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
Indeed, we were pretty lucky so far (in addition to maybe be a bit underestimated as last year). But if luck evens out over the year, even "quite the buffer" can quickly vanish
Race Review | Ronde van Vlaanderen | M
Second monument of the year! And one we were really looking forward to, knowing that Edward Theuns won this race three years ago, and also took 3rd place last year. Even though he lost some of his skills due to age, we were still positive that he should be a Top 5 contender, or at least getting a Top 10. Which would also be very much needed, given that our first monument of the year was really bad - which isn't the best thing to do in the races with the biggest points at stake...
The first goal of the race was to get into the breakaway once again, in order to not have to work in the pack. And it did work - and once again, it was our "Swiss Army Knife" who made the jump:
Stefan Küng spending another day up front.
The break was caught surprisingly early, and the pace was really high for the final 50 kilometers. And unfortunately, it looked like our captain didn't have the best legs:
Edward Theuns always pretty far back in the group.
Whether he didn't have the legs or was just inattentive doesn't matter in the end - the fact is that Eddie indeed missed out on a decisive split, as he just was in the wrong place.
Well, it probably were the legs that just weren't there, given that he couldn't even beat the riders he finished with in the sprint, being the fastest of them on paper.
Edward Theuns finishing 13th, behind Teunissen and Polanc.
It goes without saying that this was a massive disappointment. There aren't many races that are better suited to Eddie's skills - and he clearly showed in Hungary, Franceville and E3 that he is still very much competitive at the top level.
But once again, our leader failed quite hard in a monument. It was only the second race of the year where we missed out on our points target - and the second time this happened in a monument. We'll probably need some hard mental work next week in order to be perfectly prepared for the next monument - Paris - Roubaix.
Let's still not forget about Tomas Paprstka, who sadly couldn't help Eddie long enough - but he got another strong result for himself, finishing 28th. Sadly, it wasn't quite enough to reach our points goal - but at least we didn't miss out by a whole lot. Let's hope we'll do even better next week!
Outcome
Expectation
Outcome
Result
Top 15
13th
Points
100
92
March Summary
Despite the mediocre finish, we had a very good month! It'd have been a great one with a strong RvV performance, but we still won't complain at all overall!
We were the 2nd highest scoring team in March, and we moved up from 9th to 4th in the standings! By winning RvV, we'd have won the month and taken the overall lead, but that wasn't very realistic - we'll keep these two goals for later.
The gap to 1st place isn't the most interesting thing, either - we're rather focusing on our points expectation, and on the gap to the relegation zone. And there's pretty good news, as we've scored more than 1,000 points more than expected, and would currently finish around 5,400 points when performing up to expectations in all remaining races - which would almost certainly be enough to stay up! Also, the gap to the danger zone is more than 1,000 points before the GT season starts - a gap that can obviously quickly vanish, but it's still "quite the buffer" for now! We're not safe yet by any means, but we can definitely say now that staying up looks to be a realistic goal rather than just a dream!
In the individual standings, we currently have both Groves and Theuns in the Top 20, the former having already exceeded his season target after his great show in the Netherlands (and the stage win in Praha). Schmid has dropped a bit due to not ending up being our leader in any of the races he did this month, and hence not scoring big - we expect that to change in the Ardennes Triple starting at the end of April. Otherwise, plenty of riders have already scored 100+ points, and a good number of them also are in the Top 100 (or close behind) - we'll post a scoring update during the Giro, when we'll have some time to do so. Stay tuned!
After the month of March going down as our highest scoring month in team history to date, the pressure on the riders to deliver in every single race has been lifted a little bit.
Nonetheless, April will be yet another important month - and our 2nd most busy of the year - with the first GT and five classics. Thereof two cobbled ones, including the 3rd monument of the year. And the start of the Ardennes triple, which we're looking forward to - let's dive into some more details right away:
Apr 01 | Paris - Roubaix | 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
Filippo Colombo
72
64
68
67
73
72
64
72
71
72
71
71
67
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
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
Clement Berthet
65
75
74
60
70
74
66
60
62
73
72
75
60
Tactics
The first race of the month is yet another big one, and it's THE classic of the year. The most famous monument, the one race every cobbler wants to win once in his career.
Well, Eddie Theuns won't win it, that's pretty much a given. It's probably the least suited cobbled classic on the entire calendar for him, with almost pan-flat roads and long cobbled sections. Other riders are simply stronger - but he's shown in Franceville that he's got the grit it takes to still get a good result out of such a race.
A Top 15 will do as the minimum target, but in particular with a very mediocre RvV a Top 10 has to be the goal nonetheless. Paprstka, Küng and Colombo are his support cast once again; the former to protect him, the latter to join the break ensuring we don't need to work all day long. We're looking forward to our first participation here, well knowing it will be a race of attrition once again!
Track Record
--- none ---
Expectations
Result: Top 15
Points: 100
Apr 03 - 23 | Giro d'Italia | GT
Profile
Spoiler
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Colin Stüssi
71
79
73
75
77
73
78
55
63
66
65
69
69
Xuban Errazkin
71
74
78
70
76
75
76
64
63
73
69
67
70
Szymon Rekita
72
58
63
79
70
73
73
62
69
70
63
73
78
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
AOP Setiawa
68
70
75
74
76
72
71
57
62
70
76
66
74
Gergely Szarka
77
62
67
61
72
73
76
60
78
78
64
66
72
Tactics
After the 3rd monument comes the first GT of the year, the Giro d'Italia. The only one we've already - quite successfully - participated in. But with changing routes every year, past success doesn't mean a lot - and given the profile, we didn't even nominate our most successful rider last year, Cees Bol.
Our focus here is to be more or less competitive in every stage. And the GC. Colin Stüssi is responsible for the latter - having taken a Top 10 here in 2023, he has already proven that he can successfully ride GTs. A Top 10-15 will be the goal again, even though a lot can happen in this region with breakaways, as we've seen last year.
We also bring Errazkin for the many hilly stages, hoping for him to deliver some nice stage results. And he should also be a good KoM hunter in some medium mountain stages; we're really hoping for him to put aside his usual anonymous riding and try something for once.
Then there's a pretty decent TTT lineup, mainly for stage 3, but also competing in the ITT coming very late in the race. Rekita, Brunel, Küng and Vernon will hopefully pull Stüssi to a strong result in the TTT, giving him and advantage over some stronger climbers. Szarka and Errazkin should be dropped early, at least that's the plan for getting the best possible result on that day.
When speaking of him, Szarka will get his first chance to be our lead sprinter. Whereas he doesn't have the physical strength of Groves or Bol, he should still do a decent job, in particular given that he shouldn't get dropped at the least road bump.
So, who's missing? Well, Odie of course - he should be a rider for the breaks in week 1, where the stronger climbers and puncheurs won't try their luck yet. Otherwise, he's a good support rider for Stüssi in the hills.
We have pretty moderate expectations for this race, with the 300 points expectation being the lowest of any GT. We expect 1,050 points from all three GTs combined, which would've been the 3rd lowest total last year - we'll happily take more, but leaving our best sprinters and climbing supporters at home, we'll need some luck with breakaways and sprints to even get those 300 points.
Let's make it short: this is the race with the lowest expectations all year long. We don't have a great climber, and our strongest one is riding the Giro. Darbellay will lead the team, and get some support from Rohendi and Berthet. But the race is just so brutal, we can't seriously expect any great outcome here.
Having two riders in the Top 50 and everyone finishing the race would just meet our expected scoring - but even that isn't a given in this race...
Track Record
Best: 19th (Nairo Quintana, 2021)
Expectations
Result: Top 50
Points: 50
Apr 23 | Roma Maxima | 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
Filippo Colombo
72
64
68
67
73
72
64
72
71
72
71
71
67
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
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
Clement Berthet
65
75
74
60
70
74
66
60
62
73
72
75
60
Christoph Janssen
72
65
67
74
70
73
72
55
59
67
65
65
74
Tactics
Another cobbled classic, and sadly another race clashing with the Giro - otherwise, Eddie would have gotten to ride a GT. And Küng being at the Giro obviously means less support for Theuns here.
But well, the expectations still have to be more or less the same - actually even slightly higher than in PT classics. Not in terms of points, of course, with no free points available, but we're hoping for a Top 10 here. Eddie took 7th place last year, while looking to be on a rather bad day.
He has declined since, sure, but the bumpy profile - including a rather long slightly uphill finale - should suit him. Moreover, all of the long cobbled sections are downhill, so he shouldn't waste too much energy on those.
As we said, a Top 10 would be nice, plus maybe some depth points by Paprstka once again. But we couldn't be overly disappointed to miss out on our scoring goal, in particular given that Küng can't be here on a course that would also have suited him.
Track Record
Best: 7th (Edward Theuns, 2023)
Expectations
Result: Top 10
Points: 50
Apr 28 | Veenendaal - Veenendaal | PTHC
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
Gergely Szarka
77
62
67
61
72
73
76
60
78
78
64
66
72
Gabriel Chavanne
75
58
64
65
71
76
74
57
76
76
53
67
82
Hugo Page
69
65
67
61
71
69
65
63
73
76
68
69
66
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
Felix Stehli
67
68
71
62
70
70
69
62
69
71
69
69
66
Christoph Janssen
72
65
67
74
70
73
72
55
59
67
65
65
74
Tactics
It's the first out of just 3 sprint classics we'll compete in this year - and looking at recent outcomes, not necessarily one we should have too big hopes for. Roulers love this race, and sprinter teams struggle to handle them.
We'll try to help keeping things together this year, preparing the terrain for Kaden Groves. But we also bring Gergely Szarka, who would be a pretty good fit for a late attack with his great speed on the flat. Chavanne is here to take on a leadout role, but we'll see how that works out.
Kaden has often struggled with positioning this year, but he won his last sprint, so he should come to the Netherlands with quite a lot of confidence. Let's hope he can turn that into a great outcome!
Track Record
Best: 10th (Theo Reinhardt, 2021)
Expectations
Result: Top 10
Points: 80
Apr 30 | Amstel Gold Race | PT
Profile
Lineup
Rider
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Mauro Schmid
72
76
79
68
71
78
73
69
70
79
78
74
66
Xuban Errazkin
71
74
78
70
76
75
76
64
63
73
69
67
70
AOP Setiawa
68
70
75
74
76
72
71
57
62
70
76
66
74
Lorenzo Delco
73
72
73
70
75
74
75
67
64
72
68
77
71
Edward Theuns
71
66
73
64
74
71
72
79
76
74
63
66
69
Felix Stehli
67
68
71
62
70
70
69
62
69
71
69
69
66
Filippo Colombo
72
64
68
67
73
72
64
72
71
72
71
71
67
Christoph Janssen
72
65
67
74
70
73
72
55
59
67
65
65
74
Tactics
Mauro Schmid has already have quite some fun this year - but this is where the most important days of his season start. Amstel, Flèche, LBL - the Ardennes triple could make or break his season!
In Grand-Duché, he did a great job on a route with lots and lots of climbing. The Amstel parcours also has tons of climbs - but much shorter ones, where climbing skills don't matter as much. Nonetheless, Mauro's strength on longer uphills will surely help him, and his downhill skills should help him with recovery.
He'll get help from Errazkin, who's a great puncheur in his own right and could easily take over leadership if Mauro doesn't feel well. Setiawa, Delco and Theuns are mainly candidates for support or morning breakaway, and maybe some depth scoring.
We don't know yet what to expect from Mauro in this race - but so far he has clearly shown that he doesn't fear the strongest. We obviously don't expect him to compete for the win, but a Top 10 would be nice. And a Top 15 the minimum.
Track Record
--- none ---
Expectations
Result: Top 15
Points: 80
Summary
Even though we spend almost twice as many RDs as in March, we expect to score far less - unless something really awesome happens in the Giro.
We feel like we have some rather high points expectations for the classics, though, so even though the pressure is a little less after a great scoring month, the team still needs full concentration to live up to these expectations!
It's a very interesting month with races for almost every rider type, with just the TTers not having their "proper" race but being expected to perform in the Giro instead.
We had just one week to get sorted again after messing up the second monument of the year as well - and now it already was time for the 3rd one!
However, unlike in Ronde van Vlaanderen, we didn't have very high expectations for what might be the world's most famous cycling monument, Paris - Roubaix. The roads are just too flat for Edward Theuns to have an advantage thanks to his decent uphill skills - and being past his prime, he might just lack the little extra energy to keep up with the stronger cobblers to beat them in the sprint.
The start of the race once more was pretty much to our liking, with Filippo Colombo taking on the role of BotD member in France.
Filippo Colombo enjoying his ride in the front group.
The breakaway once again was caught pretty early, and the race favourites kept attacking each other relentlessly.
Unfortunately, Edward Theuns had punctured earlier in the race, and whereas he didn't have to spend a lot of energy to catch up again, it's still energy that might be missing in the end - and so the race situation mostly looked like this for him:
Edward Theuns riding at the end of the group.
And so, it wasn't surprising to see him be dropped inside the final 10km. But he didn't throw in the towel yet - when the front group reached the Vélodrome, Eddie was back there!
Edward Theuns still in the mix on the final meters!
With his good sprinter skills, there was hope he'd still get a high finish after his struggles - but these hopes unfortunately quickly vanished. Eddie was gapped again - and unfortunately we don't even have any picture of him finishing in 12th place. Which is pretty disappointing, given that he lost out again to riders like Tiller or Anderberg, which he was able to beat in quite some races already. Whether it was that puncture, age or just a bad thay - or a combination of all - that left him just behind the big guns once again, we don't know.
But what we know is that on one hand, it's our best monument result of the year (not of team history, as we nowhere got close to Eddie's 2023 3rd place in RvV) - on the other hand, it's the third race of the year where we miss our points goal, although just by a tiny margin again (like in Ronde). And for the 3rd time, it's in a monument that we failed, which is pretty disappointing to say the least.
Tomas Paprstka did what he could to help Eddie, but it wasn't enough sadly - and even though his 27th place is a good personal result for him, we didn't quite succeed as a team. Let's hope that Mauro Schmid can do better in LBL and Lombardia - or at least in one of them!
March was a great month which sees your team stand very high in the standings for the moment. April too has good scoring races on paper so I don't see any big fall in the standings coming anytime soon.
March was a great month which sees your team stand very high in the standings for the moment. April too has good scoring races on paper so I don't see any big fall in the standings coming anytime soon.
Yeah, we've been doing a close to perfect job so far I guess, no clue whether we're just far more lucky than other teams, or if our planning really is pretty good - maybe a mixture of both.
I sure hope the big fall won't happen; staying up must be the goal after how well the first three months went. If we can get the target 1,000+ points from the three GTs combined, it should look pretty good, but we need to keep pushing anyway
Race Review | Giro d'Italia - Week 1 | GT
The Giro is underway! Our first ever "real" GT with actual points at stake - and after we could send our best possible squad last year as a wildcard team, we had to be more selective this time with the race mopping up 21 race days of each participating rider. The result is a lineup that should have a decent shot at some good stage results, and a lower Top10-15 GC result.
Given our inability to write short summaries, we decided to post a review after each week of racing - and given that the first third of the race is already done, let's look at what happened from our point of view!
The first two stages were the main reason we sent Xuban Errazkin to this race (we'd have preferred sending Mauro Schmid, but yeah, RD restrictions ^^). Two uphill finishes to start the race with (and quite some more later on).
But it turned out that we underestimated the opening stage. The big climbers set a horrendous pace already, which was too high for Xuban. All we could hope for was for Colin Stüssi to keep up with the GC riders group - which he did, finishing 13th. Xuban still was among the best puncheurs, finishing 19th - but this wasn't how we were hoping for the race to start.
Stage 2 was slightly better in terms of result, but we were still not satisfied with the outcome. Xuban Errazkin made the front group this time, but wasn't able to get the Top 5 we were hoping for, finishing only in 10th place. 5th would absolutely have been possible, but he didn't have the legs.
Moreover, Colin Stüssi didn't manage to keep up - or didn't even try, being only our 4th highest finisher. Fortunately, there weren't many GC riders in the front group - but it was a first big warning that he should really care about positioning.
On the brighter side, Gergely Szarka finished in the front group, to our big surprise, sprinting to 12th. Good to see that his legs seemed to be pretty good early in the race already!
Day 3 then was one of our main targets, the TTT stage. On one hand, we obviously wanted a good stage result; on the other hand, it was one out of two chances against the clock for Colin Stüssi to gain some precious seconds against stronger (or similarly strong) climbers.
And the team delivered! The strategy was to drop the slower TT riders (i.e. Szarka and Errazkin) early on and get a good time with 6 riders - and the good time turned out to be the 2nd best of the day! We only lost 5 seconds against a really strong Oxxo team, finishing even a second ahead of Cedevita. And Colin gained 30+ seconds on most other GC riders, so that was a really good result for us! Colin Stüssi even moved up to 3rd in GC after this stage - definitely a great starting point for the more difficult stages!
The Jura GIANTS TTT unit on their way to their first TTT podium at PT level!
Day 4 had the first flat profile of the race. As in the previous road stages, none of our riders bothered joining the breakaway (hopefully we'll do so later on!), so all of our focus was on the sprint. Gergely Szarka started the sprint in 5th position - and he was not only able to keep it, but even to gain two more spots! Our former stagiaire got his first career podium right in one of the most prestigious races of the calendar - 3rd place! At some point it even looked like he could win the stage, but it wasn't to be - at least not yet. Still, with this podium he basically already got the points we expected from him at the first possible opportunity - great job!
Gergely Szarka sprinting to 3rd place on stage 4!
The only bad thing about this stage was that Colin Stüssi dropped two spots in GC - because two puncheurs finished in the sprinter group and gained more than a minute. Not bad in terms of final GC, but the Top 4 in the intermediate GC standings also get some daily points - which he lost now.
Up to him to gain these spots back, right on the next hilly day, stage 5. And he did his job, finishing in the front group again, in 22nd position. But the 4 riders ahead of him did the same, so no gains.
A good stage result was still at stake. From the profile, it looked like a possible reduced bunch sprint - but the profile didn't fully show the difficulty of the final kilometer, including a pretty steep uphill finish. So Szarka had no chance this time - instead, Xuban Errazkin finally showed up, getting his 2nd Top 10 of the race - and the first really good result with a 5th place. Some decent points after all!
Xuban Errazkin sprinting to 5th place (4th in this group, with dominant winner Yates not in the picture).
Now that he had his Top 5, the pressure was a bit off his shoulders, and the next stage was a perfect fit for him again. On paper, at least.
And indeed - there was again a Jura GIANTS jersey sprinting to 5th place! But to our really, really big surprise, it wasn't Xuban Errazkin - who also finished in the front group, but only in 19th place. And it wasn't Colin Stüssi, either, who surprisingly struggled a lot to hold on, but just did so in 23rd place (out of 25 riders up front).
No, sprinting to 5th place was... well, our sprinter - Gergely Szarka! We were really surprised to see him hold onto this pretty select group, given that he's the weakest hills rider among our sprinters - but he did not only hold on (being the only "pure" sprinter to do so), he even got a truly surprising 5th place! Well done, Gergely, really well done!
Gergely Szarka getting another Top 5!
By the way, Colin Stüssi gained back one position in the GC, now getting again some "bonus points" from the GC standings.
Following this hilly stage were three consecutive flat ones, the first thereof concluding week 1 of racing.
And given our continuing lack of interest in breakaways, all eyes were on our sprinter once again. But if he can even keep up in the hills, he surely has enough energy to compete in a pan-flat bunch sprint?
Yes, he did! Gergely Szarka got even closer to the stage win than three days before - and looking at the images from the finish line one might even argue that he won - but he narrowly had to settle for 2nd. Still, another fantastic result for a rider we weren't sure at all whether to keep or not - with two podiums and a total of three Top 5 results in the first week, we definitely did the right thing in not only keeping him, but making him our sprinter for the Giro!
Gergely Szarka missing out on his first career win by inches only!
Summary
We already have three stage podiums, and Colin Stüssi is 4th in the GC. So far, it has been a really good race for us, even though we're still waiting for a stage win (as most other teams). There are a couple of flat stages left, which should be our best chances to get there - but even if we don't win a stage, we have already pretty much got the points we expected from stage results.
Now up to Colin to perform in terms of GC result - and we really, really want him to be more attentive in these hilly stages, as he's always one of the last GC riders to make the groups. In particular stages 10-14 look a bit worrying, whereas we're not as afraid of the long climbs in the final week. Despite the great results we already got, there's no reason to ease off!
A great start to your Giro I'm curious Stüssi will perform in the upcoming 2 weeks. Could be another boost in your survival battle!
Yeah, it's been an amazing first week for sure!
I definitely hope that Colin can repeat his good performances from last year, where he often kept up with stronger climbers (or didn't lose tons of time) and didn't really struggle in the hills, either. But it's definitely a special Giro route we have this year, so it's not a given yet...
Ranking & Stats Update | March
After the first three months - and almost one third of our season - are done, it's time to take a closer look at individual rider performances.
But first, let's just recall where we currently find ourselves in the standings. It's far higher up than we ever expected - not quite as high up as last year in PCT, but we're sitting in 4th place!
Pos
Last
Team
Total
RD
PpRD
Proj
1
11
Grieg-Maersk
2768
58
47.72
8590
2
2
Fastned
2758
57
48.39
8710
3
1
Xero Racing
2699
60
44.98
8096
4
9
Jura GIANTS
2640
58
45.52
8194
5
4
King Power
2373
50
47.46
8543
-
-
-
--------------
----
--
-----
----
18
14
Polar
1559
48
32.48
5846
You can see that in March alone we gained 5 spots, after finishing 2nd best team. And much more important than the 128 points gap to the top are the 1,081 points down to the relegation zone!
We're far away from being safe - our main goal this year - in particular given that lots of teams currently are behind us are expected to have at least one great GT. But this big margin still gives us a lot of confidence that we can actually stay up. In any case, we'll fight to get there!
The main reason why we're so high up - and not in the relegation zone - is that we're 1,085 points above our expected scoring so far; pretty much exactly the same number as the gap to the red zone. If we get our expected points in all our remaining races - which is easier said than done - we expect to finish around 5,400 points, which should indeed be good enough. But with two thirds of the season yet to go, predictions can hardly be accurate...
Points don't just come from nowhere, they're scored by riders - and our current score suggests that some riders did far better than expected. Let's take a look at the current individual standings, before diving into a more in-depth analysis:
11
Kaden Groves
AUS
Jura GIANTS
534
19
Edward Theuns
BEL
Jura GIANTS
421
38
Mauro Schmid
SWI
Jura GIANTS
279
74
Stefan Kung
SWI
Jura GIANTS
143
78
Stefan Bissegger
SWI
Jura GIANTS
137
90
Gabriel Chavanne
SWI
Jura GIANTS
117
97
Xuban Errazkin
ESP
Jura GIANTS
111
108
Valentin Darbellay
SWI
Jura GIANTS
102
111
Szymon Rekita
POL
Jura GIANTS
97
112
Ethan Vernon
GBR
Jura GIANTS
94
118
Colin Stüssi
SWI
Jura GIANTS
91
127
Tomas Paprstka
CZE
Jura GIANTS
87
144
Lorenzo Delco
SWI
Jura GIANTS
76
157
Alexys Brunel
FRA
Jura GIANTS
67
200
Cees Bol
NED
Jura GIANTS
53
257
Teten Rohendi
INA
Jura GIANTS
41
299
Andreas Odie Purnama Setiawa
INA
Jura GIANTS
35
314
Filippo Colombo
SWI
Jura GIANTS
32
347
Krzysztof Marchewka
POL
Jura GIANTS
28
371
Hugo Page
FRA
Jura GIANTS
25
372
Felix Stehli
SWI
Jura GIANTS
25
373
Clement Berthet
FRA
Jura GIANTS
25
453
Christoph Janssen
SWI
Jura GIANTS
10
454
Gergely Szarka
HUN
Jura GIANTS
10
As you probably expected after his Ronde van Nederland win, Kaden Groves is our #1 scorer for the time being. As our highest wage rider, with his wage being a sign of the hopes we put into him during transfers, this isn't overly surprising. But it's good to see that our gamble seems to work - at least it did in that one race, whereas Kaden struggled in most others.
Edward Theuns has also been going very well so far. At his maximum level, he'd probably have been in touch with the Top 10 - or even inside - but a Top 20 even after his decline is a great situation. Of course, most of his season highlights are done, and he'll drop a bit for sure - but his performances so far make us regret a little less that we missed out on Wisniowski.
Mauro Schmid - our best rider on paper - is only our 3rd best scorer so far. However, he's been in quite some races where he wasn't our clear-cut leader, or races that didn't fully suit him. His scoring so far is OK, but we're hoping for him to increase the pace when we get to the "real" hilly races.
Otherwise, there are five more riders above 100 points already, and some only a little bit below. We'll see in a moment how their socring compares to expectations - it's clearly not the same successful season for everyone. But for most.
Now, let's look at each of the departments to see how they're going:[/i]
Climbers & Stage Racers
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Colin Stüssi
350
91
9.10
537
153%
Valentin Darbellay
320
102
4.64
297
93%
Total
670
193
---
834
124%
Overall, the climbers seem to be fine. But that isn't the full truth. The duo will share the GTs between them - and their PpRD will most likely drop while riding these 21 day long races, as they're rather unlikely to finish very high up in the GC.
What hurts in particular are Darbellay's pretty bad performances so far. Portugal was just awful by him - holding on on the hilly stages, just to get dropped far too early on the long final climb. He has already spent 22 RDs, mostly without notable results - it will be hard for him to reach the points target.
Stüssi, on the other hand, only had two races, being part of the TTT squad in Copenhague, and Paris - Nice where he did pretty well to get a GC Top 10 (although more would have been on the table). If he gets Top 15s in his GTs, plus another Top 10 in Tour de Suisse, he should just reach his target, but that's easier said than done...
So although the department is looking good on paper, they'll have to push pretty hard to really get there.
Puncheurs
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Mauro Schmid
570
279
13.95
586
103%
Xuban Errazkin
220
111
4.83
285
129%
Total
790
390
---
871
110%
It might sound paradoxal, but we're actually more confident that the Puncheurs will reach the department target than the Climbers. Which is due to the nature of their races.
Schmid actually only had one race so far that really suited him, which was the Grand-Duché classic. Where he finished 5th. Otherwise, he wasn't among the favourites, or wasn't our clear-cut team leader (like in Nederland, where he'd probably have taken a far better result without Groves being there).
But now it's the Ardennes triple upcoming, where we expect some good results. He'll have more hilly classics later in the year, and less "subpar" races, so even though is PpRD isn't shabby, we actually rather expect it to go up.
Things are a bit different for Errazkin, who will spend most of his remaining race days in the Giro - whether he can get some great results on all these nice hilly stages or not will be decisive for his final scoring. Otherwise, he'll mainly be a domestique for Mauro, with limited scoring possibilities.
But with Mauro's potential scoring, we think there's a good chance to actually achieve the 790 points target.
Time Trialists
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Szymon Rekita
150
97
3.34
261
174%
Stefan Bissegger
110
137
4.89
328
298%
Alexys Brunel
130
67
2.58
175
135%
Stefan Küng
170
143
4.93
335
197%
Ethan Vernon
100
94
4.70
371
371%
Krzysztof Marchewka
40
28
2.15
43
108%
Gabriel Chavanne
100
117
4.50
270
270%
Total
800
683
---
1,784
223%
Here we clearly get to one of the main reasons of our great scoring so far! Two riders of the department have already reached their season target, and all of them are expected to eventually do so.
Most surprisingly, Bissegger has done really well so far - whereas he often was a big question mark last year due to many underperformances. Already in his first race, Tasmania, he exceeded expectations, doing better in the hills than expected. In Praha, he seized the opportunity offered by a good window in terms of weather conditions, to get a great outcome - he scored 100 points in these two races combined.
Gabby Chavanne had one bad race so far, which was in Praha, but did well otherwise. In particular in Qatar, where he also got a strong GC result. He definitely won't keep up his PpRD, as he only has two prologues left this year (and therefore at maximum power) - and it would be awesome to see him win in either Tour de Suisse or Tour de France. But he did what we expected him to do, so everything else is a bonus.
Küng is fully on track to reach his goal, although the Giro will surely hurt his PpRD (unless he gets some breakaway win or so), which is a similar story for Rekita, Brunel and Vernon. The latter would however already reach his target by just finishing the Giro, whereas Brunel is the one particularly struggling this year after a great 2023. But there's still time to get some points in!
Whereas the department will surely not reach the projected points - due to GT participations mainly - they'll hit the target without any doubt, and their "bonus" contribution will be crucial to finish as high up as possible in the standings.
Cobblers
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Edward Theuns
550
421
14.03
814
148%
Total
550
421
---
814
148%
After the huge TT department, the one-man-department. But the good news is, the "old man" still has it! Even after his decline, Eddie can score some surprisingly good results, like 3rd in Macskako or 5th in E3. There were also some rather disappointing results - most notably in his favourite race, Ronde van Vlaanderen. But points-wise, we're definitely happy with his output.
There aren't too many cobbled races left, but with Paris - Roubaix, Roma Maxima, East Midlands, ToNE and Rheden it should be enough to get the expected points. He'll also do most hilly classics, where he might get some depth points - but those would be bonus points.
It's unlikely that Eddie will get much above these 550 points, but if he gets just these, we're definitely happy.
Sprinters
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Kaden Groves
500
534
24.27
1,311
262%
Cees Bol
220
53
2.30
138
63%
Gergely Szarka
40
10
2.50
90
225%
Total
760
597
---
1,539
203%
Besides the TTers, there's one more reason why we're so high up for now: Kaden Groves. He struggled a lot at the start of the year, getting somewhat mediocre results in Qatar and Tirreno, and even having a stinker in MSR, missing out on the Top 15.
And then came the Ronde van Nederland. He won the race last year. And he won it again! The crucial stage was S2, where he got his first stage podium of the year, laying the base for GC and points wins. And once the pressure was off, he even got his first win of the year in the last stage of Praha, thereby exceeding his points expectations for the season.
He'll definitely not keep this PpRD up, in particular given that he'll do the Tour de France. But he could still beat his 2023 score, which must be the goal right now.
And these bonus points would come in handy, given that Cees Bol is having an absolutely disastrous season. Doing so well last year in Paris - Nice and especially in the Giro (but also e.g. Juarez), he's still riding after his first sprint podium of the year. And he doesn't have too many more chances to score well - most importantly, the Vuelta, where our main scoring hopes are on his shoulders.
The situation is much easier for Szarka. He's our 3rd sprinter, and he just stayed because we really wanted to send a sprinter to every race where it makes sense. But we also want to see how good he can be as a leader, so we took the decision to send him to the Giro - as our lead sprinter. Our expectations aren't overly high there, a couple of Top 5 spots would secure his season goal. And maybe his future on the team, in particular if Bol continues his awful riding.
Whereas the Nederland win obviously required some luck, Groves has finally done his job and should carry his department to the expected points. Bol will hopefully wake up at the Vuelta, and Szarka's potential points are basically a bonus. As with the TT department, the sprinters will decide how high we can end up.
Domestiques
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Teten Rohendi
125
41
3.15
214
172%
Tomas Paprstka
110
87
6.21
218
198%
Clement Berthet
80
25
2.08
138
172%
Lorenzo Delco
90
76
3.04
237
263%
Andreas Odie Purnama Setiawa
80
35
1.94
146
182%
Total
485
264
---
952
196%
The main task for our domestiques is helping their leaders - and finishing the race. Most of their expected points should be ensured by this - and then we're hoping for some exploits here or there.
Just like Paprstka did. We mostly send him to cobbled races - but looking at how consistently he performs there, maybe we should've given him more races.
Delcò has been doing really well, too, and currently even has the highest projected score among the domestiques. There's no terrain he absolutely can't handle, making him a highly valuable rider as well.
Berthet, Rohendi and Odie will hopefully show their skills in the GTs, where we expect them to join lots of breakaways. All of them can handle climbs relatively well, in particular in the earlier stages where the top climbers won't be allowed in breakaways yet. We're not expecting stage wins, but some good stage results here or there.
Overall, we're pretty confident that our domestiques will reach their target - on top of doing a great job for their leaders, as they've been doing until now!
Talents
Rider
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Filippo Colombo
90
32
2.13
141
156%
Hugo Page
65
25
1.56
94
144%
Felix Stehli
80
25
1.56
111
139%
Christoph Janssen
35
10
1.00
29
83%
Total
270
92
---
374
139%
Our expectations for the talents are even lower than for the Domestiques. Well, if we were strict, Vernon and Berthet would be in this category, too, but they're good enough to have some slightly higher expectations.
The talents really should just finish their races, and they should be fine points-wise. This might not be the case for Janssen, as he wasn't in the Top 5 of the team in the Copenhagen - Malmö TTT - otherwise he'd very likely exceed the expected points.
Until now, Colombo is the only one who has scored 2 points based on performance and not on finishing the race, and we're hoping for the others to join him - although the talents should mainly get experience and not necessarily points this year.
Whether they reach the department target or not isn't that important, but we still needed a number to come up with a prediction for the team.
Summary
Dept.
Exp.
Act.
PpRD
Proj.
Proj. %
Climbers
670
193
---
834
124%
Puncheurs
790
390
---
871
110%
TTers
800
683
---
1,784
223%
Cobblers
550
421
---
814
148%
Sprinters
760
597
---
1,539
203%
Domestiques
485
264
---
952
196%
Talents
270
92
---
374
139%
Total
4,325
2,640
45.52
7,168
166%
Everything green! Given that we were seen as pretty massive underdogs at the start of the year, it's crucial for us that everyone performs up to expectations - and even slightly above!
Which is exactly what they're mostly doing, given that only three riders are currently orange/red, i.e. are projected to miss out on their personal target. Whereas several riders are projected to finish twice as high as expected.
The projected outcome is very likely too high - and the projection based on team RD usage and PpRD is even about 1,000 points higher. We're happy to finish in the 5,500 points range, which would mean being safe, and maybe even getting in the Top 10-15 range. Above 7,000 points would get us in the Top 5 zone, which is really unrealistic - and this number will go down a lot after the GT season anyway.
But we're definitely on track for earning ourselves another year in PT - and who knows, maybe we could even get two Swiss teams up there in 2025?
Ronde van Nederland | 
Strada Appia Antica | 
Franceville Classique | 
Macskako Kerekparverseny | 
Tour of Ukraine | 
GP Liechtenstein | 
Nairo Quintana, 2021)
Theo Reinhardt, 2021)
