There were actually 9 races on the CT calendar this month, which is where we start doing split updates - but with Strade Bianche not offering any spots for CT teams, we're down to 8 races covered in this update.
We have 4 classics - 3 cobbled ones and one for hilly sprinters - and 4 stage races, thereof one of CT's yearly highlights, a big clash between the top climbers in the Middle East.
But we'll start with the cobbled C1 Lillestrom GP, as it was just the first race of the month.
7 CT teams made the trip to Norway - and until the final kilometer it looked like one of them could actually run away with the win! It wasn't to be however - Zepuntke was caught very late and ended up 9th; still the highest position of a CT rider, scoring 20 points for Würth.
Two spots behind, in 12th, we had Moulingui with another Top 15 result in a strong field. Peng finished 21st, scoring some more points for Trans, who end up with 15. And then we take a big step down to the Turtles, who scored 3 points thanks to Muhindo's 20th place. Insausti's 22nd place were the final points for a CT team, scoring 2 for Air New Zealand.
The Tour of the Middle East then saw the expected clash of CT's best climbers. Two flat days, a hilly stage - and a loooong final climb to decide the race.
He may not be the best pure climber, but he's probably the most well-rounded one. And even though there was no TT, Jorgenson still was the strongest. Two second places on stages 3 and 4 were enough to take the GC win, the KoM standings, and obviously the white jersey - plus 2nd place in the points standings, 1 point short of the jersey sweep. "Thanks" to the new bonus seconds system experimented in this race, he only won the race by a single second; with the "old" one he'd have had a 4" advantage. But a win is a win - and that win was worth 128 points. But that wasn't all - Welten won the opening stage and got the first yellow and green jerseys, a total of 28 points. Canal picked up some U25 points, and Pronskiy got the final GC point - all in all, 159 points for Newton Foundation, the 2nd highest CT score of the year (behind Gjensidige's Tachira yield).
Bennett has arrived pretty much at the other end of his career than newly maxed Jorgenson - but he showed the world that he's still a very capable climber. Taking 6th (and 3 bonus seconds) on day 3, he was simply the best on the last day, winning the stage and getting as close as one tiny second to Jorgenson. 2nd in GC, 3rd in KoM, 4th in points - a nice 79 points haul for the Kiwi. Spark also had a 3-4 in U25 with Rodriguez and Thompson, and Scott sprinted to 7th on day 1 - 85 points in total.
The fight for 3rd was fierce, with 3 points deciding in the end in Duvel's favour, 75 vs. 72 in the battle against Ethiopian Airlines who had quite a lot of depth here. But Duvel had Smith, and Smith won stage 3, taking over yellow and the KoM shirt after this stage. He dropped to 5th in the final stage, but with 69 points he's still the 3rd best individual scorer. The other 6 points were scored by Zhao, finishing 4th and 6th in the two bunch sprints and getting 8th in points. 75 points in total for the Belgian-Chinese outfit, as said before.
The rest of the monthly calendar got somewhat reshuffled, so the next race already was the hilly C2 classic in Slovenia, GP Izola.
And what could be a better suited winner for this race than a Slovenian riding for a Slovenian team winning on home soil? This is exactly what Korosec did - and on top of that, it was a solo win after an attack with 2km to go! Govekar added 3 more points to Korosec's 50, making it 53 for Trans, getting their 2nd classic win of the year after GP Herning. They'll want all race names to start with "GP" next year...
KHJ undoubtedly is one of the division's top puncheurs, and he showed that again in Slovenia. 2nd place and 35 points for him - with Robov (10th), Bernard (16th) and Hagen (23rd) making it 50 points for Genii, just as good as a win.
Eiking may only have finished 4th, but Morin adding a 13th place and 7 points was enough for Hilcona to outscore Euskadi's 3rd place by Serrano, 33 vs. 29 points for the Liechtensteiners.
Then we had the 3-day C1 even in Eritrea. Sprinters, puncheurs, climbers - all of them had something at stake in Africa. 10 CT teams made the trip, 7 of them scored.
And a CT sprinter was the strongest on day 1, with Krieger winning the stage and getting to wear yellow and green for a day. The German also finished 3rd in points, scoring 37 points - which is also Hilcona's total. A nice outcome to build up upon after a pretty rough start to the season.
Their points total was almost matched by Genii, who went pretty much the opposite way: no notable stage result, but some nice depth. Bernard in 14th, Barta in 20th, Ulysbayev in 21st and Robov in 28th - four scoring GC finishes! Unsurprisingly, this also resulted in a good outcome in the team standings, where they took 2nd place, scoring 36 points in total.
The first three positions were pretty close, with 3rd placed Zain-Omantel scoring 31 points (and no other team getting more than 11 points). Carapaz, ending up 10th in GC, was their main scorer, with Minali adding a 4th place on day 1 and Buratti getting some KoM points.
We just move on with alternating classics and stage races, getting back to cobbles this time - for the C2 race Geraardsbergen - Bosberg in THE cobbles country.
However, it wasn't the most amazing race for CT teams, with PCT representatives getting a 1-2, and 4/7 riders in the Top 7. Hence, the best CT finisher was 3rd placed Hvideberg, getting 29 points for Gjensidige.
Trans didn't quite get the top result in this race - Moulingui in 6th place was their top finisher - but Centrone's 11th place and Lecourt de Billot's 22nd place were enough to get the 2nd highest team score - 28 points for the Slovenians.
Zepuntke is still waiting for a win, and his 4th place probably is another minor disappointment. That's 26 points for Würth. And by the way, the 4th best team were Duvel with 25 points, so that's the first four teams separated by just 4 points...
More cobbles, this time in France, for the C1 Jour de Dunkerque. Cobbles and hills, always a mixture yielding interesting races - how did it go for CT teams?
Not too bad, at least. David was the division's highest finisher in 5th place, getting a solid 36 points for Glanbia.
Zepuntke loves cobbles but doesn't like hills that much, so his 6th place is still a good result in a competitive field. 32 points for him and Würth, his 2nd highest scoring result of the year.
Trans also can be rather happy with their 21 points, mostly thanks to Moulingui as the 3rd CT rider in the Top 10 with 9th place. Lecourt de Billot also added a point for 24th place. Duvel were the final scoring CT team, making it half the teams taking something home from France.
Two stage races left. First, the C1 Tour of South Africa, with 9 CT teams present. Lots of hills and a TTT, that's the simple recipe.
It wasn't really the most amazing race for CT teams points-wise, but it was an African team that still had a pretty good time: Simba Cement! Kiflay was after the KoM right from the gun of stage 1 - and he was rewarded for his perseverance! He took over the KoM shirt after day 2 and never gave it away - 34 points for him. Carpenter added 8 points for a solid 17th place GC result, making it 42 for Simba.
Two teams then were tied for 2nd place. With Ethiopian Airlines, we have another African team doing relatively well - even though they didn't do well at all GC-wise, with only Schönberger getting some points in 49th place. But the Austrian also was 2nd in KoM, one point ahead of teammate Khederi, and 3 points ahead of other teammate Frison - clearly, if this was a team competition they'd have won it. And almost all of their 27 points indeed come from KoM, with Bystrom additionally getting two scoring stage results (7th and 8th).
The other team with 27 points was Hilcona, most of which they scored right on day 1 with Eiking's 2nd place. He also took 5th place on the final day, picking up 26 points in total. The final point was scored by Morin - in the KoM standings. Fun fact: there were only CT riders in the Top 8 positions of the final KoM standings, and not a single KoM point went to PCT all race long.
The final race was the HC Tour of Norway. 5 days in the North, 2 for the sprinters, 2 for the puncheurs, and one for the TTers.
Gjensidige claimed the only free spot in the peloton, definitely not wanting to miss out on their home race. But what happened then is probably far more than they could ever have been hoping for...
Barbier did well on day 1 with a 5th place, but nothing really special. Places 6 and 7 for Van Moer and Knotten in the long ITT were very respectable, in particular given some of the names behind them. The first hilly stage was nothing spectacular for them - on the contrary, both of their TTers couldn't keep up with the best.
But then, the final day, which should shake things up quite a lot. Gjensidige had Van Moer in the breakaway - which made it all the way to the line! The Belgian, completely exhausted, could only take 5th place. But he had picked up tons of bonus seconds on the road - and the 1'55" advantage over the pack made him move up to 3rd in the final GC! On top of that, Van Moer also won the points standings and scored 137 points in total!
On top of that, Jacobsen got some GC points, whereas Hvideberg scored some KoM points early in the race. Barbier and Knotten got some points for their stage results as well - in total, that's 161 points for Gjensidige! With which they now hold the best and 2nd best score of the year, narrowly pushing Newton's Middle East performance down to 3rd.
So, what do we get this month? Well, a pretty clear winner - with Gjensidige scoring more points in Norway alone than all but two other teams during the whole month! Overall, it's 245 points for the Norwegians, as the only team having scored 200+ points. Still, their PpRD isn't quite the highest of the division - but less than half a point off.
With some strong performances on many terrains - cobbles, mountains and hills - Trans deservedly take 2nd place this month with 182 points, and the 3rd best PpRD.
However, just 8 points behind them are Newton, totalling 174 - after using just 9 RDs. With 19.3, they are the top team in terms of PpRD - as mentioned before, by a slim margin. But they're definitely on track to revert at least the last relegation.
In 4th place, we get the proof that Beer is great nutrition for cyclists, with the newcomers from Duvel surprising again with yet another strong month. 139 points is a very nice score - not quite 10 PpRD, but still #5 this month.
Ethiopian Airlines also had a strong month with 118 points for 5th place, followerd by Genii (111), Würth (102) and Hilcona (101). Which makes it 8 teams above 100 points.
Simba arrived just below with 95, and then we have a group of 4 teams separated by 5 points, from 86 to 81 points: Spark, Zain, Cervelo and Euskadi. Of this bunch, Spark can be happiest with their outcome, as they only spent 8 RDs and are #4 in terms of PpRD.
Euskotren are surely a bit less happy with just 62 points - and this holds even more for Glanbia and the Turtles, with 44 and 16 points respectively. The final teams on the list - Babymetal and Air New Zealand - even scored less than one point per Race Day and definitely need to reconsider their strategy.
Here are the full numbers for March:
Team
Lil
ToME
Nor
ToSA
Izo
Dun
Eri
G-B
Total
RD
PpRD
1
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
0
53
161
0
2
0
0
29
245
13
18.85
2
Trans Looney Tunes
15
60
0
0
53
21
5
28
182
15
12.13
3
Newton Foundation p/b Zwift
0
159
0
0
5
0
10
0
174
9
19.33
4
Duvel-Tsingtao
0
75
0
4
19
16
0
25
139
16
8.69
5
Ethiopian Airlines
0
72
0
27
19
0
0
0
118
15
7.87
6
Genii Hyundai N Cycling
0
11
0
9
50
0
36
5
111
19
5.84
7
Team Würth MODYF
20
1
0
0
12
32
11
26
102
15
6.80
8
Hilcona Racing Team
0
4
0
27
33
0
37
0
101
17
5.94
9
Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh
0
30
0
42
23
0
0
0
95
15
6.33
10
Spark Team NZ
0
85
0
0
1
0
0
0
86
8
10.75
11
Zain-Omantel
0
53
0
0
0
0
31
0
84
11
7.64
12
Cervelo Test Team
0
32
0
18
28
0
5
0
83
15
5.53
13
Euskadi-Murias
0
40
0
0
29
0
0
12
81
13
6.23
14
Euskotren - Pays Basque
0
38
0
0
8
0
0
16
62
10
6.20
15
Glanbia
0
0
0
7
0
36
0
1
44
12
3.67
16
SEE Turtles
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
13
16
12
1.33
17
Babymetal
0
7
0
0
0
0
0
0
7
10
0.70
18
Air New Zealand-Alfa Romeo
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
10
0.20
Full Ranking
Unsurprisingly, with the previous Top 3 all ending up in the Top 4 this month, there wasn't too much movement at the top. In fact, we only have 1st and 2nd swapping places, with Gjensidige being the new leaders after a strong month! The Norwegians now total 622 points - and with a 15 PpRD average also are the division's #1 when sorted by this value!
Duvel's PpRD took a slight hit, but is still above 10 and easily #3 in the league. Their 541 points are good enough for 2nd place for now - but only just, with Newton trailing them by a mere 8 points! The latter have only used up 37 RDs so far and are the only other team besides Gjensidige predicted to exceed 2,000 points by the end of the season.
It's an almost 100 points gap down to the next teams - in fact, it's less of a gap between 4th and 9th than between 3rd and 4th. In 4th place, having moved up from 6th, we now have Genii, with 447 points, ahead of Würth in the final Top 5 spot with 432 points.
Trans and Euskotren follow with 419 and 410 points respectively - the former having had a great month, the latter quite the opposite. Glanbia with 396 and Simba with 381 points are pretty close as well - although the Irishmen can't really be happy with their points projection.
The final Top 10 spot currently goes to Spark with 328 points, followed by Cervelo at 317. Euskadi and Zain are pretty close behind, with Ethiopian Airlines almost getting in touch again after a really good month.
Hilcona, the Turtles and Babymetal are clearly off the pace so far - and even more so Air New Zealand, who haven't even reached 100 points yet.
Whether you would like to look at the detailed standings or not is up to you - in any case, here they are:
Already after 3 months, there's not much doubt about who will win the individual standings. To be honest, there wasn't much doubt even pre-season. Matteo Jorgenson is just too strong for CT, and after winning ToME as well now holds at 298 points.
Kristian Haugaard Jensen is having a pretty good season as well - but he's already 101 points behind Jorgenson. 101 points further down, we arrive at 17th place, just to illustrate the current dominance.
It's then a very close fight for 3rd currently, with Dion Smith continuing to be very solid in ToME - and Brent van Moer having a fantastic race in Norway. In the end, it's 173 vs. 172 for the Kiwi, jumping from 8th to 3rd (and the Belgian from 37th to 4th, by the way...)
But it's also pretty close behind, with Richard Antonio Carapaz - moving up from 10th to 5th - totalling 163 points, which is just 6 more than Thymen Arensman in 3rd.
Ruben Zepuntke also is one of the big improvers this month, moving up from 21st to 7th, on 138 points. Tachira surprise winner Kozhatayev drops from 4th to 8th with 131 points, one ahead of Ian Boswell, another one ahead of Mikel Iturria as the final Top 10 rider.
Outside the Top 10, we have one major improver in George Bennett, jumping from 28th to 11th, just 2 points behind Iturria. Guerreiro and Vanhoucke have lost their Top 10 spots for now, we'll see if they get a chance to bounce back soon.
With no C2 stage race upcoming, the two cobbled classics could have quite some impact next month - apart from that, there's just Berlin for the CT sprinters, and then good C1 performances will be needed to score big. Given this calendar, it's not surprising to have several teams spending just 4 RDs next month - we'll see what happens next!
Thanks for the excellent write up Fab, always a excellent read, and it's really nice to you to put time in this.
For us, in the end, not that bad a month. Izola was a bummer, and I'll have to hope it'll be our only hill bad result this year (in C2), and we were never scoring meaningfully (or at all) in Dunkerque, but cobbles and TOME were sufficient. And for now we have a nice pprd.
Of course, we'll have to see how we fare in our C1 home races which can no doubt tank that - Pays Basque and Andorra coming first. But for now, we're doing OK (as we are in most season debut)
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
Thank you Fab, great to see us still eeking out a top 5 performance on the month, with some negative results in there.
Tour of South Africa was a real anchor on the PPRD, and the cobbles season is winding down, so we’ll need to rely on some of our subordinate riders to make further hay while the sun is shining.
Congrats to hillis, Tinxia and mres on big months for their respective squads!
It was an improvement for us and I think considering the scoring opportunities we actually had we are looking good for the second half of the year. Bennett is consistent and doing great as we had hoped which I’m really happy about. Davila is going very well and has some more big races coming up. We need more from riders like Beltran, Scott and Yates. Hopefully they step up soon. They have the opportunity to do so in the coming month.
Still a great month in terms of Bennett being our confidence boost and we improved our PpRD a bit which is positive. We really need it close to 10 though so still more work to do!
Great write up for this as usual Fab and very excited for the next one!
Top 3 seems pretty solid, but then it gets really close.
Kiflay saves the month for us with his performance in ToSA, as it could have been a poor PPrD again without those points.
IMO the Top 3 is set in stone, but anyone from 4th to 14th seems to be in a position to take one of the final two promotion spots. Sure, we're only 3 months into the season, but the battle seems really tight.
Well, my team is currently 4th with the 5th best PpRD ratio, but I don't believe my team can sustain it as I think there are races like Torshavn or Uppsala where I don't believe we will get much points though. The best thing I can rely on the depth in stage races and KHJ in the more punchy events
Thanks for the update! Jorgenson up 101 points on everybody is great, however, he is already raced four out of his eight races this season. His overly aggressive attack on stage 2 in Eritrea will likely cost him his chance to get 800+ points. But I think we should firmly be in the Top 5 of the team standings for the rest of the season now. Winning the division will likely come down to the point haul we can get at the Tour of America.
