Despite another decline from Uran I think you have improved the team with more depth and Poljanski is a very good addition. Interested to see if all the bananas spent on Zepuntke will be worth it
redordead wrote:
Despite another decline from Uran I think you have improved the team with more depth and Poljanski is a very good addition. Interested to see if all the bananas spent on Zepuntke will be worth it
Zepuntke's training was never really planned, I just needed to get rid of a lot of bananas
Ollfardh wrote:
I have to agree EBH can't be worse than Betancur or Claeys. You definitely have a better squad than last year!
With great pleasure we can announce our calendar for the upcoming season. The full calendar can be found on our bulletin board, but we have a special mention for the five wildcard races. In these races we will fight against the PT teams, but unfortunately cannot score points:
Tour of Tasmania
A race the manager has visited the past three years, when it was held in October. Now it's in January and we will be participating ourselves! A flat stage, a hilly stage and a time trial, three areas in which we have stellar riders.
/Copenhagen-Malmo TTT
A team time trial event in which we also participated in 2019, where we finished in thirteenth place. Can we beat that result?
Ronde van Nederland
Three flat stages but held in the least flat part of the Netherlands. We can go for a sprint setup mixed with attacking prowess.
Rund um Koln
A simple sprinters classic. Prepare for a train with yellow-blue riders.
Tour of Northern Europe
A mix of everythig in multiple countries: team and individual time trial, cobbles, hilly and flat stages. We want our entire team here but hard choices have to be made.
---
Additionally, we reveal which four races and ranking position have a special goal attached.
Tour of Ukraine - Top 5
Two time trials and a hilly stage. Do we have a rider which fits the bill?
Tour de Vineyards - Top 5
A team time trial, a time trial and a mountain stage. Do we have a rider which fits the bill?
Tour de Slovenie - Win
A team time trial, a time trial and two hilly stages. Do we have a rider which fits the bill?
Bayern Rundfahrt - Top 5
Two time trials and a mountain stage. Do we have a rider which fits the bill?
PCT Team Standings - Top 5
Four season in the PCT, this will be our fifth. Will this finally be the year we move to the top step?
The 2021 season has finally started! Will we kick off with a bang or wish the winter break lasted longer?
Down Under Classic
A race which will end in a sprint, but we prefer Vesely surfing the other trains instead of making our own as we sacrificed sprinter support during the transfer season. Apparently the riders didn't get this new instuction as we did construct a train which derailed before it even got underway. Vesely only got to a disappointing sixteenth place.
Rating:
False start.
Tour of Tasmania
Our manager suggested this race as a beatiful excursion, having been in the commentary booth for the last three seasons. As wildcard, we could not score points, but did bring a very strong squad including the debut for Hagen. On stage one, Kalaba was robbed of a podium on the opening stage by a rival manager unleashing a bunch of kangaroos on the jury. Hagen did get to the podium on stage two but had to concede the victory to Phinney. Uran was our best finisher on the closing time trial in thirteenth. Overall, Hagen finished twenty-second.
Rating:
Now the season is underway.
Hong Kong Challenge
Another race where our manager has previous experience, thus realising this might be a nice opportunity for Uran to score some points. While he remained with the pack on stage one, and put himself in a favorable position after the time trial, he completely lost track on the final stage to finish in seventy-fourth. In the GC he dropped to fourteenth where he should have been in the top ten minimum. Two positives though, Poljanski with the back-up in eighteenth and Ivanov attacking his way to become King of the Mountains.
Rating:
Two bananas for the positives.
Franceville Classique
Zepuntke spent the entire winter training and we were looking forward to see the results! The racing itself was promising, because he was able to follow attacks. The end result of twelfth was a tad disappointing though.
Rating:
All the training not yielding better results.
Rankings
Pos
Team
Total
RD
pprd
projected
1
Red Bull Zalgiris
416
21
19,81
3467
2
Podium Ambition
344
10
34,40
6020
3
Bralirwa - Stevens
337
9
37,44
6553
4
Los Pollos Hermanos
303
21
14,43
2525
5
Team UBS
301
13
23,15
4052
---
21
Minions
89
7
12,71
2225
The season hasn't gone off to the best of starts, but other teams apparently have been worse. As long as everything is uphill from here, we won't complain just yet.
Not the best start of the season for one of my favourite teams. I hope your riders soon understand that their vacation is over and they need to start scoring.
@Nemolito - Some riders still seem to have their head in the sand
FEBRUARY REVIEW
.
January was poor, so February has to be better. It might even be more of the same and god no please not worse. Only good results, please!
Copenhagen-Malmo TTT
A wildcard race so no points on offer, but we would like to show the world how awesome our team time trial squad is. Against strong opposition we took ninth place, but lost out from the unofficial PCT competition against Project:Africa by three seconds. That team did feature two of our former riders so we can claim some of their success.
Rating:
If only we could get points for this race.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Zepuntke's first race of the season was not amazing, but we are now back on more regular cobblestone territory. The problem is that this race also contains hills which he does not really like. He struggled all day and only finished in twentieth place, and even two places behind Sweeck.
Rating:
Would have been negative bananas if not for the Belgian.
GP Herning
Time for revanche as the circus moves to Denmark, except Zepuntke was barred entrance as this is a C2 race. Lindeman won this race last season, but could not repeat it. He finished nineteenth but fourth amongst our riders, as De Witte (6th), Sweeck (8th) and Marcos did even better!
Rating:
Perhaps leaving Zepuntke at home is the answer?
Tour of Ukraine
Two time trials and a hilly stage, which is the perfect recipe for Uran nowadays. P14 on the opening stage already put him on the back foot but nothing was lost yet. The hope of victory was gone after stage two where the Colombian lost two minutes. On the final stage he finished ninth, which combined into tenth GC. Not exactly a golden result, especially considering he was ten seconds off seventh, but definitely better than previous races.
Rating:
I have to draw bananas from somewhere.
Tour of Southland
Hagen makes his official debut so perhaps we can finally celebrate something, and we even bring Vesely for the three flat stages. The opening stage was flat and Vesely's train looked good, but only finish seventh. Stage two was hilly where Hagen finished tenth but in the same time as the stage winner. Back to the sprint with Vesely coming from far behind to eighth. Stage four was the queen stage but ended in disaster with eighteenth for Hagen as well as a time loss, dropping him out of the GC contention. Duchesne did good though with a fifteenth place. And to get out of this race at least somewhat happy, Vesely won the stage.
Rating:
Bananas courtesy of the latter two.
Pro Hallstatt Classic
Mountain, downhill, mountain, rinse, repeat. With Uran occupied elsewhere, Marquez and Poljanski were given leadership instead without much pressure. Haga and Sweeck were in the break, the latter for a short period but the former was one of the last of the group to be caught. Marquez became our best finisher in 37th, one place ahead of Ivanov.
Rating:
No expectations.
Rankings
Pos
Last
Team
Total
RD
PpRD
Proj
1
23
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
921
34
27,09
4741
2
9
Duolingo
686
31
22,13
3873
3
21
Red Bull Zalgiris
686
42
16,33
2858
4
24
Team UBS
579
34
17,03
2980
5
4
Bralirwa - Stevens
576
30
19,2
3360
---
20
16
Minions
253
21
12,05
2109
Two months in and we're just outside the relegation zone. We cannot afford to drop even further. The performances have been poor and need to improve drastically, otherwise searious measures have to be implemeted to guarantee our survival. Next month is very busy so plenty of opportunity to make us happy.
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Yes, we know it's almost the end of April, so we're already more than a month behind and falling back to old habits. Time to tell our awesome viewers what happened to us last month!
Barbados Cycling Festival
Vesely went into the race as defending champion, so we had high hopes for this one. Not only could he not replicate his win from last year, he could not even finish in the top ten on any stage. Despite proper leadouts from Hodeg, an eighteenth place on the final stage became his highest classification. Due to bonus seconds from an intermediate sprint, he even finished behind Selander, who took twenty-second overall.
Rating:
Pathetic.
Jelajah SKL
Two hilly-ish stages mixed with two very short time trials. Having seen Kemboi win the race last season with his own eyes, the manager thought Kalaba could deliver a similar performance. He was not wrong. The Serbian lost two seconds on the prologue, and with a third place on the second stage he moved to that same position overall. He did hang onto the front group in the hilly stage to finish third again, but a mediocre epilogue dropped him back to fourth. Behind him, Haga had a mediocre prologue but slowly moved his way up, and by taking second on the epilogue (losing out behind the dot) he finished fifth overall. More minor points from Kalaba as he won the youth classification.
Rating:
The manager knows what he's talking about.
Vuelta al Pais Vasco
The team opened with a fourth place on the TTT, after which it was up to Hagen to get a good GC position out of it. Two second places in a row brought him bonus seconds which put him into the yellow jersey, before obviously losing it in the time trial. It was a big hit to him mentally apparently, as he lost minutes on the next stages to only take eighteenth.
Rating:
Three good stages, three bad stages.
Circulo de Juarez
More flat stages, more ways for Vesely to disappoint. He took thirteenth on the opening stage after a failed leadout, which Hodeg turned into fifth place for himself. After this, we decided to let the Colombian become lead sprinter, though the results did not improve much, neither making it into the top ten on the remaining stages. Hodeg finished fifteenth overall and second in the youth classification, one place ahead of Vansevenant in the latter who took bonifications on the final stage.
Rating:
Ban all sprints.
Vuelta a Colombia
PTHC, no time trials, but the homecrowd is ready to support Uran. He stuck with the best on the first mountain stage, but had to concede defeat on the second. Another bad stage and an all-or-nothing breakaway attempt (eighth place) dropped him to nineteenth overall, which was about to be expected against the opposition. Poljanski had a breakaway attempt on stage four which brought him a respectable seventh place, but the man of the race was the other Colombian, Hodeg. The opening stage was flat and it ended in a sprint, and with no Vesely in the country he went for his own chances and promptly won! Yellow, green, white jersey. Obviously he lost it all on the next stage, but stage four was flat again, and he managed to take the win again! With two stage victories he was firmly in the green jersey and as he made the time limit on all stages, took the jersey home!
Rating:
The name is Hodeg, Alvaro Hodeg.
Ronde van Nederland
A race without opportunity to score points, yet this is the race where Vesely suddenly starts performing with a sixth and eleventh place. Hagen had nothing to lose so attacked in the final kilometers of the final stage, only to be caught entering the final kilometer. His efforts brought him tenth on the stage and overall.
Rating:
This is the kind of performances we need when it actually matters.
Strade Bianche
Hagen was ready for the race on the dirt roads, and took matters into his own hands when a group escaped. He was in the front group at the finish line but it was quite a large group, so he only crossed the line in ninth. Had the finish line been drawn a few meters earlier he would have been fifth.
Rating:
Not the worst race of the year.
E3 Prijs
March is also the start of the cobblestone season, with E3 Prijs and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne back-to-back. The first of the races was disappointing, as Zepuntke missed the deciding move and finished fifteenth, one place ahead of De Witte.
Rating:
Try again.
Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne
He could soon try again, and this time he did find himself in the front group towards the finish line, which ended in a bunch sprint of fifteen. The German's legs were relatively fresh so he was found at the front, sprinting to a fifth place!
Rating:
That's more like it.
Rankings
There was no rankings update posted at the end of this month, and we are too lazy to do the numbers ourselves, so we have no idea how things are looking. We might be first, we might be last. More likely the latter as our performances have been sub-par at best, though overperformances from Kalaba and Hodeg counteract the underperformances from the team leaders.
Man, Vesely really needs to eat more bananas! Or fewer, to make him hungrier? Not sure of the mechanics there. But good to see Hodeg picking up at least some slack, it was nice to see it "in person" in Colombia!
redordead wrote:
If you prefer Hodeg and get tired of Kalaba then I'm right here for him
Given the current performances Vesely is more likely to get sacked than either of those two!
cunego59 wrote:
Man, Vesely really needs to eat more bananas! Or fewer, to make him hungrier? Not sure of the mechanics there. But good to see Hodeg picking up at least some slack, it was nice to see it "in person" in Colombia!
No clue what's wrong with him this season. My guess is the PCT sprinter field is weaker than last year so he's picked for a leadout more often which the game is bad at . Kalaba and especially Hodeg can perform because they're never the biggest favorites.
.
We're not letting you wait long for this review, as the last race only just took place! Nothing else but timely posts from the Minions.
Tour of California
A race down in C2 comes with restrictions, so the team consists of Haga as leader and the TTT helpers getting a shot at actually scoring in a time trial. The latter did happen, as Cheyne took fifth in the prologue and third on the longer time trial. Rosas and Haga also took a top ten on that stage, which was won by our very own Ligthart! Haga's GC ambitions started well by surviving the mountain stage after an attack, but he lost time on the hillier stages to drop down to twelfth in the GC. Selander's many breakaway attempts just fell short of the mountains jersey.
Rating:
As far as C2 races go, great!
Baltic Chain Tour
A cobbled prologue followed by four flat stages, which means we're only interested in the first. Zepuntke, Nechita and Sweeck took eleventh, twelfth and fourteenth respectively. Vesely was more active than other races, finishing ninth, seventh, eighth and... twenty-seventh. Bonus seconds pushed Zepuntke (and Sweeck) down to twenty(-fifth) while Nechita lost more due to a split.
Rating:
Keep calm.
Tour de Pologne
Uran, Poljanski and Kalaba lead the team in a melting pot of hillier and flat stages, with a prologue as opening course. The stage closest to mountainous is where the Colombian happened to lose most time after looking good on the easier work, and the Pole had a bad final stage to drop the duo to fourteenth and twenty-third. Kalaba had more success on his first sprint with a fourth place in a close sprint.
Rating:
Remain positive, it's not the end of the world.
Roma Maxima
Old Roman roads is the decor for this cobblestone road, and so we bring Zepuntke. We even put no one in the break and support him fully. The German paid off the trust by being in the front group at the finish line, after being in multiple attacks. While well positioned, other sprinted better and he finished eighth.
Rating:
Good enough.
Veenendaal - Veenendaal
The most important race of the year for the manager, who in times of working at home can just look through his window and see the race. Here is his live reaction to his atrocious thirty-second place:
Rating: -
Taking away all bananas for this month out of anger.
Lisbon Classic
Unaware of the disaster that unfolded in Veenendaal, Kalaba was selected as lead sprinter for the Lisbon GP, but with the hilly nature of the course we also brought Hagen to have two horses to bet on. The race exactly did not go according to plan, as the race wasn't tough enough for Hagen to attack and the sprinters field was too strong for Kalaba. They finished fifteenth and sixteenth, the Serbian ahead.
Rating:
Fine, have a banana, I'm not a monster.
Rankings
Pos
Last
Team
Total
RD
PpRD
Proj
1
5
Bralirwa - Stevens
1506
81
18,59
3253
2
1
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
1442
78
18,49
3236
3
3
Red Bull Zalgiris
1376
83
16,58
2902
4
9
Binance Cycling
1252
83
15,08
2639
5
12
Aker - MOT
1223
53
23,08
4039
---
11
20
Minions
954
73
13,07
2287
After missing a rankings update from last month, we were quite surprised to see our position in this update. We expected to be close to, if not at the bottom of the rankings but it turns out the performances from Hodeg (our best scoring rider!) elevated us to the edge of the top ten. Note though that we have used more RD than those around us and scored almost nothing in Veenendaal - Veenendaal and Lisbon GP, which were not included in this update. This is going to be the highest we'll get this season.
The real question is whether the manager was so pissed because of the terrible Veendendaal result, or because he is still working on a pc that is older than himself?
Shitty April 28th for the Minions indeed, hopefully the situation improves a bit in May. Zepuntke also quite disappointing so far, don't know what to make of him.
Nemolito wrote:
The real question is whether the manager was so pissed because of the terrible Veendendaal result, or because he is still working on a pc that is older than himself?
Perhaps both
Nemolito wrote:
Shitty April 28th for the Minions indeed, hopefully the situation improves a bit in May. Zepuntke also quite disappointing so far, don't know what to make of him.
Zepuntke is not really living up to his expectations after training but at least he can consistently bring in point, unlike that Daniel in my basement...
.
What do you mean it's the end of September? It's time for the May review, showcasing eight races which only just took place.
Cheshire Cycling Tour
We start off with a tough cobblestone race. Historically, Zepuntke has had a fair bit of trouble, and this year would be no different, taking only twenty-second overall. Vesely had three chances to sprint and steadily improved his result, from seventeenth to eighth to third. However, given the teams effort on these stages, he should have at least taken three podium positions.
Rating:
The riders were starting to get hungry.
Tour de Romandie
No cobblestones in Switzerland, but a lot of mountains instead. We started off with a mediocre team time trial, already costing us half a minute. On the flat second stage, Kalaba sprinted to a decent third. Uran lost another 43 seconds on the hilly stage, being caught behind a split. While he also finished in the second group on the next mountain stage, the tine loss to the big favorites was 1'45. The MTT is where he was at his best, finishing fourth and only ten seconds off Pluchkin, putting him up to thirteenth overall. On the final stage Kalaba came even closer but had to settle for second, with leadout Rosas in sixth.
Rating:
Good stage results, bad general result.
Rund um Koln
PT-wildcard, so no pressure. Young Bjerg got to gain experience in the breakaway, and was caught with roughly 25 kilometer to go. From there on out it was sprint preparation disrupted by attacks, where we took no pressure too literally by doing nothing at all.
Rating:
A banana for Bjerg.
Chrono d'Arenberg
Time trial over cobblestones, yikes. We tried everything by sending our best time trialist (Ligthart), cobbler (Zepuntke) and hybrid (Nechita). The former two did nothing of note but the Romanian was up in eleventh after the first leg. He did lose a position on the final part but twelfth in such a difficult race is surely an achievement.
Rating:
Bravo Nechita!.
Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt
Back to the Alps for some mountains, a race where Uran has been close to victory a few times. Eleven seconds were lost on the first stage to Pluchkin but otherwise still in the hunt. Stage two is where he lost two minutes to more rivals and as such the win was out of reach. Hodeg could not surprise on the third stage. Then we realized we had to go for a different tactic to make something of this race and put Poljanski in the break. Beside a fourth place on the stage he was also second King of the Mountains. Stages five and six where of no importance to us but on the final stage Uran had a shot to salvage his GC. A tenth place in the TT did exactly that to place him fifth in the GC.
Rating:
Legends may fade but they never disappear.
1 Jour de Dunkerque
As the name suggests, one day in Dunkirk with Zepuntke on his best form, taking a well deserved fifth place.
Rating:
Bananas!
Olympia's Tour
Flatter than my skin, six stages of which three are against the clock, including one team effort. For the mass starts we focused on Kalaba who decided not to give a shit, taking a best result of eighteenth. The individual time trials were also a mixed bag with Haga being our best in eighteenth once. We finished sixth in the TTT at eleven seconds, which was our best result of the race. All things considered, Haga was our best finisher overall with a twenty-second place.
Rating:
Plenty of missed opportunities.
Tour of Norway
A home race for Hagen which also should be right up his alley, hills with a single time trial. After the TT however, all hope of a GC were lost, and as such rode the final two stages like he could not care less, finishing 84th (yes, eighty-fourth!) in the GC. Two other riders were successful though. Hodeg came close to winning the opening stage but was beaten by Andersen in a photo finish. Poljanski tried another go at breakhunting and while it did not lead to stage success, he collected every possible mountain sprint and as such was crowned fjellking.
Rating:
No bananas for you Hagen.
Rankings
No rankings update was posted during this period so we have no idea where we stand right now. Given our performances this month. we should be leading by an absolute mile.
.
It seems May has only ended yesterday but we're already done with racing in June as well. Granted, it were only two races but still.
Hanko Classic
A flat classic in Finland is where we'd expect to shine, but given Vesely's diva status of late we aren't quite sure. We had a strong train but pulled into the station too early so the Czech dropped back from the lead to fourteenth.
Rating:
A familiar sight.
Tour of South Africa
One of the few times we travel to the southern hemisphere. Many hilly stages and a team time trial so we bring Hagen and big support. He started off strong with an eighth, sixth and fourteenth place, always in the front group. T3-day is where we should shine and so we did, second when we crossed the line. Unfortunately many teams beat us afterwards and we lost a minute, placing ninth. Stage five is where it all went wrong, as Hagen had a trademark bad day and lost six minutes. A fifth place on the final stage is merely to end on a somewhat high note.
Rating:
If not for those two stages.
Rankings
Pos
Last
Team
Total
RD
PpRD
Proj
1
2
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
2455
120
20,46
3581
2
5
Aker - MOT
2167
101
21,46
3756
3
1
Bralirwa - Stevens
1895
109
17,39
3043
4
10
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
1857
97
19,14
3350
5
4
Binance Cycling
1831
118
15,52
2716
---
17
11
Minions
1356
118
11,49
2011
Obviously a month where we did not score a lot (in fact, worst out of all teams), and it has caused us to drop a lot of positions. Promotion looks out of reach unless all teams above us have a tragic boating accident. We might even have to start worrying about relegation. Individually, Uran is our best scoring rider in 57th as he can, despite getting on in age, still bring in consistent points. Hodeg and Zepuntke surprisingly follow, only then followed by Hagen. The biggest disappointment so far is Vesely, even being outscored by Kalaba, Poljanski and Haga.
.
It's the month of the Tour de France, and I've just been told (spoiler alert) that Lecuisinier has won. But that is not important. What everyone is dying to know is how we got on in our four races.
Torshavn GP
The beautiful capital of the Faroe Islands hosts a race which can go to the sprinters, but they have to do some climbing. While that doesn't seem to be a strong point for Vesely, this season seems to be a bit of a reversal. He did not have a train, waited for the right time to sprint and only got beaten by Kennaugh. Finally a good result!
Rating:
Apparently Vesely would have won every mountain stage this season.
Tour de Vineyards
Off to the complete other side of the world for a race with one mountain stage and six flat stages. The opening prologue saw Uran drawn for an early start with sub-optimal weather conditions, so his time wasn't the best. On the third stage, the queen stage, he somehow managed to be worse and could not blame the weather. Complete off-week for the Colombian. For the four flat stages, Kalaba finished all of them inside the top ten including a fourth and second place, and Cheyne got into the break once. The closing team time trial saw another positive point with the team finishing second, nine seconds off Polar.
Rating:
Goal: top five, result: nineteenth.
Philadelphia International Championship
Over to the States on our journey to conquer the world. This race is flat with once again some undulation, but not as extreme as Torshavn. Once again Vesely performs better than regular with a fifth place!
Rating:
We might be onto something here.
Tour of Slovenie
We close off the month back in Europe with another goal race, this time trying to win it all with Uran. A rather disappointing ninth place in the TTT is not a good start, and all hope was crushed by losing three minutes on stage two. The flat stage three saw Kalaba as a major favorite but could only sprint to tenth. Ligthart benefited from being the second man on course to take twelfth in the TT, while Uran lost another four minutes on the final stage. Forty-second is not even close to the win.
Rating:
Seems Vesely and Uran switched bodies.
Rankings
Rankings for this month were combined with the results from August so we cannot post them without spoiling those. Wait, now every knows this wasn't written at the end of July.
.
Fine, we'll admit this wasn't written right at the end of August. We were too busy eating the leftover bananas from July.
Deutschland Tour
Four flat stages and a time trial, against PTHC opposition, so we're not expecting any miracles. One such miracle would be Vesely doing well in a sprint but alas, he never got better than tenth and he got most camera time after a puncture on the opening stage. Cheyne performed best on the TT and would be our highest finisher in 29th, five places ahead of Rosas.
Rating:
Why even believe.
Benelux Challenge
Three countries, hills, cobbles, a stage start in Veenendaal, the cycling capital of the world, what else could you wish for? Kalaba was fourteen seconds off on the prologue thus could take the jersey on the second stage with bonus seconds, but failed to do so by finishing fourth, though moving into the U25 lead which he would keep for just a day. The third stage was cobbled and thus time for Zepuntke, who did well enough to finish seventh, moving us to the lead of the teams classification for two days, as the next cobble stage provided little action. The hills were our weak point which we hoped to cover with Marcos in the break, putting him up to seventeenth. Our highlight would come on the final stage, which was won by our very own Kalaba! Unfortunately, due to gaps, Marcos dropped to twentieth but instead Sweeck took seventeenth.
Rating:
Ups and downs but up in the end.
SAA Tour d'Afrique
Four flat stages for Vesely to butcher, but for once he wanted to make something of this race, a fourth place on the opening stage attesting to that. It went downhill quickly though, as a eighteenth and seventeenth place dropped him way down in the bonifications race. On the final stage he reappeared to take third place, which somehow put him sixth overall!
Rating:
Major PTHC points haul!
Tour of Britain
Hills and a time trial, oh boy, it's Hagen's time to disappoint. Even Kalaba did not show up for the stage one sprint. Ligthart found himself in twentieth after the TT but with the hill stage next he'd battle for the laterne rouge. Hagen and Poljanski finished in the front group, but the Norwegian would lose contact early on the fourth stage. Over to the Pole to lead the GC charge and he kept cool by finishing eighth on the stage, tenth in the GC. He kept in the front group on the final stage to consolidate his position.
Rating:
All hail Poljanski!.
Tour de l'Avenir
The race for the future stars of cycling, in our case Bjerg and loanee Vansevenant. Our team participated in a mixed team with Bralirwa - Stevens and Isostar - Specialized to form Bralirwa IsoMinions, riding in the former's jersey. Bjerg was one of the better time trialists and came close to winning the prologue, finishing third at two seconds. He dropped from his high GC position after the sixth stage, a mountain stage, where both him and Vansevenant unsuccessfully tried to be in the break. Stage eight was a longer time trial, and the Dane took the hot seat when he finished. Rider after rider failed to beat his time, with only Munton coming somewhat close at eighteen seconds. Once GC leader and eventual winner Pogacar crossed the line, it was time to celebrate. Mikkel Bjerg is an Avenir stage winner! Vansevenant also closed on a high, finishing eleventh in the final mountain stage after a long breakaway.
Rating: Bjerg is one to watch.
Rankings
Pos
Last
Team
Total
RD
PpRD
Proj
1
2
Aker - MOT
3147
137
22,97
4020
2
1
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
2940
155
18,97
3320
3
11
Los Pollos Hermanos
2870
160
17,94
3140
4
9
cycleYorkshire
2816
162
17,38
3042
5
10
Polar
2793
142
19,67
3442
---
16
17
Minions
1954
154
12,69
2221
We have moved back to a more safe position, but this overview does not paint the whole picture. We have used considerably more racedays than the teams behind us, so they can still overtake us. Some of them will be attending the Tour of America which can give them big points, or give them very little. We feel safe but should remain vigilant.
.
Finally, a review which is written before the next month has finished. Are you proud of us?
GP Kigali
A mandatory race at a lower level, but we've shown in the past to be capable of scoring big points in these cobblestone events. Sweeck attacked mid-race and found himself at the front for most of the race. He was passed by Van Keirsbulck and Vanspeybrouck, but held on to an amazing third place! Lindeman could not follow the attacks by these men but finished a group behind in eighth.
Rating:
Very good.
Arab Tour
The time trialists will come here for the GC, but we have three flat stages with opportunities for Vesely. Eighth, thirteenth and ninth weren't exactly what we'd hoped for. Cheyne an Bjerg rode a very good time trial, taking twelfth and fifteenth, but a split on the final stage cost them a good GC competition.
Rating:
Disappointment after disappointment.
Tour of Northern Europe
A race which has everything but mountains. Sprints, cobblestones, hills, time trials and team time trials. We were honored when we received a wildcard for this race but with no rider with a serious chance in the GC, we want to go stage hunting by selecting our best riders in the field. This obviously compromised the TTT setup, but we still finished seventh. We contested the next flat stage for Kalaba, and he finished second behind Scully as Rowe celebrated too soon. On the third stage, hilly, Hagen rode away with De Bie but again a Minion finished runner-up. The cobblestone stage was a major disappointment with Kalaba somehow our best finisher in 74th. Uran also failed in his assigned stage, the time trial on stage five, finishing outside the top twenty. Kalaba finished second in the bunch sprint of stage six, except two riders were ahead of the pack so in the end it was fourth. Hagen followed suit with a fourth place on stage seven. The final stage saw Kalaba square his finishing position again.
Rating:
We're not squaring the bananas
Tour of the Battenkill
Our final cobblestone race, hopefully ending on a high. It did not end in a low, but a ninth place for Zepuntke is not exactly a fireworks ending.
Rating:
The points are welcome though.
Milano - Torino
Hagen did well in ToNE and continued his late season form in Italy. He attacked with five kilometer to go and got a decent gap, but did not have the strength to defend against other attacks on the final hill. He still finished a decent sixth.
Rating:
Still not getting a contract renewal though.
Rankings
Pos
Last
Team
Total
RD
PpRD
Proj
1
1
Aker - MOT
3583
159
22,53
3943
2
3
Los Pollos Hermanos
3192
167
19,11
3344
3
5
Polar
3126
157
19,91
3484
4
4
cycleYorkshire
3118
171
18,23
3190
5
8
Duolingo
3107
159
19,54
3420
---
17
16
Minions
2100
165
12,73
2228
Way behind the promotion fight but also well ahead of relegation danger. Mathematically it might still be possible for us to relegate but we'd have to be the unluckiest team ever. Individually, Vesely has moved himself up to best of the team after a very disappointing first half. Uran, Kalaba, Zepuntke, Hagen and Hodeg are close together for positions two to six, though for the Norwegian that's very disappointing.
Tour of Tasmania
/
Copenhagen-Malmo TTT
Ronde van Nederland
Rund um Koln
Tour of Northern Europe
Tour of Ukraine - Top 5
Tour de Vineyards - Top 5
Tour de Slovenie - Win
