Our first PT wildcard of the year is already done! We were looking forward to this TTT test at the highest possible level - and the preview suggested that we did so rightfully. Whereas the Top 5 teams looked to be out of reach, we were listed as the 6th best team - with the next four teams however within 0.6 points. Meaning that a Top 10 finish should be within reach, but it could basically be anything from 5th to 10th.
And we did have a good start, clocking the 6th time at the first checkpoint - expectedly behind the Top 5, but ahead of everyone else.
Unfortunately, we couldn't quite keep the pace up, and eventually lost a couple of spots - just 7" off 6th place and tied with 8th place, we finished 9th. Meaning that we left 14 PT teams behind us, despite not bringing our strongest possible lineup - although we were hoping to end up some spots higher, it's still a promising result for the next races where we'll face PT TTT opposition!
Decent result in Cophenhagen. I am used to having JURA as a fellow cobbles-allergic team, so good luck as you adventure out from our cozy club and into the world of the big-bad cobbles team.
Ulrich Agree, it was a decent result no more, but no less, either - compared to other appearances so far.
I'm as surprised as you that I've suddenly added another preferred terrain to my race selections, but given that no better fit was available (or just went out of reach), you have to take what you can get Thanks for the wishes, will need them against Stallaert et al.
Nemo To be fair, no serious PCT competition was present, so we'll find out in March if we can do as well as we should on paper against Glanbia, McCormick or your Chicken
The madness has arrived - we finally dared entering this insane looking classic in Portugal, having almost more cobbles than normal roads.
Going there needed some creativity in the lineup creation, given that Omloop took place the same day. And we only entered the race because history has shown that good puncheurs with some minimum cobbles skills can do pretty well here. You may (or may not) remember that we do have last year's U23 vice World Champion on our team - Mauro Schmid rode to 2nd place, on a cobbled course! So we decided it was worth a shot to send him here, and ended up selecting the race for the first time.
However, the first part of the race was animated by some other riders - the morning breakaway. And just like in GORC, we were very pleased to see Cedric Bakke Christophersen being part of that move, showing our jersey to the world for quite some hours. He would end the race in 48th place - no points, but still a respectable result.
Cedric Bakke Christophersen in 2nd position in the BotD.
But not only Cedric, the entire breakaway didn't make it to the line ahead of the pack. And one of those responsible for this fact is... Mauro Schmid! Inspired by Meurisse's winning move last year, he launched an early attack with roughly 40km to go - and soon reached the front group before leaving them behind! Well, except for one rider, that is.
More importantly, however - future superstar Tom Pidcock joined the two leaders, and with his big engine definitely helped making the gap go up!
Mauro Schmid riding away from the pack alongside Pidcock and Kireva.
However, the move might have come a little early. Soon after, race favorite Benoot attacked from the peloton, bridged the gap with ease - and just left Schmid and Pidcock behind. They were clearly starting to feel their legs, whereas the Belgian was still looking really fresh.
Rather surprisingly, the next rider who joined the chasing duo was Jorgenson - not really a great puncheur, but the American apparently was on a superb day. So superb that he was unfortunately able to leave Schmid and Pidcock behind as well.
Jorgenson is too strong for Pidcock and Mauro Schmid.
Despite Pidcock's superb downhill skills, the duo was unable to come back. So it was Pidcock vs. Schmid for 3rd place - and as had to be expected, the Brit unfortunately was stronger.
Which means that Mauro Schmid ended up just off the podium spots. Which of course was a disappointing end to an otherwise great performance!
Mauro Schmid can't match Pidcock in the fight for 3rd.
However, when taking a step back, Mauro and the team can be really, really proud of what they achieved here! 4th was our best cobbles result before - however, one race category lower (C2HC), so this can definitely be declared our strongest ever performance in a cobbled race so far! We obviously hope to go at least one better in the course of this year with our actual cobbles leader, but what Schmid did here definitely deserves some respect! And even though he just missed out on his first classics podium (not counting the U23 WC), we're sure he'll eventually get one - maybe not this year, but he surely will!
With Schmid obviously being our main focus in this race, let's not forget to mention our Georgian talent Giorgi Tediashvili, who held onto the peloton until it broke into pieces, and went on to finish 21st - definitely a promising result for the future!
Mac Yeah, I guess I sometimes tend to be too demanding already, but I think that having a "comfortable PCT team" is actually already worth a lot. I'm always dreaming of more, but realistically staying up comfortably would already be a big achievement indeed
This update should have been just a normal race review - but as you can guess from the title, it was a truly special day for us! Team history was written - in several aspects! We'll go through them - starting with what was intended to be posted anyway:
Race Review | Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
It was the day of the year's first cobbles. Further west, Mauro Schmid finished on a great 4th place in Viana do Castelo, giving a boost of morale to our squad in Belgium - as if that was needed anyway, given that with Edward Theuns we had one of the race's main favourites in our ranks.
However, the clashing race in Portugal, where we sent our two strongest cobble helpers to, meant that Eddie was left without competent support on the stones. Which was our only reason to be slightly worried - otherwise he had all it takes to do well in this race; cobbles skills, puncheur skills - and a strong sprint, being the second fastest man among the best cobblers.
But in the first part of the race, the top riders didn't show themselves yet, obviously. Instead, it was the breakaway's time to shine - and just like in GORC some days ago, we were represented in that group at first, by our sprinter talent Gergely Szarka:
Gergely Szarka was the first rider to attack - but also one of the first ones to be dropped.
He couldn't keep up the breakaway's pace for long, not being an expert on the cobblestones at all, and the peloton chasing hard. So all the weight of getting a good result was on our leader's shoulders - as expected.
And Edward Theuns did well in being attentive all race long, making all the important splits on the right side:
Edward Theuns always riding in the front group.
He was always in the right place, while riding an anonymous race - meaning he could save his energy for the really important stages of the race. Plus, unlike some strong competitors, he didn't suffer any puncture - kudos to our tech staff for providing us with some great material!
The energy save modus lasted until the final cobbles section was over - but not any longer:
Edward Theuns on the attack with 16km to go!
When Eddie launched his move, only two other riders were able to follow: Nathan Van Hooydonck, and - obviously - Joeri Stallaert? Well, no! The big time favourite missed out on that move, instead it was Swiss RR Champion Lukas Spengler joining them!
Blythe tried to chase them down, and so did Gamper, Zepuntke and Daniel - but Stallaert pulled those back. Yet didn't have the energy to catch the front trio as well!
And so, their advantage kept on increasing - and with 2km left it was clear that these three riders would make the race podium - but in which order?
Lukas Spengler, Edward Theuns and Nathan Van Hooydonck with 2km left to race.
Well, if you know the MG cobblers a little bit, you may know that only one of this trio actually has any sprint skills at all - Eddie. And that showed, as he left the others not even the least chance:
Edward Theuns winning the 2023 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad!
He did it! At the very first occasion of the year, he did what we didn't even consider being an option heading into transfers - a Jura GIANTS rider won a cobbled race! Definitely a reason to celebrate - and here he is celebrating:
Edward Theuns on the top step of the podium!
Why are we so thrilled about that? We'll now head over to the history part so you can get a better understanding - a win obviously is always something special, but this one is very, very special for us!
Cobbles History
If you were following our team over the last couple of years - remember that we just started our 5th season - you surely know that we always were averse to cobbles. Some even called it an allergy recently. Our best cobbler so far was Leo Basso - with a cobbles stat of 73.
The cobbles aversion wasn't actually intended. In fact, we signed Patrick Gamper in our very first year - the young Austrian has now grown into one of the strongest cobbles-TT hybrids of the world. And we didn't intend to let him go - in hindisght, it may have been wrong having done so. But we did, in our second year already - and so the cobbles were gone for us.
Nonetheless, we want to recall that Leo Basso still reached a fantastic 4th place in the 2020 Lincoln GP - so our best cobbles result wasn't actually that bad. However, it was a lone highlight among some minor results and even more zero-pointers.
We intended to change that in the next couple of years, signing Giorgi Tediashvili and Jan Sommer as our future cobbles domestiques - both of them are still developing. But we did not intend to sign a cobbles leader this year - we didn't even consider it to be an option.
Well, sometimes you have to jump on the occasion when it's there. When offered a deal that would bring in a true star cobbler, we couldn't refuse. So Leo Basso, Gabby Chavanne and some money left our team. And in came Edward Theuns. The rest is history.
And history in this case means: First Cobbles Win! Schmid equalling Basso's 4th place earlier on the day - albeit one category higher - was already great, but Eddie even winning a classic - an HC one nota bene - is just amazing!
Terrain History
The title tells you what this part is about - we have now won a race on every terrain! Not necessarily a classic - for example, there aren't even any prologue classics - but either a stage or a classic. It started back in our very first year, and came to completion today.
We don't want to honour "just" Eddie, but all of the riders who contributed to that "Terrain Slam" - here we go:
Yes, we admit that we love TTs, and we found a way to even make 4 categories out of it - with the first ever win in the discipline not even being listed, as that was Gino Mäder's Avenir ITT win in 2020 - we only considered the elite races here, though.
It feels great to have completed this collection now - what's missing is mainly winning a flat classic, and maybe a TTT classic, as there aren't any MTT or Prologue classics out there. And maybe some day winning a cobbles stage - we won't have the opportunity to do so this year, though.
Ranking History
Yes, the first PCT ranking update has finally arrived - but that's not really historic in itself, given that we already have a full year of PCT racing in our team books.
And the outcome of the first update isn't historic, either; we'd say we had a pretty solid start, scoring decent points everywhere, although losing 1/3 of the points in Hong Kong compared to last year - while sending a stronger team - was disappointing.
We are in 9th place in this ranking update, with the PpRD ranking seeing us in 12th position. Not quite in the Top 5 where our sponsors would like to see us, but - points-wise - not far off, either. So, what's that history thing about?
Well, it's about the updated rankings including today's two races. These are not official, but we know the system well enough to do our own update. We won't give any update on other teams, but here's what the situation looks like for us, after February 04, 2023:
Pos
Last
Team
Total
RD
PpRD
Proj
1
9
Jura GIANTS
355
15
23.67
3858
With today's races, we have indeed taken the lead in the PCT division! We're not top in terms of PpRD, where we're in 3rd place now - but for the first time ever, we're leading the PCT standings! Isn't that historic?
Yes, it's really been a great day for us. We know that the ranking situation won't last (although we hope to be pretty high up after all those cobbles in February), but we're clearly enjyoing the moment. You don't achieve all these milestones every day - and especially not several ones of them on the same day! We hope we'll be able to look back at this day - and get motivation and strength from it - when rougher times come. But now is the time to celebrate - cheers!
knockout Thanks for the congrats I know you were a bit worried about Schmid's wage after renewals - it's still high, but I hope this was just the start of him paying back something
red Yep, they can - just like myself, given the current time
To be honest, I wasn't really afraid of relegation post-transfers - but it's always good to see when things start falling into place, and especially when an unconventional planning decision like Viana plays out that well
Congrats on the terrain slam and the points lead. I am looking forward to when you have the points calculation so automated it puts the daily in PMC.Daily
Another cobbled race - another chance for a top result? Well, not quite. Despite being a really well-known spring classic, G-W is only a C2 race nowadays - meaning PCT teams have some quite strong limitations on the riders they're allowed to send. Hence, neither Theuns nor Schmid were allowed to participate, meaning our hopes were on Nejc Kosic as our strongest cobbler, and Giorgi Tediashvili being our most well-rounded participant.
But our cobbles duo had to wait for the more decisive stages of the race - and with them not being race favorites by any means, their teammates had quite some freedom. Which Felix Stehli made use of right after the start:
Felix Stehli joining the first move of the race.
The move went nowhere, though - but given that breakaway appearances are a pleasantly recurring pattern in classics so far, Cedric Bakke Christophersen tried his luck as well with the next wave of attacks:
Cedric Bakke Christophersen in a 14 rider group.
That move lasted a lot longer - but Cedric still was one of the earlier riders to be caught. Unsurprisingly, given his lack of cobbles skills.
Just as the riders reached the final 50 kilometers, some more riders tried their luck - and there were some really big names up front this time with race favorites Gaday and the legendary Sam Bewley! Joining them were Swiss rider Nils Brun (riding for Tafjord) - and Giorgi Tediashvili!
Giorgi Tediashvili riding in a front group alongside Sam Bewley!
But despite - or maybe because - of the firepower up front, this group didn't last long, either. From there, it was an elimination race basically, with more and more riders getting dropped - but our two cobblers were still able to keep up!
However, they missed out on the winning move - as did all other teams, when Tafjord launched a duo attack with Breen and Kaislavuo. Who went on to make it a sensational Scandinavian 1-2 on the Belgian cobbles. Which was slightly disappointing to see for us as well, given that the runner-up is not really stronger than our duo - but Tafjord's race tactics just was a masterpiece!
So, how did our riders fare? Pretty well. Giorgi Tediashvili was lacking some kick to fight for the podium in the end, but his 9th place is definitely promising for the next couple of cobbled races - and for the future, obviously! Nejc Kosic couldn't overcome his fatigue in the end, but still finished on the final scoring spot, 25th place.
Georgian RR Champion Giorgi Tediashvili finishing the race in 9th position - right behind another legend in Trentin!
So, our first out of three mandatory C2 trips was a worthwile one. Of course, we only got minor points compared to Omloop and even Viana - but points are points, and every point might be important in the end! Good job by our support cobblers - and also by those who got us some TV presence!
Ulrich Thanks I guess Fastned or Bralirwa should now have taken the lead after Portugal is done, but it was great while it lasted
At some point, I was seriously thinking of programming a web application for automating some MG stuff even more - maybe I'll try to implement something once the forum is on a current version
Laurens Thanks! I've definitely gone through other moments as well, so it's nice to continue on a high after winning the CT title last year Although I have to admit that I'm sometimes way too much into the game, think I might need to take a step back from time to time... Be it in good or bad times.
Abhi Thanks for the congrats It feels good when your top riders are performing, guess you know that feeling, too
It was a lot of fun to go back in team history to find those - and I admit that at least for the mountains I had forgotten about the first winner, thinking it was Manfredi at Tour de Romandie one year later... And I also had forgotten that Nairo was our first ITT winner, even if it was an MTT
That's some history made indeed, great that the Theuns investment pays off pretty much immediately. Great for you, I mean, not so much for Stallaert and his chances going forward Although OHN was simply a poor tactical performance, too.
Wouldn't mind seeing you at or near the top of the rankings throughout the season tbh. Not sure how realistic that is but you're certainly one of the most deserving managers for any success coming your way
Cobbles, cobbles, cobbles everywhere! February is the most cobbles-heavy month in the PCT calendar, with 6 races - we participate in 5 of them. Le Samyn was #4, and we chose to not go to the clashing GP Herning, given that we preferred having our support riders in Belgium.
Edward Theuns was among the favourites once again, given his great package of strong cobbles skills, good hill riding and pretty fast sprint. Especially the slight incline up to the finish line should suit him. Given that anything can happen in a cobbles race, we expected a Top 5 result from him - but secretly hoped for another podium finish.
However, before he'd step into action, the plan was to again send a rider in the morning breakaway, so we didn't have to do a ton of work in the pack. Cedric Bakke Christophersen happily took that task, being part of a breakaway for the 3rd time already this year!
Cedric Bakke Christophersen in the middle of the breakaway group.
Edward Theuns then got a mention in the race report far earlier than expected - and it wasn't a positive one, as he suffered a puncture on the very first cobbled sector! Fortunately, the pace wasn't overly high yet, and he made it back without spending too much effort.
Someone else however decided to put in some big effort - Nejc Kosic, our 2nd strongest pure cobbler:
Nejc Kosic launching a mid-range attack!
He did make it to the front group alongside some other riders joining his move. It did still end up being futile, though, with the entire breakaway being caught around 15km from the finish line, making it a 63 rider peloton still!
That was too big of a group for Edward Theuns, who upped the pace soon after:
Edward Theuns spicing things up!
Only Van Hooydonck, Daniel, Stallaert, Debesay and Ringheim were able to follow him, with Summerhill joining the group soon after.
6 more riders were able to join them, as they reached the 10km banner. Summerhill surprisingly wasn't able to keep up, so that made it 12 riders fighting for the win - with everyone taking turns in unsuccessfully attacking within those closing kilometers.
Rather surprisingly, Edward Theuns also tried such a late attack - even though the only ones he seriously had to fear in a sprint were Stallaert and Daniel.
Edward Theuns attacking once again!
But Eddie may have identified that as the best strategy to potentially drop the other fast sprinters - and it worked out in Omloop already.
And guess what? He got a gap, with just 3km to go! No-one was able to counter, and he had a pretty clear lead heding onto the final 1,000 meters!
However, that last kilometer was slightly uphill, and Theuns seemed to have overextended himself, losing almost all his momentum with just a couple of meters to go!
Ringheim (surprise of the day!) and Stallaert got dangerously close - here's the outcome:
Edward Theuns wins!!!
He did it again! He defended a slim margin against his closest chasers, and Edward Theuns got back-to-back wins on home soil! Winning Omloop and Le Samyn within just a couple of days - what an amazing, awesome performance! And it's stunning to see how he did it - in both races, he didn't just want to wait for the sprint, where he'd have been one of the top favourites anyway. No, in both races, it was him who launched the decisive attack, and got the highest possible reward twice - fantastic!
Before we'd like to put these two wins into some context, we don't want to forget to mention Giorgi Tediashvili! Unlike some of his teammates, he rode a pretty anonymous race - which he ended in 25th place, thereby scoring another handful of points! Well done! Nejc Kosic also ended the race inside the Top 50, which however isn't worth any points in the HC category. Still, a good outcome in his first HC race for us.
More History
Yes, we do like numbers, and we do like to keep track of some history. One thing we didn't mention in the last history post was that before this season, we never managed to win a classic in a higher category than C2. Eddie's Omloop made that "highest classic win category" jump to HC, skipping C1 (and the now defunct/paused C2HC). So that was quite an improvement already.
His second win in a row has now made the Cobbles our most successful classics terrain, as we only have one win each in Mountains (Sakartvelo, 2021), Hills (Placci, 2020) and ITT (Isle of Man, 2022). From nowhere right to the top - who'd have imagined that!
And last but not least, Edward Theuns' own history. Despite his mighty strong skillset, he only managed to win two classics in his career prior to the 2023 season; the Cheshire Cycling Tour last year, and his biggest win ever, the Ronde van Vlaanderen, in 2021.
Whereas the latter will obviously stand as the biggest win of his career (except if he wins it again this year), and even Cheshire as a PTHC race might be ranked higher in his personal favourite win list, the double of Omloop and Le Samyn means it's the first time he wins more than one classic in one year - and it doubles his classic win count! So even if the season was done and dusted already, Eddie would surely be a happy man taking two wins on his home cobbles - even if they were "just" HC events!
cunego Thanks! Especially your last sentence means a lot to me - although I think in most cases those who are high up in the rankings deserve it due to their clever choices, not for what they've done for the game Otherwise, roturn should be a serial PT winner
Theuns has gotten everything right on the cobbles so far, but I'm sure Joeri's time will come, too. He can rock Benelux, or Franceville - no worries for me
More seriously, looking forward to some great duels - we haven't really seen a head-to-head sprint between the two yet, still waiting for that
After a stellar first half of the month - most notably including two fantastic wins by Edward Theuns - we have already crossed the 500 points mark (thereof more than 330 in February)! Which means that while we're still hoping for some solid results in the second half, we can be far more relaxed than if those five classics (thereof one PT wildcard) had gone completely wrong.
For the remainder of February, it's mostly about stage races. Three of them are on our schedule, with the longest one being another PT wildcard race. Plus another classic to round off the month - here's what awaits us in the next couple of days:
Feb 13 - 20 | Paris - Nice | PT
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Colin Stüssi
71
79
73
75
77
73
78
55
63
66
65
69
69
Fausto Masnada
71
77
76
73
76
75
73
60
63
73
69
71
70
Mauro Schmid
72
74
77
68
71
77
72
69
70
77
76
74
66
Xuban Errazkin
71
74
78
70
76
75
76
64
63
73
69
67
70
Cees Bol
76
64
70
67
75
77
81
68
79
77
68
67
69
Giorgi Tediashvili
73
66
69
65
74
76
72
74
69
71
70
66
65
Gergely Szarka
75
62
67
61
72
72
75
60
76
76
64
66
70
Christoph Janssen
71
63
65
72
68
71
70
55
59
66
64
65
72
Our second PT wildcard race of the year brings us to France - no, unfortunately not to Le Tour, which we were hoping to compete in as well, but to one of the Giro prep races, Paris - Nice, the "Race to the Sun".
Between the two clashing stage races T-A and P-N, we preferred the latter, given that it allows our riders to gain an additional day of experience, and we think that it might be a much more open race than the mountain stage race in Italy.
Although there aren't any high mountains in this race, we still had to send a good climber, given some of the longer uphills on days 3 and 7 - and obviously the time trial. But we still don't expect Colin Stüssi to fight for top GC positions.
Instead, we're rather playing the stage hunting card, with Fausto Masnada, Mauro Schmid and Xuban Errazkin all capable puncheurs, but surely not among the favorites. We think that especially the last two stages could well favor the breakaway, which should be the main goal for us.
Additionally, Cees Bol gets another chance to compete against the world's top sprinters, which he did fairly successfully in the GORC last month. Three stages are rated flat, but depending on the racing he might target one or two more, given his solid puncheur skills.
Giorgi Tediashvili, Gergely Szarka and Christoph Janssen are mainly here for experience reasons, but Szarka also has the task of helping Cees prepare for the bunch sprints.
Expectations: 4x stage Top 10, GC Top 20 Best result so far: n/a
Feb 22 - 24 | Tour of Ukraine | PTHC
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Colin Stüssi
71
79
73
75
77
73
78
55
63
66
65
69
69
Xuban Errazkin
71
74
78
70
76
75
76
64
63
73
69
67
70
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
Alexys Brunel
75
67
71
78
72
78
73
66
61
65
69
66
78
Stefan Kung
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Giorgi Tediashvili
73
66
69
65
74
76
72
74
69
71
70
66
65
Krzysztof Marchewka
65
64
60
77
73
75
74
50
52
64
62
65
77
Cedric Bakke Christophersen
66
66
68
63
68
72
65
64
66
68
70
64
67
We only did that race once - back in 2021 - and we don't have any positive memories. But our 2023 team is pretty different - and hopefully strong enough to get a clearly stronger result.
It's clear that without a top stage racer, we won't be fighting for the top positions. However, we know that Colin Stüssi is solid against the clock, and shouldn't lose too much time on the hilly stage (although that one had some insane gaps last year).
Xuban Errazkin is on one hand there to help Colin on the hilly stage, if the latter has a good day. If that isn't the case, Xuban should be riding on his own, as he might be among the stronger puncheurs present and can hold his own on the TT bike as well - although he obviously won't be a match for the top-tier TTers, either.
When speaking of TTers, this is the major fraction of our team present: Stefan Bissegger, Alexys Brunel, Krzysztof Marchewka and - maybe most importantly - Stefan Küng. The latter didn't lose too much time in the hills lately in Hong Kong - hopefully he can more or less reproduce that in Ukraine.
It's still a pretty unknown race for us, so this year is also a test to see which type of rider has a chance to succeed, and who doesn't - with three race days spent, it's not a huge risk to do experiments, although a complete failure would obviously hurt.
Expectations: 1x stage Top 10, GC Top 20 Best result so far:
- Stage: 19th (Fausto Masnada, 2021)
- GC: 27th (Fausto Masnada, 2021)
Feb 22 - 26 | Circulo de Juarez | HC
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Cees Bol
76
64
70
67
75
77
81
68
79
77
68
67
69
Dylan Page
75
57
66
60
72
72
75
66
78
79
62
55
59
Manuel Stocker
75
60
65
69
71
73
76
59
76
77
65
65
71
Gergely Szarka
75
62
67
61
72
72
75
60
76
76
64
66
70
Felix Stehli
67
66
69
62
70
69
68
62
69
69
67
69
66
Christoph Janssen
71
63
65
72
68
71
70
55
59
66
64
65
72
Hugo Page
66
65
66
61
68
68
62
61
69
72
68
69
66
Scott Davies
64
68
66
69
67
68
68
55
61
68
63
65
69
We tried to avoid flat races as much as possible - but given that Denmark is one of the races we absolutely wanted to have on our schedule, we had to accept the trip to Mexico as well.
Given our sprint performances so far, we're actually not even that unhappy about the five-day sprinter festival anymore, given that we seem to be pretty competitive despite not having a top sprinter.
We had quite some deliberations to decide on which sprinter to send here - but it turns out that both Cees Bol's and Dylan Page's planning actually left them with enough spare race days to attend.
We've got no clue how this will turn out. In principle, Cees should again lead the team, and Dylan should take over whenever there's an issue with the former. Dylan can definitely go for his own result, as we also bring Manuel Stocker and Gergely Szarka as our designated leadout riders - we'll see how it goes!
Given that none of our sprinters will actually be among the top favorites - at least that's our current take - we also expect to see some of our developing riders in breakaways; ideally future lead sprinter Hugo Page, given that he should already be somewhat competitive at the intermediate sprints to fight for some U25 points.
Expectations: 3x stage Top 10, GC Top 15 Best result so far:
- Stage: 1x Win (Mikiel Habtom, 2021)
- GC: 5th (Theo Reinhardt, 2020)
Feb 26 | Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne | C1
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Edward Theuns
72
67
74
65
76
73
74
80
77
76
64
67
70
Giorgi Tediashvili
73
66
69
65
74
76
72
74
69
71
70
66
65
Nejc Kosic
71
57
65
60
72
68
65
76
58
62
77
66
60
Krzysztof Marchewka
65
64
60
77
73
75
74
50
52
64
62
65
77
Cedric Bakke Christophersen
66
66
68
63
68
72
65
64
66
68
70
64
67
Gustas Raugala
69
65
65
68
66
68
63
54
58
64
64
71
69
The final race of the month is another new one for us - KBK has never been mandatory, so we never participated. A common scheme for cobbled races - but this has clearly changed with Edward Theuns' arrival!
Eddie will spearhead the team once again, supported by Giorgi Tediashvili and Nejc Kosic. And with the race once again including hills and cobbles - sometimes even combined - plus a flat run-in to the finish line, Eddie should be among the top favorites once again.
In the last couple of years, there mostly were reduced bunch sprints for the win - something we'd on one hand be fine with, but on the other hand would love to shake off Stallaert before. Which won't happen, so the podium must once again be the goal for Eddie.
Expectations: Top 5 Best result so far: n/a
18 race days, thereof 10 that actually matter for the PCT standings - it's an important second half of the month. A month that surely will be season-defining, as we'll find out whether it actually was a good idea or not to sign Theuns. We hope to be high up in the rankings by the end of February, given that our calendar is very front-loaded!
They should be all solid scoring races apart from maybe Juarez and of course P-N. I'm not looking forward to the clashes since they can't go as smooth as Copenhagen TTT
Given the apparent lack of interest in our Headquarter announcments, we had to decide with a heavy heart to drastically shorten our posts. We're not at all satisfied with this decision and with the new style, but we had to realize that it's just not worth the big amount of time put into our previews, reviews and other posts. Sorry for those who liked our original way of writing things - we clearly preferred it, but by now it just feels like a pretty big waste of time.
Race Review | Paris - Nice | PT
Our first of two PT wildcard stage races of the year. We had riders for the flat and for the hills, not so much for the TT - surprisingly, given our full roster.
The start was good, with Cees Bol sprinting to stage podiums on the first two days, subsequently wearing yellow and green on stages 3 and 4.
Positioning was worse in the other stages where sprinters did well, so no more Top 5 results, but a respectable 12th place GC finish.
Our best GC rider was Xuban Errazkin, ending up in 9th place after a completely anonymous race. Well done, the boys are looking to be prepared for the rest of the month.
Cees Bol riding in yellow on Stage 3.
red I'm hoping for some points in Juárez then, given that Ukraine is a complete disaster with the team being fully ignored by the most random game engine ever...
Well, what to say. We headed to Ukraine being convinced to bring a rider for any possible scenario; a strong puncheur (with some limited TT skills) in Xuban Errazkin, a strong climber (with good TT skills) in Colin Stüssi, a good TTer with allround skills in Stefan Küng - and a couple of pure TTers, thereof some with decent uphill skills, too.
But the one scenario we weren't prepared for - and couldn't even be, to be honest - was the game engine completely ignoring our team. Which is what happened.
There was at least one strong TTer of another team with sub-70 hill skills - and none of our (slightly weaker) TTers, who are stronger on the hills, even made it to the next group. Nor did our climber, with just the puncheur being in the 2nd group - behind tons of far weaker hills riders.
Well, we simply got shafted there, and we can't blame our riders by any means. It looks like PCMafia (by which we don't mean MGUCI or the reporters by any means, but the game engine) needs to be bribed by sending 80+ TTers to such races now - then they will consider your team and even send multiple riders up front, no matter their hill skills on a hilly stage.
Well, it just sucks to get (almost) nothing out of a race we had identified as a solid to potentially high scoring race. And it sucks even more given that exactly this kind of races is what we mainly targetted this year... Great prospects.
No comment on our riders' performances, given that they weren't even allowed to perform.
Laurens Indeed, I can be satisfied - sadly in a non-scoring race. When it mattered, Errazkin got shafted ^^
Bol is looking great so far, though
Copenhagen - Malmo TTT | 
Jura GIANTS entering the Øresund Bridge passage.
Viana do Castelo | 
Cedric Bakke Christophersen being part of that move, showing our jersey to the world for quite some hours. He would end the race in 48th place - no points, but still a respectable result.
Giorgi Tediashvili, who held onto the peloton until it broke into pieces, and went on to finish 21st - definitely a promising result for the future!
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Gergely Szarka:
Marco Guillén
Tour de Langkawi, S6
Hong Kong Challenge, S1
Fausto Masnada
Österreich Rundfahrt, S4
Nairo Quintana
Tour of Japan, S4
Volta a Catalunya, S3
Szymon Rekita
Isle of Man ITT
Nejc Kosic as our strongest cobbler, and 
Paris - Nice | 
Tour of Ukraine | 
Circulo de Juarez | 
Mikiel Habtom, 2021)
Theo Reinhardt, 2020)
