Disappointing result. With Lopez here i was expecting a top ten for sure - rather a top 3 or top 5 result satisfying. Of course it is not he most Lopez route but still, not matching expectations for sure.
Blums was quite good, rest of the team finished nowhere but also they seemed to work quite hard on the last stage so im fine with that.
Thanks for the great reports, Abhishek. As always a joy to read.
Except for when it comes to my team in particular sadly A lot of stupid and unnecessary decisions made by the AI here in our case, sadly not the first time this season. It's exactly these races, where we have strong riders but not the absolute favourites, where we need to make sure to score a bit as well. But so far it simply hasn't been the case, whereas there really is no excuse to be that bad for some of them. I've noticed some other teams having the same problems and worse, so hope luck turns around for them as well.
Groves is a good winner here, and once again Pidcock and Vansevenant up there makes me scared of how good they could be with some more training coming up in the seasons to come. Things can change quickly for them of course as well, they simply haven't raced against Quispe yet this year.
The final stage effect seemed to open up the gaps, unlike how the Stage 2 route played out in it's new position.
Certainly feeling a bit hard done by with how it shaped out - Mohoric making key attacks on both hill stages, only to falter right when it mattered most. There's a good depth result for the team with Van der Lijke, Alaphillipe, Wirtgen and Geniets all picking up scoring positions - but lacking the good Top 10 result which seemed well within reach.
Oliveira with a really good race here (though it's a shame we don't actually get all those points), if he's able to do perform on a similar level in our non-wildcard races he'll be a real bargain for us.
Happy to see Valter be part of the front group. When first there, it wasn|t much in it for him, unfortunately. Also looked like he just wasn't stronger, fading strongly in the final. Feels like a race where we could have performed better on the hills, especially seeing our complete lack of depth points. On to the next one, I guess! Very interesting to see how the Ardennes will play out with all top puncheurs and Pidcock in addition to them.
Congratulations on the massive win, Fabianski! What a GC win that is, very well done to outperform the puncheurs here. Obviously also congratulations to roturn on Vansevenant's stage win, eventhough, that's becoming kind of usual on hilly finishes, after his Tirreno show
Wow, Groves actually did it again
It's obviously the scenario I was hoping for, and this exact race was one of the reasons why we went all-in for him in the end (after having missed out on other targets). But to see it work almost perfectly is just amazing, and brings us our very first PT race win I didn't expect to win a race (stage race or classic) this year given our roster, but I still thought this would be our best shot - and it worked!
Kaden certainly wasn't perfect, in particular on day 1, but 6th, 2nd and 4th was consistent enough for the GC win. Of course we were lucky with the results of the other riders, as at least all from 2nd to 5th could have easily gone past Groves with some slightly different stage outcomes, but we definitely had our share of luck in this race!
Schmid in 20th is a good depth result after all, given how awful the AI did for some other puncheurs, although it's obviously still far below his actual skills. But with the yet unknown stage 3, and with me unable to estimate Groves' and Schmid's strengths (being either new to the team or newly maxed), I preferred playing the "safety" option by sending both. Some wasted days for Mauro in the end, but at least by far not as bad as in MSR.
Rohendi and Delco also with nice depth points, and we'll also take 4th in teams. I guess it's safe to say that this will be our highest scoring non-GT race this year - and even the GTs might actually end up lower...
Thanks for the congrats, and congrats from my side to Fastned on yet another Mauri win. Awesome guy, but looking forward to Mauro giving him a proper fight in the hilly classics
I didn't expect to win a race (stage race or classic) this year given our roster, but I still thought this would be our best shot - and it worked!
