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[PT'24] Jura GIANTS | Grand-Duché
knockout
Unless GORC is surprisingly succesful for us, you will be way ahead of me as well. Not sure if i will even reach your Qatar scoring in the entire month Pfft



Pretty solid month for you. If you continue like this, there is hope
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters!

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Fabianski
redordead wrote:

You'll be easily ahead of me, but I guess you already knew that Pfft

Once Pogacar starts racing, you'll easily stay ahead of me for the rest of the year, but I guess you already know that Pfft


knockout wrote:

Unless GORC is surprisingly succesful for us, you will be way ahead of me as well. Not sure if i will even reach your Qatar scoring in the entire month Pfft



Pretty solid month for you. If you continue like this, there is hope

Who knows what Kurianov can achieve with a late attack Wink
And your team definitely is not one I'll be ahead of at the end of the year, so that unfortunately isn't worth much by the end of January Pfft But a decent start is always good to have in the bag for sure!

 
Nemolito
Decent stuff in Qatar from Groves, good to scout the roads already now so by the time Christen is all grown up he can win there (as well Wink!

Tasmania was also decent for you, the two Swiss Stefans (won't use any abbrevation for that Pfft) scored some welcome points, and +- 300 points from those two races without having a clear top favourite is a good start to the season. Hopefully it continues to be like that!
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redordead
Fabianski wrote:

Once Pogacar starts racing, you'll easily stay ahead of me for the rest of the year, but I guess you already know that Pfft

Good thing for you then that he only has 4 good races and ends his season in July Pfft

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"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
 
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kandesbunzler26
Depth scoring seems to work well for you, at least in January. Hopefully it can be your way of putting up a good fight for survival! Also great to see Christen shine so early in his career (though not for you yet), it's always a pleasure to see the talents doing well.
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Fabianski
Nemolito wrote:

Decent stuff in Qatar from Groves, good to scout the roads already now so by the time Christen is all grown up he can win there (as well Wink!

Tasmania was also decent for you, the two Swiss Stefans (won't use any abbrevation for that Pfft) scored some welcome points, and +- 300 points from those two races without having a clear top favourite is a good start to the season. Hopefully it continues to be like that!

Looking at how poor Kemboi's performance was, I'm not sure at all that Christen will ever be competitive in Qatar ^^ On paper, sure, on the road, not that much.
We won't have a top favourite all year long, so consistent depth scoring will be key - which obviously shows our biggest issue. So far, so good - hopefully we can continue like that indeed!



redordead wrote:

Fabianski wrote:

Once Pogacar starts racing, you'll easily stay ahead of me for the rest of the year, but I guess you already know that Pfft

Good thing for you then that he only has 4 good races and ends his season in July Pfft

Looking at the calendar, the entire PT season is basically over after July Wink At least we do have a very front-loaded calendar, and I guess all teams who don't do Balkans have a similar RD distribution.


kandesbunzler26 wrote:

Depth scoring seems to work well for you, at least in January. Hopefully it can be your way of putting up a good fight for survival! Also great to see Christen shine so early in his career (though not for you yet), it's always a pleasure to see the talents doing well.

It has to be our way, we don't have another one this year Pfft

Looking forward to having Christen next year indeed, hopefully he'll still be as much fun Smile

 
Fabianski
February Preview

After a decent start to our PT campaign, February is the month where the general direction of where we'll be going will already get pretty clear. February in one word: Crucial.

We'll have 32 race days - in a month having just 28 days, that's a big amount. More than one race per day on average. It's our most busy month - which holds for a couple of other teams as well, though.

In total, we'll have four stage races and three classics, including our first ever triple header. That one day in the year is the main reason why we have 24 riders on board - we'll see how they're distributed across the three races.

But first things first - and the first thing is a race we're excited for - let's find out why:



Feb 01 - 08 | Volta a Portugal | PTHC

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Lineup

RiderFLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPR
Valentin Darbellay69787175737577646765706776
Mauro Schmid72767968717873697079787466
Xuban Errazkin71747870767576646373696770
Teten Rohendi70757570737574556273717071
Cees Bol76647067757781687977686769
Edward Theuns71667364747172797674636669
Gabriel Chavanne75586465717674577676536782
Szymon Rekita72586379707373626970637378

Tactics

No, we don't have a top GC contender here, so that's not the reason why we're excited. Still, Cras finished 5th last year, and Darbellay is a pretty similar riders - but other managers probably think alike after last year's really weak startlist, so this year the race might be overcrowded.

That's why we're mainly going for stage results. And the big name here is obviously Mauro Schmid - it's actually Mauro's first race in his maxed version. And that is really exciting! All these hilly stages should be great for him - in particular the one ending in Viana do Castelo. He likes this tough hill, so who knows what he'll be capable of doing there...

Furthermore, we'd like to see what Mauro can do in the final stage, being a pretty decent climber. He doesn't have the TT skills for the GC, but still.

Errazkin and Rohendi are there to support Valentin and Mauro in the uphill stages, where Bol obviously targets the flat ones - and possibly the easier hilly ones. Theuns should support him or take his own chance when Cees doesn't have a good day.

Due to the clash with the TTT classic, we only bring Rekita for the TT; another decent stage result would be great. And given that there's a prologue, Gabby obviously is on board again - hoping for a podium this time! Or maybe finally beating SKA?

Track Record

--- none ---

Expectations

Stages: 6x Top 10
GC: Top 15
Points: 120



Feb 02 | Copenhagen - Malmo TTT | PT

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Lineup

RiderFLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPR
Stefan Bissegger74686978737772607273647177
Alexys Brunel75677178727873666165696678
Stefan Küng73707377747273726371737878
Ethan Vernon73606577727572667570636578
Krzysztof Marchewka65646077737574505264626577
Colin Stüssi71797375777378556366656969
AOP Setiawa68707574767271576270766674
Christoph Janssen72656774707372555967656574

Tactics

The strategy is pretty obvious: the Top 5 riders should go as fast as they can, with the other three being there to give all they have in the first couple of kilometers.

We were here on a PT wildcard last year, taking 9th place. Our TTT got slightly stronger since (despite Rekita being in Portugal), and we think we should be about the 7th best team in PT. So 7th place is the expectation, pretty straightforward. A Top 10 is the minimum goal, as that's our first sponsor goal of the year.

Track Record

Best: 9th ( Jura GIANTS, 2023)

Expectations

Result: Top 10
Points: 75



Feb 12 - 18 | Tirreno - Adriatico | PT

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Lineup

RiderFLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPR
Xuban Errazkin71747870767576646373696770
Kaden Groves75627265757380668079646771
Edward Theuns71667364747172797674636669
Stefan Küng73707377747273726371737878
Lorenzo Delco73727370757475676472687771
AOP Setiawa68707574767271576270766674
Krzysztof Marchewka65646077737574505264626577
Felix Stehli67687162707069626971696966

Tactics

First participation in the race between the two seas for us. With three stages being flat and one or two of the others potentially being suited for punchy sprinters as well, this was a pretty obvious pick for Kaden. Let's hope he'll get some more consistent results than in Qatar, a first podium (or even more) would be great.

Errazkin is there for the GC if the race gets tougher than expected, with Küng and Odie being potential depth scorers - or brekaway riders. Theuns and Delco are wildcard riders, Marchewka is here for the TT and Stehli - who knows? He already won a PTHC KoM shirt last year, why not a PT one this time?

Track Record

--- none ---

Expectations

Stages: 4x Top 10
GC: Top 20
Points: 120



Feb 13 - 20 | Paris - Nice | PT

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Lineup

RiderFLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPR
Colin Stüssi71797375777378556366656969
Valentin Darbellay69787175737577646765706776
Cees Bol76647067757781687977686769
Gabriel Chavanne75586465717674577676536782
Szymon Rekita72586379707373626970637378
Stefan Bissegger74686978737772607273647177
Alexys Brunel75677178727873666165696678
Ethan Vernon73606577727572667570636578

Tactics

Coming back to another race we did well in last year - with a wildcard. It's one for the climbers this time however, and so things will probably look different GC-wise.

Day one obviously is for Gabby, who hopefully gets us a prologue podium. And Vernon could get white, why not.

Three stages are flat, another one might be for punchy sprinters, too - Bol already did great last year, hopefully he'll do similarly well when it matters this time around.

Then we have both Stüssi and Darbellay here; the latter will have an advantage in the prologue, and if he can hold on in stages 6 and 7, he might be our GC captain. Otherwise, Stüssi should be a good pick, too.

The four TTers are obviously there for the TTT (plus the prologue, to a lesser extent). We know we have two "weak links" in the TTT lineup, but we should just do it like last year and drop them right at the start. With six good TTers, a strong stage result should be on the cards.

Track Record

Stages: 2nd ( Cees Bol, 2023)
GC: 9th ( Xuban Errazkin, 2023)

Expectations

Stages: 4x Top 10
GC: Top 15
Points: 120



Feb 13 | Classique du Grand-Duché | PT

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Lineup

RiderFLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPR
Mauro Schmid72767968717873697079787466
Teten Rohendi70757570737574556273717071
Clement Berthet65757460707466606273727560
Filippo Colombo72646867737264727172717167
Tomas Paprstka75626962747068757072697863
Gergely Szarka77626761727376607878646672
Hugo Page69656761716965637376686966
Christoph Janssen72656774707372555967656574

Tactics

Another new race for us, and clearly it's one for Mauro. Yes, he's not an elite puncheur yet, but his strong climber skills and acceleration could make up for some lack of pure punch.

With Rohendi and Berthet, he gets some good uphill support; both of them might also finish in the Top 50 as well. The rest of the team are fillers - let's be honest - but as we had the opportunity to fill all three races, we wanted to take it.

Track Record

--- none ---

Expectations

Result: Top 15
Points: 80



Feb 22 - 24 | Tour of Ukraine | PTHC

Profile

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Lineup

RiderFLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPR
Mauro Schmid72767968717873697079787466
Xuban Errazkin71747870767576646373696770
Valentin Darbellay69787175737577646765706776
AOP Setiawa68707574767271576270766674
Lorenzo Delco73727370757475676472687771
Stefan Küng73707377747273726371737878
Alexys Brunel75677178727873666165696678
Stefan Bissegger74686978737772607273647177

Tactics

Yes, there's a prologue. And no, there's no Gabby. No need to torture him here, as he wouldn't score anyway, looking at the 2023 results.

Instead, it's another race for Mauro, his 3rd this month. No, he's not our GC rider, he's solely here to cause some chaos on stage 2. A perfectly suited stage for him, mid-length climb and a short decent. And who knows, with some serious gaps he might still make the Top 50...

That's more Errazkin's job, though - and even more so Darbellay's. The latter doesn't like short hills where a lot of punch is needed, but we think the revamped stage 2 might be good for him. Good prologue and TT skills round of his profile - but anything better than 52nd - our highest GC result last year - will be welcome. Improving our track record would be nice, too.

Also quite some TTers who can at least do some hills with Küng, Brunel and Bissegger, plus Setiawa and Delco as potential breakaway riders on S2. There's hope - but as you'll see from the expectations, not too much of it.

Track Record

Stages: 18th ( Stefan Bissegger, 2023)
GC: 27th ( Fausto Masnada, 2021)

Expectations

Stages: 1x Top 10
GC: Top 30
Points: 50



Feb 28 | Milano San Remo | M

Profile

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Lineup

RiderFLMOHITTSTRSRCCBSPACFGDHPR
Mauro Schmid72767968717873697079787466
Kaden Groves75627265757380668079646771
Gergely Szarka77626761727376607878646672
Edward Theuns71667364747172797674636669
Hugo Page69656761716965637376686966
Stefan Bissegger74686978737772607273647177
Tomas Paprstka75626962747068757072697863
Lorenzo Delco73727370757475676472687771

Tactics

Second Monument in team history, after RvV last year. The first one went pretty well - and we'd definitely sign for a 3rd place here!

Groves is the obvious team leader in the most probable scenario which is a bunch sprint. Szarka, Theuns, Page and Bissegger all could serve him as leadouts, with the Hungarian being our best flat rider.

Schmid is there for the special effects, which will hopefully mean an attack on the Poggio. Making the race hard would be great for Kaden, who's among the more punchy sprinters. We'll see, hopefully it'll be a fun race for us.

Track Record

--- none ---

Expectations

Result: Top 15
Points: 100



Summary

It's a heavily loaded month, with races for everyone bar the cobblers. We expect to score 665 points or more in our busiest month - less would probably already be the end of our survival dreams. 1,000+ would keep them alive, but it's a long way to get there.

We're mostly looking forward to see what Mauro can do in a variety of races - it's a matter of getting to know his style of riding, so we can make even better use of his race days next year. Having fun and scoring big are two targets - with the former hopefully being within reach.

 
Nemolito
Indeed a heavily loaded month for you as well. A lot of racing for Mauro and I'm also looking forward to see how he performs. I don't mind that much that I can evade him in Tirreno, although Errazkin can just as easily beat Higuita with his time trial Pfft Still a way to go but good luck in your first MSR Smile
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Fabianski
Nemolito wrote:

Indeed a heavily loaded month for you as well. A lot of racing for Mauro and I'm also looking forward to see how he performs. I don't mind that much that I can evade him in Tirreno, although Errazkin can just as easily beat Higuita with his time trial Pfft Still a way to go but good luck in your first MSR Smile

Indeed, really looking forward to the 2024 version of Mauro - with his 2025 self hopefully being even better Wink
I hesitated between T-A and Portugal for him, but I assumed the competition would be far weaker in Portugal, hence the potential for good stage results higher. Looks like I wasn't fully wrong Wink
In T-A, we'll see what Groves can do with all the minor hills, while obviously not being a GC threat.




Race Review | Copenhagen - Malmo TTT | PT

When we discussed our season goals with our sponsors pre-transfers, this one was a race we quickly agreed on. We were however a bit unsure whether to aim for a podium finish, or "just" a Top 10. We finally agreed on the "easier" variant - and given how transfers went for us, that was definitely the right call!

When doing our race planning, looking at all of our opponents' rosters, we concluded that we would be pretty safe in 7th place, with a gap ahead and behind of us in terms of rider skills. Given that we felt pretty comfortable about this, we even decided to send our best TTer, Rekita, over to Portugal to go stage hunting. Still, our roster was strong enough to tackle the Top 10 goal.

In the preview, we were even ranked 5th - but considering only the Top 5 riders, which in the end are relevant for the final time, we were... 7th. And guess what? We finished 7th. With a 10" gap ahead and behind of us. Another scoring target achieved, with the team doing exactly what was expected from them!

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The Jura GIANTS TTT train on their way to 7th place, crossing the Danish-Swedish border on Øresund bridge.


The five first riders across the finish line - and hence scoring 15 points each - were Krzysztof Marchewka, Stefan Bissegger, Colin Stüssi, Ethan Vernon and Alexys Brunel. Well done!
But let's not forget to mention Stefan Küng, Christoph Janssen and Odie Setiawa who contributed to this strong result as well!

Outcome

ExpectationOutcome
ResultTop 10Top 10
Points7575

 
Fabianski
Race Review | Volta a Portugal | PTHC

So far, we always skipped this race, being the longest one in the PTHC calendar. But with many other teams doing the same, last year's result tempted us into sending a squad this time - including a GC rider who would probably have easily taken a Top 10 last year. Unfortunately, many other teams had the same ideas, and so the competition was far higher than we expected...

Still, we sent a contender for pretty much every stage, starting with the prologue. Our obvious candidate for this stage was Gabriel Chavanne. And once again, the Swiss performed almost up to expectations, sadly ending up behind Kragh Andersen once again (as expected). Almost, because he also got beaten by Phinney, to take 3rd place. Still, it was our first podium finish of the year - and the result was tied for 2nd best in our PTHC history so far, alongside a 3rd place by Habtom in 2021 and two 3rd places by Page last year. Only a certain Theo Reinhardt went one better three years back, with a 2nd place in a Balkans mass sprint.

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Gabriel Chavanne getting ready for another strong prologue result.


The 2nd day was the first sprint day. And while it looked pretty well for our sprinter, Cees Bol just lacked a tiny bit of speed to net us the next stage podium, finishing 4th. Which was still far better than his stage 4 result, though, where he once again was completely out of position and then didn't find space to do any better than 10th. Overall, a truly disappointing race by Bol once again, in particular given that he was the official #1 favourite on both sprint stages...

His overall impression got slightly better though thanks to a 6th place on the first hilly stage, in between the two flat ones. But that clearly wasn't our main story of the day.
Instead, it was the first time that newly maxed Mauro Schmid stepped into action! Sure, he already has a PTHC classic podium to his name, but he was still looking for his first ever stage podium - until that exact day 3 in Portugal! Under the red kite, he was in perfect position, right behind Valter, who he then easily outsprinted. But he also got outsprinted by Pidcock, which had to be expected if the Brit made the cut on such stages.
Still, 2nd place now was our best stage result of the year, and also our shared best ever PTHC stage result - with Mauro now holding the titles for best PTHC classic result and best PTHC stage result! Well done!

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Mauro Schmid finishing 2nd behind flying Pidcock!


However, we were still waiting for our first ever win at PTHC level. Stage 5 had the next chance to do so, and Mauro Schmid once again showed how badly he wanted that win. He attacked into the final descent to the line, and was still leading the pack under the red kite - until Pidcock passed him with 400m to go.
But this time, this wasn't the end of the story - Mauro somehow found a better line around the final corner, and sprinted to the stage win! Mauro Schmid won stage 5 of the Volta a Portugal! Our first ever PTHC win, our first win of the season - and Mauro's first career win! What a memorable day for him and the entire team, congratulations!

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Mauro Schmid wins stage 5 of the Volta a Portugal!


Stage 6 then was an unexpectedly unspectacular one. The Viana do Castelo finish definitely suited Mauro as well, as shown in the C1 classic last year. But the pack decided not to race hard that day, leaving the top positions to the break. Mauro only finished 8th, which was a tad disappointing - but he likely didn't go all-out given that no big points or even bonus seconds were on the table. Still, he was 4th in GC, 2nd in U25 and 3rd in points after day six.

Stage 7 then had a 20km ITT, which was the main reason for Szymon Rekita's presence in our lineup. The Polish ITT NC indeed set an early best time - which was soon bettered by a comparable TTer, though, and eventually beaten by riders who are usually slower against the clock, but better on the minor bumps that were in the TT route. 6th place for Rekita wasn't what we were hoping for - actually he was better in the prologue, taking 5th place.
Mauro obviously dropped in the GC, all the way down to 18th place.


But we were talking about a GC rider - what about him? Well, Valentin Darbellay had a very anonymous race - except in the two stages against the clock. He finished 17th in the prologue, and took a great 11th place in the stage 7 ITT - and after staying safe in the pack in all road stages (including more or less luck in some of them), he was in 6th GC position heading into the final stage!

That final stage was rather unselective last year, with an admittedly weaker climbers field. But the good news is, it also was pretty unselective this year! So a safe Top 10 for Darbellay was on the table. But no. He just threw it away, there are no two ways to view it. He probably wasn't aware of what he could have achieved here, and simply didn't care about positioning. Instead of just holding on - which would definitely have been possible, given some of the names in the front group - he was dropped early, and ended the stage barely ahead of teammates Errazkin and Rohendi. For who this was the expected result, though.

So it came down to Mauro Schmid once again to save the team's honour - and some GC points of course. He did what he could. And he actually did a great job to finish 16th on the day. There was no weaker climber ahead of him - apart from Pidcock, but Pidcock doesn't count, because he's insane (or what do you call beating a climber who's 7 points stronger than you on a high mountain stage?).
Mauro therefore did a great job once again - the bad news is that he lost 90" to those ahead of him. But him being among the last riders dropped from the front group shows that with just a little bit of training he could even be competitive on such a stage - which at the same time is a great perspective for us!


Finally, we have to call this race a disappointment in terms of GC result. Valentin Darbellay had all he needed to get a Top 10 GC finish - holding onto the front group would even have resulted in a Top 5. He finished 18th, which is another major disappointment after Tasmania and really makes us question on one hand the recent offseason investment into him, but also his future role on the team.
On the other hand, there's Mauro Schmid, who definitely proved everyone that he has arrived at a very high level and is competitive in almost any kind of hilly stage. A 16th place GC finish is beyond our expectations for him - and he almost met the Top 15 target we set for Darbellay. Mauro finished 3rd in U25 and 4th in points on top of that, racking up over 100 points in this race!

And the rest of the team? We can't complain a lot to be honest. Teten Rohendi did a great job helping his leaders and finished 36th in GC. Xuban Errazkin sadly lost a lot of time on S3 due to bad positioning, otherwise he'd have been in the Top 50 as well - now he ended up just outside, in 55th position. Eddie Theuns was our most anonymous rider, finishing 105th in GC - yet still scoring 3 points thanks to us taking a great 2nd place in the team standings!
Cees Bol, Gabby Chavanne and Szymon Rekita all scored a couple of stage points - in short: Every single rider scored in this race, which definitely isn't the usual case in a PTHC event!

So we can definitely be happy with the overall team performance - but throwing away 70-80 GC points still leaves us with some pretty mixed feelings. It was a sweet race with Mauro's first win that also was our first season win and first PTHC win - but there's definitely some bitter taste as well with Valentin's non-performance. At least points-wise, there's absolutely nothing to complain about once again!

Outcome

ExpectationOutcome
Stages6x Top 109x Top 10
GCTop 1516th
Points120190

 
redordead
Continuing the strong start to the season in Copenhagen and Portugal Smile

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"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
 
Fabianski
redordead wrote:

Continuing the strong start to the season in Copenhagen and Portugal Smile

Indeed, there's not too much to complain about. Darbellay's drop in Portugal still hurts a lot scoring-wise, and the sprinters are yet to deliver - but to say that the scoring is good even without them being very useful is actually not a bad sign so far Smile




Race Review | Classique du Grand-Duché | PT

No, "Grand-Duché" obviously has nothing to do with a shower, and the manager labelling this the "Big Shower Classic" surely knows that.
Instead, it stands for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg - a place where we've only been once so far, in the 2019 Benelux Challenge. Gino Mäder got his first career Top 10 in the Luxembourg stage (Luxembourg to Bourscheid), and Guillén scored two stage wins and the green jersey in this race - although he took both wins in the Netherlands.

So, we can say that although they are pretty distant, we came back to Luxembourg with pretty nice memories. And with some hopes on Mauro Schmid's shoulders. After a great Portugal campaign, this was his first ever hilly PT classic, and the first classic at his natural maximum level. We hesistated to send him to Tirreno instead, but we thought the route in Luxembourg should be pretty much perfect for him - lots of ups and downs, quite some climbing involved, and a mid-length final uphill. The main potential difficulty we saw was the race distance, with Mauro's stamina being somewhat low compared to his main competitors.


We had two goals for the first part of the race: Protecting Mauro, and joining the breakaway. Well, the latter was the usual failure - not a single attempt so far this season, which is disappointing. The former however worked pretty well, with Teten Rohendi being never too far away from his leader.

And even more than that - when Mauro told him to make the race as hard as possible, our Indonesian attacked the peloton with 20km to go!

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Teten Rohendi attacking with Mohoric in his wheel!


But well, the other teams couldn't just let Mohoric ride away - Rohendi alone would probably have stayed away for longer. But the goal was achieved, the race was hard and tough for everyone. Sadly, Teten made the race too hard for himself, as he couldn't keep up with the front group of 25 and eventually finished 29th.

However, the ground was prepared for Mauro to shine - and he chose the most aggressive strategy for the finale: attacking!

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Mauro Schmid leading with 2km to go!


It was clear that he couldn't stay up front for the final two kilometers - and we were really afraid he had overextended himself and would drop to the end of the group.

But no, he showed some impressive maturity, having spent only what he could afford to in order to still stay close to the front! Mauro expectedly had to let go of the big three, Herklotz, Areruya and Lopez, who took the three podium spots in this order. And another great hybrid climber in Formolo was too strong as well. But Mauro still was fighting for the Top 5, and...

pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2024/Reports/PT/GrandDuche/PCM0015.jpg

Mauro Schmid taking 5th place in Grand-Duché!


He just outsprinted everyone else, to claim 5th place! What a way to introduce himself in the PT hills, and it definitely didn't look like a lucky result, but a deserved one after some smart riding! It's clearly more than we expected - we were hoping for a Top 10 - and this admittedly was one of the best suited hilly classics in the PT calendar. But it's a great boost for us nonetheless, and some more good points scored!

And this result definitely makes us worry much less about Mauro's stamina - if it didn't hold him back in an almost 230km race, it shouldn't hold him back a lot elsewhere.

Finally, some words about Mauro's teammates: As said before, they did a great job in protecting Mauro, some early on, some later in the race. We've mentioned Rohendi's 29th place before, a decent result for him. Clément Berthet on the other hand had a rather disappointing day, finishing down in 78th position without scoring any additional points. The rest of the team didn't have their main skills uphill anyway, and so all of them finishing inside the time limit and getting their finisher points was just fine.

Outcome

ExpectationOutcome
ResultTop 15Top 5
Points80139

 
Laurens147
I see a lot of green numbers in the outcome column Smile I hope you can secure your streak in the other races this month!
MG - Lotto - Caloi
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ember
Very nice to see Schmid deliver above expectations on his first try. Congratulations! Excited to see what Schmid can do moving on this season.
 
Fabianski
Laurens147 wrote:

I see a lot of green numbers in the outcome column Smile I hope you can secure your streak in the other races this month!

Agree, that looks great Smile In particular in Portugal the bar was set rather high, but Schmid really delivered in these hills. That was the big unknown. We'll see if we can get the targets - that usually are rather conservative - in the other races, too Smile T-A will be a bit of a stretch, with the total lack of stage results so far...

ember wrote:

Very nice to see Schmid deliver above expectations on his first try. Congratulations! Excited to see what Schmid can do moving on this season.

Thanks Smile Let's say I expect him to get 10th place on average in hilly classics, so he already has quite some cushion to make up for lower results now Wink Will obviously happily take more Top 5 results!

 
Nemolito
Must feel good to see Schmid perform like this! The best is yet to come!

And also nice results in general in C-M and Portugal, nothing particularly standing out except from Schmid, but also decent consistency imo. This team is far from certainly relegated. The 'depth' rider seem to be working so far, and let's hope they continue to do so!
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