PCT (non-wildcard) racing is already over for April, so let's take a look back at what happened in terms of scoring. Only one month this time - but still two partial rankings, as there were a total of 11 races with PCT participation, and one period ranking with all of them wouldn't be too readable. So we'll split them into C1/C2 and PTHC/HC racing.
Let's start with the (potentially) smaller numbers:
Period Ranking: April | C1/C2
April had three races each in the C1 and C2 categories - but only one C1 stage race with the Baltic Chain Tour. As expected, the highest points of the month in the lower categories were scored there - with Kraftwerk leaving with 182 points, just 6 more than Zara.
All C1 races actually started with capital B, all three were won by PCT teams - and hence those three races had higher scorings than all C2 races. Berlin was won by HelloFresh, who along with some nice depth scored 100 points. Amaysim once again dominated in Badaling, taking home the 80 points for the win - without any additional scoring, though.
In C2, the most successful race for any PCT team was California, with Barta taking 4th in the GC for Philips, who scored a total of 61 points. Lincoln was another cobbled C2 race - and hence Minions time. However, the men in overalls "only" scored 24 points, which was 2 less than Bralirwa.
Finally, USA Pro Cycling Challenge was the first C2 race of the year without any PCT points. To be fair, only Volcanica participated there, but failed to save the division's honour.
Overall, HelloFresh were the most successful PCT team in C1/C2 this month, scoring a total of 264 points from the three C1 races. Kraftwerk are the only other outfit getting more than 200 points from these categories.
Meanwhile, Lierse, Cedevita and Popo4Ever got zero points from these races - and while this is easily explained for the latter two due to them not racing, Lierse were unable to score both in Berlin and Badaling.
Cali
Balt
Ber
Bada
Linc
US PCC
Total
1
HelloFresh - Lampre
0
106
100
58
0
0
264
2
Kraftwerk Man Machine
0
182
24
11
0
0
217
3
Zara - Irizar
0
176
12
0
0
0
188
4
Volcanica - Fox
6
76
28
36
0
0
146
5
Minions - Subwoolfer
0
91
16
0
24
0
131
6
Voyagin - Bird
3
0
63
56
0
0
122
7
Crabbe-CC Chevigny
0
66
11
0
9
0
86
8
Amaysim Cervelo
0
0
0
80
0
0
80
9
Bralirwa - Stevens
0
40
5
0
26
0
71
10
Philips - Force India
61
0
0
8
0
0
69
11
Indosat Ooredoo
0
4
11
46
0
0
61
12
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
0
45
0
4
0
0
49
13
Binance
0
0
0
43
0
0
43
14
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
19
0
0
16
0
0
35
15
Strava
0
0
0
32
0
0
32
16
Trans Looney Tunes
0
0
0
12
12
0
24
17
Sauber Petronas Racing
0
0
0
19
0
0
19
18
Red Bull Zalgiris
0
7
10
0
0
0
17
19
Assa Abloy
0
0
8
3
0
0
11
20
Project: Africa
0
0
0
3
0
0
3
21
Xero Racing
0
0
2
0
0
0
2
22
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
23
Cedevita
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
24
Team Popo4Ever
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Period Ranking: April | PTHC/HC
Some teams had a pretty busy month with two PTHC classics, two HC classics and an HC stage race on their calendar.
The latter was by far the most prosperous in terms of scoring, which could also be expected. And who else but division dominators Amaysim could have taken the highest individual score of the month? Despite not even winning the race, they grabbed 364 points in Poland, leaving behind race winner Areruya's team Xero by 60 points. All others were (almost) 200 and more points behind!
Both HC classics had the winner's team run away with the 140 points for first place, which went to Sauber in Wallonie and to Popo4Ever in Lisbon. HelloFresh also cracked the 100 points mark in Belgium, while Volcanica narrowly missed out in Portugal.
The PTHC classics weren't quite as successful. Red Bull's 100 points in Veenendaal thanks to Halvorsen's 3rd place are still a good result, though. In Roma Maxima, a mistimed flat tire kept Stallaert from taking more than 6th place - those 70 points for Bralirwa were still the highest PCT score there.
Overall, the dominators from Poland also come out on top of this month in PTHC/HC races - Amaysim with 465 and Xero with 426 points were riding in another dimension. All other teams scored less from all five races than the leading duo in Pologne alone...
On the other end of the partial ranking, we have Crabbe and Philips, with a measly 15 points scored each. The latter only rode in Wallonie, though, while Crabbe participated in 3 races.
Pol
Roma
Wall
Veen
Lisbon
Total
1
Amaysim Cervelo
364
0
70
0
31
465
2
Xero Racing
304
0
66
0
56
426
3
Team Popo4Ever
127
0
9
0
140
276
4
Trans Looney Tunes
88
69
23
78
9
267
5
Sauber Petronas Racing
125
0
140
0
0
265
6
HelloFresh - Lampre
79
0
103
0
64
246
7
Zara - Irizar
172
0
12
37
0
221
8
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
97
64
0
45
12
218
9
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
101
0
45
0
66
212
10
Strava
43
4
84
8
48
187
11
Volcanica - Fox
77
0
10
0
98
185
12
Red Bull Zalgiris
31
4
0
100
50
185
13
Voyagin - Bird
34
0
38
0
87
159
14
Assa Abloy
106
0
10
15
26
157
15
Indosat Ooredoo
48
0
82
22
0
152
16
Project: Africa
55
0
7
0
75
137
17
Binance
74
0
53
0
0
127
18
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
114
0
0
0
0
114
19
Cedevita
43
0
18
0
35
96
20
Bralirwa - Stevens
2
70
0
15
5
92
21
Kraftwerk Man Machine
44
4
0
25
0
73
22
Minions - Subwoolfer
0
45
0
12
0
57
23
Philips - Force India
0
0
15
0
0
15
24
Crabbe-CC Chevigny
0
2
11
2
0
15
If we combine these two partial rankings, Amaysim still come out on top, adding some points from Badaling to their PTHC/HC score. Xero on the other hand weren't quite as successful in C1/C2 and end up 3rd - behind HelloFresh, who came out on top in C1/C2 and were solid in PTHC/HC as well.
At the lower end of the standings, only Philips and Cedevita end up below 100 points. However, 13th (Indosat) to 24th (Philips) are within just 135 points - which is the same gap as we have between 1st and 4th...
And how does all this translate into the full ranking?
Full Ranking
Amaysim took the lead in the second ranking updates, and it's probably safe to bet that they won't give it away anymore. They're already more than 500 points ahead of the rest, and are projected to finish almost 2,000 points clear of 2nd place. Their 36 PpRD is unmatched - in short, they're riding in the wrong division.
HelloFresh did not only take 2nd place this month, but also move up to 2nd in the rankings! They also haven't used up a lot of RDs each, and are one of only three teams (besides Amaysim) above 20 PpRD. Another one being Binance, who dropped one spot from 2nd to 3rd, but they still look like very solid promotion candidates.
The third 20+ PpRD team are Xero, who however are only 10th currently (moving up from 14th), but having one of the lowest spent amount of RDs so far.
Behind those 4 teams, only newly promoted team Zara have a projected points value of above 3,000 - they're currently in 6th place, but have used up less race days than Bralirwa (4th) and Carlsberg (5th).
The latter two teams are still among the main promotion contenders, probably along with Sauber, Red Bull, Kraftwerk and Trans, who all are projected to finish within roughly 250 points.
At the bottom, Project:Africa and Crabbe look doomed, despite having raced only little so far. Which is not the case for Indosat, who have the 2nd worst PpRD of the division and are only 21st - by far the biggest underachievers so far.
Things don't look much nicer for Assa Abloy, who are the last team projected to end up below 2,000 points.
Philips, who currently are on the first relegating spot, aren't that far off the promotion contenders' PpRD values - although there are many teams in between still. According to PpRD, the main relegation candidates besides the 4 "probably doomed" ones are Strava and Minions. Gjensidige and Voyagin are the other teams below 14 PpRD - but you see, we're talking of relegation candidates with 13 PpRD, and of promotion contenders starting from 16 PpRD! At this point of the season, a lot is still possible - let's find out next month how things evolve!
Last month, the top of the individual ranking was quite sprinter heavy - and guess what, it is even more so now! Jonas Ahlstrand scored more than 200 points this month in 3 races and leapfrogged both Halvorsen and Stallaert to now be the division's #1!
And actually by quite a margin, as former leader Joeri Stallaert only score roughly 70 points and now trails the Swede by about 80 points.
Fabio Jakobsen also made a jump, from 7th to 3rd, mainly thanks to his great Baltic Chain Tour (where he was the best individual scorer despite not winning it). Kristoffer Halvorsen mainly had one really strong race in Veenendaal, but still dropped from 2nd to 4th.
We then have three new arrivals in the Top 10, with Pologne winner Joseph Areruya rounding off the Top 5 now. Jay McCarthy in 6th place is more than 100 points off that 5th place, but just 10 points ahead of Tejay van Garderen, who with his second HC hilly classic win in a row moved up from 14th to 7th.
Jack Haig and Sam Oomen paid the price of not racing (or only in wildcard races) by dropping 4 spots each, now sitting in 8th and 9th. Sam Bewley, who rounds off the Top 10, did race in Lisbon, but with limited success, so he also lost 4 spots.
May will have some more cobbles, some TTing - and lots of stage races, so we can expect some new names to appear (or move up) in the Top 10 by the end of the next month!
Loving that projected ranking, but obviously we know that it means nothing if we don't keep it up. Really doubt as we rise back into the Top 10. Areruya may slow down (four month break for him after Chile) but Bennett has yet to race a PCT field yet either and Houle has some big races to come. Habtemichael has another level as well with some leadership in the next few months. But will need Areruya in his Pologne mode or better to go for promotion really.
Love that we have gone from our previous MO of constantly grinding multiple C1/HC races throughout the year to relying fairly largely on PTHC and ToA later in the year where we used to either score very low or not attend at all
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Thanks for getting out on NYE! Happy new years to the entire MG as well!
This update is insane for us, I realized that we had an insane run of good fortune. All of our high upside riders have been performing to the higher level of their spectrum, if it continues we might be promotion contenders, considering we still have a good amount of RDs in suitable races for the likes of Kennaugh and Daniel.
The more this season has progressed it seems like I made some good decisions in race selection and then I have been super fortunate with Meurisse just overperforming to kingdom come. I'd love to be promoted obviously, but I do think there's a solid chance that we stop seeing good performances from riders that aren't Daniel and Kennaugh but we should be in a good spot for securing our top 10 goal at least!
Amaysim just continues trucking on in expected fashion considering their squad strength, another interesting story is going to be to see how Trans get on with such a high number of RDs spent already!
In the relegation spots but with the second lowest RD count, that was to be expected I guess. We have recently slowed down on our scoring though and need to pick it up in the next month, where we have a lot of RDs.
Thanks for the update Fab and happy new year everyone
Not the worst, actually having my riders decide to try in the last three races has been nice and shows if we can stop getting screwed survival isn’t all that much of a pipe dream. Should still be 400+ points ahead of where we are so it still is really frustrating.
Given Cattaneo and Dennis barely had any action I'm not shocked about the low position. But when they start racing they do need to get thos big points.
The sprinters and the cobblers keeping the team afloat at the moment. Hope that's gonna last and the other departments push the team forward.
Thank you for the update Fabianski! Great surprise to wake up to for the new year.
I'm satisfied with where we are, but not thrilled. Obviously it's great to be in a promotion position almost halfway into the season, and our PpRD isn't that far behind. We managed to get most of our C2 race days done in this window, and while April was not a particularly successful month for us, we managed to mostly keep pace. We've lacked standout performances all year, but we've consistently scored enough minor points to remain in the mix.
Nevertheless, I'm pretty worried about our prospects going forward. Many other teams have held back their big guns so far for the most part. Meanwhile, a lot of ours are mostly spent. Trentin has been our most consistent scorer, and the classics season is nearly over. He will plummet from that 12th overall soon. AKA is down in the 40's, but that's not for lack of race days. His main classic and GC chances are already over, and he failed. Guldhammer overperformed early, but he only has a couple of big races left.
The second half of our season is led predominantly by our puncheurs and Lennard Kamna. Kamna will be interesting because he has yet to race without Guldhammer by his side, and he will do that a lot going forward. I'm still hopeful he fills a niche that will make him a real threat, but his TT performances have not been brilliant so far. Worse for the puncheurs. Jensen had some good results early but made some frustrating mistakes his last few races. Aranburu would have had a very solid Pologne if he didn't lose a minute and a half randomly. Other than that, he's been pretty useless for his OVL. I'm still not convinced training him to 79/77 instead would have increased his success, but it's hard to argue the training has been a failure. Probably should have just kept the money or used it on Eg.
So, while things look pretty good right now, they looked pretty good in April last year too. And I'm not convinced we have what it takes to stave off another second half collapse.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
We’ve had a very decent period there with Jakobsen doing very well in the Baltics to jump up the individual ranking also. Will need him to continue doing his thing if we are to push for promotion which is where we’re at right now.
A surprisingly strong Pologne for us with great results from Mas and Paez further strengthened our ambitions. I’d be surprised if the 2 of them continue to score in hilly stage races but it would be very appreciated.
Conci and Taaramae with no racing in this update but it’ll soon be fine for the two of them to bring in some big points, especially the elder statesman.
Finally, Cosnefroy and Thomas should have strong scoring opportunities soon too.
Thank you for the update!! Really liking the consistency of the updates and the write ups also
Surprised to see we are on track to be an outsider for promotion contention. I'd still feel happy just staying up but the top 10 we are on track for would be a dream for us.
For now we are in an excellent position and although I believe it would be difficult to remain in top 10 I have hopes we could remain in the division. Ahlstrand and Quintana, especially the later, still have RDs left so hopefully we can score more points to secure our place in the division. Although Ahlstrand didn't win any race for us it's still very good to see him top of the individual rankings.
I still hope we can add a win in the team's record, but I admit that the priority is avoiding the relegation and the development of our region riders.
P.S. Also, although it's 1 1/2 years since I started a second specialization I do hope I'll be able to better balance families, studies and work so to be more active again.
I'm amazed we're still in the Top 5 (even if not in the projections), I'm also amazed that Silvestre is in the Top 15 individually. Both don't feel like it given recent race results, but I'll take it, of course.
Amaysim doing as well as expected, and I'm just super impressed at HelloFresh. Certainly some lucky results, but also simply a teambuilding job well done that created as many chances to get lucky as possible.
It's always difficult as a long term manager to look at the rankings and not wish for even more guys to have succes - but I must admit that I think every single one in the top 5 deserves a promotion. Obviously Amaysim as a long term PT team kinda belong in the PT in my mind - and I'm really happy to see the succes of HelloFresh.
Binance as one of those teams that are regularly a PT team, and a long running manager I'd love to see them strike back, while cunego and his Bralirwa setup came so close last season after attacking the rankings from the gun - This could well be their time, and I cross my fingers for their succes.
And finally obviously to see Carlsberg in a promotion spot, can't do anything but give a smile on the lips.
All of the guys are either long running or very active - or both - and I like to see those kind of managers be succesful. That being said - I could easily point towards another 5 teams I also would love to see promote.
It's still early days, and some of the big point scorers are yet to make their presence, so I suspect some major turnarounds sometime later in the season, but I do like what I see at the top right now.
Been away for a while, and it looks like the truly impressive undrperformances from Errazkin and Fernandes is really biting us in the butt. Luckily, still plenty of time, our pprd looking fine thanks to classics. But tjose two gotta deliver. Even extra 50 points wouldve been huge
Just for your info, PCT/CT rankings are most likely to be posted after Vancouver is done. If Tropicale should start within the next 24h or so, I'd wait for it as well, else we'll just skip it for now and include it later.
