finishline, some riders were anyway caught by the peloton, but not Romain who finish in 5th position. Hofland, the designed leader, had a really disappointing race, never in the top10.
Paris - Roubaix
Second monument in the Hell of the North, We expect to finish in the top10 with Phinney, knowing that we can also reach the podium. Taylor rides safe until the end, but in the decisive moment at the entrance of the velodrome, he is not well placed in the small group, and when the split happens, he is in the wrong side of the party. 7th place behind GVK who again looked good but missed the right move. Declercq, Broeckx and Stuyven are again inside the points spots, despite finishing quite far this time.
Giro del Trentino
CT.1 race where we bring both our GC leaders, we saw in previous races the importance of numbers in this terrain. Initial TTT made us consider most all-rounders than pure climbers. This brought to a low time loss, just 16". In 2nd Stage Engeldinger get a great 2nd place behind a brillant Preidler, at the back some favourites lost many minutes. In the following stage there's another 2nd place for Charles, but Preidler is more than 2 minutes late. Now we have just 4" to the new race leader Pulido, who looks weaker than Engeldinger in mountains, but he is very tenacious. After a transition stage, in the final day everything could happen. The daily break counts some important climbers, who were left behind in previus days. Despite dropping the GC leader, Charles is not able to follow the decisive attack, and loses some time to few riders. Unfortunately Konrad wasn't too far in GC and maintain 20" ahead. 2nd in GC is anyway a great result, and we showed improvements in mountain stages where we wasted many occasions. Nice to have also 3rd in both points and KOM classifications.
Rheden GP
First focus classic for us this season, expecting again a good result. The team control the whole race avoiding that any breakaway got more than a minute, and with the fast pace in the final, just 16 riders survived. Phinney is well supported with a great leadout by Declercq and win the sprint! Tim is still ahead enough to finish 4th, while Broeckx who run last km super fast to avoid attacks, finish at the bottom 16th. Stuyven is 19th, right behind first group. Well done!
Trofeo Campania
ITT selected to allow Phinney to score some points, confident he can finish inside top10 and maybe in the higher half. We avoided to bring Talansky, our second best time trialist, because of the WT competition. So team's startlist is filled by Bakelants and Van Zummeren, with the first surprisingly able to score a point in lasts useful positions. Taylor rides with good pace in 5th, and we are happy about it, the result is important for both Prestige and World Cup Rankings.
4 Jours de Dunkerque
We approach the last race of the month with cautious optimism. Unfortunately Phinney has a limited amount of racedays, and we had to chose just two races between De Panne, Dunkirk and Eneco Tour. Being a ITT in other two, we let him rest for this, but the entire cobblers team is there, in a very similar team to the last season one.
First stage we are all in for Hofland, the train works well, but in the end Moreno didn't finalize the task, in a quite disappointing 5th, behind slower riders. Stage 2 is disappointing as well, with race leader Viviani opening a gap in the final km with only Lander able to follow the move and eventually winning the stage. The 3rd stage is less selective than expected, the team tries to make it hard, but a big group reach the finishline, without major losers. Day 4 doesn't bring any big news despite the opportunities offered by the profile, and in last stage our best is very far from the front. At least Aerts joined the break. GC is impetuous: Stuyven 10th, Broeckx 13th and Declercq 18th, in a race which we should fight for the podium.
Say hello to Dominik, my mink (in German: Nerz). I'll pick one of your riders as a reward
!!!Breaking news!!!
Steven Stiller on his way to Tierra del Fuego!
As a reward for finding our beloved Dominik (what a cutie btw), Magnum - Madshus has agreed upon sending Steven Stiller to complete the season for manager Fabianski. Stiller brings 22 years of experience with him, as well as a potential of 3 and important skills such as flat 65, fighter 66 and an astonishing average of 62,1. We hope our Argentinian friends enjoy his fighting spirit! As they would say in German: "Wer den Pfennig nicht ehrt ist des Talers nicht wert."
Deutschland Tour: It was a tough decision whether Sagan should race here or do the Tour of Northern Europe or possibly even Toowoomba. He's not a podium candidate in any case, maybe he can pull off a top 10, maybe he can win a stage. Cavendish is also here, he seems to like the race and has won several stages over the years, but the competition is great.
Guatemala: Our fourth focus race concentrates on Majka, with help from Tao Hart, who once again has a good chance of winning the white jersey. Majka was 3rd last season, we'd be happy if he could achieve that again. On paper he should only be beaten by Herrada, a lot depends on the form on the brutal queen stage.
Fuji: For the first time since joining our team Fernandez has sole leadership in a race, we'll see how he handles himself. A top 10 result would be a big success. His recent Giro performance was fairly promising, if it hadn't been for a crash which cost him half an hour.
Luxembourg: Another new race for us, the only prologue race on the calendar is part of the World Cup so Sagan is here to collect more points. Last season he was 5th, we have no idea if he can repeat that performance.
Suisse: We booked this stage race to give our young riders more experience and we hope they'll join breakaways. Wagner should try to partake in mass sprints, on paper he could make the top 10.
Ardennes: We send a very similar line-up to the Circuit des Ardennes. Again, we are only hoping to join breakaways, all our riders seem well suited for the hilly terrain.
From idea to a working project, from dream to reality 5 months have passed. The euphoria of putting together the cycling project of Cadejo – BikeXpress has helped overcome all the challenges and tedious work of building a solid and valid foundation, from finding chain oil providers to discovering the best valued traveling methods, from keeping the team facilities clean and properly running to hiring coaches and scouts, from recruitment of riders to offering them the best possible conditions of developing and competing. 5 months have passed and although from time to time moments of tension and disagreements sprang out the initial excitement has hardly waned.
One challenge the team hasn’t been able to overpass is missing the transfer window before it joined the ICL circuit. The concept of offering a chance to outcasts and misfits to shine isn’t lost on our cycling project, but that stuff is encountered more often in Hollywood movies than in real life. Although the team manager wouldn’t mind at all to have a project similar to the old Oakland Raiders (the NFL team closest to his heart, just because they were those badass misfit outsiders) this is easier said than done. Nonetheless, although snatched from the open market, all the cyclists who signed a contract with Cadejo – BikeXpress were received with opened arms. Young and old, starting their career or approaching its end, they all were met with no result expectations, with the demands of just being themselves, dream big and race hard. At least for this incipient season. And they responded with their best efforts, achieving what the team manager considers to be a successful half-season in the given conditions. With a couple of victories under the belt and a quite solid showing of the team’s colors DarkWolf believes the foundation stone of his project is solidly set.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Clasica Tirreno Adriatico
København Byrundtur
Critérium International
Latvijas Balzams - Olainfarm: May Preview
Seriously, good luck on your races! I like the new jerseys, particularly the second one, the one on the right.
Caleb Ewan
Nikita Umerbekov
Mateusz Nowaczek
Tour of South Africa 
Ster ZLM Tour 
CADEJO - BIKEXPRESS - HALF-SEASON REVIEW
Vuelta a Guatemala and 
Gran Premio San José. DarkWolf pointed, however, that, as much as he would like to, the team is not ready to compete with success in such races at the moment, considering they will face the fierce competition of the WT teams there. He considers that the team’s riders will be exposed to unnecessary pressure and unjustified expectations. At that particular meeting one could hear a pin drop around the headquarters, if one could ignore all the angry shouting, desk pounding and doors slamming coming from the conference room. The sponsors will not budge though and the team is left with 2 extremely challenging focus races. The atmosphere eased up in the meantime (hopefully this isn’t just a resentful stalemate) and all the staff and riders look with optimism to the future. The entire team will continue to put everything on the table for that future to shine brightly.
Guillaume Boivin
Tour de San Luis
Yelko Gomez
