With 11 races on the calendar, it's clear that we need a split update again - the question was how to do it. At some point I thought about "Europe" and "Rest of the World" - but given that the 2nd category would include 5/6 stage races, I decided to go the "Classics" and "Stage Races" way. Here we go!
Well, almost. Let me just inform you that the Volta a Colombia was postponed, so we actually end up with 5 classics and stage races each. But now, it's definitely time to dive into the details:
Partial Monthly Ranking: Classics
5 races are in this partial update - 2 each in C1 and C2, plus one in HC. 3 cobbled ones and two clashing hilly races.
Let's start with some more cobbles - in Norway this time, the C1 Lillestrom GP. Another race looking for a different winner than last year, with Theuns gone to PT.
Kasperkiewicz went the other way - from PT to PCT - and after a win and some mediocre results, he was back to winning mode in Norway! Seemingly not having the best position again, he surged to the front with 200m to go and was able to pull through for line honours and 80 points! Kumara added a 23rd place to make it 82 points for Specialized.
Gamper is still waiting for his first win of the year, but with 2nd place definitely got a satisfying result. 56 points for him and Lierse. 46 points for 3rd place went to Debesay and JEWA.
After the cobbles, the hills. But not the Italian ones, as you'd think according to the calendar, no, it's the Slovenian ones. The C2 GP Izola had one PCT team participating - and Kraftwerk indeed managed to score 5 points, 3 by Cherkasov for his 17th place, 2 for Hofstede's 19th place.
More C2 racing, as the Strade Bianche still weren't white enough - instead, we got more cobbles. This time in Belgium, for the Greaardsbergen - Bosberg classic. Is it really a cobbled race, or rather a hilly race with some cobbles?
Looking at the result, definitely the latter. And it was a big race for some of the 6 PCT teams present - in particular for Lotto, with Marzuki rather surprisingly winning the race and 50 points! A great home race for Lotto, that's for sure!
The Minions definitely were happy as well, with De Witte taking 2nd place and 35 points. And in 5th place, we already get the next PCT rider, with Kaislavuo netting Tafjord 23 points. A hnorable mention goes to Miltiadis, the 4th PCT rider in the Top 7!
But then, the Tuscan roads were ready to welcome the PCT peloton for the long awaited HC classic Strade Bianche. Hills and white gravel roads are the main characteristics of the race - it's one for the strongmen, the puncheurs.
You might remember Badaling, where Stannard went all-in pretty early - only to lose everything and not even get a Top 20. Well, he did much better here, even though he also attacked early. First together with Turgis, and then, with 7km to go, he went solo. And he went all the way to the line, claiming a great win and 140 points in Siena! 140 points also is Everesting's total score.
98 points are awarded for 2nd place in HC races - and they went to Benoot, another big favourite, mastering the sprint of the chasing group. Just like Everesting, Sony didn't get any depth points, so that's 98 for them.
The depth thing isn't Manada's strength, either, but with McCarthy finishing 3rd, it's still a nice haul of 82 points for the Costa Ricans.
The last classic of the month was yet another cobbled one, the C1 Jour de Dunkerque. Yes, I know, I haven't included the "1" in the race name, but that's kind of redundant with "Jour" being singular anyway (and meaning "day", for the non-French-speakers). Regardless of the name, it's always a pretty particular race, with the final stretch being uphill - and cobbled.
This mixture is a perfect fit for Debesay's skills. The Eritrean attacked over the top of a hill, then got caught - but still had enough left in the tank to sprint to victory! A great win and 80 points for him and JEWA!
Unlike in Norway where he won, Kasperkiewicz had to settle for 2nd place in France. 56 points for him, plus 3 in total by Van Keirsbulck and Riesebeek - 59 points for Specialized. Followed by UBS, who took 3rd place with Jacobs, with Schäppi adding some points for 22nd place as well. 48 points for the Swiss. Who in turn are followed by Ekoi, Bralirwa and Lierse with 44, 44 and 41 points as other "notable" scorers.
Now, let's look at the total numbers of this classics block. At the top, we have Specialized - not very surprisingly after a win in Lillestrom and 2nd in Dunkerque. Strade Bianche went rather well, too, resulting in a winning total of 184 points.
UBS are next with good results in Stade and Dunkerque, and a total of 161 points. Then a close fight for 3rd, with Eversting's Strade win as their only source of points bettering JEWA by 140 vs. 137.
Sony complete the Top 5, with Ekoi and Lierse above 100 points as well. Then 5 teams around 80 points as the upper midfield, including Tafjord, Bralirwa, Manada, ISA and Tryg.
At the lower end, Benetton have a grand total of zero points after failing to score in their only classic, Strade. McCormick, Sauber and Zalgiris can't be happy to get less than 20 points, either.
Here are the full details:
Team
Lil
Bia
Izo
Dun
G-B
Total
1
Specialized
82
43
0
59
0
184
2
Team UBS
36
70
0
48
7
161
3
Everesting
0
140
0
0
0
140
4
JEWA TIROL
46
11
0
80
0
137
5
Sony - Force India
0
98
0
19
0
117
6
Ekoi - Le Creuset
41
22
0
44
0
107
7
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
56
5
0
41
0
102
8
Tafjord Kraft
8
53
0
4
23
88
9
Bralirwa - Cegeka
33
5
0
44
0
82
10
Manada Coyote
0
82
0
0
0
82
11
ISA - Hexacta
43
18
0
19
0
80
12
Tryg - Eni
16
61
0
0
0
77
14
Lotto-Caloi
0
16
0
0
50
66
13
Minions
0
31
0
0
35
66
15
ELCO - ABEA
38
0
0
0
17
55
16
Indosat Ooredoo
0
45
0
0
0
45
17
Llapi-Vita
0
36
0
0
0
36
18
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
24
0
0
0
0
24
19
Podium Ambition
0
23
0
0
0
23
20
Kraftwerk Man Machine
0
15
5
0
0
20
21
DK Zalgiris
0
16
0
0
0
16
22
Sauber Petronas Racing
0
12
0
0
0
12
23
McCormick Pro Cycling
0
10
0
0
0
10
24
Benetton Bimex Cycling
0
0
0
0
0
0
Partial Monthly Ranking: Stage Races
The first race in this category - at least the first one to conclude - was the C2 event in the Middle East. 3 PCT teams decided to send a squad, and none of them came back empty-handed. Not with their bags filled with points either, though.
Sony were the best scorers, mainly thanks to Shirota's 13th place on GC, worth 9 points. Then they had Hayter ending up 10 minutes behind Jorgenson in the U25 standings - which was still good enough for 2nd. Franco lost twice as much time, still enough for 6th in U25 - 15 points in total for the Indians.
Which is one point more than Benetton managed to score. They also had a scorer with 9 points, Olei, who sprinted to a rather surprising 2nd place on stage 2. De Marigny-Lagesse, one of the rare girls in the peloton, joined the break on day 1, winning enough bonus seconds to be 2nd in GC after the stage, and to wear the white jersey for two days. 5 points for her, with Benetton's total score amounting to 14 points.
The final team was Kraftwerk, who had Helme in 17th place overall, worth 5 points - which was the team's total score.
The rest of the month saw quite a shake-up in terms of calendar - so the next event already was the C1 Tour of Eritrea, scheduled to be final race to conclude in March. One flat stage, a hilly one, and a loooong mountain-top finish to decide it all awaited the division's top climbers in Africa.
And the winner wasn't a surprising one, not even at all. It was the same as in 2023: Sam Oomen. But he did even better this year, winning two stages, the GC, the KoM and the points jersey. That's one stage and one jersey more than last year - and 198 points in total. With this great individual score, it didn't matter a lot that his teammates didn't contribute much; Mareczko was 6th on day 1, and Van Gils took 4th in the U25 standings, both adding 2 points each - 202 in total for Lierse.
Godoy was almost as strong as Oomen on the final climb, but only just almost. He finished 2nd on day 3, in the GC and in points, for a total of 110 points. UBS also had Schelling (18th) and Badilatti (24th) in the GC Top 30, and their depth was enough for a pretty clear team standings win. All in all, that's 135 points for the Swiss.
3rd place then went to Tryg, thanks to some nice depth. THJ "only" finished 5th in the GC - still beating some supposedly stronger climbers - which was easily enough for a dominant U25 win, but Schlegel with a stage podium on day 2 and 12th in GC added some important points on top of THJ's 66. The remaining points mainly came from their 3rd place in the team standings, plus Hellemose finishing 7th in U25. It's a total of 96 points for the Danes.
We continue with the shake-up, as the first PTHC stage race to be held wasn't the expected Vuelta a Colombia, but the schedule's only 2-day stage race, the cobbled Franceville Classique in Gabon. A day for the sprinters who can cobble (or cobblers who can sprint), and one tough day out on the cobbles awaited the riders.
Without much surprise, most of the PCT riders struggled against the PT opposition. But two cobblers still did a great job. Stallaert was the strongest of them on day 2, taking a great 6th place on the stage - but GC-wise lost a spot due to bonus seconds and ended up 7th, for 96 points. But Bralirwa also had Teggart in 25th and talent Habimana in 50th place - the latter being 3rd in the U25 standings. These three riders scored 124 points for the Rwandans, a nice success on their home continent.
Kasperkiewicz once again was the best PCT cobbler - at least considering the GC. He attacked early, and picked up some bonus seconds in an intermediate sprint, then dropped quite far down, only to recover again and finishing in the same group as Stallaert. He passed the latter thanks to said bonus seconds, ending up 6th in GC. Kumara and Van Keirsbulck also took a Top 50, and with two more in the Top 100 that's 121 points for Specialized.
Some of the other big PCT cobblers disappointed, with Gamper's 11th place probably just at the lower end of the expected range. Just like Kasperkiewicz, he tried a long-range attack, which didn't quite work out, with him even missing out on the Top 10 in the end. His performance was still worth 53 points, and with four of his teammates reaching the Top 100, that's 61 points for Lierse.
Back to Norway then, where we had the first and the last race of the month. This time, only the 2nd HC stage race of the year, the 5-day Tour of Norway. Two flat stages, a decisive ITT, and two hilly stages - it's all there for a spiced-up race. And it definitely was a spicy race. In particular the final stage - which was the reason why we didn't get the expected race winner. And not even the expected highest scoring team.
Instead, another team that also suffered a bit from the S5 weirdness comes out on top - ELCO! Ioannidis looked like a safe bet for 2nd in GC, but was overtaken by two breakaway riders on the last day. Only 4th place for him - but Agrotis in 11th and Kiriakidis in 14th kind of made up for this point loss. On top of that, the Greeks had Koumpetsos on the S1 stage podium in 3rd place, and they won the team standings. All in all, that's 218 points for ELCO.
What a race for Dunbar. He won the S3 ITT, as expected. He easily held onto the leader jersey after S4, as expected. But then, Indosat somehow failed to keep the S5 breakaway under control. Moreover, this final stage had a total of five intermediate sprints, with lots of bonus seconds in play - which finally cost the Irishman the seemingly safe GC win. 2nd place for Dunbar, and 2nd in the points standings as well. He still was the top individual scorer with 191 points, but with only Canty adding 16 points for 20th in GC, their 207 points total just isn't enough to at least get the highest score of the race. Pretty big bummer.
Instead, it was Uwizeyimana who was the big winner of the race. Doing a decent job in the ITT, he lost some time on S4 (unexpectedly, as he finished 5th there last year), allowing him to get into that infamous S5 breakaway. He couldn't quite win the stage, but 3rd place - in addition to the bonus seconds won on the road and the huge time gap to the peloton - was enough to claim the GC win! He really loves this race - 3rd place last year, and now he got the win and 176 points! Blouwe also added some points for GC and U25, to make it 183 for Bralirwa.
Looking at the overview, we have UBS on top after two very strong C1 races. In combination with Norway and Franceville, it was easily enough to win this category with 450 points.
Bralirwa are next with 394 points, almost half of the points coming from the surprising Norway performance (but they also were the top team in Franceville). Tryg's 372 points are enough for 3rd, with Indosat and Lierse also getting more than 300 points, which was needed for the Top 5.
Ekoi, Kraftwerk, Benetton, ELCO, the Minions and Zalgiris at least made the 200 points mark, with Ekoi closer to 300 than to 200 points. Specialized, ISA, Podium Ambition, Sony and McCormick got 100+ points at least.
Lotto's 19 points look pretty disastrous at the lower end of the table. Everesting, JEWA, Manada and Tafjord also are below 50, not the greatest stage racing month for them. And yes, some of them definitely are regretting the Colombia rescheduling.
Anyway, they'll get that race later on - for now, here are the points that were indeed scored in March:
Team
ToME
Nor
Fra
ToSA
Eri
Total
1
Team UBS
0
78
53
184
135
450
2
Bralirwa - Cegeka
0
183
124
0
87
394
3
Tryg - Eni
0
133
32
111
96
372
4
Indosat Ooredoo
0
207
0
108
26
341
5
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
0
66
61
0
202
329
6
Ekoi - Le Creuset
0
38
49
138
56
281
7
Kraftwerk Man Machine
5
102
12
127
0
246
8
Benetton Bimex Cycling
14
127
0
0
79
220
9
ELCO - ABEA
0
218
0
0
0
218
10
Minions
0
37
0
170
0
207
11
DK Zalgiris
0
172
0
33
0
205
12
Specialized
0
0
121
0
57
178
13
ISA - Hexacta
0
102
0
48
0
150
14
Podium Ambition
0
92
0
47
0
139
15
Sony - Force India
15
92
32
0
0
139
16
McCormick Pro Cycling
0
64
0
68
0
132
17
Llapi-Vita
0
40
0
20
24
84
18
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
0
5
0
0
69
74
19
Sauber Petronas Racing
0
18
10
26
0
54
20
Tafjord Kraft
0
46
0
0
0
46
21
Manada Coyote
0
19
0
0
18
37
22
JEWA TIROL
0
32
0
0
0
32
23
Everesting
0
0
0
1
29
30
24
Lotto-Caloi
0
19
0
0
0
19
Period Ranking | March
2nd in classics, 1st in stage racing - the month obviously goes to Team UBS, and with quite a margin. The Swiss scored 611 points in total - but with 24 race days, they were the most active team, and their 25 PpRD average actually is "only" the 4th best value. Still, points scored are points that won't be missing at the end.
Three more teams got more than 400 points, with Bralirwa being the best of them. 476 points means a 135 points gap to UBS - but given that the Rwandans only needed 16 RDs to achieve this, their PpRD value of 30 is the 2nd highest of the month.
In 3rd place we have Tryg, scoring 449 points, with Lierse on 431 narrowly missing out on the podium. But with just 16 RDs used, the Belgians are #3 of the month in terms of PpRD (with the Danes only in 7th place in that respect).
Rounding off the Top 5 are Ekoi, narrowly getting the better of Indosat with 388 vs. 386. Specialized aren't far off with 362 points - and having spent just 11 RDs, the Canadians were the most efficient team of the month with a 33 PpRD average.
It's then a pretty big gap - almost 100 points - down to the next group of 4 teams which was again pretty close together. ELCO and Minions both got 273 points (with the Greeks having the 5th best PpRD), with Kraftwerk 7 points down and Sony another 10 behind.
From 12th to 14th, we have the final teams above 200 points, which are ISA, Zalgiris and Benetton. It's 50 points less for Everesting in 15th place - but that's actually the shared 4th lowest PpRD for them. Missing out on the Top 15 by just one point are JEWA, with Podium Ambition another 7 points down.
McCormick, Tafjord, Llapi and Manada all above 100 points, Popo, Lotto and Suaber below - the latter having the worst PpRD value by far, 3 points less than the 2nd best team (which is almost 50% below).
Too much text for you? Then look at the numbers:
Team
Classics
Stage Races
Total
RD
PpRD
1
Team UBS
161
450
611
24
25.46
2
Bralirwa - Cegeka
82
394
476
16
29.75
3
Tryg - Eni
77
372
449
20
22.45
4
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
102
329
431
16
26.94
5
Ekoi - Le Creuset
107
281
388
22
17.64
6
Indosat Ooredoo
45
341
386
16
24.13
7
Specialized
184
178
362
11
32.91
8
ELCO - ABEA
55
218
273
11
24.82
9
Minions
66
207
273
15
18.20
10
Kraftwerk Man Machine
20
246
266
21
12.67
11
Sony - Force India
117
139
256
15
17.07
12
ISA - Hexacta
80
150
230
17
13.53
13
DK Zalgiris
16
205
221
13
17.00
14
Benetton Bimex Cycling
0
220
220
14
15.71
15
Everesting
140
30
170
18
9.44
16
JEWA TIROL
137
32
169
13
13.00
17
Podium Ambition
23
139
162
13
12.46
18
McCormick Pro Cycling
10
132
142
15
9.47
19
Tafjord Kraft
88
46
134
13
10.31
20
Llapi-Vita
36
84
120
16
7.50
21
Manada Coyote
82
37
119
10
11.90
22
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
24
74
98
12
8.17
23
Lotto-Caloi
66
19
85
9
9.44
24
Sauber Petronas Racing
12
54
66
15
4.40
Full Ranking
With everything being pretty close by the end of February - 9th place was just 159 points behind 1st - winning the month was enough for Team UBS to jump from said 9th place right to the top! The Swiss stand at 1,167 points currently, which is the 4th best PpRD value - they seem to be well on track to get back to PT after two years, but the season is still long of course.
Lierse are another team often seen as a promotion contender, and they are looking good so far. 1,126 is good enough for 2nd place, and their 22.5 PpRD average means 2nd place in that respect as well. Oomen has delivered, Gamper maybe a bit less, but Bonifazio has picked up his scoring - it's not going too bad!
Tryg then narrowly win the duel for 3rd place, 1,092 on 1,077 vs. Specialized. But with 7 additional RDs used, the PpRD rankings are quite different, with Specialized in 3rd and Tryg not in the Top 5 - still, both of them could well end up going to the highest division.
Going up definitely is the goal as well for ELCO - and while their 978 points - just two more than Ekoi in 6th - don't look too fancy, their PpRD of almost 30 is impressive! With 33 RDs used, they're the 2nd most inactive team so far, and have plenty of time and potentially strong races left to move up. Their depth is definitely impressive so far, even though their star sprinter has mostly disappointed!
Behind the Top 6, it's almost 100 points down to Bralirwa, followed by Sony. Both clearly aren't out of the promotion race yet, in particular given that Meintjes and Olivier have hardly raced yet. ISA, Indosat and Manada all are above 700 points - and PpRD-wise, it currently looks like 11th place is the final one realistically involved in the promotion race - for now. Just remember Xero's insane run in the second half of the year last season...
Minions are next with 627 points, somewhat in no man's land. Zalgiris, Kraftwerk, Llapi, Jewa and Lotto follow next, all within 45 points from each other. Kraftwerk and Llapi have a slightly worrying PpRD, though, just above 10 - close to the relegation zone teams.
Benetton are even closer to the danger zone, but they haven't been racing a lot and on average have done rather well - but still, their gap to 20th place is just 63 points. Sauber are even worse off, just 51 points above the line, in the last safe spot. And in terms of PpRD, they're one spot further down, so they'll need to step up!
Which obviously is even more the case for the teams in 20th to 24th position. Starting with Everesting, totalling only 419 points, with the 2nd worst PpRD average. McCormick aren't looking much better, and with 373 points are almost 100 points behind safety already.
Podium ambition were one of the teams expected to go down, but they're doing a decent job and aren't far off PpRD-wise. Points-wise, 337 obviously isn't much yet - but one big performance, and everything can change.
Which must be the hope of Tafjord and Popo4Ever, of course, having both scored less than 300 points so far. Tafjord are the team with the least used-up RDs, so they might have some hope still - whereas the Ukrainians definitely have to find another level of scoring.
To round off the month - at least team-wise - here are the current standings:
It's been another big month for the cobblers - but it wasn't enough for them to dethrone Bryan Coquard. The Frenchman hasn't raced at all and still totals 454 points - which is still enough for the lead, though.
However, Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz has closed in a lot. After scoring another 235 points this month, he now stands at 424 points, just 30 points short of the lead. Not too many cobbles left - can he still win it all?
It's a close call for 3rd, with 3 riders being just 4 points apart. Eddie Dunbar ends up taking the final podium spot. With 358 points and a 66 points gap to Kasperkiewicz, not even winning in Norway would've been enough to move further up, though.
Niccolo Bonifazio - not scoring this month - and Maxime Daniel - scoring far less than last month - are in 4th and 5th place, with 356 and 354 points respectively.
Frederik Rodenberg, surprisingly the division's 3rd best sprinter so far, is just 13 points behind the Top 5 - and has Caleb Ewan luring another 3 points down in 7th place. The Aussie lost 4 spots, but that's not surprising when you don't race.
With Mekseb Debesay, Johan Jacobs and Joeri Stallaert, we have three more cobblers rounding off the Top 10 - there indeed are 5 of them in there right now. With Gamper in 11th, we have the next one luring just outside - but he's the only one in the remaining Top 20 (rather counting Benoot as a puncheur).
Lots of interesting races coming up - with the Tour of Pologne probably being PCT's highlight, and Lithuania being a decent chance for good points for some select teams with a great TTT outfit. The revamped USA PCC will also be interesting to follow, and then we get plenty of classis - stay tuned!
But that's the future, the present looks like this:
Nice to see Kaspa swinging for first place in the division ensuring our PpRD stays great, even though it will take a hit once his RDs are depleted.
We took a dip in the standings, which is understandable as other teams start spending their RDs more aggressively. The battle for the promotion spots is starting to heat up and I am still waiting for Sony to fully show their face they could scramble that entire ordeal once they start popping off!
A good stretch for us no doubt, and without any appearance from Buchmann. Mostly due to over performing in the TTT/GC of South Africa. Also it seems clear that ditching Spengler to focus on Jacobs was the right move as Jacobs is on track to eclipse Spengler's point total from last season at this rate. Godoy is performing as we've needed as well. Thanks for the update Fab!
Thanks for the great update. Congrats to UBS on a strong month.
Not a single race day for Haller, Sosa and Yates this month (without Colombia) and the first two have only raced 2 days all season, combined, so that is the story I tell myself when I need a little hope.
Poland will be Sosa's debut with the team so we need a him to hit the ground running.
Still going well despite not having a great month. Olivier hasn't started yet with Colombia not raced, and Benoot still has 30+ RDs left, so we're hoping most of the races for those two translate to good points. Love the fact that all of the second tier leaders in the team have stepped up and are contributing to the scoring.
Brillant write-up! As always I guess, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive! Absolutely amazing! :-)
Not a good month for us. Obviously Norway was fine, despite the S5 shenanigans, which cost a lot of points for 3 of my riders. Koumpetsos and team GC does make up for that though.
The other races was somewhat underwhelming and We need to start picking up more consistently if We are to promote. Our PpRD look great, but We have a lot of races not suited for us among the races to come.
Obviously a bad month for us. A combination of few RD's and low scoring the races we participated in, especially Strade Bianche was a bummer. Luckily we had Marzuki's victory in Geraardsbergen.
PPRD wise it still looks good. Although we'll definitely need more scoring from our hill department (Vakoc, Calmejane) to have a shot at surviving. Hopefully with the GP Wallonie on home soil we can do something special in April.
MG - Lotto - Caloi
[MG] New Manager of the Year - PCM.daily Awards 2022
We've moved away from the danger zone and got us a nice cosy spot in the middle. March has been the best month by far, and hope we continue this form into the next ones.
March has been kind to us. And though our PpRD is still declining from month to month, we're still easily above the around 12 PpRD needed to stay in the division this month (and even nearly in every single race), so as long as we keep going with good results and some depth scoring everything will be fine.
We're going to need a whole lot of Strade bianches. Relegation seems pretty likely at this point. Scoring one point in 3 stages races must br some kind of a record.
Oomen stepping up big time when Bonifazio is not racing, absolutely love it. Gamper is also improving, though 6th best cobbler is not good enough with the training really. De Plus and Mareczko not having the best season either, but we're still looking good for our top 10 goal.
