It's been an up and down season for Philips - Force India so far. They started the season decently but then fell away in the races between February and April. They picked up their performances in May and June but another bad couple of months in July and August and poor start to September sees them teetering on the cusp of relegation. This is a similar situation to where they were two seasons ago, and while that time they barely put up a fight before going down, it is looking more likely that the team follows the same path this time as well.

One of the outstanding conditions for Philips to continue their sponsorship after the promotion last season was to stay in the PCT this time around and to continue to invest in Dutch cycling. While the latter continues to be practiced in the team, the former looks unlikely to be achieved at this moment. As such, it will be interesting to see what the sponsor situation is like at Philips - Force India in case the worst case scenario plays out.

Rumours are abound that Philips inserted an exit clause into the contract which allows them to immediately cut ties with the team managed by AbhishekLFC in case they relegate again. There are strong hints from those in the know that Philips plans to pull the plug if a repeat of 2019 indeed happens. At the moment though, the team is busy in races, trying their best to keep themselves afloat. The next, busy, month will determine where the team and some of their riders end up for the 2022 season.

You can be sure that this is not the last that one hears of this saga and we will continue to follow this story as it unfolds.

Dumoulin joined the break.



Van Asbroeck couldn't get to the front of the sprint and finished 22nd. No one else got points.

Paprstka was good here last season. He wasn't this season. He finished 25th to pick up 1 point.

Moricz joined the break on Stage 1. He was dropped and caught early.

There was no action for us on Stage 2.

We didn't join the break but Raileanu was among the first attackers.



He couldn't get away but stuck with the leaders till the finish to claim 7th. Teuns also finished in the front group.

Schelling joined the break on Stage 4. He wasn't able to pick up many KOM points. The break survived and Schelling finished 10th.

We didn't join the break on Stage 5. It was a hard stage in the closing stages. Raileanu did well to stay with the second group and limit his time loss. Teuns lost a few more seconds finishing in the third group.

No breakaway again on Stage 6. Teuns was on the wrong side of a split in the closing stages but recovered to finish in the front group, finishing 8th. He had slowly made his way up to 13th in the GC.

Moricz joined the break on Stage 7. They were caught in the closing stages.

We didn't have anyone in the break again on Stage 8. Teuns tried to follow attacks and did so a couple of times but they were unsuccessful. He finished in the lead group, 10th on the day and moved up to 9th in the GC. Raileanu also moved up to 24th in the GC after a good show on the last stage.

Jans got involved in the sprint on Stage 1 but wasn't fast enough for a high result.

Jans was much better placed in the Stage 2 sprint and finished 5th.

Kooistra joined the break on Stage 3. Jans finished in the lead group to remain in a high GC placing.

Leemreize joined the break on Stage 4. Jans was dropped early from the pack, and Zoidl and Schelling also could not keep up with the pace. We dropped out of GC contention as a result.

Schelling finished 2nd in the U25 classification with Leemreize in 10th.

David did well in this race last season. Which off course meant he wouldn't do so for us. 15th place is what we have to be content with. Schelling finished 43rd thanks to his breakaway adventure.

Took a chance sending Van Asbroeck to Rheden hoping it might be an unselective race. It wasn't and we failed our home race goal. Paprstaka was our best finisher in 19th.

Kelderman here won last season. Kelderman did not win this season. He was in a good spot heading into the final kilometer. But soon after he wasn't and finished 9th. Didn't even get depth points.

No one joined the break, which was fine as our basic interest was to protect Kelderman. All that protecting did not help as Kelderman was dropped from the leading group quite a distance from the finish and only managed 15th.

Stage 1 was a flat stage, where we did not have any interest.

Stage 2 was a hard hilly stage where we did well to put Penasa, Talansky and Raileanu in the lead group behind eventual stage winner Lopez. Penasa finished 10th. We moved into the lead in the Teams classification.

Zoidl joined the break on Stage 3. Penasa launched an attack on the Cat. 1 climb, the third-to-last climb of the day.



He caused a major split. He attacked on the final categorized climb of the day. He still had enough legs on the uphill finish to end up 5th, leaving stronger riders behind. A great ride from him here. He moved up to 5th in the GC.

Stage 4 was flat again and we stayed safely in the pack. Same with Stage 5.

We put all our efforts into protecting Penasa on Stage 6, and it worked. Despite losing some time in the closing stages, he was able to actually move up to 4th in the GC after this stage. We moved down to 3rd in the Teams classification.

Stage 7 went to the break. Penasa finished in the very select group of GC riders to hold on to his position.

Stage 8 was flat again and we were happy to just ride along and get this race over with.

This was an excellent result for us as Penasa finished 4th, with Talansky in 26th and Raileanu in 34th.We finished 4th in the Teams classification.

D-Day! We did not join the break. It was all or nothing for Kelderman. The rbeak was caught early and the attacks started. Multiple fruitless attacks later, the decisive one came at 2 kilometers to go. Kelderman was able to follow initiator Kinoshita, who eventually went on to win the race. Kelderman challenged him till the line but had to settle for 2nd, which was still his best result of the season!



This also meant that we achieved our only Goal of the season!

Race	Category	Goal	Result
Rheden GP	PTHC	Top 10	19th
GP Wallonie	PTHC	Top 10	23rd
Giro dell'Emelia	HC	Top 5	2nd
Milano Torino	C1	Win	9th
PCT Team Standings	PCT	Top 10	19th

*Green means Goal Achieved. Red means Goal Failed.

We thought we had put up fairly achievable goals besides the PCT Standings. Kelderman off course had other plans, while Rheden GP did not go well. Wilco did put in his best ride of the season at Emelia to get us that solitary goal completion.

We did very well in PTHC, and in the end that became our saviour, as we saved our best for last with Maroc. Four of our top six scoring races were in PTHC, which comes as a surprise to even us! Only two races with zero scores show that we did choose our races well. However, those two were not two races we were expecting to come back empty handed from. Our C2 choices were not particularly great, with 8 points our highest return from four races. The Tour of East Java was our best PpRD event, with the season ending Emelia being our best classic of the season.

We started off on the slower side, picked up in the middle of the year, slowed down considerably in August and September, but finished of with a bang at the end of the year to secure our place in the PCT next season.

Kelderman is the rider with the best PpRD this season, but it is very close and he was outscored by Penasa by 70 points, while failing to make even the 400 mark. The rest of the team performed as expected with only Dumoulin being a huge disappointment! Our two Stagiares and Kooistra were the only non-scorers this season.

We were confident that Van Asbroeck would be a good buy and he justified the slightly inflated price tag by providing us a solid return. David and Raileanu also brought in decent PpRD returns. We must make a special mention of Moricz, one of two our loan-ins this season, who is 4th on this list.

The full list of achievements can be viewed here.

jaxika wrote:
Im glad that Moricz helped you some way

jandal7 wrote:
Huge season from Triple P, love to see it. Absolutely great performances in those last two races by your main men to bring you home safe, stars delivering when it counts the most!

Love the stats as always

redordead wrote:
Always Wilco to the rescue in the end

Joonas Henttala retained his Finnish ITT National Championships.


Steven Kalf, riding for MOL, where he spent the season on loan, upset the top favourites, and won the Estonian Road Race. He started the sprint early and held off his rivals at the line.


As it stands, we will have two NC jerseys adorning the team in the 2022 season.

Minali joined us as a Stagiare in the 2018 season. After a elongated development roadmap, he is finally ready to take on the rest of the peloton next season having reached his full potential. He should be a decent option for flat stages with minimal bumps. He did very well at Aegon this season, even picking up Top 5s in the Giro!

Next up, Kevin Inkelaar completes his development path and will ride with us next season as a leader for the mountains. He should be good contender for pure climbing races. He has already shown this season at Isostar as to what he can be capable of. We are quite excited about all this and can't wait to see him in action next season!

The second part of our Dutch climbing armada is the more well-rounded Eenkhoorn, who too reaches his full potential and will join up with Inkelaar on the climbs next season. Watch out for that eccentric Prologue stat, which we are quite looking forward to see in action. He spent this year on loan at Generali, honing his skills in the top division. Incredibly, he has never ridden in our colours so far, so we are really looking forward to that!

Kalf joined us last season in the closing stages of the transfer window and immediately went on loan to MOL to complete his development. He had a decent season and ended it with a surprise National Championship win!

The super-domestique in the making is now just one step away from reaching his potential. He will probably need to be loaned out to PT next season to complete his development. He should be an useful rider already for any team, and showed good consistency leading our charge in the Tour de l'Avenir.

Another Stagiare, who has now started his development is Kooistra, who we expect to turn into a decent Roleur for the future. He still needs to take a couple of more steps to complete his development.

The newest Dutch climbing acquisition has also moved on up in life, and now should be useful for us next season. He is also expected to represent us at Avenir next season. We are looking forward to continue his development next season, and to help him become yet another up and coming Dutch talent.

AbhishekLFC wrote:
@redordead: And opposite of my own, you have Pogacar!