knockout wrote:
Time to finally release the fusion power of Johann Van Bester

Im super glad that Khodayari was still picked up. He was my emergency FA preference for the entirety of the second week and i think he is a lot better than the majority of riders signed late in FA or the draft. For me he was easily a top 3 rider left unsigned before the draft and he fits the PT stage hunter mold quite nicely.

A Xero debut for our marquee off-season signings of Matti Manninen (who would hope to win Stage 1) and Filippo Ganna (who would hope to target Stage 3 and the GC), who co-lead the team alongside Areruya, who would be the favourite for Stage 2's hilltop finish.


Not the start we wanted for our Flying Finn, who could only manage 9th on the opening day, found wanting for both positioning and speed in the finale.


The team (notably Johann van Zyl) kept a tight lid on Stage 2's action, setting up Areruya for the final climb while also ensuring Ganna finished in the front group. Under the flamme rouge Mauri Vansevenant (a name you should get used to showing up in every race recap from our perspective) was flying, with Areruya looking like the only rider capable of chasing him down.


With 200m to go Areruya had caught the Belgian, and though neither looked quite like cracking a host of other names, notably Valter, had gained some ground on them.


A tight finish between the leading trio, but just as he ended 2023, Areruya rung in the 2024 season with his arms aloft, the Rwandan jersey resplendent in the Aussie summer sun. He would swap his national colours for the yellow jersey as the overnight GC leader, though with a flat time trial tomorrow the focus for our GC would remain on Ganna, who had not lost any time to his rivals.


However much like for Manninen, Ganna would have a leadership debut to forget, a lowly 17th on Stage 3. His 8th on GC courtesy of his first two stages was slightly better though still a disappointment. The bang for our buck wasn't here, but hopefully it's just a delayed explosion and not a blank.

1	Ryan Mullen	Polar	8h59'46
2	Tom Wirtgen	EA Vesuvio	+ 2
3	Mads Würtz	Grieg-Maersk	+ 6
8	Filippo Ganna	Xero Racing	+ 15
34	Johann Van Zyl	Xero Racing	+ 1'05
43	Joseph Areruya	Xero Racing	+ 1'26
92	Sergei Pomoshnikov	Xero Racing	+ 2'31
93	Farzad Khodayari	Xero Racing	+ 2'32
105	Yacine Hamza	Xero Racing	+ 2'42
166	Matti Manninen	Xero Racing	+ 18'13
168	Guillaume Martin	Xero Racing	+ 18'32