Despite August being almost done - just Britain is still in progress, and September has already started (ManGame has invented time travelling, indeed), let's take a look back at July, so we don't have too much at once. Actually we'll look even further back, given that we still had one June race pending as well...
All in all, that's 12 races - too much for a single table, so let's split the races into two once more. And to do something new, for once we separate classics and stage races. Let's see how that works:
Period Ranking: July | Classics
The month kicked off with a clash of nordic sprinter classics - Torshavn and Uppsala. And we had even one nordic winner, with Halvorsen beating Ahlstrand on the Faroe Islands. While Red Bull also came out on top with those 80 points for the win, Volcanica were 3rd, as HelloFresh outscored them by one point taking 3rd (Dzamastagic) and 12th (Kennaugh).
Sweden was a race with restricted access for PCT riders, and so it was dominated by the CT sprinters. Only Cedevita actually tried their luck - and they should be happy with Katrasnik and Zariff bringing home 18 points.
Next up was another C2 event, the Isle of Man ITT. By bike, without motor. 2 teams participated, with Zara scoring 8 points thanks to Castrillo's 11th place, and Binance netting 2 points with Kazmarek and Thill.
Let's just get done with the small scoring races, with Betonexpressz GP being the last of them. Hungary brought 7 points to Strava (Sanikwati, Colbrelli, Nielsen) and 6 to Assa Abloy (Veyhe).
We also had the traditional TTT event - held in Windhoek, Namibia this time. But despite it being a C1 race, CT had the upper hand again - Zara as the best PCT team took 2nd place. Cedevita were 3rd, and Project: Africa 5th. 65, 50 and 40 points for the strongest PCT teams there.
Last but not least, the sole PTHC classic of the month. And boy, did the PCT dominate in Philadelphia, with 8 in the Top 10! Silvestre came out on top, winning the race ahead of Vesely - that's 170 and 125 points for them and their teams. Ahlstrand and Volcanica got 90 points for 4th place.
Overall, this one race obviously had the biggest impact on the classics rankings, as the Top 3 PCT teams in Philadelphia also were the highest scoring teams in the July classics. Bralirwa and Minions are the only teams netting more than 150 points in those 6 races, with Volcanica just below.
Zara, HelloFresh, Assa Abloy and RedBull all scored 100+ points, and are within just 18 points from each other.
Xero, Trans and Gjensidige didn't participate in any of them, hence the obvious zero. Binance, Philips and Carlsberg are the only other teams below 10 points.
Here's the full table:
Tor
Upp
IoM
Phil
Wind
Bet
Total
1
Bralirwa - Stevens
28
0
0
170
0
0
198
2
Minions - Subwoolfer
14
0
0
125
35
0
174
3
Volcanica - Fox
56
0
0
90
0
0
146
4
Zara - Irizar
20
0
8
25
65
0
118
5
HelloFresh - Lampre
57
0
0
57
0
0
114
6
Assa Abloy
26
0
0
77
0
6
109
7
Red Bull Zalgiris
80
0
0
0
20
0
100
8
Indosat Ooredoo
43
0
0
42
0
0
85
9
Strava
0
0
0
68
0
7
75
10
Cedevita
0
18
0
0
50
0
68
11
Kraftwerk Man Machine
0
0
0
50
0
0
50
12
Voyagin - Bird
0
0
0
18
25
0
43
13
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
0
0
0
40
0
0
40
14
Project: Africa
0
0
0
0
40
0
40
15
Team Popo4Ever
32
0
0
6
0
0
38
16
Crabbe-CC Chevigny
16
0
0
0
0
0
16
17
Amaysim Cervelo
0
0
0
14
0
0
14
18
Sauber Petronas Racing
0
0
0
14
0
0
14
19
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
8
0
0
0
0
0
8
20
Philips - Force India
0
0
0
8
0
0
8
21
Binance
0
0
2
0
0
0
2
22
Xero Racing
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
23
Trans Looney Tunes
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
24
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Period Ranking: June/July | Stage Races
The stage races were obviously the more important category, as almost always - and with 4 C1 and 2 PTHC races way bigger points were on the table.
Let's start with the remainder of the previous month - La Tropicale, which could finally be raced. And surprisingly, it's even the race with the highest score in this update! By now we can almost say that Zara had just a normal day in the office, winning 3 out of the 5 stages, the GC, taking furthermore 5th and 15th... Benjamin Thomas wasn't a favorite by any means, but he won the closing TT and the GC, with Jakobsen contributing two stage wins. Zara magic - I don't know how and why it works, but it does. 301 points, bang!
Amaysim and Indosat probably weren't too unhappy with their 141 and 139 points respectively, either - the former thanks to Durbridge/Wohler (2nd, 10th), the latter thanks to Dunbar/Wolf/Prayogo (6th, 11th + stage win, 12th). But even these two teams combined can't match Zara's score.
In Arab Tour, the big points were distributed a bit more evenly. Amaysim won the race with Durbridge and stage 1 with Bewley, totalling 196 points. Assa Abloy came just 6 points short, taking 2nd and 3rd in the GC with Gonzalez Salas and Paillot, the former also winning stage 3. It's then a bigger gap to Indosat, who were 3rd best with 112 points, mainly due to Dunbar's 4th place finish.
Let's continue with C1 racing, this time Down Under - with New Zealand's Tour de Vineyards to be precise. This race saw a Minions domination, with Kalaba winning the opening stage, and Cattaneo winning the mountain stage 3, the KoM jersey and - of course - the GC. 252 points for the men in overalls.
For once, Taaramäe and Zara were powerless against that dominance, but they still took best of the rest, taking home the closing TTT and 2nd place in the GC, alongside Conci's white jersey. All of this was worth 145 points. Kraftwerk got a stage win and the green jersey with Zabel, plus a 6th place GC finish with Ranaweera - 132 points.
Tour d'Andorra then wraps up C1 racing for this month. And it was finally, finally the big relief for Padun and Popo4Ever, as they won the race after having narrowly lost out multiple times already. Three podium spots and two further Top 10 results in 5 days, the green jersey and the GC win are worth 191 points for him alone - his team netting 207 points means depth wasn't optimal, but it's still by far the best score of any team in the race.
Next was Madrazo's Bralirwa, who probably aren't overly happy with 3rd in the GC, despite back-to-back stage wins. 127 points for the Afro-Germans, while runner-up Oomen's Lierse scored 103 points.
Onto PTHC then. Lithuania was the first of them, and calling it a "decent" one for Cedevita might be quite some understatement. Sure, they didn't get a GC podium or even win it like they did two years ago, but 6th, 7th and 14th by Groselj, Gaudu and Christodoulos alongside some decent stage results and 2nd in the team standigns are worth 300 points! The second highest value in this update, good job!
The race didn't go quite as well for the other PCT teams, with only Kraftwerk crossing the 100 points barrier. Zabel with two 2nd places and 2nd in the points standings, plus Boily and Moazemi taking 20th and 21st, results in a still decent 145 points. Lierse were 3rd best with 62 points.
Finally, Slovenia didn't see a top-notch score by any team, but at least we had 6 teams above 100 points here. Two went even higher than 200, with Dunbar's Indosat ending up with 225 points. A stage win and a 2nd place GC finish definitely are some great results!
Zara's magic worked pretty well once again, with Conci taking 6th in the GC plus the white jersey, and - more surprisingly - Cosnefroy ending up 10th. 218 points for the Spaniards. Minions didn't get an outstanding result, but 12th and 13th by Dennis and Brown still are worth 123 points - best of the rest in PCT.
Now, what does the stage racing block look like? Well, Zara easily top the list with their three good to great races in Vineyards, Slovenia and especially Tropicale. 715 points in this block, wow!
Minions also did a good job, scoring above 100 points in all four races they participated in - 602 points for them, a clear 2nd place. Assa Abloy in 3rd are again almost 100 points further down, netting 523 points, critical for their path to safety! Indosat and Red Bull are the other teams above 400 points.
On the other hand, 10 teams didn't even score 100 points this month. Crabbe, Sauber and Xero are even below 50 points - definitely not a good month for them. Trans, Volcanica and Philips weren't that much better, though - and Binance's promotion ambitions likely took a serious hit this month!
But before looking at the big picture, here's the stage racing overview:
Trop
Arab
Vine
Lit
Slo
And
Total
1
Zara - Irizar
301
12
145
0
218
39
715
2
Minions - Subwoolfer
118
109
252
0
123
0
602
3
Assa Abloy
97
190
119
11
106
0
523
4
Indosat Ooredoo
139
112
0
0
225
0
476
5
Red Bull Zalgiris
114
92
47
51
119
0
423
6
Team Popo4Ever
0
0
107
53
0
207
367
7
Kraftwerk Man Machine
0
0
132
145
33
50
360
8
Amaysim Cervelo
141
196
0
0
0
0
337
9
Cedevita
0
0
0
300
0
0
300
10
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
0
69
0
0
114
0
183
11
Project: Africa
10
0
63
6
0
87
166
12
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
0
0
0
62
0
103
165
13
Bralirwa - Stevens
0
9
0
0
17
127
153
14
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
0
54
0
61
0
0
115
15
Voyagin - Bird
0
39
28
0
0
32
99
16
Strava
4
5
6
57
27
0
99
17
HelloFresh - Lampre
36
4
22
28
0
0
90
18
Binance
0
0
36
0
0
41
77
19
Philips - Force India
0
0
0
0
0
65
65
20
Volcanica - Fox
0
0
0
45
0
19
64
21
Trans Looney Tunes
0
0
14
0
45
0
59
22
Xero Racing
0
0
0
45
0
0
45
23
Sauber Petronas Racing
0
0
0
0
0
36
36
24
Crabbe-CC Chevigny
0
0
0
0
6
18
24
Full Ranking
While they didn't excel this month, Amaysim again were very solid and did a good job in the three races they had. They're now the first team above 3,000 points, and have an excellent PpRD of 27.26.
Without much surprise given the tables above, Zara have moved further up - and are now "best of the rest". They've even reduced the gap to Amaysim to just 300 points - having races 23 days more, though. Still, projections see them easily achieve back-to-back promotions!
Minions also had a good run lately, and they have made a major jump from 9th all the way to 3rd - showing just how close things are in this division! While trailing Zara by almost 300 points, they're just as much ahead of Binance and Bralirwa, who are separated by just 8 points!
Lierse, the final team above 2,000 points currently, are 84 points behind the promotion spots - but according to PpRD should end up 5th! Carlsberg and HelloFresh aren't fully out of it, either, but they need some pretty efficient use of their remaining RDs!
In 9th place, we have Cedevita - the team having used up the least number of RDs so far. And projected to finish... 3rd! While Eddy Beltran is still struggling to find his mojo, the rest of the team are doing a fantastic job, not only keeping them afloat but instead even getting within reach of promotion!
Another team that shouldn't be underestimated are Kraftwerk, who are currently down in 12th place - but if they can repeat their ToA magic later on, who knows...
At the bottom, it looks like we're down to 3 doomed teams - Crabbe, Project: Africa and Strava. On the other hand, Assa Abloy look to have made a major turnaround, jumping from last to 20th - and having plenty of races still to come!
Instead, Gjensidige have dropped from safety to relegation, from 19th to 21st, trailing Philips on 19th place by 170 points now. However, according to PpRD, those most likely to be in danger now are Trans, Volcanica, Voyagin and Indosat - despite the latter having made a big jump from 21st to 15th!
It's still hard to make any prediction at this point, but it currently looks like about 2,200 points could be needed for safety. We can expect really close races for promotion and against relegation, though!
And here's what you've been waiting for for months now:
While we do again have quite some moving around inside the Top 10, only two names are actually new ones. Not those on the top, though, as Jonas Ahlstrand is still leading the division ahead of Sam Oomen, 934 vs. 814 points. Kristoffer Halvorsen and Angel Madrazo have gained 3 spots each, being now 3rd and 4th respectively.
Jack Haig has dropped 7 points behind the latter, with Mattia Cattaneo (one of the new names) and Fabio Jakobsen luring just 10 and 12 points behind! Joseph Areruya and Joeri Stallaert both are 4 spots lower than last time, while Mark Padun has finally entered the Top 10.
Two new Top 10 riders means two dropping out; these are Benoot and Aular, both dropping 4 spots to 13th and 14th respectively. The most notable jumps were probably made by Dunbar, moving from 67th to 15th, and Durbridge, gaining 100 spots from 141st to 41st.
Damn those Minions! I saw them score well, but I didn't expect it would be this well. Zara definitely (and rightly so!) going up as well, which means we need to overtake Binance and Bralirwa, while also making sure Cedevita doesn't overtake us.
This made me look at my planner and I just realised Oomen is out of racedays and Novak isn't riding the Tour of America, which pretty much means it's over for us
Not mucht o be said he that wasn't said in the previous ranking update for us. We didn't race much in this section, but neither did most of the other teams. More will be said once August is done, but we blew some races there too. We're slowly seeing ourselves fall out of the promotion race and back into that mid-table no man's land we ended up last year. Definitely not what we wanted, but it will take a lot to change that at this point given AKA's struggles in the sprint classics especially. Hopefully we can still hang onto our top 10 goal.
Thanks for the update!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Great teamwork by Amaysim, only 1 guy in the top-10 and still leading that comfortably. A lot of great and fun teams and managers battling for the 7-8 promotion spots, and it's still really open to many teams. A 'classic' KMM Tour of America and/or a half decent one for Cedevita can immediately beam them up in the rankings.
Haven't followed very closely all season, so a bit of a surprise for me to see Xero rather low, but of course it seems like they also still have the ToA card to play.
Ollfardh wrote:
Damn those Minions! I saw them score well, but I didn't expect it would be this well. Zara definitely (and rightly so!) going up as well, which means we need to overtake Binance and Bralirwa, while also making sure Cedevita doesn't overtake us.
Wait for the next update, maybe?
Team depth is still going good, maybe too good. A bit unfair to say Beltran is still struggling, when he hasn't raced. Also he's still top 100 in the individual rankings. Top 100, I say!!
I got a funny feeling this season is gonna be kinda like last year. We'll mount a 'fake' promotion challenge. Still beats battling relegation of course and given that I know what happened in August so far, a top 15 finish is looking very good. PpRD looks great with so few race days, but that will soon change and ToA is mostly a filler race for us.
Thanks for the update Fabianski August update next week?
That was a really good month for us and a good step towards avoiding relegation. I’m optimistic that we will continue climbing up the rankings in August, but we will need to keep it up until the end of the season to be completely safe.
Given that September racing has already started, I'll try to do them asap, indeed. PT probably tomorrow, PCT/CT after Britain is done. Unfortunately, that pushes back ToA by a couple of days, as I haven't done enough stages yet, but well... I guess pushing back the end of the season by a week or so ain't the end of the world
Obviously an immense period for us with fantastic results all over the place. Moving up to 2nd is amazing!
Given September results, the picture for us is a bit clearer, but we basically still need to keep it going all the way to the end if we want to ensure we're on the Podium at the end of it all.
Jakobsen (7th), Taaramae (11th) and Conci (16th) having crazy good seasons with more gains to come from further back in the form of Cosnefroy and Thomas when the next update comes through.
Thank you Fab for the hard work in putting these together. I know sometimes the manual results cause chaos.
Both ends of the division going to be interesting to follow all the way to the final day! Promotion battle looks very interesting (and who knows if there'll be any additional promotions due to disbands) while the relegation battle will be a worthy follow also.
The Tour of America, in particular, going to be decisive for many teams across the division.
Decent time for us, u fortunarely we hadnt had the luck so e other teams did this year, so promotion is highly unlikely. Couple that with the fact that we will only have maybe 3 more races (apart from ones in August) it may even be a challenge to stay in top 10. But things seem to be in motion for a big push next year barring Halvorsen asking for 800k in renewals
We raced just one classic and one stage race in this period, so it's no surprise to see us drop like a rock given how competitive the PCT is this season. August and September are important for us, and will give a much clearer picture of where we will end up.
Nice to see Penasa once again cross the 1 Points/Wage mark and even has two races left. Can't ask for more from our second climber. Depth scoring isn't great though with only our three leaders getting into double figures so far. TvA on only 18 points after July is a shocker, especially given how well he did last season.
Lierse, the final team above 2,000 points currently, are 84 points behind the promotion spots - but according to PpRD should end up 5th! Carlsberg and HelloFresh aren't fully out of it, either, but they need some pretty efficient use of their remaining RDs!
Wait until your hear about Benelux Challenge
This obviously the narrative for us in this period. We had an unfortunate sitaution with Kennaugh not getting recognised as a sprinter which cost us dearly in one of our stage race outing
I think we've peaked we are however one of teams with the least race days spent in the "promotion race" and hopefully we can propel ourselves into snatching a potential disband spot in the PT. Thanks for a well written update Fabi!
Minions have been on a great run of form recently and it shows, happy for Marco!
Still going strong despite Haig not performing on the very highest (but still very solid) level. Our pprd will definitely drop after ToA (where we probably depend on breakaways/stage hunting), but obviously it's been a fine season so far
Thanks for the update and no worries about ToA reports "delaying".
Amaysim cruising towards the win and a re-entering of the PT - as they should! Can't wait to have them back where they belong to be honest.
Also there is a great joy in watching the Zara setup rise from some mishaps in the past. The team building has been an absolute joy to follow and is by far my favorite rider constellation of the PCT.
I have been secretly rooting for a promotion to HelloFresh and Cedevita too, and while both are in contention it does look increasingly difficult for the former, while the latter is in a great position looking at the projection.
I don't hope for anyone to relegate, but our l'Avenir-compatriots and shirt designer of Gjensidige I surely hope finds the final breath and takes home a salvation.
Obviously our top 10 objective is out of window, but I didn't held my hopes high in this regard. My hope is we can snatch enough points to save ourselves from relegation, the team project depends on it. Not in an extreme way, but it would definitely be more comfortable developing further in the PCT. Ahlstrand clearly did his part, although some 2nd places could have been 1st, but there's nothing to do about it, 1st in the PCT individual rankings is great. Quintana needs to redeem himself in some measure, he was a disappointment this season.
Thanks Fabi for the update!
We're enjoying our time left in PCT. Results like Benelux keep it fun to watch. I'm looking forward to ToA and then the rebuild for CT.
The promotion and relegation battles are interesting to follow, a lot of teams close together
MG - Lotto - Caloi
[MG] New Manager of the Year - PCM.daily Awards 2022
Not sure what to think. Our 3 leaders are in the Top 12 of the individual rankings, so I can't complain too much, even if at least Madrazo and Silvestre felt like they were punching below there weight pretty often. Virtually zero depth (except for Uwizeyimana, who is having his best PCT season yet) was somewhat expected and built into our approach, yet I still feel we didn't have too much luck there. Although Britain at least looks somewhat promising right now.
Otherwise, August was pretty mid for us, with decent stage rankings in Germany and Benelux, 3rd in Kigali and a Top 10 in Riga, but also some major letdowns in Frankfurt and Paris-Tours. Unfortunately, for the rest of the season we basically only have one significant scoring opportunity left, which is Madrazo in Morocco, and the route doesn't suit him super well. Apart from that, all we can hope for is some magic by Uwizeyimana in Bayern and Ndayisenga/Eyob/Hadi in the Basque Country, which are long shots at best. So we rely heavily on our immediate competition to score little, which isn't a great feeling.
That said, I think we have among the fewest race days of the non-ToA teams, and maybe that won't be super valuable race days for the teams around us. It's probably going to be very close until the very end. Thanks for the update Fab, as always!
crying in the club doing my renewals planning next year
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August update next week? 
