A maximum of 10 races were on the April schedule for PCT teams, so it's another split update. This time, with 7 classics and 3 stage races, we'll simply do a C1/C2 and HC/PTHC split, with five races each per category group. Here we go:
Partial Monthly Ranking: C1/C2
4 classics and only one stage race were in this group - and 3 of the classics were C2, so we definitely can't expect the very high scores here. Nonetheless, these points are as important as all others, so let's see who got how many of them:
The first race - and no, it wasn't an April Fools' Day joke - was the C2 sprinter classic Berlin ProRace. 4 PCT teams made the trip to Germany - only two managed to score. Not among them were Specialized with former winner Dzamastagic, who did try but to no avail.
Instead, it was Mareczko who was the highest PCT finisher in 9th place. With Suter finishing 24th, Lierse brought 18 points home.
Tafjord even had three riders finishing in the points, with Berger (13th), Bertilsson (19th) and Nielsen (22nd) - however, this good team performance was "only" worth 10 points. ISA and the aforementioned Specialized left empty-handed.
Next up was the revamped USA Pro Cycling Tour. From a flat 4-day C2 event with an epilogue to a purely hilly C1 3-day race, attracting a completely different rider profile. Puncheurs, that is, obviously.
And despite not even remotely being the division's top puncheur on paper (although a sure Top 10 contender), Andrea Bagioli proved paper (and MGUCI?) wrong and had the race of his life. He somehow managed to win every single stage, and obviously the points jersey. And he's only 25, so the white jersey was his, too - as well as 221 points. Which were the only points that Indosat scored, but easily enough to be the top scoring team. Who needs Adam Yates when you can have Bagioli?
Aidan van Niekerk isn't the prototype of a top puncheur, either, and after a failed attack on day 1 (resulting in 17th place), the race looked over for him. But 5th and 2nd in the two other stages made him finish 4th in GC, for 80 points. That was obviously not enough to get the 2nd highest team score - but ISA had Paez in 11th, Edmondson in 12th, Sepulveda in 14th and Hernandez in 23rd as well. A clear team standings win and 152 points in total were the consequence of this great team effort.
Robert Stannard was one of the top favourites, but eventually didn't find a way to beat Bagioli. Finishing 3rd, 2nd and 4th, he was clearly the second best rider of the race, scoring 122 points (99 less than Bagioli, that is!). Hindley picked up the final GC point for 30th place, making it 123 points for Everesting. A good score, but they'll still wonder why Stannard couldn't do a little better still.
From a "promoted" to a "demoted" even then - GP Wallonie used to be rated HC or higher, but now was downgraded to C1. But it still was an important race for the PCT puncheurs, and hence had a pretty stacked startlist - many of the division's top puncheurs attended.
And yeah, you know the story about not being among the top puncheurs on paper, but Andrea Bagioli definitely shows that he has some hidden skills that make him far stronger than he "should" be - simply winning yet another race, outsprinting a very fast man in Ackermann! That's another 80 points in the bag for him, and 81 for Indosat with Yudha picking up the final available point.
Despite missing out on the win, Tafjord will still be very happy about finally taking a great result, which Ackermann's 2nd place definitely is (although he couldn't quite repeat last year's win). That's 56 points for the German and his Norwegian team.
Edmondson hasn't had a great season yet, but his 3rd place in Wallonie was definitely something to build up upon. That's 46 points for him, and 52 for ISA who also had Paez in the points (17th place).
On the same day, we had yet another cobbled C2 event - the Lincoln GP. A pretty particular event, with hills mattering quite a lot and cobbles maybe not that much.
One rider who didn't care, being decent yet not excellent in both and simply overperforming at this level, was Marzuki. Yes, the same Marzuki who already won Geraardsbergen - Bosberg also triumphed in Great Britain - and even with quite a margin! Another 50 points for him and Lotto, who really love these C2 cobbles!
The same also holds for Bralirwa and Teggart, though - the Irishman already got a 2nd place in Gent - Wevelgem, and he did the same in Lincoln GP! Another 35 points in the bag for him and his team!
And Team UBS also love cobbles, no matter the category. Schäppi couldn't quite keep up with his PCT rivals, but still took a decent 7th place - and with Touze getting 14th, that's 23 points for the Swiss.
And you surely know what comes next. Indeed, yet another C2 classic, yet another cobbled one. Dwars door Vlaanderen made a comeback, after having been in the calendar from 2012 to 2015, followed by a long hiatus. A mostly flat race with not too many hills - and actually not too many cobbles, either. And the winner was...
Well, a PCT rider obviously! After getting 2nd places in Gent - Wevelgem and Lincoln GP, Teggart now capitalized on Marzuki's absence and won the race solo after a great attack! That's another 50 points for him - and Habimana made it an even better day for Bralirwa by finishing 11th! 58 points in total for the Rwandans - and yeah, I was wrong writing that there are no significant points in this block...
Which definitely holds for UBS as well, with Schäppi making it another 1-2 for PCT! The Swiss mastered the sprint for 2nd, adding another 35 points to his tally. And with both Touze and Van Asbroeck scoring as well, UBS went home with 43 points in their bags!
Tafjord also had three riders in the points - not quite as high up, though, with Kaislavuo in 14th, Kulppi in 16th and Breen in 20th. That's a total of 12 points for Tafjord. Two more PCT teams scored, only JEWA failed to do so.
Now let's get an overview of the numbers in this block:
Thanks to the Bagioli dominance in both USA PCC and GP Wallonie, Indosat get an easy win in the lower categories, scoring 302 points.
ISA did well in these two races as well, following with 204 points - a pretty big gap with only C1 racing involved. Bralirwa claim the final spot on the podium with 161 points, mainly rocking the C2 cobbles.
Everesting and Sauber also finish above 100 points, although the former were hoping for even more with two Stannard races in this block.
It's then pretty close 50 points further down, with just 31 points separating UBS in 6th from Zalgiris in 14th - with Lotto, Tafjord, Sony, Ekoi, Minions, Kraftwerk and Lierse somewhere in between.
All other teams end up below 30 points - including two bagels from Benetton and JEWA. The former raced in USA PCC but failed to score, while the latter were unsuccessful in both C2 cobbled classics.
Here's the full list:
Pos
Team
Ber
USA
Wal
Lin
DdV
Total
1
Indosat Ooredoo
0
221
81
0
0
302
2
ISA - Hexacta
0
152
52
0
0
204
3
Bralirwa - Cegeka
0
61
7
35
58
161
4
Everesting
0
123
11
0
0
134
5
Sauber Petronas Racing
0
82
41
0
0
123
6
Team UBS
0
8
10
23
43
84
7
Lotto-Caloi
0
0
28
50
0
78
8
Tafjord Kraft
10
0
56
0
12
78
9
Sony - Force India
0
73
0
0
0
73
10
Ekoi - Le Creuset
0
71
0
0
0
71
11
Minions
0
39
24
0
7
70
12
Kraftwerk Man Machine
0
32
32
0
0
64
13
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
18
40
3
0
0
61
14
DK Zalgiris
0
36
17
0
0
53
15
Tryg - Eni
0
17
12
0
0
29
16
Llapi-Vita
0
6
13
0
0
19
17
Specialized
0
7
9
0
0
16
18
ELCO - ABEA
0
0
0
14
1
15
19
Manada Coyote
0
13
0
0
0
13
20
Podium Ambition
0
6
4
0
0
10
21
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
0
8
0
0
0
8
22
McCormick Pro Cycling
0
7
0
0
0
7
23
Benetton Bimex Cycling
0
0
0
0
0
0
24
JEWA TIROL
0
0
0
0
0
0
Partial Monthly Ranking: PTHC/HC
5 races were in this group as well - two stage races and three classics, including the "sprint clash" at the end of the month.
But first we had the PTHC Tour of Lithuania. It's always tough for PCT teams when PT teams send their best TTT lineups - fortunately, some heavy-hitters weren't in Lithuania and focused on the Giro instead. Hence, doing well wasn't completely impossible.
And one rider in particular did really well: 2022 GC winner Ewan, who didn't really come close to repeating this effort, but he still did a great job. He won stage 1, finished 6th on day 2 - and even 5th on the closing hilly stage! The points jersey on top of the stage results was his well-deserved reward. He sadly couldn't keep up with his teammates in the TTT, otherwise another GC podium could have been within reach - Ewan ended up 9th. It's 163 points for him, the 3rd best individual score. ISA also had Sepulveda in 20th place and Mraouni and Dlamini in the Top 50, and they finished 3rd in the team standings. And in stage 2, Harrison sprinted to 2nd, getting some good points as well - in total, ISA headed back home with 236 points in their bags.
Team UBS did a great job by finishing 3rd in the TTT. Sadly for them, Buchmann couldn't quite keep up with the front 4 in the hilly stage, ending up 5th in GC - still the highest PCT finisher. And his 108 points are the big portion of UBS' 125 total points, with only Barbio getting 2 points from GC and the other 15 being scored in the TTT. Still not the worst performance in an attempt to hold onto the division lead.
No other team scored 100+ points, but one team at least got rather close: McCormick had a pretty good TTT, enabling Narvaez to finish 10th in GC for 59 points. The Americans furthermore had Mohammad in 23rd and Hecht in 43rd, for 84 points in total.
Then we had the potentially most important PCT race of the month - the 7-day HC race Tour de Pologne. Last year, the climbers dominated the GC - at least behind the beast that is Areruya. This year, not many strong climbers made the trip - making the race easier for the puncheurs? Definitely. The GC still went to a climber, ahead of two puncheurs, another climber, and three more puncheurs.
However, winning the GC wasn't enough to get the highest team score. Instead, Team UBS once again proved their great form. Buchmann will definitely regret missing out on the GC win by one second, or one spot (just a few inches off) on the final stage, but he still finished 6 spots higher in GC than last year. A stage win, a 2nd and a 4th place were enough to claim the points jersey, adding up to 207 points in total. UBS also had Badilatti and Stöckli in the Top 35 (the latter also taking 5th in U25), plus Barbio in the Top 50. And they had Haugard finishing 2nd in the prologue, ending up being the team's 2nd best scorer thanks to this one stage. All in all, it's 258 points for the Swiss.
Adam Yates narrowly missed out on the podium last year - but this year, he did just enough to win the GC! He won stage 6 ahead of Meintjes, which ended up being the difference between the two - and enough to win the race 1" clear of Buchmann. Adding two 5th stage places, he ended up 4th in the points standings, for a total of 211 points - narrowly edging out Buchmann as the best individual scorer, too. Rota and Warbasse added some points with 30th and 37th place in GC, and Haller got them a stage podium on day 4. That's 25 points on top of Yates' score, making it 236 for McCormick.
Going into the final stage, it looked like an insane depth result for Zalgiris, holding 6th, 7th and 11th in GC. And although it wasn't the perfect finale for them, they ended up with 5th for Kwiatkowski, 9th for Lasinis and 12th for Sagan - and the obvious team standings win! Kwiatkowski also got the team's best stage result, with 3rd place on day 2 (after stage favourite Kopfauf disappointed in the prologue). Despite their best individual score being "only" 99 points, Zalgiris' depth paid off greatly, as the Lithuanians racked up 208 points in total!
A flat classic was next, with the HC Lisbon Classic. And as always, the question was: Sprinter or rouleur?
Sprinter! With the best rouleur in 12th place, it clearly was a race for the men with the big legs - and the one doing the best job was Aniolkowski! Having won already 2 PT stages, he finally got a win that brings him and his team actual points - and quite a lot of them, 140 to be precise! Well, actually even 145 for Popo4Ever, with Varga finishing 23rd.
Another rider who will think "finally" is certainly Farantakis - not for the first scoring result, but his first strong result of the year at all! These 98 points are his highest score of the year, stage races included - and with Affini finishing 29th, that's 103 points for ELCO.
And for 3rd placed Liu, it also was the top result of the year, worth 82 points for himself and Lotto.
And yet another flat classic - actually clashing with Lisbon, and therefore the division's top sprinters had to decide between Portugal and the Netherlands, where the PTHC event Veenendaal - Veenendaal was held. The latter once again going to the rouleurs instead of the sprinters, though.
It wasn't the most awesome race for PCT - but not an awful one, either - at least for two teams. Ewan got a decent 7th place (being 3rd from the bunch actually), and with Contreras and Andersen finishing in the Top 50 as well, that's 64 points for ISA.
Boutopoulos also got a Top 10, sprinting to 9th place and 40 points. Kortsidakis' 30th place was worth 5 points on top of that, making it 45 for ELCO.
The Minions are desperately trying to win their manager's home race, year after year - and they fail, year after year. This time, they were pretty far off, with Ahlstrand taking 15th place and 20 points.
And there was yet another PTHC classic - one for the cobblers this time. The Roma Maxima awaited the riders - a pretty particular race, with one big climb mid-race, then plenty of shorter and slightly longer cobbles. A special course that often has somewhat surprising results. And this time?
I'd call some results surprising, indeed. Summerhill's 5th place is one of these. Although he still has great cobbles skills, his physical condition normally isn't enough anymore to keep up with similar riders - it sure was here! And to make it an even better result for ELCO, Boutopoulos and Kortsidakis added a 15th and 16th place, getting ELCO's total up to 116 points - the highest PCT score in this race!
No surprise, at least given this year's results so far, was Jacobs' 4th place. The Swiss is having an awesome season on the cobbles, and this is another very precious result. Surprisingly, UBS had almost no depth for once, with only Schäppi adding a Top 50 finish - so that's 92 points for the Swiss.
Otherwise, it wasn't a great race for PCT teams. We have to go all the way down to 11th to find the next representative of the division, Logan Owen. At least, Chokri with 25th and Sanogo with 28th place added some decent points, with Harrison also getting a Top 50 - 47 points for ISA.
Let's see who comes out on top of the "big points" block:
Mostly thanks to their great result in Lithuania, ISA win this block! The Latinos scored 524 points, doing pretty well in all of their races.
With one exception, this holds for UBS as well - and the one exception, just 7 points in Veenendaal, is what makes up the 42 points gap to ISA. It's 482 points for the Swiss - and a pretty huge margin of almost 150 points down to 3rd place.
In 3rd place, we have McCormick, thanks to Yates' Pologne win. Surely a big relief in the U.S.! It's 334 points for McCormick, pretty closely followed by another team that should be pretty happy with big points - Zalgiris. The Lithuanians scored 316 points.
ELCO round off the Top 5, even though they only did the three classics in this block! 264 points for the Greek, followed by Indosat and Popo4Ever, Specialized and Bralirwa, all scoring above 200 points.
10th place goes to Sauber with 186 points, closely followed by Tryg and Tafjord. Benetton's 140 points are enough for 13th place, with Manada, Llapi and Podium going next.
We then dive below 100 points for the remaining 8 teams, starting with Lotto and ending with Kraftwerk - who only participated in Lisbon, which will surely be reflected in the PpRD.
But for now, these are simply the "hard numbers", the total scores in the PTHC/HC block:
Pos
Team
Lit
Pol
R-M
Vee
Lis
Total
1
ISA - Hexacta
236
177
47
64
0
524
2
Team UBS
125
258
92
7
0
482
3
McCormick Pro Cycling
84
236
0
0
14
334
4
DK Zalgiris
64
208
38
6
0
316
5
ELCO - ABEA
0
0
116
45
103
264
6
Indosat Ooredoo
0
176
5
13
45
239
7
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
18
76
0
0
145
239
8
Specialized
25
156
0
0
35
216
9
Bralirwa - Cegeka
18
182
0
0
5
205
10
Sauber Petronas Racing
14
150
0
0
22
186
11
Tryg - Eni
56
55
0
14
58
183
12
Tafjord Kraft
71
90
0
0
15
176
13
Benetton Bimex Cycling
0
132
0
8
0
140
14
Manada Coyote
32
17
0
0
75
124
15
Llapi-Vita
0
99
2
15
0
116
16
Podium Ambition
31
70
2
0
0
103
17
Lotto-Caloi
0
0
0
0
82
82
18
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
0
0
0
0
71
71
19
Everesting
4
14
0
0
43
61
20
Minions
0
0
2
20
36
58
21
Sony - Force India
0
55
0
0
0
55
22
JEWA TIROL
0
0
25
2
15
42
23
Ekoi - Le Creuset
15
12
0
0
5
32
24
Kraftwerk Man Machine
0
0
0
0
31
31
Period Ranking | April
Looking at the two blocks, it's easy to guess the April winner: It's obviously ISA! 2nd in the C1/C2 races, and the winners in the PTHC/HC categories, ISA picked up 728 points throughout the month! And they also were the most efficient team; needing 22 race days for this score, they reached a PpRD of 33, which is pretty impressive!
In second place, we get a well-known team by now - UBS. Only in the lower Top 10 in the first two months of the year, they were the March winners, and now are very high up again. The gap to ISA is pretty big with more than 150 points - UBS scored 566 points in total - and the PpRD difference is pretty big as well with 10 points. Still, 23.5 is the 5th best value, so they're still pretty much on track.
Indosat also scored really well, getting close to UBS with 541 points. Spending 6 RDs less than UBS, they were more efficient and got the 2nd best PpRD.
The next two teams have a pretty big gap to the Top 3 already, having scored 369 and 366 points respectively - and with a PpRD of just above 16 are quite far away even from the Top 5 in that respect. They are Zalgiris and Bralirwa.
Right outside the Top 5, just 25 points down, we have McCormick who, having spent just 16 race days, have the 6th best scoring average this month. Sauber, scoring 309 points, had a pretty good month as well.
ELCO continue their race days saving strategy, spending just 10 days, and scoring 279 points (for "only" the 3rd PpRD this time). It's pretty much the contrary for Tafjord, spending 21 RDs and being among the more active PCT teams this month, with their 254 points resulting in a PpRD outside the Top 10.
Popo4Ever round off the Top 10 with 247 points, spending 16 RDs to get them. Specialized just miss out on the Top 10, ending up 15 points behidn P4E. Tryg in 12th also reached 200 points - 212 to be precise.
Everesting were rather close to 200 points as well, scoring 195, whereas Lotto, 35 points down, are the first team of the "lower midfield". And the 4th best team in terms of PpRD.
Benetton are the final team in the Top 15, with 140 points, followed by Manada, Llapi, Lierse, Minions and Sony - 12 points separate these 6 teams, which is less than what we have between Sony in 20th and Podium Ambition in 21st. The latter scored 113 points, but used up 22 RDs to get there - 2nd lowest PpRD of the month.
Ekoi didn't perform like they did in the first months, scoring 103 points, with Kraftwerk and JEWA being the only teams below 100 points. In particular the latter had a month to forget, with a PpRD of 4.
Here's the full table:
Pos
Team
C1/C2
PTHC/HC
Total
RD
PpRD
1
ISA - Hexacta
204
524
728
22
33.09
2
Team UBS
84
482
566
24
23.58
3
Indosat Ooredoo
302
239
541
18
30.06
4
DK Zalgiris
53
316
369
22
16.77
5
Bralirwa - Cegeka
161
205
366
22
16.64
6
McCormick Pro Cycling
7
334
341
16
21.31
7
Sauber Petronas Racing
123
186
309
18
17.17
8
ELCO - ABEA
15
264
279
10
27.90
9
Tafjord Kraft
78
176
254
21
12.10
10
Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska
8
239
247
16
15.44
11
Specialized
16
216
232
20
11.60
12
Tryg - Eni
29
183
212
22
9.64
13
Everesting
134
61
195
18
10.83
14
Lotto-Caloi
78
82
160
6
26.67
15
Benetton Bimex Cycling
0
140
140
14
10.00
16
Manada Coyote
13
124
137
18
7.61
17
Llapi-Vita
19
116
135
16
8.44
18
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
61
71
132
9
14.67
19
Minions
70
58
128
13
9.85
20
Sony - Force India
73
55
128
10
12.80
21
Podium Ambition
10
103
113
22
5.14
22
Ekoi - Le Creuset
71
32
103
16
6.44
23
Kraftwerk Man Machine
64
31
95
7
13.57
24
JEWA TIROL
0
42
42
10
4.20
Full Ranking
If the previous leader takes 2nd place in the next monthly ranking, it's not overly surprising to see him stay on top. That's indeed what happened, with Team UBS definitely being on track for promotion so far! The Swiss currently have 1,733 points, and having done 79 RDs, this results in an almost 22 PpRD average. Which is the 3rd best, confirming the "on track" statement.
ISA are April's big winners, being the best team of the month by far, and making a big jump from 9th to 2nd! And also overtaking UBS in terms of PpRD, so things are looking pretty well for them after this month!
Going another 200 points down, we get to a group of 6 teams within just 59 points, so things are definitely crowded in this region! First are Specialized with 1,309 points, followed by Tryg with 1,304. The latter are tied with UBS for most active team so far, having spent 79 RDs - and with a PpRD of 16.51 actually are just number 11.
Indosat are a couple more points down - definitely less points than expected, but Bagioli is doing some masterclass. So even though Dunbar hasn't raced much, they look to be on track for going up, too, currently sitting in 5th place and having the 5th best PpRD.
However, Lierse have been even more efficient with the 4th highest PpRD. They're 30 points down, having 1,258 points - which is one more than ELCO. And the Greeks, having spent just 43 RDs (only one team did less), they're still #1 in terms of PpRD by a mile - it's 29 vs. 22!
It's a bit of a different story for Bralirwa in 8th place - just 7 points behind ELCO, but having done 30 RDs more, they're PpRD is just 17. And this despite all the cobbles, look like decline has hit big Joeri pretty hard...
Ekoi dropped from 6th to 9th, and also are 9th in the PpRD ranking, still well on track for a pretty surprising Top 10 (at least for me, clearly didn't see Daniel's success coming at all). Rounding off the Top 10 are Sony, 101 points down, totalling 978. But 7th in PpRD, with Olivier not even racing at all so far (except for the Giro), so watch out!
A big Pologne score made Zalgiris jump from 13th to 11th, probably no relegation worries for them this year. Manada have also been pretty successful so far - but their fate still mostly lies in Coquard's hands. And it's just 200 and something points down to the relegation zone...
Sauber made a big jump from 19th to 13th, currently holding at 779 points. This performance definitely was needed, as a PpRD of below 12 is still far from a safe value. Minions are 24 points down, but have raced less, whereas McCormick have been doing about as well as Sauber in terms of scoring average.
And McCormick's 714 points are exactly 100 more than the first relegation spot, so all teams down here definitely are at risk to some extent. Llapi is definitely among them, with the 4th lowest PpRD, whereas Lotto, 2 points behind the Albanians, are 10th in terms of PpRD, having spent just 41 RDs - but they first need to capitalize on this!
Kraftwerk have the 7th lowest PpRD - but 5th, 6th and 7th lowest are withing 0.11 points so far, which is nothing. Benettong might feel a little better with their 12 points per race day, but it's no comfortable situation by any means.
So, we have reached the bottom 5. Everesting go first. They have Stannard. And Rodrigues. And Hayakawa. And they're the 2nd worst team PpRD-wise. Stannard had one awesome race, some solid ones - but there were also some others. Rodrigues was mostly disappointing. And it's out of the question that Everesting need their leaders to consistently perform well if they want to get out of this situation!
JEWA took some risk by signing declining riders like Debesay and Arndt as their leaders - and in particular Arndt seems to have lost quite a lot of his firepower. Paillot should give them some hope, but with the cobbles being over, they might have a hard time staying up.
Tafjord are even worse off - although PpRD-wise they're 0.01 points ahead of JEWA and are projected 2 points higher - in the final safe position. That's obviously far too early to make a call, but if Enger can't work some magic and the puncheurs play their numbers, it's going to be really hard for them as well.
Certainly the most surprising name down there is Popo4Ever, in 2nd last position. Just 517 points so far (more than 100 away from safety), 3rd lowest PpRD, something's really going wrong. Which is crazy, given their good results in PT wildcard races - it looks like the motivation isn't the same for the "daily business". They certainly do have the potential to stay up - but can they fix the mental issues?
In last position - as expected by everyone pre-season - are Podium Ambition, who probably don't even have PCT ambition anymore in the short term. And we all know they lack the riders to get out of there. But we also know they have a plan - a plan where relegation isn't the end of the world. Let's hope they can still enjoy their season - and surely they're still in for some surprises!
After all that text, here are the numerical facts:
Who would ever have expected that? Certainly not me - but Andrea Bagioli is our new number 1! The Italian had a completely crazy month, scoring more than 400 points - and currently leads the division with 599 points! And he's only done with half of his RDs...
Despite a strong Tour of Lithuania and a decent Veenendaal, Caleb Ewan only managed to jump from 7th to 2nd - because Bagioli made the leap from 17th to 1st. Ewan currently trails by 38 points - let's see if Baltic Chain will be enough to take the lead...
...or whether it's rather Bryan Coquard getting back the top spot, with the Frenchman trailing by another 37 points. These three riders have all scored above 500 points, and are currently about 100 points ahead of the rest.
The "rest" is led by Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz at 432 points, being the new top dog in PCT cobbles. At least for now, with his advantage over #2 being just 39 points...
But before we get there, we have three other riders - first goes Niccolo Bonifazio, having scored 417 points so far. Emanuel Buchmann only participated in 3 races so far, but that was enough to score 395 points.
Which is one point more than Frederik Rodenberg, surprisingly the 4th best sprinter so far. And another point more than teammate Johan Jacobs, THE revelation on the PCT cobbles this year. He obviously got some training in the offseason, but this training made him so much better - or rather the fact that Spengler is gone?
In 9th place, dropping there from 3rd, is Eddie Dunbar, holding at 358 points. Just 8 days of racing were needed to get there, expect him to score really big in the 2nd part of the season! The situation is a bit different for Max Daniel, dropping from 5th to 10th, as there aren't that many cobbles left this year...
Besides Bagioli - from 17th to 1st - and even more so Buchmann - from 65th to 6th - notable improvers include Yates (33 -> 11), Hirschi (73 -> 14), Meurisse (36 -> 15) and Stannard (31 -> 17). Although 17th place for the latter shows Everesting's problems right away - in particular the fact that he hasn't even scored half of Bagioli's points...
With almost no PTHC racing in May, expect in particular the Tour de Romandie to have a major impact on the rankings - and obviously Baltic Chain and Pais Vasco will be important races, too!
But before we move on, let's look at what we have now:
It felt like a poor month from us. Luckily the damage on the rankings is minimal. PPRD still looks good though.
As always, lovely to read the recap of the month Fabianski! Next year I'll sign a rouleur to finally win Veenendaal - Veenendaal (and watch the race end in a sprint that year )
Definitely a bad month for us (not sure if we used 19 race days though?), but it was expected with profiles that suited us less. The positive here is that the top 10 has a gap in PPRD, so we're still looikng very good for our top 10 goal.
Bagioli was just insane this month, well deserved he's on top of the rankings!
As always, really appreciating these ranking updates Fab
First month where we get a rider in the top 30 of the individual ranking, with Ackermann having a strong April.
Also, solid performance overall to lift us a little up from the bottom.
If we can continue like this, there might even be hope for more PCT-action next year. But it will certainly be tough. I agree that Enger need to deliver much more consistenly for that to become reality.
Again, such a lovely read this, Fabianski, much appreciated!
Thanks for pointing out. I was indeed using the wrong numbers for the monthly stats, taking the May RDs instead...
All relevant numbers were correct, though, just the RD and PpRD columns in the April overview (and hence in the text) were wrong. Sorry for that.
ISA still have the best PpRD, but it's no longer as impressive as it previously was - given that it was just cut in half now
)
