Areruya's first (and only) foray into the mountains in 2023 comes in the prestigious Criterium du Dauphine Libere, and another Win Goal in quick succession after Pologne. Not the most illustrious group of climbers present, but with Lachlan Morton the overwhelming favourite it was going to be a tough test for Joseph.


The moto cameraman was clearly a Schomber lover but he could only pay him back for this lovely shot of his rear with a third place in the opening prologue. A few more opportunities for yellow jerseys in the next few races and so hopefully this is him coming into form.


Areruya knew any time he could gain on Morton would be much needed heading into the mountains and he got frisky in the Stage 2 sprint, netting 5th on the day and no bonuses.


The hilltop finish of Stage 3 (where Bennett won last year) was more his speed, though, and after his move at the bottom to go solo was stopped, he ended up pipping Latour in a photo finish. Latour took yellow, Areruya just fourteen seconds down, making up most of his prologue deficit to his rivals. He again tried to compete in Stage 4's sprint finish, but could only manage 11th.


Areruya tried a small attack (countering Padun) over the penultimate climb on Stage 5 but was brought back due in part to his poor descending skills. He lead out the sprint and despite once again being run close, this time he had room to celebrate ahead of Morton, both of them moving to within 2 seconds of Latour in yellow.


Areruya finally earned the GC lead with his most comfortable sprint win yet on Stage 6's uphill finish, after doing a lot of chasing work in the closing kilometres. His 8th victory in his first 14 days of racing.


As is natural for the yellow jersey, Areruya suffered a barrage of attacks from his rivals, many of them better in the high mountains than him. And as yellow jersey, he had to chase them down - and he did! A huge effort from our guy.


Unfortunately this left him short of energy for a fourth stage win, and after triumphing in some close calls it this time he was pipped to what he needed - with Morton winning Areruya would have to come 2nd to hang onto the GC lead - and Choi had half a wheel's length on Areruya to deny him victory after doing almost everything he could. A valiant effort and overall a great race for us with three stage wins, two further podiums, 2nd on GC, the points win and 3rd in the KoM. Areruya's hot start to the season continues - however with no further racing for him for the next three months and the team still way out of the promotion race the rest of the squad needs to get on his level.

1	Lachlan Morton	cycleYorkshire	27h25'10
2	Joseph Areruya	Xero Racing	+ 4
3	Pierre Latour	Polar	+ 36
51	James Fouche	Xero Racing	+ 22'30
81	Johann Van Zyl	Xero Racing	+ 33'36
102	Alan Boileau	Xero Racing	+ 42'49
103	Ilan Van Wilder	Xero Racing	+ 43'53
110	Corbin Strong	Xero Racing	+ 48'26
143	Kees Duyvesteyn	Xero Racing	+ 1h14'32
175	Nils Schomber	Xero Racing	+ 2h13'09

June began with a complete no-show at the Hanko Classic - Houle 56th and Tesfaye Häkkinen 23rd.


Bennett was a solid 5th place at the Pro Hallstatt Classic - a weird one, coming down to essentially a MTF sprint among a large group. He should have beaten a few of the riders ahead of him, but equally some of the other top favourites finished far further behind.


He repeated the result in the Tour of East Java's decisive mountaintop finish, however this being in a PTHC field it was a far better result - or so we thought. With inconsistent gaps placing him seconds behind the riders who just beat him out, but on the same time as many riders behind, the GC results, unbeknownst to us, came down to countback on the final sprint stage. What the fuck! Jams was 5th in front of his home crowd on the final day.


Hugo Houle was 2nd in 2019 at Frankfurt Eschborn and he repeated it for his first real result of the season - escaping in the latter stages of the race in a group co-lead by Evonik legend Dzamastagic. The Slovenian went solo in the final kilometres with Houle winning the small group sprint behind him, barely holding off the peloton.


The Tour of California looked like it could be a fun race for us with a weaker startlist and Fouche and Pidcock co-leading after their successful GC rides at the Giro d'Italia. Schomber notched up another prologue win this month (after the Dauphine) to get us off to a perfect start. However the assistant directeur sportif (who has now been fired) directed the team to protect him on the mountain stage, so Pidcock and Fouche lost twelve minutes on Stage 2 trying to help Schomber defend yellow. What the fuck!

Pidcock got a few stage placements but the juice was gone for both and neither could find much redemption points-wise.

Schomber made a strong case but what happened after his California win left a sour taste. Areruya won three stages and the Points? Yeah, I think we can forgive losing the GC by a few seconds to one of the best in the world...

1		Jura GIANTS	2350
2		Fastned	2178
3		Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes	2069
4		Los Pollos Hermanos	2020
5		Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	1847
6		Assa Abloy	1823
7		Sony - Force India	1819
8		Lampre - Pinarello	1794
9		Indosat Ooredoo	1752
10		McCormick Pro Cycling	1672
11		Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska	1424
12		Team UBS - Tissot	1408
13		Xero Racing	1359

Oh dear.

@cunego - Yeah if we were to do that it would be a pretty amazing comeback! Mood is very very low at this point in the season though

@Abhishek - I always do the colouring for your team or riders! Shows how much you read my HQ

The big Thomas Pidcock-led stage race of the year, one where he entered not as a maverick hybrid but a genuine favourite. Historically outside of Debesay (2nd in 2020) we haven't had top leaders here, though Novardianto, van Zyl, Bester, Rowe, and Stannard have all been solid depth scorers.


The first day, though, was all about Nils Schomber, and our prologue wonderman made it three on the bounce as he grabbed yellow and the stage win. The haters and losers nowhere to be found.


Stage 2 was one for the sprinters and though we wanted to defend yellow the main priority was getting Pidcock in the mix with the true fastmen. He surprised many specialists and grabbed third on the day, bringing in 8 bonus seconds and jumping into 9th on GC. What's more in a selection of 53 Schomber lost no time - very rarely is that the case - and so he kept yellow. Jams and van Zyl - both capable of a GC result here as shown in previous years - were 10th and 11th on GC as well.


Stage 3 went through the Ardennes in Belgium and so took in some tough hills and undulating roads. We kept a lid on proceedings well and entered the run-in with Pidcock and Novardianto controlling the race and van Zyl also in the group. A group of riders attacked in the last 5km, Pidcock bridged across but Van Dijke brought it all back together on the final descent and lead out the sprint.


A special day as it was a 1-2 in the sprint and a 1-2 in the overnight GC for Pidcock and Novardianto. van Zyl lost 58 seconds as he and Schomber fell into the 20s on GC.


Next up were the cobbles of Flanders and it was a hectic day for Novardianto as he was dropped, worked his way back to help control things for Pidcock, and eventually lost time again and slipped to 13th on GC. His job was well done, though, as we limited the gap to the winning trio of cobblers to just 26 seconds, Pidcock bringing home the favourites' group in 4th and defending his GC lead.


A similar story on Stage 5 - more cobbles, more chaos in general but a simpler day for us as Pidcock once again lead the bunch home behind the winning move, and retaining his 24-second lead on GC. Jams and van Zyl also finished in that group after a hard day's work and moved to 11th and 17th on GC for their troubles.

There they would all stay on Stage 6 as Pidcock secured the first GC win of his very young career! A brilliant race for him and the whole squad, one of the highest scoring team races in our history - a stage win, the GC, and the Points and U25 wins for Pidcock, 11th on GC for Novardianto, 17th for van Zyl, and a stage win for Schomber. Beautiful stuff, the highest scoring HC race by any team in the PCT so far this season, and a huge strike back towards the Top 10 in the rankings for us!

The Benelux Challenge provided a huge influx in points, but during our busiest month on the calendar we would need more scoring than that to fight back towards the promotion race. The month began at the Torshavn GP, where Houle joined the winning move (the race won by team icon Luke Rowe) but couldn't hang on, coming in 18th, right behind Vermeersch in 17th. A disappointing but not disastrous result - we seem to be saying something to that effect a lot recently. Morne van Niekerk lead us in the Arab Tour, where he was on track for a Top 15 finish on GC but didn't survive the winds on the final stage, ending up with a 0-pointer for the team.

The Tour of Eritrea was one of the biggest races on our calendar - an African race with a great profile for George Bennett to compete for the win. Hamza was a great 6th on Stage 1, but that would be the high point of our race. 7th and conceding 9 seconds was mildly disappointing on Stage 2, but 20th on Stage 3 and 16th on GC is a disaster from one of the top favourites. What the fuck.

A trio of flat classics were next. Houle was a lowly 17th in the Philadelphia International Championship with Tesfaye in 21st and Vermeersch in 32nd. Houle once again struggled at Paris-Tours, but once again teammates stepped up into the points, with Jams in 18th and Tesfaye in 29th accompanying Houle's 12th place. Houle was ineligible to ride in the C2 Betonexpressz GP, but Tesfaye Hegyi made sure we got something out of it in 13th.

Bennett had a chance at beginning to redeem his terrible luck and form at the Tour d'Andorra, and was looking good, coming 4th on the first two GC days. He then had another uncharacteristically bad MTT, not 89th this time but 27th behind Heymes and Burke is still inexcusable and earns yet another what the fuck. Luckily he secured a disappointing but not terrible 5th overall given his gains on other stages.

Jams and Tesfaye make strong cases, but this man wins his fourth in his first seven months at the team for single-handedly leaping us into the Top 10.

1		Los Pollos Hermanos	2880
2		Jura GIANTS	2535
3		Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes	2534
4		Indosat Ooredoo	2480
5		Fastned	2370
6		Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	2323
7		Assa Abloy	2313
8		Xero Racing	2295
9		Sony - Force India	2264
10		Lampre - Pinarello	2253

After all that whinging and moaning, thanks mostly to Pidcock and our domestiques we had the highest score in the PCT during July, closing our 500-pont gap to the promotion-contending teams, less than 100 points out of 5th position. Areruya is still out until late September, and Pidcock is mostly done, so it'd be hard to say we're favourites to keep on climbing - but we know we're in the fight now!

redordead wrote:
It was awesome to see Pidcock perform to his best abilities in a race like Benelux which is best suited him. Brought in some much needed points

August was just three races after the avalanche of July, and only one had high expectations. That was the Tour du Maroc, where Bennett hoped to contend for the win, which is likely what we need to do from here on out in our big races to complete our climb up the table. He lost 44 seconds on the mountainous Stage 4, sitting 8th on GC, but equal on time to 5th. We were going into breakaways for the first time ever with Bennett as a leader, which is nice but also worrying about how much the team on the ground view him as a favourite in these races anymore. A small what the fuck for that in the context of our whole season.


Stage 5 had a hilltop finish, and Bennett is the master of this discipline. Yet another stage win on this kind of profile in his career, and a move to 4th on GC, where he'd finish the race. Not a great race, but solid enough.


Our final C2 race of the year and it was the GP Plouay, where Jams opened the attacks to break the race open, before Tesfaye Hollande was part of a series of moves in the closing stages, and eventually got clear with a group of seven. He opened the hostilities within the escape with 4km to go, and for a moment it looked like he'd take his first career win.


However he was caught and passed by three of his companions, ending up a still very good 4th in this classic.

The final race of the month was the sprinters' stage race Ras Tailteann, where Houle finished consistently around 15th on each stage, but only managed 26th on GC due to not picking up any bonuses.

Two very good 4th places, one more unexpected, but the other did come at a much higher level and with a stage win...

1		Los Pollos Hermanos	3872
2		Jura GIANTS	3246
3		Indosat Ooredoo	2965
4		Assa Abloy	2945
5		Bralirwa - Stevens Bikes	2818
6		Fastned	2657
7		Sony - Force India	2546
8		Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	2500
9		Xero Racing	2429
10		Lampre - Pinarello	2404

A slight slip in the rankings, and 400 points looks like a tough ask to get to the promotion spots. Areruya has 14 RDs left which will no doubt be a huge boost to that happening, but he will need to be at his best, and so will Bennett (at his favourite stomping ground in Japan) and Houle (defending his Euskal crown and racing in Lugano), if we are to promote. With 8 races with big scoring potential (plus Rheden/Battenkill) left, it will be an exciting run-in for sure!

whitejersey wrote:
Something tells me that Arerurya has those 400 points in his locker.

@Nemolito - Yeah I'm sure he'll be beat at some point. Thanks for the support

@Abhi - He's had some awful luck this year, but Maroc was a solid race for sure. Not the season we wanted for his last one at maxed stats so far.

The Balkans International is once again a Win Goal for us, last year Areruya saved a pretty unimpressive race on the final day with a mighty stage win and jump to 4th on GC - however anything less than 2nd, behind the huge favourite Lopez, would be a disappointment this year after his off-season training and red-hot form.


On the hills of Stage 1 Areruya followed Valter clear in a long-range attack with over 35km to go, joining up with the breakaway and quickly gaining about 45 seconds over a splintering peloton.

The move wouldn't last, though, and they were brought back to a now 28-strong leading group with just under 20km remaining. As well as Areruya we had Kipkemboi and Pidcock in this group.


A group of favourites got away in the closing kilometres, but Areruya kept his powder dry after expending that energy with Valter, with Kipkemboi and Pidcock keeping a leash on the leaders. Inn the final kilometre's mad dash to the hilltop finish managed to work his way through to catch the leaders - but not overtake them. In the end he was 5th, not conceding any gap, but bonus seconds to Lutsenko, Lopez and Kinoshita.


Stage 3 saw a few attacks in the closing kilometres from Gidich and Valter, both of whom were ahead of the peloton under the red kite, which was lead by Thomas Pidcock, providing a superb lead-out for Areruya on the uphill finish.


Pidcock made the catch with 700m to go, leaving Areruya in pole position for the sprint - an amazing job done by our young Englishman. Kinoshita and Lopez were coming fast, but Areruya looked quick.


And indeed he was quick - and strong enough even to take 7 seconds out of the peloton, celebrating not only a stage win but the provisional yellow jersey! 3 seconds over Lopez with three stages to go - not enough to feel confident, but there's no better place to be than yellow - we should at least be secure in a few extra points!

Stage 4 saw no GC action other than Amezawa winning, giving him 20 bonus seconds and joining Lopez, Lutsenko and Kinoshita within 20 seconds of Areruya's GC lead.


A beautiful sight to see Xero jerseys leading a mostly PT peloton on the decisive Stage 6 - Vermeersch (who would finish dead last on the stage after a huge day's work) and Strong doing the heavy work in the middle of the stage, leaving Boileau the next phase and keeping the legs of Kipkemboi and Pidcock fresh for when the action kicked off.

The penultimate climb saw a flurry of attacks, Areruya followed a group of seven favourites clear at one point but Pidcock did some great work to bring them back together into a selection of 32. It would come down to the final climb, where Areruya was so strong last year.


Kinoshita made the first ultra-serious attack with 4.3km to go on the final climb. Areruya didn't respond personally, and Pidcock helped stitch things back together. Then Mavrikakis went, and Gidich and Pidcock tracked him down.


Next up with just 2.5km remaining was the inevitable Lopez attack, and it was a brutal one, with nobody able to follow immediately, and he quickly gained 12 seconds' gap.


Formolo made a few seconds' inroads into that gap but when his legs ran out with 1800m to go, Areruya had to put in a counter and go for it himself. Only 9 seconds the gap to shut, but one of the biggest tests of Areruya's career laid ahead - he had to catch and outsprint Lopez at the very least, even finishing second on the same time would lose yellow.


Just outside 1km to go, Areruya caught Lopez and immediately tried to go around the outside of him. He wouldn't let Lopez into his wheel, but neither did he gain a real gap over him, the two riding nearly side-by-side under the flamme rouge.


And so they'd continue, their gap slowly being eaten away by the chasers (some of whom could also steal yellow with bonus seconds), Areruya a bike length ahead, neither looking like they had another gear to claim this race. That was, until 300m to go, where Areruya gritted his teeth, got out of the saddle, and saw his chance to write his name on this race decisively.


And indeed he did! After cruelling losing yellow in the dying moments of the Criterium du Dauphine earlier in the year, Areruya was not to be denied his, and Xero's, first PTHC GC victory in the same way here. A huge moment in his career, team history and - more important than those right now - the team's promotion hunt as yet another 7-second gap separated him and the man we thought we couldn't take down. Absolutely perfect team execution (Pidcock 16th on GC, 2nd in U25 providing some depth to prove it) during this race, but in the end this result - the GC, the Points, and the two beautiful stage wins - really just serves as another step in the growing legend of Joseph Areruya.

redordead wrote:
I'm really excited to see how the end of the season unfolds for you