Almost every single rider overperforming expectations so far - really a great sign for you. Very happy for you to see that
Seems like I once again underrated a tt depth team quite a bit. That is definitely one of my blind spots.
And yay to Chavanne already achieving his (low) expectations
Thanks After all, I'm not quite sure whether I'm just putting the bar very low, or whether they're all just so much better than they should be. The expectations are on the lower side; I guess according to PT predictions I could have upped them by 500-600 points in total. But most riders are definitely doing better than expected, except for Bol who definitely has been disappointing.
As for Gabby, not sure the expectations were extremely low. He was pretty lucky last year, and with Zmorka also in the division now the points are distributed among more similarly strong riders. But I'll happily take any points above the low bar
Thanks Indeed, more than satisfied with how the season has been going so far. Definitely hoping to roughly keep the pace up, although we've surely been on the more lucky side so far.
Week 2 of the Giro is in the books as well. And it's not only in "the" books - part of it definitely is in our team history book as well! But let's first make a short recap:
Week 1 Recap
- The hilly stages mostly weren't satisfying for us. Xuban Errazkin only got one good result out of them with a 5th place.
- Gergely Szarka was our Man of Week 1, not only getting a 5th place in a hilly stage as well, but also stage podiums on both flat stages!
- Another highlight was the TTT on stage 2, where we were able to claim 2nd place.
- GC-wise, Colin Stüssi sits in 4th place. Always at risk of getting dropped in the hills, he never was, and used our great TTT result well to get into a good spot.
Week 2
Stage 8 had yet another bunch sprint. And what would be the logical continuation of Gergely Szarka's results after getting 3rd and 2nd? He came to the same conclusion as we did - and took the stage win!
Gergely Szarka winning in San Benedetto del Tronto!
It was Gergely's first ever career win - and doing it right at a GT surely makes it even more special that it is anyway! And there was yet another bonus:
Gergely Szarka getting the Maglia Ciclamino after stage 8!
Like Cees Bol last year, we also got the honour to have the Maglia Ciclamino in our team for at least one day! It looks like the Giro is really a great race for us - and day 9 had yet another bunch sprint...
However, it was the first subpar sprint by Szarka. Well, not really the sprint - but the positioning. With 1km to go, he was barely even inside the Top 20, whereas otherwise he always was around 5th - 10th. But given that the sprint was uphill, and given that he likes that, he still stormed to another strong result:
Gergely Szarka finishing 5th on stage 9.
He was better than the other sprinters who were close to him in the points standings - unfortunately though GC leader Lutsenko discovered his sprinter genes and took over the Ciclamino. Definitely not something we saw coming, and slightly disappointing - although we knew we'd lose the shirt over the course of the 2nd week.
Because the 2nd week mostly was about hills. Stages 10, 12 and 13 were rated hilly, stages 11 and 14 had a mountain rating but still were pretty hilly ones. It's for all these hilly stages that we sent Xuban Errazkin to Italy. But he somehow didn't get the message. Neither did he try attacks, nor did he finish strong in any stage - a 15th place on stage 12.
For Colin Stüssi, this series of stages was all about damage limitation. And he did a decent job, although on stages 10 and 12 he finished pretty far down again (21st and 20th). On stage 11, the first mountainous rated stage, he ended up 13th, but lost his 4th place in the GC due to Tao Hart getting some bonus seconds.
However, on day 13 he finally stepped into action! He was very attentive throughout the final climb, and while he didn't time his sprint to perfection, he still was strong enough to claim a great 5th place on the day - in a hilly rated stage!
Colin Stüssi finishing 5th in Montalcino, right behind Latour.
He didn't get any bonus seconds, but he did gain some seconds against most of the other climbers (the Top 3 were puncheurs or extraterrestrials), moving him up to 3rd place in the GC! Instead of losing time, he even gained some, and also gained some GC spots - a great 13th stage for us!
The 14th stage was another medium mountain stage which suited the punchier riders better, and unfortunately, the GC riders couldn't control Olivier who ran away with a solo win - making Colin lose a GC spot. But as Colin Stüssi finished in the GC riders group (even though in ast place) and Lutsenko didn't, so he both gained and lost a spot and hence stayed in 3rd place going into the final week!
Summary
It was another historic week for us, starting with our first "proper" GT stage win (i.e. as a non-wildcard team), and Szarka's first ever career win.
Errazkin was once again disappointing, but at least Stüssi did his job and stayed with the best climbers - and even sits in 3rd place heading into the final week!
We're well aware that he's among the weakest climbers on paper among the current Top 15, but we hope that the cushion built with our TTT result and the potential ITT gains will be enough to get a good GC finish nonetheless!
This is almost a home race for us, with Liechtenstein being one of our neighbours - and maybe slightly more than that, having the same money and almost the same language. And participating in Swiss leagues in some sports...
But as much as we like Liechtenstein, we don't like this race. We simply don't have any of the world's top climbers on board right now - our climbers aren't even in the Top 20... And our best climber was still busy in Italy (another neighbour of Switzerland, but not of Liechtenstein), so it was up to Valentin Darbellay to get us something more than minimum points from this race. A Top 25 looked like the optimal case and would meet our scoring goal - if none of the other riders made the Top 50, which would also have been enough.
But before the better climbers stepped into action, there was some room for an early breakaway - including one of our riders, as it was our plan:
Felix Stehli riding in the day's breakaway group.
We would have hoped for a slightly better climber to join the break, but at least Felix got us some TV time. As expected, the break was caught pretty soon - and soon after, even our last rider was already dropped from the pack.
Indeed, Valentin Darbellay sadly continued his string of bad results. He did score some points, but 40th place in this race is just awful. Champoussin, Zimmermann, Ries are all riders he should absolutely be able to keep up with - and all of them made the Top 25 we were hoping for. Valentin finished almost 10 minutes behind them...
And sadly, none of our other riders was able to jump in. Teten Rohendi (63rd) and Clément Berthet (67th) showed a decent race, but weren't quite able to get a Top 50 (which quite some other riders with similar skills did, though) - making this our 3rd race of the year where we missed out on our target, and the 2nd in a row after Paris - Roubaix. At least, all riders finished the race, making us miss out on our very low target by just 5 points.
We don't want to draw any conclusions from just one race - but as much as we'd like to help Valentin becoming a really strong climber, his 2024 results sadly suggest that he just doesn't have the potential to excel. There's still some time for him to get some good results - but if he doesn't, we might need a change in strategy in our climbing department...
It's over - our first "real" GT, i.e. not as a wildcard team, is officially done. We have already looked back in detail on the first two weeks, so this update will mostly cover the last week and the final standings - to get an idea of what happened so far, here's a short summary:
Weeks 1 & 2 Recap
- Our best rider so far - at least in terms of points - definitely was sprinter Gergely Szarka, getting his first career win (and our first non-wildcard GT stage win), plus a 2nd, a 3rd and two 5th places - and even one day in the Ciclamino.
- GC-wise, Colin Stüssi did a tremendous job so far, sitting in 3rd place - not the least thanks to a great 2nd place in the TTT stage.
- Whereas the sprints and the GC worked well so far, the hills didn't, as Xuban Errazkin was mostly anonymous and didn't justify his selection for the race so far.
Week 3
Stage 15 was another flat one, ending in another bunch sprint. And whereas Gergely Szarka didn't make a major mistake, he was still positioned a tad unlucky, and maybe 2-3 positions too far down. He got boxed in, with the other sprinters not agreeing on giving him the space he needed - we're sure he'd have finished higher than 8th in that case!
Gergely Szarka finishing 8th, getting caught behind Sureda for the entire sprint.
On the next day, the riders had to climb one of this year's monsters in the program: the legendary Zoncolan! We knew that this was one of the few stages where Colin was really at risk of losing quite some time, so we planned to support him as well as we could.
But Xuban Errazkin had different plans; whereas he never joined the breakaway on stages it would have made sense, he did now. And at least was able to stay with the group until they were caught with 5km to go.
Fortunately, Colin Stüssi was able to stay in the GC riders' group rather easily - and even more than that! Only four riders finished ahead of Colin, who took a great 5th place that we could never expect!
Colin Stüssi arriving on top of the Zoncolan as the 5th rider!
The only slightly negative point about this day was Choi getting a small gap and even some bonus seconds, getting closer to Colin's 3rd place in GC... But Colin did a great job anyway!
Day 17 had the final hilly stage of the race. And finally, finally, it was time for Xuban Errazkin to join the breakaway on a tailor-made stage! Well, no. None of our riders even tried, which was bad enough. Worse, the breakaway won the stage for the first time in the race. Worst, they got a pretty big gap, allowing Hirt to jump all the way up to 2nd place in the GC, leapfrogging not only Colin who dropped to 4th... Which was exactly what we wanted to avoid right before the final two really hard stages...
And stage 18 was far harder than expected. Simply because the top climbers made it so hard. We expected the break to take the stage, and the top climbers to finish in a group behind - none of that happened. At the positive side, Xuban Errazkin did join the breakaway on this day - although this wasn't his brightest idea given the many strong climbers who did the same.
Logically, he was dropped fairly early on. And the rest of the breakaway was caught, too, with many of the top climbers attacking on the final climb. Sadly, Colin Stüssi clearly didn't have the same great legs he had on the Zoncolan stage, and could only finish in 10th place. Which was nothing to be mad about, given that those ahead all were better climbers - but he showed us several times now he can mostly keep up with them. This day was a bit different - and to be fair, this day had to come eventually.
Colin Stüssi finishing 10th in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Colin dropped from 4th to 6th after this stage - not as good as it once was, but still better than expected! And with the Top 10 being still rather close together (apart from Herklotz obviously), all it would take to start dreaming would be another great day on stage 19...
But it eventually had to happen. The one weird stage. The one stage where someone makes an insane move. And this dude was Carthy. Already in 4th place pre-stage, he still joined the break, and was in the virtual Maglia Rosa for much of the stage.
The obvious consequence: the speed was pretty high on the final climb. And this wasn't really to Colin's advantage. It wasn't bad, either - he only lost 37" to Herklotz. But once again, Choi was able to stay glued to Herklotz, which was enough to overtake Colin in the GC. Who in turn managed to pass Hirt again - so nothing lost, but the other constellation with a weaker TTer in front was better...
However, before the long and decisive ITT - the final stage of the race - there was another flat stage. Bunch sprint? Well, not this time. It almost had to be expected that after an early climb, the breakaway's gap would be pretty big - and many sprinter teams would be too tired to chase.
Well, we weren't too tired, but we did have another excuse: Stefan Küng in the break! Stefan is one of these riders you really want to get up front in such a stage, as he has almost no weakness. The only one he has: sprinting.
But none of his companions was clearly stronger on the final stretch, and so...
Stefan Küng finishing 2nd in Valdengo!
It was really close to get our 2nd stage win of the race, but it wasn't to be. Still, it was our 5th stage podium, which we believe is a pretty good outcome!
GC-wise, nothing happened - so Colin Stüssi still was in 6th place ahead of the long ITT. 19" behind Choi, 21" ahead of Eastman - it would be hard to overtake one and fend off the other, but who knows?
Unfortunately, our estimations proved right. Colin would have a slightly better day than the other two - he wasn't far off beating even both of them, but in the end he did indeed drop down to 7th place in GC. With a measly 5" gap to Choi and 12" to Eastman.
Now, we can go and find these seconds in any stage we want, but it doesn't help. Eastman wasn't a rider we expected to beat anyway, and with Choi we expected it to be a 50-50 case. Given that Colin left behind riders like Almeida, Wellens and Hart, he got a clearly stronger result than expected anyway.
And this stronger result means improving his best GT finish to date - 8th place in last year's Giro - by one spot, as Colin Stüssi ended up in 7th place overall! Clearly a fantastic performance, and with 195 points being awarded for 7th place, his final GC result alone was almost worth 2/3 of the expectations for the whole race!
Before we get to the summary, let's not forget to mention Szymon Rekita, who finished in 8th place on the final day!
Szymon Rekita on his way to 8th place in Milano.
Alexys Brunel narrowly missed out on a Top 10, ending up just 2" behind.
Summary
Was it a successful race for us? Of course it was! Not only did we get our first "real" GT stage win - the 3rd in total including wildcard wins - but Colin Stüssi also delivered day after day, riding to a great 7th place overall! Yes, there are some "what ifs", of course, when you're just 12" behind the Top 5, but we'll still take it as a fantastic result!
Fantastic also perfectly describes Gergely Szarka's performance in the first 3 bunch sprints, taking 3rd, 2nd and then the big win - the first one of his career! The remaining sprint stages unfortunately were less successful, and so he "only" ended up 6th in the points standings - being the best sprinter, though, so it clearly wasn't a race designed for sprinters to have a shot at the Ciclamino.
And the rest of the team? First, let's mention the TT unit, which did a great job in the stage 3 TTT to finish in 2nd place - clearly boosting Colin's GC outcome! 8th, 12th, 23rd, 30th and 31st is a decent result in the closing ITT, too, and in particular Brunel proved once again that he might have quite some potential if we decided to train him a little.
However, we also have to mention that most of the riders bar Colin and Gergely were rather anonymous. In particular Odie, a perfect breakaway rider, never even tried to join a break. Stefan Küng did once, on the penultimate stage, and it did result in a great 2nd place.
Otherwise, Xuban Errazkin also had two breakaway apperances - on completely unsuited stages, sadly. We brought him to be active in the many days in the hills, but he didn't really get our strategy. He still scored a 5th place on a stage, but otherwise was anonymous - which is our biggest disappointment in this race. At least, he finished 30th in the GC, making up for some stage or KoM points he missed out on.
As expected, no other rider was able to get a Top 50 GC result. Küng got pretty close, ending up 57th only 3 minutes behind the Top 50, which is a strong result anyway. Brunel and Odie ended up 88th and 90th, scoring some valuable points for their Top 100. Szarka, Vernon and Rekita couldn't be expected to achieve this, and they indeed were pretty far off.
And we didn't expect to be competitive in the team standings, either, given that we only brought one really good climber - but surprise, surprise, we still ended up in 8th place! And in GTs, that's even worth some points, which we happily take!
When speaking about points: Our expectation was 300 points. Which was based on a Top 15 GC result by Colin, everyone else finishing the race, plus some decent stage results. Colin's 7th place alone is worth 195 points (he got some more from stage results and intermediate GC positions), and Szarka also scored almost 200 points. So we clearly exceeded the expectations once again - and for the first time, we did it in one of the most important races, a GT!
In fact, we scored more than twice as many points as expected! Which makes our overall GT target of 1,050 points pretty realistic by now, as we "only" need 200 points each from the Vuelta and the Tour - but regardless of that, it's a great outcome, beaten by not that many teams!
The score is actually a bit lower than what we got last year - but then we could send all of our top riders, with no RD restrictions as a wildcard team. So we will definitely value this year's result higher - and given the absolute dominance by one rider, and far less evenly distributed scoring, our 656 points definitely are a great achievement!
Cobbles time again, and after Edward Theuns didn't get a great result in Strada Appia Antica, it was revenge time for him in the 2nd Italian cobbles classic.
But first, it was breakaway time - and with Küng, who often did this part, participating in the clashing Giro, another rider had to take over. It was Lorenzo Delco who did so.
Lorenzo Delco leading the breakaway on the long climb mid-race.
The break was caught with about 30km to go, and sadly couldn't score any points in the end. So all focus now was on Theuns, who should definitely love the finale, in particular the short hill close to the end!
But... Somehow it wasn't his day. Dangling at the end of the favourites group for quite some time, it wasn't surprising that he missed an important split - and then had to work really hard to get back. And while he did, it cost him so much energy that he couldn't even keep up with riders like Siric, Ferreira, Summerhill, Gaday, Rutsch to name just a few he should normally beat. Even last year's domestique Tediashvili was stronger than Eddie. Who took an abysmal and unacceptable 17th place. 7th place last year was already disappointing, and we don't have many words for this awful underperformance.
We've got no clue what went wrong, in a race that should really have suited him. Moreover, Tomas Paprstka also got one of his worst results of the year with 31st place, in a field where he could've fought for the Top 20. It really was an awful day for us, and already the 3rd out of 3 classics this month where we didn't meet our expectations. And even by quite a margin this time.
Well, this kind of bad results string eventually had to happen to us as well, all we can do is check it off and do better next time.
Outcome
Expectation
Outcome
Result
Top 10
17th
Points
50
17
Race Review | Veenendaal - Veenendaal | PTHC
Fortunately, we soon had the chance of doing better again - and even higher hopes in the Dutch sprinter classic, with Kaden Groves being among the most solid sprinters - and therefore among the favourites. Moreover, Gergely Szarka, having just finished an awesome Giro, was on a high and also had the perfect skillset for this race in case we'd decide to go for a late attack.
But first, we went for an early attack - and again, it was Lorenzo Delco representing our colours up front all day long.
Lorenzo Delco enjoying another day in the breakaway.
And he really did an awesome job, holding out up front until 10km to go. And even then, he only was caught by some late attackers, trying to hold on! Sadly, he didn't quite have enough left in the tank - and ended up in 51st place, unluckily missing out on some well-deserved points by one single spot...
But at least, we still had Kaden Groves in the pack, and quite well positioned with 3km to go! They would only sprint for 5th place, unfortunately not having done enough to keep the 4 attackers at bay...
However, what Groves did then could be described best as refusal to work. He finished 22nd! 22nd, in a race where he should have made the Top 10, that's even worse than his San Remo failure. 22nd...
Kaden Groves was so bad he's barely visible in this picture of the bunch sprint.
So, if Roma Maxima was awful, what other term could we find to describe this outcome here? We had even higher hopes for this one - hence the disappointment is even bigger. We miserably failed in our PTHC races this month - had we done like this all year long, we'd be dead last in the standings. Fortunately, we're not, so even after these horrible results there's some hope that we'll get better races again - we should do so soon to avoid a huge drop in the standings though! 4 classics, 4 failures - somehow our one-day racers completely lost all of their form from one day to the next...
Sadly some subpar racing in PTHC, luckily it's good to read the Giro went rather great. Fantastic win for Szarka and I think a great result in general by the TTT and also Stüssi, almost beating a 82 climber in a GT Jura is rocking PT! (and that's where most of the points are at anyway )
Sadly some subpar racing in PTHC, luckily it's good to read the Giro went rather great. Fantastic win for Szarka and I think a great result in general by the TTT and also Stüssi, almost beating a 82 climber in a GT Jura is rocking PT! (and that's where most of the points are at anyway )
Yeah, Stüssi repeatedly dropping Eastman was weird. Too bad he cracked a bit in the end, even 4th place might have been possible - but even 7th place is awesome given his skillset, no complaints. Szarka, the TTT unit and also Küng individually did a good job indeed - besides the obvious names Stüssi and Szarka
But like Nemo said, it's best to have those in PTHC where there's far fewer points available.
Sure we can - if there were only monuments, it looks like we'd relegate for sure
The issue is that in PTHC it's zero points if you fail, in PT at least you get something. But obviously doing well with the higher points scale is always cool - which is why it sucks to fail (at least partly) at monuments.
May Preview
3 monuments and a GT are already in the books - and the next of each is imminent! Will the 4th monument of the year finally be one where we meet our expectations? Will the 2nd GT of the year be as outstanding as the first one?
We'll find out during the upcoming month - but let's get an idea of where our journey could go:
May 03 | Flèche Wallonne | 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
Teten Rohendi
70
75
75
70
73
75
74
55
62
73
71
70
71
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
Tactics
It's pretty much the same lineup as in the AGR, with Rohendi instead of Janssen. Thereby adding our 3rd best puncheur, who could also have some hopes of a decent finish.
But all eyes obviously will be on Mauro Schmid again. After a great race in the Netherlands (review yet to be posted), expectations are high again - but the pressure might be a bit lower as we already got half of our expected Ardennes points right in the first race!
Errazkin will be the main domestique (or replacement leader if Mauro doesn't feel well), but there are some more capable uphill riders on board in case we have to control the race for whatever reason. Anyone bar Schmid or Errazkin would probably be allowed to join the breakaway, so the "chasing" stuff would only happen in case of a puncture.
Mauro will have to deliver again if we are to reach the expected points - so let's just hope he will, and could get another Top 10 (or Top 15 at least)!
Track Record
--- none ---
Expectations
Result: Top 15
Points: 80
May 05 | Rund um Köln | 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
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
Stefan Bissegger
74
68
69
78
73
77
72
60
72
73
64
71
77
Hugo Page
69
65
67
61
71
69
65
63
73
76
68
69
66
Tomas Paprstka
75
62
69
62
74
70
68
75
70
72
69
78
63
Krzysztof Marchewka
65
64
60
77
73
75
74
50
52
64
62
65
77
Christoph Janssen
72
65
67
74
70
73
72
55
59
67
65
65
74
Tactics
It's the 3rd of our four flat classics this year. And after MSR having been bad and Veenendaal even worse, we finally need to deliver in one of these!
Groves is our leader again - although it remains an open question whether Szarka would have been an even better fit for the role, given his great results achieved at the Giro. His great skills on the flat could also make him an option for a late attack, though.
But Groves will likely still be our best shot at a great result, and he could get leadout support from Chavanne if needed. Sprinter talent Page is also here to hopefully learn a lot, whether it is how to or how not to race a flat classic.
A Top 10 would be a great result, a Top 15 should be the minimum goal - as in pretty much every PT classic except for Liechtenstein.
Track Record
--- none ---
Expectations
Result: Top 15
Points: 80
May 07 | Liège - Bastogne - Liège | M
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
Teten Rohendi
70
75
75
70
73
75
74
55
62
73
71
70
71
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
Tactics
Here we are, this is already the 4th monument of the year! The first three were disappointing overall, and we're still chasing after our first Top 10 finish. Could this be the race where we finally get it?
Lack of team play wouldn't be an excuse, as it's the exact same lineup as in Flèche Wallonne. And Schmid really looks like a perfect fit for a race with many, many climbs. The finale will surely need some explosivity - and Mauro definitely has that.
He also has some strong support, plus some great breakaway candidates who should ensure that we won't need to work in the pack. Everything we need is there - now it's up to Mauro et al. to deliver!
Deliver what? Well, you know our expectations by now - Top 10 would be nice, Top 15 the minimum. To reach the expected score with just a Top 15, we'd need some depth scoring, too - but this should absolutely be on the table as well!
Track Record
--- none ---
Expectations
Result: Top 15
Points: 100
May 11 - 31 | Vuelta a España | 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
Cees Bol
76
64
70
67
75
77
81
68
79
77
68
67
69
Teten Rohendi
70
75
75
70
73
75
74
55
62
73
71
70
71
Clement Berthet
65
75
74
60
70
74
66
60
62
73
72
75
60
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
Hugo Page
69
65
67
61
71
69
65
63
73
76
68
69
66
Tactics
GT #2 of the year! The first one went far better than expected, not the least thanks to relatively weak startlists of climbers and sprinters. With no TTT and a shorter flat ITT than in the Giro (and no Herklotz on the startlist), we're sure that the climber list will be more impressive here.
And given that the sprint jersey should actually go to a sprinter here given the pretty big amount of flat stages, we expect to see many strong sprinters as well.
So, what can we expect? Colin Stüssi had an awesome Giro overall, and it's probably impossible to reach a comparable result in this race. He gets a somewhat better support cast, though, with Rohendi and Berthet being capable climbers. Both of them should also be breakaway candidates in the early stages.
The same holds for Odie, who was completely anonymous in the Giro. Colombo, Stehli and Page are mainly here to gain experience, but we could well see them in a couple of breakaways, too.
So, the only name left is Bol. On paper, he's a pretty great fit for this route. Many of the sprint stages are more or less bumpy, which perfectly suits him. And he had a great Giro last year, showing that he's absolutely capable of doing well in GTs. However, his 2024 track record is... awful, let's name it. So we're hoping for him to perform, but can we expect it? He has to, otherwise we've got no chance to get even close to our target here!
Fortunately, the Giro outcome leaves our Vuelta riders with somewhat less pressure to perform, but we'll still happily take the amount of points we're targetting - and yes, the higher points expectations are mostly due to Bol's 2023 performances...
Track Record
--- none ---
Expectations
Stages: 10x Top 10
GC: Top 15
Points: 350
Summary
That's just four races this month - but really important ones! Two hilly classics, thereof a monument, and the second GT of the year - plenty of points at stake, and hopefully we'll get a good share of those!
The Vuelta expectations might be too high given Bol's awful season to date, but if he finds back to his 2023 form (in particular his Giro form), it's still very much doable. Otherwise, we mainly need Schmid and Groves to perform in the classics - and maybe some breakaway luck in the Vuelta on top of the sprints.
We're in the comfortable situation that we're not in desperate need of points right now, but if we don't get enough of them we might still end up in this situation. So let's hope we can at least get close to the 610 expected points - or exceed the expecations once again!
Not a great end to April but the Giro was really good and it keeps the team very high in the rankings! Some potentially decent scoring opportunities in Spain, so I think the good season looks to continue.
Not a great end to April but the Giro was really good and it keeps the team very high in the rankings! Some potentially decent scoring opportunities in Spain, so I think the good season looks to continue.
The actual end with Amstel was perfectly fine, but yeah, the PTHC classics sucked. And it looks like it's flat classics more generally speaking...
I think the GC competition will be harder in Spain, but if Bol can find his Giro 2023 form, and if we have some luck with breakaways, it could indeed be another good race
Race Review | Amstel Gold Race | PT
The Ardennes week was one part of the season we were particularly looking forward to - as the first test for Mauro Schmid to see what we can expect from him when defying all of the world's top puncheurs!
Unlike in the cobbled classics, we didn't send anyone in the breakaway, despite having enough decent options. So it was all-in on Mauro then, trying to keep him safe until the final kilometers where he should take over.
This worked pretty well:
Xuban Errazkin still with Mauro Schmid with less than 5km to go!
Xuban was dropped when the front group hit the final climb. Mauro then decided not to follow the 5 attackers, who looked pretty well - but eventually got caught. So Mauro's position was pretty good:
Mauro Schmid up to 5th position with 300m to go!
We were even hoping for Mauro to outsprint one or two of his rivals - but in the end, the stronger puncheurs had, well, more punch. He got overtaken by MAL as well, dropping to 6th - but this is still a huge result for Mauro Schmid!
Mauro Schmid finishing 6th in Amstel Gold Race![/center]
Despite the puncheur field being stronger than in Grand-Duché, Mauro managed to finish almost as high up as in Luxembourg - in the one race of the Ardennes week we thought would suit him the least! Great job! Xuban Errazkin also did a great job, finishing 23rd. No other rider made the Top 50, but it was a far better than expected score for us anyway!
Outcome
Expectation
Outcome
Result
Top 15
6th
Points
80
131
Race Review | Flèche Wallonne | PT
Race #2 of the Ardennes triple was the one we were most loking forward to, given that it's the one with the most climbing involved - and hence a perfect fit for Mauro's skillset!
Again, we didn't get anyone in the breakaway of the day - but with Mauro not being considered to be among the top favourites yet, we still didn't have to work in the pack. So it was a calm day until...
Mauro Schmid on the attack with Valter, chasing Vansevenant and Areruya!
Unfortunately, the move didn't stick, and the four escapees were caught. And then, Mauro did one of the biggest mistakes of his young career:
Mauro Schmid dropping to the end of the group after being caught...
It was not only him, though - only Areruya was smart enough to stay close to the front.
And when the group of favourites hit the Mur de Huy, the final ascent, Mauro wasn't even in the Top 25. Another great result was out of the question, due to this one stupid decision.
Which is really sad, given that he definitely did have the legs to do something great here:
Mauro Schmid finishing 12th in Flèche Wallonne.
Mauro really got stuck in traffic for most of the climb, and in the very end was able to quickly gain more than 10 positions. Just imagine what he could've done when starting his sprint 10 positions higher up... Well, it still wasn't an awful race at all - we expected a Top 15, we got one. And with Xuban Errazkin finishing 30th and Lorenzo Delco 38th, we still got the expected points - Top 15 plus some depth, exactly what we were originally hoping for!
Of course, missing out on a clearly better result due to bad positioning always hurts - just go ask our sprinters... But looking at other puncheurs, this is still very good, and really makes us hopeful for races and years to come!
Outcome
Expectation
Outcome
Result
Top 15
12th
Points
80
84
Race Review | Rund um Köln | PT
Before the Ardennes week would be rounded off with its most important and prestigious race, we had a short intermezzo in Germany - for our 3rd out of 4 flat classics this year. And let's be frank: the first two simply were races to forget, with Kaden Groves, one of the most well-rounded sprinters, not being able to even get a Top 15.
And let's make it short again: Rund um Köln wasn't any better. Kaden was just awful once again, with horrible positioning (being one of the best sprinters over the hills on paper!), and his sprint was awful as well. An 18th place definitely isn't worth spending any of his race days; it's rather throwing lots of money out of the window. If he doesn't suddenly get a huge result in Russia, the GP Moscow will definitely be the last flat classic he does for us.
And yeah, we obviously had no other rider in the Top 50, making this yet another very disappointing race. The worst thing is, we've got no clue why we always fail so hard in flat races. Next one, please.
Outcome
Expectation
Outcome
Result
Top 15
18th
Points
80
58
April Summary
In fact, we just covered 2 races of May, with only Amstel being an April race. But let's still take a quick look back.
April was yet another great month for us - overall. In short, there were the classics, and there was the Giro. The classics were bad. I mean, really bad, except for Amstel of course. If there had only been the classics, we'd have scored 57 points less than our not overly ambitious expectations - and without Amstel, that would've been a deficit of more than 100 points! Which means in particular that both Theuns and Groves were clearly insufficent in April. Looking at the whole season, that's affordable, given that both had great races before, but being so far below expectations still raises some question marks.
Fortunately, there was the Giro to (more than) make up for the classics failures. Stüssi and Szarka did an awesome job in Italy, which also holds for the TTT unit and Küng (with his 2nd place on the penultimate day) in particular. We scored 656 points instead of the 300 expected points, ending the month 299 points above expectations overall! And GT-wise, this means that if we manage to get 200 points each from the Vuelta and the Tour, we've reached our GT target - which we now definitely hope to exceed!
We're still in 4th place, having overtaken the former Top 3 but being in turn overtaken by 3 new teams. We don't know where our journey will end - but with the margin to the relegation zone being above 1,000 points with one GT done, our hopes of staying up are getting bigger and bigger!
In terms of individual rakings, Groves and Theuns are still in the Top 30, despite dropping quite a lot. They will definitely drop more with another GT incoming - whereas we're hoping for Schmid to climb a bit from the 38th place he's still holding onto.
Stüssi made a big jump, from 118th to 43rd, hitting precisely his season target of 350 points - with the Vuelta and the Tour de Suisse still left. Küng dropped a little bit, but is still in teh Top 100 - and so is Szarka after his great Giro, jumping up from 454th to 84th and exceeding 200 points! No doubt, our Hungarian has exceeded our expectations by far!
Unlike Errazkin, who should've done well in the Giro but instead dropped out of the Top 100. So have Bissegger and Chavanne, rather expectedly though. Darbellay, Vernon, Rekita and Paprstka have also reached 100 points by now.
We'll see what the upcoming classics and the Vuelta may bring - let's hope for another great month!
Giro d'Italia - Week 2 | 
Xuban Errazkin only got one good result out of them with a 5th place.
Gergely Szarka was our Man of Week 1, not only getting a 5th place in a hilly stage as well, but also stage podiums on both flat stages!
Colin Stüssi sits in 4th place. Always at risk of getting dropped in the hills, he never was, and used our great TTT result well to get into a good spot.
GP Liechtenstein | 
Teten Rohendi (63rd) and 
Clément Berthet (67th) showed a decent race, but weren't quite able to get a Top 50 (which quite some other riders with similar skills did, though) - making this our 3rd race of the year where we missed out on our target, and the 2nd in a row after Paris - Roubaix. At least, all riders finished the race, making us miss out on our very low target by just 5 points.
Szymon Rekita, who finished in 8th place on the final day!
Edward Theuns didn't get a great result in Strada Appia Antica, it was revenge time for him in the 2nd Italian cobbles classic.
Tomas Paprstka also got one of his worst results of the year with 31st place, in a field where he could've fought for the Top 20. It really was an awful day for us, and already the 3rd out of 3 classics this month where we didn't meet our expectations. And even by quite a margin this time.
Veenendaal - Veenendaal | 
Kaden Groves being among the most solid sprinters - and therefore among the favourites. Moreover, 
Jura is rocking PT! (and that's where most of the points are at anyway 
)
Rund um Köln | 
