The first year Herrada is at 82, let's see if he can manage to fulfill Liberty's long dream of winning the Tour. We have had some misfortune in the past (most notable 2016, 2017, 2019) but still always got something from the race eventually, so here is hoping that in the 7th attempt the stars align.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Well we've got Caruso at the Tour, but the startlist is a lot stronger than I was hoping for, so probably we'll have to rely on breakaway luck. Villella is at the Asmara Cup where he can hopefully grab a podium.
Strong team in Asmara with both Yates and Degenkolb. Hopefully it pays off. Both Dombrowski and Craddock are in the Tour along with a decent support team, so hoping for a decent performance. Probably Kreder's last chance to do something meaningful for us. As always, looking forward to the U23s, with Ilsanker a Top 5 contender in San Michel.
Looks like I forgot to do a little July preview here before the racing started...
Österreich is already halfway done, so my thoughts on that are in the racing thread. Kigali has been covered there as well.
Beyond those two races, our big showing this month is in Vancouver, with our penultimate focus race of the season giving us another major opportunity at important budget gains.
Bardet and the WT climbers are gone again, but Nerz is back in their stead.
We NEED to make up for the two losses against him lately, we can't afford to lose that battle this season.
Besides bringing our A squad in terms of climbing prowess, we have Schnaidt+train present as well to make the most out of every single scoring opportunity in light of this being a focus race.
Considering the top sprinters highlighted in the preview are 78s, I'm hopeful Schnaidt can use his 77sp in the three flat stages and feature in the fight for green, although interestingly every flat stage comes with its obstacles, potentially bringing Herklotz in the mix as well. This is what we did that weird training for this off-season!
With a mountain prologue to start the race, we need to finally put our wildly random TT performances to rest and stamp our authority on the race on day 1. Stage win, yellow, KoM and green on day 1 would be a massive points influx and likely guarantee yellow for three days.
The first mountain stage on day 4 is tailor-made for Herklotz, with a flat finish allowing him to utilize his superior sprint if he fails to produce gaps before.
Stage 6 features a steep final kilometre though, it's all about the MO stat there.
And if those three opportunities aren't enough to decide the race yet, we again need to defeat the randomness on the final TT and make sure the best stage racer present takes the GC.
Significantly less important than Vancouver, the Volta a Portugal is a chance for our climbing domestiques to lead a race, while we're taking a big gamble bringing Plarre and Schnaidt as well to attack every single stage.
The goal is to leech off the stronger teams in the hilly and flat stages to pounce late and go for podium results and to shine through consistency, with Plarre possessing a good sprint for the hilly stages and Schnaidt dealing with hills quite well too which should allow both to be at the pointy end of every stage.
From MG experience, this race tends to break apart over its first 8 stages, so it can't be predicted whether Breuer gets to utilize his decent MO-TT combo in the final third of the race to go for a GC result.
It might be more likely that our focus on Plarre and Schnaidt sees them finish higher up in the GC. And let's not forget Schnaidt has 72mo as a sprinter!
Afte rthe very good June and July months, August will be a bit of a longshot for us. VDP could be potentially good or could potentially score nothing. However the U25 could be a nice prize in that race.
Course du lac Annecy is this year without Herrada and in most other races we dont have anything worthy to note.
I have videos for USA PCC which is going to be quite a rollercoaster and Eneco Tour, also good race but could use a bit more variance than just cobbles cobbles cobbles imho
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Quite a few opportunities for Langlois and Bennett to do something in August. Langlois especially, I'd like to see get a couple of consistent results from him in CT level where we have some favorable startlists. Martin is nearing the end of his career, and a win somewhere would be good, although he'll have plenty more chances in the fall classics still.
I'd also like to see Desjardins have a good race in Denmark. I didn't give him a ton of opportunities scheduling wise this year, but he's kind of sucked in the chances he's gotten. Favorable field for him to do something there.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Competition will probably be too strong for us in most C1 races. Depending on the toughness of the race, Zabel could do well in San José, but World Ports Classic has got too insane of a startlist for him to have any chance.
Chamorro in USA could go either way - anything from crashing out to Top 5 could be possible.
Rio is our only C2 race this month, and Zabel appears among the favorites once more (even though the team isn't listed among the participants). Let's hope we can shine again on our home continent
Ollero could do well in Mauritius, and our sprinters might get some results, too. All in all, another pretty busy month, with loads of C1 racing - high scoring potential means high potential for failure, too, though ^^
Northern Europe - Kittel's last big chance and also Vattenfall. World Ports attracts 4 major PT sprinters, I guess it fit nicely in the calendar. Hopefully Benoot's combo hills and cobble will play in Eneco but not optimistic, 15 tends to like riders with focused skill sets.
Hoping August brings better luck. We're near the top of favourites for a few races and hope we can live up to that. The last two months has been poor, hopefully we can get back to our form in the first half of the season.
We've got Majka in Annecy, Cav in Hamburg and ToNE, Sagan in the Eneco Tour and San Sebastian. Tough competition in that WC race. Both main and dev team will also make an appearance in RideLondon, can't miss a race on home soil.
I am looking forward to Gran Premio San José and USA Pro Cycling Challenge. We have no expectations there facing strong competition, but it will be an interesting experience for us. Lander is among the favorites at Tour do Rio and Boivin at Criterium Hainleite so perhaps we could add some good results under the belt.
Silvio's last stage race (and our last focus race) of the season in the US is approaching, with absolutely zero excuses for not winning the opening time trial and wear yellow from start to finish.
It's about time we win the TT lottery once.
With five perfect stages for his skillset and quite easy opposition in the two flat stages, we need to be in close contention to win the points jersey here, and at least get close to the KoM jersey as well.
Nerz is obviously back to ruin our day once again, but I'm confident we can keep him behind.
Auer, Breuer and Runge are again here to help Herklotz, while we also bring Schnaidt plus leadouts to make use of the expectedly weaker sprinter lineup here with only two opportunities present.
So I know this again sounds crazy, but we should be able to finish in the top 3 on all seven stages.
Beyond that obvious standout race of the month, Herklotz also lines up for his first WT race of the year in France,
with THE perfect profile for him.
As long as he can stick with the slightly better climbers over the mountains, he should easily be the best sprinter left in the front group coming into the flat finish.
There are no expectations for this as it's merely a test to help us prepare Silvio's schedule for next season, but there's certainly all to play for!
A reoccuring theme this season is me underestimating the WT presence in C.1 classics, and we again are heavily outclassed in a few of those these months, which will be a blow to our promotion chances.
On the other hand, San Jose and Rio offer unique opportunities to surprise with their weird routes, while we bring a versatile squad to our home race Hainleite to cover all race outcomes and hopefully get a podium there.
Our cobblers in the UK, being a home race for Adams, can hopefully surprise as well for once.
Not that much going on for us in August to be honest. It's mostly praying that Jungels or Puccio can surprise in the Tour of Northern Europe or in the Eneco Tour.
Tour of Northern Europe 05.08 - 12.08
Mauritius Sun Tour 17.08 - 19.08
