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[PT] Xero Racing '24
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| knockout |
Posted on 25-09-2024 22:24
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8235
Joined: 21-12-2010
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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 Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 20-01-2025 10:59
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World Champion
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Joined: 17-12-2014
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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.
Definitely been an ambition of mine to unite the two, and hope they both have something to deliver in their twilight years
Always nice to have an Evonik alumni in the building and agree that he should have been picked up long before we did. |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 20-01-2025 10:59
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World Champion
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Joined: 17-12-2014
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 Tour of Tasmania 7-9th of January | 2 Stage Wins + Top 5 Race Goal | C1
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 |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 03-08-2025 12:27
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World Champion
Posts: 11621
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Season Highlights #1: The Monuments Men
It's been a hell of a return to/redemption year in the Pro Tour for Xero Racing, and while there's so many moments and efforts that contributed to the fantastic 7th place finish in the rankings, we here at the HQ have no time to fully recap it all. If you thought the global internet outage over the last week was bad, here at the Xero social media offices we've been offline since January! So, we decided that the best way to sum up our season came on two days. 233 days and 255km apart, the Xero love affair with Italian races reached what might be its epic climax - and if it has, we'll be quite okay with that.
| Milano - San Remo, 28th February | Giro di Lombardia, 18th October | | ....... | ....... | | Thomas Pidcock had had an unbelievable start to the season, fighting at the very top of the early months' Individual Standings and quickly making a huge name for himself in the Pro Tour on multiple terrains. Not just his stage hunting - that was predicted - but two podiums in difficult stage races. He was proving his skillset could still be one of a top rider. He came into his first ever Milano - San Remo as a premium domestique for the team's sprinter Matti Manninen, who was still looking to kickstart his campaign. | Joseph Areruya had had a very good season, with a notable high point beating god-king Herklotz and his best rival Lopez to the crown in Scandinavia, but he'd yet to win a classic at either PT or PTHC level - a continued theme for him over his career. His trademark swagger and aggression had brought him more success at times but had also cost him at key moments - leaving some to suggest a change in approach would needed to beat the best in the world over one day. |
| Approaching the final climb, Pidcock was alone. After an earlier attack from Tesfaye Herin had some fun on the Capo Berta, Manninen soon was struggling towards the back of the pack and left Pidcock, still with Tesfaye and Jams for company, the leader of the team. However the Cipressa was rode hard and left Pidcock isolated when attacks from first outsiders in Gesbert and Quita, and then a top puncheur in Skujins, looked to tear up the sprinters' script on the Poggio with 7km to go. | Approaching the final climb, Areruya was alone. Tesfaye Herin, Pomoshnikov, van Zyl, and Khodayari had done great work throughout the day, but as the peloton was whittled down to just 34 riders Areruya was the only Xero representative in the front group. Various attacks had taken place to get us here, including from some major names, but the first one Areruya looked to mark (right along with Lopez and Herklotz) was from Tour de France winner Kudus with 13km to go. |
| That attack would stick over the top of the climb, and Pidcock knew action was needed as he used his superior descending technique to attack the peloton on the downhill and look to bridge up towards the very dangerous Skujins. He rode hard into the wind and rain as he looked to join the Latvian, but the gap was still 11 seconds with 2.7km of flat roads into the finishing line. No time to breathe. | That attack would not stick over the top of the climb, and, much against the pre-race predictions, Areruya continued to lie in wait as the very dangerous Valter and Quita rode into Bergamo alone, ahead of the pack. Areruya sat a less-than-ideal twelfth wheel while Lopez, Mohoric and Formolo did the work on the front of the favourites' group, keeping the gap to 11 seconds with 4.4km of descent and flat roads into the finishing line. Breathe. |
| Onto the finishing straight, and the gap was 16 seconds as Pidcock joined the waning Skujins ahead of the fast-charging peloton. Pedersen lead out the sprint behind, a fearsome chaser closing in on our intrepid escapees. The rain continued to bear down on the streets of Sanremo. | Onto the finishing straight, and the gap was 15 seconds as the duo up front continued to cooperate while the favourites did not. The gap would grow, and it looked like they would stay out of reach of our indecisive leaders. The sun continued to bear down on the streets of Bergamo. |
Two riders. Two nearly perfect races - 544km in total so far to deliver them here. But as Pidcock's chances looked to be narrowing as the gap behind him dwindled, Areruya's looked to be slipping out of reach up the road as the gap opened. For both, it would take the sprint of their lives to change their fate.
| The gap closed. | The gap opened. |
| The sprint launched, this is what he'd been waiting for. A roll of the dice to stay ahead of the sprinters. | The sprint launched, this is what he'd been waiting for. A roll of the dice to somehow catch the attackers. |
| A second wind, and he prised the gap back open. Could it be? | A second gear, and he clawed the gap back shut. Too little too late? |
| Yes! He's done it! Victory for Pidcock as he seals his breakout season with a stunning heist of the sprinter's classic. Not even the leader on the day, but by the time you saw him descending the Poggio it looked like this race was made for him, and he for it. Maturity beyond his years to negotiate one of cycling's biggest days and outwit the peloton. | No! He's done it! Victory for Areruya as he seals our breakout season with a glorious final kilometre. In 2021 his attacks here saw him run out of speed when his sprint looked good - but patience is a virtue, whether you're waiting three years for your redemption, or 254km to hit the front. Talk about learning your lessons. |
Two beautiful days as the team took its first ever Monument victory and then repeated the achievement later in the season. Two top riders who had incredible seasons, leading the team to its highest finish in the cycling world yet. There's so much more to come for Thomas Pidcock and Joseph Areruya - but if these are their greatest days, that wouldn't be too bad - you can't get much greater than these. |
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 03-08-2025 13:23
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3221
Joined: 07-08-2011
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Great recap of tow fantastic wins!
Excited to see how you're going to be able to push this team to new heights in 2025!
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 03-08-2025 15:30
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 3914
Joined: 02-11-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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Great recap the finishes were weirdly similar even if they broke different ways. Congrats on two great wins by your big guns, both really cool riders.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 03-08-2025 16:16
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16552
Joined: 27-07-2011
PCM$: 13638.70
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Areruya I expected to be a beast at any level, but what a year Pidcock had. I was a doubter before last season, but certainly no doubters left now.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| seancoll |
Posted on 03-08-2025 18:36
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Breakaway Specialist
Posts: 765
Joined: 20-12-2022
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Two truly amazing wins and so much to be proud of last year. And of course many proud moments in between as well to establish yourself fully in PT. Tough not to root for you all no matter what lineup shows up.
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| Heine |
Posted on 05-08-2025 05:37
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4465
Joined: 08-04-2007
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Great post about the monuments!
You have a really intruging teams. First look you notice Areruya and nods, then the closer and closer you look at it it just gets more and more awesome. Areruya-Pidcock-Ganna-Vermeersch is a great spine for a team that with the right moves should be one of the biggest favorites in PT for 3-4-5-6 years.
Will be extremely interesting to see what you do with the spots you need to fill and with those awesome (and versitile) riders! No doubt one of the coolest teams in the peloton!
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 05-08-2025 09:07
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World Champion
Posts: 11621
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1120.00
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@whitejersey - Thanks man! New heights could be a challenge, but always up for one!
@Ulrich - Thanks! Yeah I didn't actually plan the parallels throughout the recap until I was going through it and realised the similarities.
@bbl - It was incredible - obviously I had some faith in him given I chose the route but can't pretend to have expected the heights he consistently hit.
@seancoll - Thank you very much, that's very nice to hear  Hope we can keep delivering and building on it.
@Heine - Cheers! Yeah I'm very happy with how the spine has come through. You didn't have to witness how ugly the firesale got of the whole core that was building, but coming through it with Areruya-Pidcock-Vermeersch and getting the opportunity to add Ganna to that is about as good a result as could have been hoped for. Definitely a lot of opportunity now, especially post-renewals, exciting times And thanks a lot, very cool to hear that from you  |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 05-12-2025 22:15
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 06-08-2025 13:20
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World Champion
Posts: 11621
Joined: 17-12-2014
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Season Highlights #2: Mr. Chrono Man
While the team did not design the calendar around the eventual acquisition of Filippo Ganna, the lack of suited PTHC races did present an opportunity many top time-triallists can't take, that of attending a Grand Tour. With a prologue and a long flat individual time trial, the only option was to target the maillot jaune at Le Tour de France.
Our TT wheel and his Italian National Champion's jersey resplendent in the Bordeaux summer sun, Ganna was among the favourites to win the prologue, along with the three-named specialists Chun Wing Leung and Soren Kragh Andersen.
And indeed it was a great fight, but by milliseconds over Leung Ganna earned the yellow jersey for a day! A fantastic achievement for the team, sealing a season with stage wins in all three Grand Tours (with Hamza and Manninen sprinting to the win in third-week Giro and Vuelta stages respectively) and the team's second run in the yellow jersey after Houle in 2021. Two yellow jerseys in our first two Tour de France participations, hopefully we can make it a habit to always do!
Filippo laid low for the next week and a half, with Stage 11's time trial, a classic pre-Pyrenees, long, and "mostly flat" Pau ITT, his only other target here in France. And despite heavy competition from the two-time defending champion Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier (another three-named opponent, albeit hyphenated), he took his second stage win by a margin of three seconds.
A fantastic Tour de France from our time-trial leader (what a weird phrase to say here at Xero HQ), which helped secure an honestly pretty good Individual Rankings finish - not quite last season's 1000-point breaking screamer, but 720 points and in the Top 50 is pretty good with no PTHC leadership outside of Arenberg. A very solid debut year capped with an unforgettable July - we can't wait for more years to come of the team's newest long-term leader. |
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| knockout |
Posted on 06-08-2025 18:04
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8235
Joined: 21-12-2010
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"Season Highlights #1: The Monuments Men"
Loved this side by side recap! Massive congrats to you once again.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 07-08-2025 13:51
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World Champion
Posts: 11621
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1120.00
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knockout wrote:
"Season Highlights #1: The Monuments Men"
Loved this side by side recap! Massive congrats to you once again.
Thank you very much! Feel a lot less bad that one of them involved beating you in a big race for us both now  |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 07-08-2025 18:41
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 17833
Joined: 12-05-2012
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The formatting! THE FORMATTING! The content is good but i'm mostly floored you made that formatting work and look good!
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| SotD |
Posted on 08-08-2025 14:26
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World Champion
Posts: 12631
Joined: 29-11-2006
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Awesome recap of the monuments, and as TMM said impressive that you managed to pull the graphics off without creating one big image
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 10-08-2025 05:32
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World Champion
Posts: 11621
Joined: 17-12-2014
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@TMM/SotD - Thank you both! Took a little bit of fiddling but only trick was making both texts the same number of lines - sure I could have put in more effort to make them all equal to each other which they aren't quite, but them all being mostly centred enough was good enough I guess |
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| ember |
Posted on 10-08-2025 06:07
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Team Leader
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Very nice monument recaps, eventhough the Lombardia one is also heartbreaking
Your leaders and their age bodes very well for the future. This and the next seasons… Is there a world where you don’t challenge for the ranking podium and also the title? |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 10-08-2025 08:15
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World Champion
Posts: 11621
Joined: 17-12-2014
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ember wrote:
Very nice monument recaps, eventhough the Lombardia one is also heartbreaking
Your leaders and their age bodes very well for the future. This and the next seasons… Is there a world where you don’t challenge for the ranking podium and also the title?
Thank you and sorry - such a gutting one for the escapees. And yeah, very nice to have four more years at max for Areruya and Ganna and seven for Pidcock and Vermeersch. I'm not thinking in those terms at the moment, not putting any timelines or future squad plans in place - I'm sure some of those who have been in similar situations will now be telling me I should be |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 10-08-2025 08:20
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World Champion
Posts: 11621
Joined: 17-12-2014
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To wrap up this season's HQ, we'd like to present an update on this season's Rider of the Month and Season Awards:
| Jan | Areruya | Stage Win/Points, Tour of Tasmania | | Feb | Pidcock | 1st MSR; Stage Win/3rd GC/U25 Portugal; Stage Win/2nd GC/2nd Points/2nd U25 Tirreno | | Mar | Pidcock | 5th GC/2nd U25 Ronde van Nederland, nearly won Macskako | | Apr | Areruya | Stage Win/4th GC Lithuania; 3rd Amstel | | May | Horvat | Breakaways Vuelta a España, great domestique work | | Jun | Areruya | 1st GC/Stage Win/Points SoRR | | Jul | Ganna | 2x Stage Win/Breakaways/Wore Yellow Jersey TDF | | Aug | Ganna | 4th Chrono d'Arenberg | | Sep | Pidcock | 5th GC/Points Tour of Northern Europe | | Oct | Areruya | 1st Giro di Lombardia (despite being terrible elsewhere) |
| Octagon Fan's Rider of the Year | Thomas Pidcock | | Wheelworks Young Rider of the Year | Florian Vermeersch | | My Food Bag Breakaway Rider of the Year | Ziga Horvat | | Stoney Creek Ride of the Year | Thomas Pidcock, Macskako | | Xero Rider's Rider of the Year | Joseph Areruya |
Ziga Horvat marking the first time a loan-in rider has won one of these, while Pidcock's heroic effort in Hungary is the first time the Ride of the Year wasn't a victory.
Stay tuned to next season's HQ coming at you very soon with the team history posts, renewals and availability updates, and, most importantly, an update of our All-Time Leaderboards! |
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| AbhishekLFC |
Posted on 10-08-2025 08:44
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Directeur Sportif
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The return to the PT went rather well
Great recap of two great Monument victories with Ganna adding some more joy in the TTs. No surprises with the RotM and the Season awards, that's four amazing leaders to build the long-term future of the team around!
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