After we labelled February a "crucial" month (which went rather well so far), March isn't much less of that, actually. We're only racing about half as much - but with plenty of cobbled races on our schedule, it will be crucial to see how Eddie Theuns can still keep up with the best after a slight decline!
Besides the cobblers, the puncheurs and the TTers will have their share of racing as well, before stage racers take over with the GT season starting next month.
7 races, 4 classics, only one PTHC race - and the second monument of the year! Here are the details:
Mar 01 - 03 | Ronde van Nederland | PT
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Kaden Groves
75
62
72
65
75
73
80
66
80
79
64
67
71
Mauro Schmid
72
76
79
68
71
78
73
69
70
79
78
74
66
Edward Theuns
71
66
73
64
74
71
72
79
76
74
63
66
69
Teten Rohendi
70
75
75
70
73
75
74
55
62
73
71
70
71
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
AOP Setiawa
68
70
75
74
76
72
71
57
62
70
76
66
74
Filippo Colombo
72
64
68
67
73
72
64
72
71
72
71
71
67
Felix Stehli
67
68
71
62
70
70
69
62
69
71
69
69
66
Tactics
Even though we weren't here last year, we bring the defending champion! Groves won the GC, points and U25 last year - whereas we already know he won't repeat the latter, winning the GC again would take a lot of things to fall into place again. He'll still be our leader, and if he gets his positioning done better than in some other races, he should definitely be a top contender again.
Mauro could be a candidate for the white jersey this year; if Kaden doesn't feel well enough, Schmid could take over, in particular on days 2 and 3. Or he could just protect Theuns and deliver him in great position, while getting some nice depth results on his own.
Theuns could act as our final leadout, and most of the others also have some kind of skills on the hills. So another good depth team result would be nice to get.
Track Record
--- none ---
Expectations
Stages: 2x Top 10
GC: Top 10
Points: 160
Mar 10 | Strada Appia Antica | PT
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Edward Theuns
71
66
73
64
74
71
72
79
76
74
63
66
69
Tomas Paprstka
75
62
69
62
74
70
68
75
70
72
69
78
63
Stefan Küng
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Clement Berthet
65
75
74
60
70
74
66
60
62
73
72
75
60
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
Filippo Colombo
72
64
68
67
73
72
64
72
71
72
71
71
67
Hugo Page
69
65
67
61
71
69
65
63
73
76
68
69
66
Felix Stehli
67
68
71
62
70
70
69
62
69
71
69
69
66
Tactics
First cobbled race of the year! And it's one of those that suit Eddie Theuns rather well, with quite a lot of climbing involved, some flat cobbles at the end, and probably sprints of smaller groups to the finish.
Eddie took 6th place here last year; he may have declined a bit, but his skills should still be decent enough to get a solid result. If not, we'll probably be somewhat screwed this month.
The domestique lineup isn't impressive, as sadly Tediashvili left us and Sommer isn't maxed yet (and loaned out moreover). But Paprstka has often delivered good results in the past, and Küng is one of these riders who do pretty well on any terrain. So there's hope!
Track Record
Best: 6th (Edward Theuns, 2023)
Expectations
Result: Top 15
Points: 80
Mar 12 - 15 | Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha | PT
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Szymon Rekita
72
58
63
79
70
73
73
62
69
70
63
73
78
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
Alexys Brunel
75
67
71
78
72
78
73
66
61
65
69
66
78
Stefan Küng
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Ethan Vernon
73
60
65
77
72
75
72
66
75
70
63
65
78
Krzysztof Marchewka
65
64
60
77
73
75
74
50
52
64
62
65
77
Kaden Groves
75
62
72
65
75
73
80
66
80
79
64
67
71
Gabriel Chavanne
75
58
64
65
71
76
74
57
76
76
53
67
82
Tactics
Another new stage race for us rounds off the first half of the month. And it's the race where we'll most likely have the biggest regrets of not having been able to sign Ganna...
So it will be Rekita leading our team, but given that there's a plethora of other 79 TTers, we can't set the expectations too high. Our strenght once again is the team's depth, and so the goal will be to bring as many as possible of our 6 TTers in the Top 50.
Then there's obviously Gabby for the prologue - another chance for him to finally dethrone almighty SKA, but the competition will likely be far bigger than in Tirreno, with Ganna and Zmorka probably joining the party.
Groves is here for the two sprint stages, let's hope all the bumps especially on stage 2 play in his favour!
Track Record
--- none ---
Expectations
Stages: 3x Top 10
GC: Top 20
Points: 110
Mar 18 - 19 | Franceville Classique | PTHC
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Edward Theuns
71
66
73
64
74
71
72
79
76
74
63
66
69
Tomas Paprstka
75
62
69
62
74
70
68
75
70
72
69
78
63
Stefan Küng
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Cees Bol
76
64
70
67
75
77
81
68
79
77
68
67
69
Clement Berthet
65
75
74
60
70
74
66
60
62
73
72
75
60
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
Filippo Colombo
72
64
68
67
73
72
64
72
71
72
71
71
67
Hugo Page
69
65
67
61
71
69
65
63
73
76
68
69
66
Tactics
The race with "classic" in the name actually isn't one, instead it was transformed into a two-day stage race last year. We'd have loved to participate in 2023 once we signed Eddie Theuns, but it was too late to change the calendar.
Now, he's here one year late - sadly with slightly less power in his legs. We still expect him to do pretty well, in particular given that stage 2 should favour rider with some hilly skills.
Stage 1 turned out to be one for the sprinters who can handle some minor cobbles, which is the case for Cees Bol, so we send him here as well in case Eddie doesn't feel like sprinting. Otherwise, standard cobbles support, hopefully with at least Paprstka able to get a Top 50 finish.
Track Record
--- none ---
Expectations
Stages: 1x Top 10
GC: Top 15
Points: 70
Mar 21 | Macskako Kerekparverseny | PT
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Edward Theuns
71
66
73
64
74
71
72
79
76
74
63
66
69
Tomas Paprstka
75
62
69
62
74
70
68
75
70
72
69
78
63
Stefan Küng
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Mauro Schmid
72
76
79
68
71
78
73
69
70
79
78
74
66
Clement Berthet
65
75
74
60
70
74
66
60
62
73
72
75
60
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
Filippo Colombo
72
64
68
67
73
72
64
72
71
72
71
71
67
Felix Stehli
67
68
71
62
70
70
69
62
69
71
69
69
66
Tactics
The rest of the month consists of three cobbled classics, whereof Macskako is the first. Cobbles and hills combined, tailor-made for Eddie. So tailor-made that he got too enthusiastic last year - it was his only cobbled race where he missed out on the Top 10.
This wouldn't be too big of a surprise this year, although we'll happily take a better result. Paprstka and Küng will once again try to help him as well as they can.
And what is Mauro doing here? Well, it's a pretty hilly race here - and given that he finished 29th last year when still unmaxed, we just want to see what he can do in this kind of race. It's his only cobbles appearance this year - depending on the outcome, there might be more next time. Or less.
Track Record
Best: 11th (Edward Theuns, 2023)
Expectations
Result: Top 15
Points: 80
Mar 23 | E3 Prijs | PT
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Edward Theuns
71
66
73
64
74
71
72
79
76
74
63
66
69
Tomas Paprstka
75
62
69
62
74
70
68
75
70
72
69
78
63
Stefan Küng
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Clement Berthet
65
75
74
60
70
74
66
60
62
73
72
75
60
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
Filippo Colombo
72
64
68
67
73
72
64
72
71
72
71
71
67
Hugo Page
69
65
67
61
71
69
65
63
73
76
68
69
66
Felix Stehli
67
68
71
62
70
70
69
62
69
71
69
69
66
Tactics
More cobbles and hills! Hence one more chance for Eddie to have fun. Standard support squad, standard expectations. Not much more to say.
Ah yeah, while I thought it was a new race for us, we actually already participated once here - back in 2021, in our first PCT year. With Basso as our best cobbler. But just to say, Basso finished 16th here last year, maybe we should've bought him back...
Track Record
Best: 46th (Leonardo Basso, 2021)
Expectations
Result: Top 15
Points: 80
Mar 27 | Ronde van Vlaanderen | M
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Edward Theuns
71
66
73
64
74
71
72
79
76
74
63
66
69
Tomas Paprstka
75
62
69
62
74
70
68
75
70
72
69
78
63
Stefan Küng
73
70
73
77
74
72
73
72
63
71
73
78
78
Xuban Errazkin
71
74
78
70
76
75
76
64
63
73
69
67
70
Clement Berthet
65
75
74
60
70
74
66
60
62
73
72
75
60
Cees Bol
76
64
70
67
75
77
81
68
79
77
68
67
69
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
Filippo Colombo
72
64
68
67
73
72
64
72
71
72
71
71
67
Tactics
The second monument of the year - the only one that one of our riders was ever able to win so far. Yeah, it was obviously Eddie, back in 2021, when still riding for MOL. He showed last year that he really likes this race, finishing 3rd!
We can't expect a repeat after his decline, sadly, but we're still hoping for a good outcome. We even bring Errazkin to help him on all those non-cobbled hills. Don't ask me why Bol is here, though...
Otherwise, Paprstka and Küng again to support Eddie, with Küng also being able to handle some hills. Last race of the month, hopefully another good one!
Track Record
Best: 3rd (Edward Theuns, 2023)
Expectations
Result: Top 15
Points: 100
Summary
Although we have far less RDs to spend than last month, it's another very important month for us; if Eddie Theuns still can deliver at a good level, it could be looking pretty good for us. If not, well...
Otherwise, looking forward to Groves trying to defend his Nederland crown, and hoping for Chavanne to get us another prologue podium in Praha.
A lot of races again in March with a couple of big ones in Nederlands and Praha. Team has been doing fine so far, possible a chance to consolidate on it with these races!
A lot of races again in March with a couple of big ones in Nederlands and Praha. Team has been doing fine so far, possible a chance to consolidate on it with these races!
That's definitely the goal, and in particular Nederlands could be a big boost if Groves can repeat his 2023 performance. And yeah, we know he did it, so things are surely not looking worse than before
Should be a good battle to see which one of us comes out on top after March
I guess we should be better in Nederland, and you should be stronger in Praha. Then it comes down to how Theuns performs vs. Siric on the cobbles - and despite Eddie still having +1 Cob, I think Siric could already be the better rider there. Will be interesting!
Race Review | Tour of Ukraine | PTHC
A race we came to with pretty high hopes last year - and which we left deeply disappointed, with none of our riders really performing.
This year, we were rather optimistic as well - although this time we knew we didn't have a top contender given the much tougher nature of the hilly stage in the 2024 edition. Still, we brought a very solid mix of puncheurs, climbers and TTers, hoping to be prepared for most possible scenarios. But well conscious that we'd need some luck to do really well.
The first stage already had the first - rather negative - surprise for us; with pure TTers not doing well in this stage last year, and climbers getting good results, we thought that Valentin Darbellay would be a perfect fit as a solid climber, TTer and prologue rider. Well, he kind of was - but he only was our 4th highest finisher, behind all the TT specialists we thought he'd easily beat. But if he could stay with the front group on the hilly day 2, a great result was still on the table.
And we were obviously hoping that at least one out of Stefan Bissegger, Alexys Brunel or - most likely - Stefan Küng could make the split as well.
Stefan Küng underway in the prologue.
However, stage 2 turned out to be even harder than expected, so it would have taken an amazing day by one of the TTers to make the front group. Würtz was the only weak climber who somehow managed to hold on - we think that Küng could've done it as well, but it wasn't to be. Sadly, Valentin Darbellay wasn't positioned well enough, either, and finally got caught behind a split, losing 36 seconds. Definitely unnecessarily, but sadly it's pretty fitting for his season so far.
We still had two riders in the front group with Mauro Schmid and Xuban Errazkin, which was positive. However, it was still disappointing to see that Mauro didn't even try anything on a finale that would have been a perfect fit for him - downhill, followed by a short ramp. He might have used up too much energy on the long climb, something we might try to work on next offseason.
Mauro Schmid (right) and Xuban Errazkin (left) finishing inside the front group, without a notable stage result though.
Heading into the final stage, we had Errazkin in the Top 20, with Schmid and Darbellay just outside. The goal was to roughly keep these spots, with the riders likely swapping positions though.
But we underestimated the gaps produced by the 20km ITT, with both Mauro Schmid and Xuban Errazkin losing even more time than expected. The former dropped to 33rd in the GC, the latter finished 24th. On the other hand, Valentin Darbellay gained and lost the expected positions, for a net gain of 7 places and a final 18th place in GC. Solid, but not more - and without those 36" lost the day before, it would have been a strong 11th place...
Valentin Darbellay on his way to another 18th place GC finish.
By the way, it was Darbellay's 3rd 18th place in as many stage races this month - with the two PTHC outcomes being rather meh, the Paris - Nice result a good one though.
Besides the three aforementioned riders, we also have to mention Stefan Küng, who with a good final ITT made the jump inside the Top 50 as well, finishing 43rd. All of the four other team members ended up between 78th and 83rd, scoring 2 points each. Mauro Schmid once again got a 3rd place in the U25 standings (like in Portugal), and thanks to a strong final stage we gained two spots in the team standings to end up 2nd!
All in all, it was a very solid race - like we've seen many already this year - but not an outstanding one. Maybe next year?
Outcome
Expectation
Outcome
Stages
1x Top 10
4x Top 20
GC
Top 30
Top 20
Points
50
91
Race Review | Milano San Remo |M
Our 2nd monument in team history - but the first one where it really mattered for us! And we did have some pretty high hopes, bringing Kaden Groves as one of the sprinters handling hills pretty well, and Mauro Schmid to make the race hard - and potentially for a late attack in the Poggio or in the final downhill.
It turns out that our plans were actually pretty good. But the execution was just awful, plain awful.
First of all, Pidcock winning and Vansevenant on the podium clearly shows that Mauro Schmid is a well-suited rider for this race. He just didn't think so - as he preferred doing some chasing late in the race, and then simply stop racing, get dropped and not even reach the Top 50. With many other great puncheurs getting a Top 20 or even better, this is just a huge missed opportunity.
And Kaden Groves? Well, he had a great position on top of the Poggio, right in the mix. But then he took it way too easy on the downhill, dropping back - and getting only a disappointing 17th place instead of what looked to be a safe Top 10. Given that this was our only scoring position (other than finishing points), this first monument was a big disappointment for us and our worst race of the season so far, by quite some margin.
The peloton at the foot of the Poggio, with a strong Jura GIANTS presence. Which vanished soon after.
So, definitely a bad race, and this clearly shows in our outcome analysis:
Outcome
Expectation
Outcome
Result
Top 15
17th
Points
100
68
February Recap
The Milano San Remo outcome just leaves a pretty bitter taste of what otherwise was a good month. Even a very good month, comparing the outcome to the expectations.
We were hoping to score 665 points - we came out of February just below 1,000. With a decent MSR - a Top 10 by Groves or at least some more Top 50 finishers - we'd have made that mark. We said pre-month that we'd likely need those 1,000 points to have a real shot at staying safe - well, given that we came very close to it, we think that avoiding relegation could indeed be possible.
Currently, we're sitting in 9th place in the rankings - which is amazing, and the even better news is that even in terms of PpRD, we're 11th and well on track. Having done our longest PTHC race of the year - and having it done pretty well, as the 3rd best scoring PT team - might put some pressure on other teams who still have all of their long PTHC events to do.
Also, with our 1,269 points, we're currently 394 ahead of our expectations, and our internal projected score is up to more than 4,700. We'll need more than 5,000 to stay safe, but if we can continue to perform a bit above expectations in most races, it could actually be doable!
A more in-depth analysis of rider scorings will come post March, where Eddie Theuns will have to deliver - and his level should give us a good indication of where we'll be heading to. Stay tuned!
The hope of staying up is very much alive After that great win in The Netherlands, I'm curious how Eddie will perform in the classics.
The pressure on Eddie's shoulders is definitely lower now after Kaden's huge Nederland performance, but we're not even remotely safe yet, so we hope he'll still deliver some great races on the pavés
Race Review | Ronde van Nederland | PT
One of the year's stage races we had the highest hopes for. Because of one rider: Kaden Groves. Our new Australian sprinter won the GC, sprint and U25 standings last year for Amaysim, and we were obviously hoping for him to do well again.
However, there was an unkown: the route changed from last year, with a new hilly stage added, which could shift the race more towards the puncheurs, or puncheurs with some sprinter skills. Which is why we also sent Mauro Schmid to the race. Alongside some decent hilly support, including potential leadout Edward Theuns or solid uphill rider Teten Rohendi.
Day 1 however was still the same as previously - one for the sprinters. And as far too often this year, Groves was unable to get a good position. With 700m to go, he was only sitting around 15th position, and obviously unable to challenge for the win.
At least on a normal sprint stage. At least, this one had an uphill finish - so on paper a perfect stage for him - and this uphill allowed him to gain quite a lot of positions.
At one point, it even looked like he might enter the podium fight - but catching up took a lot of energy, and in the end he got blocked by Grosu and Banaszek. So Kaden Groves had to settle for 6th place - another disappointing sprint result, like most of the ones before.
Kaden Groves sprinting to 6th on day 1.
By the way, Mauro Schmid also finished inside the Top 30, making clear he would be ready to take over if the race got too hard for Kaden.
Stage 2 then was the previous stage 3, a stage that often saw some gaps but mostly had quite some sprinters keeping up as well. And so it was this year. The expected attack by Pidcock in the final downhill didn't happen, but lots of others tried their luck in a very hectic finale. But surprisingly, Kaden Groves was very attentive in this stage of the race, positioning himself very well and going head-to-head with Yates for the win!
The Brit was clearly stronger after a tough day in the saddle, though, fully understandable given his far superior uphill skills. But Kaden Groves finally, finally, finally got his first podium of the year with this 2nd place! Sure, it wasn't a typical sprint stage, but a podium is a podium!
Kaden Groves crossing the line in 2nd position on day 2!
To our surprise, 6th and 2nd were actually the best result on the first two stages - meaning that Kaden took over both the GC and the points lead - a huge boost for the team's morale heading into the final day!
And it was a really wild day, with splits forming and being undone throughout the last 40km. When a group of 25 got a decisive gap, we had both Kaden Groves and Mauro Schmid up there! However, Mauro didn't really feel like giving all he had, letting a front group ride away with just 3km to go. He could have easily kept up, but well, he saved his legs for other races.
Instead, the main scoring responsibility now was definitely on Kaden's shoulders! And even against some of the best puncheurs, he didn't crack on the last uphill - on the contrary, as soon as they hit flatter roads again, he got fully involved in the sprint! Just like the day before, he lacked some power in the end, being beaten by 3 riders - but a 4th place finish was still a strong result in such a difficult stage!
Kaden Groves sprinting to 4th on the final day.
Given that he was able to beat Yates, we knew it would be a great GC result for him, potentially even a podium - but where would he really end up?
Kaden Groves wins the Ronde van Nederland!
It was enough, Kaden got back-to-back wins in the Ronde van Nederland! It's obviously another great piece of team history that was written on this day - our first ever PT stage race win! Whereas last year we were positive to get some classics wins, we really didn't expect classics or GC wins this year - but after a difficult start to the season, Kaden picked up the pace at the perfect time, doing a fantastic job in the Netherlands!
Sure, it was only one stage podium - but keeping up with the puncheurs was extremely valuable, and 6th, 2nd, 4th was just the most consistent result of any rider, deservedly resulting in the GC win!
And just as a bonus - in particular for our loyal sponsors having gone through the lows of CT racing with us just two years ago (yes, indeed!) - here's Kaden in Green as well:
Kaden Groves also winning the points jersey!
Besides this fantastic result by Kaden - which obviously resulted in big, big points - let's not forget to mention Mauro Schmid, who took it pretty easy on the final stage and still finished 20th in GC. He was Top 25 in all three stages, but always far away from bonus seconds. We'll expect more from him when he won't have to share leadership, but he still got us some valuable points - including for 4th place in the U25 standings. Teten Rohendi was able to finish 40th in GC, and Lorenzo Delco also added a Top 50 finish, doing just what we expected him to do when signing him.
The team also ended up 3rd in the team standings (unlike stated in the posted results, where we were 4th, tied with cycleYorkshire) - and in the end it's our biggest ever score by a mile - 200 points more than we got last year in Norway, which should have been our previous highest scoring race. Not counting last year's wildcard Giro, obviously - and barring any potential big GT efforts, this will also very likely be our highest score all year long! And just to compare - to date, only Fastend in Tirreno got more points than we did in this race, which was a huge step towards safety!
How huge? Well, if we perform according to expectations in all remaining races, we'd end up with 5,000 points flat, which would've been enough to stay up last year... It's still a very, very long way to go, but the team is doing just what we wanted them to do: Fight as hard as they can to stay up! They're doing a really good job so far, and we're hoping this will be no different in the next couple of races!
The start of our 2024 cobbles campaign had one big question we wanted to find an answer for: How strong is Edward Theuns still after his decline? Can he still keep up with the best, being in the mix for Top 10 places? Or will he be rather anonymous, finishing between 10th and 20th, with the occasional Top 10 result?
Strada Appia Antica might not have been the best race to answer this question; despite having both cobbles and hills - a combo Eddie loves - it first had the hills and then the cobbles, rather favouring pure cobbled riders on paper.
One thing that didn't really play in Eddie's favour was that he was isolated pretty early on, with all of his helpers being dropped. So he had to contribute to the chase:
Edward Theuns catching a group including Pedersen, Gerts and others.
This energy spent chasing might have been just the missing piece when he narrowly missed out on the decisive attack, where a group of 10 went clear. He once again spent a lot of energy to get back to the group - which he indeed managed to do.
But in the finale, which was tailor-made for him, he definitely had nothing left to spend, and so could just roll across the finish line instead of sprinting, taking the final position of the group. Which meant 13th place in the end.
Edward Theuns finishing 13th in Strada Appia Antica.
Although this result was fully in the expected range, the way how it happened still hurt a bit. And it made us instantly regret Tediashvili's departure, as we're convinced that he'd have been a great helper for Eddie in this situation.
But it was the first of many cobbled races this year - with a slightly subpar outcome, but not catastrophic by any means, either. Some room to improve, some measures to take for the next events, that's it.
By the way, Tomas Paprstka and Stefan Küng finished 44th and 45th respectively, and alongside the finishing points of the remaining riders got us exactly what we needed to meet our expectations. So the race definitely wasn't a failure, even though it might have been a bit more successful.
Outcome
Expectation
Outcome
Result
Top 15
15th
Points
80
80
Race Review | Macskako Kerekparverseny | PT
The race calendar in March got reshuffled quite a bit, and so neither Praha nor Franceville was our next race, but the next cobbled classic, this time in Hungary.
More cobbles, more hills - but Edward Theuns didn't master the parcours as well last year as he potentially could have, finishing 11th. So expecting a better result was asking quite a lot, but we saw in Strada Appia Antica that he actually had the legs, just not the tactics nor the support.
A part of the team strategy was to get into the breakaway, so that Eddie definitely wouldn't need to work as hard as in his previous race. This didn't work right from the start - but somewhere around mid-race, Mauro Schmid attacked and indeed ended up catching the front group!
Mauro Schmid in the front group.
But why was Mauro actually here? Well, he did a great job last year, taking a Top 30 place while still unmaxed, so we thought it was worth a try.
And while the attack wasn't successful in the end, he still ensure that Theuns didn't need to work today, and could just hide in the group of favourites. He could follow all the important attacks, and hence was in pretty good position heading onto the final kilometer - and the final uphill:
Edward Theuns nicely positioned for the final sprint.
And with 300m to go, it was clear that Eddie would indeed improve on last year's result, still holding a position in the Top 5 - and even fighting for the podium!
Edward Theuns in the Top 5 inside the final 300m...
He indeed was in the podium fight until the very last inches! Polanc and Pedersen were too strong - and Theuns was battling another P - no, not Pidcock, who almost won the race in his daredevil style but was caught on the last kilometer - but van der Poel, who narrowly beat him in Italy some days before.
The final outcome? Here it is:
Edward Theuns finishing inches ahead of van der Poel for 3rd place!
Indeed, Edward Theuns managed to outsprint the Dutchman in the end, claiming the final spot on the podium! After his 3rd place in Ronde van Vlaanderen last year, it's his second podium for us in a PT classic - the first one that really matters points-wise! What a reply to those who thought he'd dropped to mediocrity after a subpar Strada Appia performance - hats off, Eddie, fantastic racing, fantastic timing, fantastic result!
And what makes this result even more fantastic is our team result. OK, Mauro Schmid only finished 40th, which looks disappointing at first - but as said before, it enabled Theuns to ride anonymously and save energy all day long.
But how about this?
20th Stefan Küng
21st Tomas Paprstka
22nd Lorenzo Delco
Now, that's some really nice points! And in particular Delco had an amazing day - we still have no clue how he managed to stay with all these far better cobblers, but he did, and it was worth some unexpected points!
All in all, we scored more than 200 points in this single race, which is more than 2.5x what we expected! This race also pushed us above the 2,000 points mark - after just 48 days of racing, just a little more than 1/4 of the season! It's obviously still far too early to draw any conclusions - in particular before the GT season - but we can definitely say that this team is fighting like crazy to get another year in PT next season! Congrats to all who contributed to this fantastic result, definitely a memorable race for us!
Should be a good battle to see which one of us comes out on top after March
I guess we should be better in Nederland, and you should be stronger in Praha. Then it comes down to how Theuns performs vs. Siric on the cobbles - and despite Eddie still having +1 Cob, I think Siric could already be the better rider there. Will be interesting!
Should be a good battle to see which one of us comes out on top after March
I guess we should be better in Nederland, and you should be stronger in Praha. Then it comes down to how Theuns performs vs. Siric on the cobbles - and despite Eddie still having +1 Cob, I think Siric could already be the better rider there. Will be interesting!
I was too optimistic on my end
Praha is yet to come And yeah, Theuns did better than expected so far overall, and then there's the big result by Groves. But you'll crush us in some GTs, so I'd still be surprised to not see you ahead of us at the end of the year
Race Review | Franceville Classique | PTHC
Two days in Gabon, with as many cobbled stages awaiting the riders. The first one being easier, the latter one insanely hard.
Looking at last year's results, we thought that bringing Cees Bol for day 1 would be a good idea, as he's just good enough on the cobbles to hold on, and then should be among the faster sprinters in the end.
It turns out that our plan was pretty good, and our riders indeed participated in keeping the race under control. Up to 6 riders - including our sprinter and our GC captain - were close to the front at times. Only to vanish when it mattered, though.
And once again, we made our plan without accounting for Bol's talent to completely mess up positioning. Which he did to perfection once again, making sure he wouldn't even compete for the day's Top 10. 11th place, another disastrous sprint performance by him. His points yield so far is just ridiculously low, as we have several riders not even getting half his wage who scored more in less races already...
Without the expected strong stage result on day 1, all pressure then was on Edward Theuns' shoulders to deliver a strong GC result. The first 140km of the second stage were totally to his liking, with a nice mixture of cobbles and hills.
And indeed, when the group of favourites hit the final cobbled section - 23km long, much less suited for Eddie's skillset vs. his competitors - Theuns was easily able to hang on to the 11 rider strong group. The group was thinned out more and more - until there were only three left. Including Theuns!
Edward Theuns with Per and Senechal, chasing Pedersen.
However, the cobbles clearly took their toll on Eddie, with the expected outcome that he just couldn't match the stronger cobblers' speed on the pavés. One after the other passed him - but that sounds worse than it is, as Eddie still hung onto a great 7th place on this really tough stage!
Edward Theuns finishing 7th, right behind Stallaert, and ahead of Kasperkiewicz and Polanc.
The stage result was almost identical to the GC result, with Kasperkiewicz ending up ahead of Eddie due to no gaps being awarded among these 4 riders, and the Pole getting some bonus seconds underway. But an 8th place in GC is still somewhat better than expected - we were expecting a Top 15 - and another hint that the rather bad Strada Appia Antica performance was just due to an off-day (or bad strategy).
The rest of the team suffered even way more, but a honorable mention goes to Tomas Paprstka, taking 30th place in the GC. Four more riders got a Top 100 finish (including our sprinter) to add some minor points - all in all, Eddie's great 2nd day had us scoring above expectations once again, despite the day 1 failure! Great job, Eddie, showing the young dudes how it's done!
With 4 days, the TT-party in the Czech Republic was our longest stage race of the month. And not the one with the biggest expectations, given that we failed to sign a top-level TTer. But if things went our way, some nice depth scoring could still be possible.
Stage-wise, our highest expectations were on the prologue, where Gabriel Chavanne was among the top contenders once again. With some strong results earlier this season, he proved that his form is good.
However, on this one day, the legs weren't great. Not only did he finish as the worst among the similarly skilled prologue riders, he even lost out against a clearly slower one on paper. 6th place was less than the minimum expectations and a very bad result. It clearly wasn't the start we were hoping for, on the contrary...
Gabriel Chavanne on his way to the worst prologue result of the season to date.
On the upside, loaned-in youngster Ethan Vernon was the fastest U25 rider, getting to wear the white jersey after the prologue - well done!
For the flat stages 2 and 4, we brought our top sprinter Kaden Groves, who was highly motivated after winning the Ronde van Nederland for the second time in a row earlier this month.
However, just being motivated isn't enough to do well. Some smart riding is required as well - and some luck, too. Kaden's positioning work wasn't awesome, as he was 5 spots or so too far down when the sprint started. And then, he couldn't even reach his maximum speed as he got blocked behind the first row of sprinters. Having neither a good position nor enough room, he only finished 12th, another disappointing bunch sprint result.
Kaden Groves caught behind Jakobsen, Samolenkov and Kemboi.
The most decisive stage for the GC then came on day 3, with the PT calendar's longest ITT of the year. Over an hour in the saddle, alone against the clock. And on such a long distance, anything can happen. And in particular, the weather conditions can change quite a lot.
We'll happily admit that we were one of the most lucky teams when it comes down to said conditions, having a group of 4 riders in a favourable window.
First came Stefan Bissegger, often disappointing last year, but clearly delivering here. He was our first starter in this group because of his comparatively weak prologue stats, but this clearly was to his advantage today - as he finished right behind the leader who was Egan Bernal - and a 19" deficit means he really did a great job!
Stefan Bissegger out on the road.
Stefan would end up being the best 78 TTer of the day, taking an excellent 13th place!
Next up was Ethan Vernon, still wearing the Young Riders' leader jersey - and surprisingly beating all other U25 riders, giving him a huge shot at definitely winning the jersey at the end of the race!
Ethan Vernon wearing white - and defending the jersey!
Ethan finished 21st on the day, holding the same spot in the GC after S3. Alexys Brunel posted the same time - just showing how good Ethan's time was - but stayed some fractions ahead for 20th.
Then came our top TTer, Szymon Rekita. And just like his teammates before (barring Brunel, who lost almost 20" to his "twin" Bissegger), he did an excellent job, posting the 4th time behind new leader Würtz, just 6" behind Bernal who now was down in 3rd place!
Polish ITT champion Szymon Rekita on the way to a strong result!
His performance would be good enough for 11th on the day - and provisional 11th on GC as well! He was the 2nd best 79 TTer behind Hepburn who had an outstanding day - but better than all other comparable TTers (also those who beat him in the prologue), and even faster than Tasmania winner Mullen!
We mentioned it - meteorological conditions were rather variable, and they clearly got worse - more precisely: rainy - shortly after Szymon's ride. Which was very unlucky for Stefan Küng, our 2nd best rider in the prologue - having similar skills as Vernon in longer TTs, he finished 1'30" behind his teammate and couldn't even make the Top 50. These conditions kind of explain why even Mullen got such an awful result - and why Wirtgen didn't win the race.
But we really can't complain about the team result on this day - with Rekita in 11th, Bissegger 13th, Brunel 20th and Vernon 21st (all of them holding the same place in GC), this was an awesome outcome. We also were 3rd in teams, ahead of Grieg or Cedevita, proving that we really were lucky. And all of a sudden, we had a lot to lose on the final day, after the first two stages were very bad and had us afraid of a really bad outcome...
Day 4 then was the second chance for the sprinters - which also means that there was a danger of random splits occurring in the pack, so the first task was for our GC riders to stay attentive. Which they perfectly did, as all four of them ended up in the first 53 positions, securing an awesome depth result!
Once the GC points ensured, we obviously wanted to achieve something good in the sprint as well - one podium in the entire season so far clearly wasn't what we expected from our sprinters.
When the sprint started, we could already see that Kaden had learnt from his S2 mistake - he was around 10th position this time, just where he had to be. With 500m to go he was up to 7th, moving up to 3rd with 300m to go and clear road ahead of him. And in the end, we had this picture:
Kaden Groves getting his first stage win of the year!
This time, he just did a perfect job. It wasn't even a close call - Kaden won with a bike length ahed of Peak! Great positioning, perfect timing, aweseome outcome! We're obviously hoping for more of the same later on, but for now we're enjoying this great win - which also brought him 4th place in the points standings! Congratulations to Kaden, well done!
And this win actually has a historical dimension, as it completes our set of stage wins in all race categories: GT, PT, PTHC, HC, C1, C2HC and C2 - we have wins in all of them now! The next step will be to work on classic and stage race wins in all categories (with C2HC no longer being possible for either, though)...
So, time to recap. The first two stages were two days to forget. But things definitely went our way in the second half of the race, with the stage win perfectly rounding off the race for us. But our main source of points was the GC, with four riders in the Top 21! Top 10 wasn't a realistic goal, but we came very close anyway, and making it two in the Top 15 with Rekita and Bissegger, plus Brunel in the Top 20, is far beyond our expectations. 3rd place in team standings and in particular Ethan Vernon winning our first U25 jersey of the year is a great bonus - and all in all, we got close to the triple of our expected points! The second half of the race was awesome for us, and it brings our dream of survival a big step closer to getting reality!
Outcome
Expectation
Outcome
Stages
3x Top 10
2x Top 10
GC
Top 20
3x Top 20
Points
110
295
Race Review | E3 Prijs | PT
It was already the 4th cobbled race of the month - but surprisingly the first home race for Edward Theuns! It's surprising that cobbles can be find all over the world, not only in Belgium - but racing at home still is something special for Eddie, even after all these years.
And despite his decline, he clearly still had some ambitions in this race, underlined by his latest results in Hungary and Gabon.
The strategy in Macskako, where Eddie finished 3rd, was to send someone up front so he wouldn't have to work too much during the race. So we tried to apply the same tactics once again - and at least "sending someone up front" worked like a charm, with Stefan Küng having a nice day in the breakaway.
Stefan Küng in the breakaway.
Even when the group thinned out, Stefan could still hang on. Until the very end of the breakaway in fact - which however came pretty early, with 46km to go. Subsequently, he didn't have enough energy left to get a notable result, missing out on the Top 50 by a mere 3 spots...
But the most important target was achieved, Eddied didn't have to work during most of the race. Even better - until the top guns started to attack, Tomas Paprstka was still by his side, ensuring yet another level of protection!
Like in his previous races, Eddie applied a wait-and-see strategy, saving as much energy as possible, just holding the group - which he easily managed even when great cobblers like Van Hooydonck, Altur or Spengler were dropped! And when the front group reached the red kite, he was basically assured to get another Top 10 - as just 10 riders were left fighting for the win!
At some point, it even looked like Theuns could sprint for the win - but his slight decline during the offseason probably just made the difference between sprinting to the line and running out of gas. The latter was the case - but it still was a great result, as Edward Theuns finished in 5th position!
Edward Theuns getting another Top 5 result!
Getting a 5th place at home definitely is a cool result for Eddie, even though he might have been able to do even better in his best days. But given that we had pre-season hopes of Top 15 finishes, two Top 5s in three PT attempts is an awesome performance by him, as he contributes big time to our great run in March!
And let's not forget to mention Tomas Paprstka, who got a great 20th place in this race, not only doing an awesome job in protecting Eddie, but then also getting a very valuable personal result! Well done!
Praha is yet to come And yeah, Theuns did better than expected so far overall, and then there's the big result by Groves. But you'll crush us in some GTs, so I'd still be surprised to not see you ahead of us at the end of the year
Looks like you'll have quite the buffer for that one GT
Praha is yet to come And yeah, Theuns did better than expected so far overall, and then there's the big result by Groves. But you'll crush us in some GTs, so I'd still be surprised to not see you ahead of us at the end of the year
Looks like you'll have quite the buffer for that one GT
Yeah, it's looking pretty good right now But I guess we've been lucky so far, and if luck evens out over the year, even "quite the buffer" can vanish rather quickly
Race Review | Ronde van Vlaanderen | M
Second monument of the year - and definitely one we had very high hopes in. Edward Theuns won here three years ago - his only career monument win - and finished 3rd last year. Even though he lost some of his skills since, a Top 10 should definitely be on the table here.
Like in E3 Prijs, we managed to get Stefan Küng in the breakaway - just the perfect choice in the unlikely case the break would actually make it for once.
Stefan Küng with his 5 breakaway companions.
As expected, however, the break was caught, and Stefan missed out on the Top 50 again. But at least, Edward Theuns didn't need to work all day long.
And when the front group was thinned out, he was still there - unfortunately, he didn't get any help today, as he was on his own with 35km to go already:
Edward Theuns in the group of favourites.
We didn't really like that he was positioned in the last third of that group, though - and it proved costly indeed. When the next attacks came, he was caught out of position and never was able to come back again. Which was truly disappointing, looking at riders like Tiller or Siric who finished well ahead of him - and who he had beaten at most occasions so far...
Eddie only got a 13th place, which is a pretty big disappointment in this race.
Edward Theuns finishing his most disappointing race of the year.
So, this was the 2nd monument, and the 2nd major blow. It looks like our riders can't quite handle the additional pressure and public interest in these events. It's the 2nd race of the year where we didn't meet our points expectations - both of these races are monuments. Given that #3 is right around the corner, we'll see what we can do in terms of mental training by then, as we definitely want to perform much better than we did in these prestigious races!
By the way, Tomas Paprstka finished 28th, which is fine as an individual result - but we'd have preferred him to be able to support Eddie for a longer time. Alas, subpar races happen (and we can't complain about the number of times they happened, definitely not!), onto the next ones.
Outcome
Expectation
Outcome
Result
Top 15
13th
Points
100
92
March Summary
Great! That's the right word to use for recapitulating this month. We did even better than in February, where we were the 7th best team - in March, we actually finished 2nd! We scored 1,371 points, more than doubling our total score - just an amazing outcome! Groves' Nederland win obviously was a big part of this success (almost 1/3 of the points), but Theuns also had some really good races - sadly not the final one.
Before the Ronde, we were actually even in the race for winning the month - and taking the division lead - but Eddie would have needed to win the race (or at least finish ahead of Pedersen, which in the end comes down to the same). But we'll keep that goal for a later month (or probably rather a later season).
Overall, we have now moved up from 9th to 4th place - and with "just" another Top 6 by Theuns, we'd have made the podium. Another goal to achieve later then.
But hey, we're definitely not complaining! The month went far better than expected, despite the mediocre Ronde outcome. We expected 680 points (which would only have been enough for 17th place), and we got more than twice as many, for a huge 81 PpRD average! We currently stand at 2,640 points, which is clearly more than half of our expected total, after just 1/3 of the season. If we "only" meet our expectations in the remaining races, we'd land at 5,410 points, which should be enough to stay up. While it's still a long way to get there, we definitely should have a chance to make the ultimate goal!
In terms of individual scoring, Groves is right outside the Top 10, currently in 11th place. Theuns in 19th place makes it 2 in the Top 20. Schmid, who didn't race a lot (and especially not as a leader) dropped to 38th. Groves even has already completed his season target, with Nederland making up almost 2/3 of his scoring.
Küng, Bissegger, Chavanne, Errazkin and Darbellay are at 100+ points already, and all except for the latter are in the Top 100.
Every rider has scored at least 10 points already - which isn't a big deal in PT, though.
We'll get more time to talk about the scoring during the next month, where we won't have lots of races to cover - but with another monument and the first GT, it will obviously still be an important one! We'll post the April preview soon - stay tuned!
Ronde van Nederland | 
Strada Appia Antica | 
Franceville Classique | 
Macskako Kerekparverseny | 
Tour of Ukraine | 
