May has been a busy month for our teams and so it's time for a new ranking as there have been some big changes. But first a summary of the month!
At the Tropicale Amissa Bongo the team manager of Colombini allegedly fainted after seeing the results of the opening race. Powless managed to lose to Bjerg by less than a second. Revenge was impossible though for the team. Bjerg ended up losing the last TT from Howson , who landed in the second place for the GC in the same time as well. All the small things really end up counting. Coquard had a great week and even had a chance for the GC at some point. But with two stage wins and the points jersey I'm sure Spark Team NZ's staff won't mind that minor slip-up as they still beat out Minions for points.
From a tropical place to the Balkans. Where the PT teams showed the PCT teams how it's done. Lutsenko ended up doing a very good job and only fell 4" short of second place. This ended up bringing in a sizeable amount of points for the Kazahk. The Balkans International ended up bringing in almost half the points for this month for DK Zalgiris.
Just like the critically acclaimed HUNTR/X who kept going up in the music charts and hype, it was now Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team's moment as they rolled up the Tour of America. Due to quite a few well performing CT teams and especially the big changes in the amount of stages the points up for grab for the PCT teams was limited. Zwift and Gjsensidige ended up being the best performing overall and especially Lunke did a great job. Eight other teams ended up with points. But this comes with a high useage of race days. Rodriguez ended up winning the U25 category by a wide margin. I do believe you're gonna go far kid.
The Tour of Luxemburg was a bit too much for our teams and Tryg-Eni ended up being the "glutton" with a only 24 points.
A similar story goes for the Isle of Mann ITT. It seems like most PCT teams were bored to death with this race, but JEWA TIROL (the only team from this division who showed up) couldn't capitalize on this situation as they only pulled 4 points.
Paris-Tours however was a battle for the ages. With constant attacking we ended up with a mass-sprint behind an incredible Varga. Adomaitis made Everesting very happy by sprinting to a second place. A fast paced race with a lot of upsets for the riders.
The kids weren't alright in the Rheden GP as the leaders all came over the exhausted and unable to sprint. Gamper ended up winning that one, Zepuntke was the first of PCT at the fourth place. Which is a great result in such a hard-fought race.
Tour of the Battenkill ended up being a slaughterhouse as well where DK Zalgiris ended up winning the third place spot in a very close race until the last few hundred meters, where De Gendt ended up blowing himself up.
With the summary out of the way it is time for our rankings. As mentioned before after a great Tour of AmericaGjensidige PCT got the most points out of all the teams this month and went 10 places up in the ranking, with only 3 points distance to DK Zalgiris who also went 6 spots up. Gjsnsidige PCT does however have the highest amount of race days done as well, and with only 10 points ahead of the fifth spot he will need a miracle to stay in the Top 5.
Specialized is still sitting golden with an almost 200 point gap, even after a pretty uneventful month for them.
Tryg-Eni , Bralirwa - Cegeka and Duvel Tsingtao had a bad month and went a couple of spots down each. Hopefully we see them recover in the coming months.
The teams in relegation territory still have a few months to catch up. IESE ProCycling is going down swinging by improving two months in a row, can we see an ever bigger improvement next june? Just like Brendon Urie, DeNA Roadstars needs to find some way to make them relevant again. Will they find their Taylor Swift to get in the spotlight once again, or are they they doomed to go into the House of Memories?
TEAM RANKINGS: Overview
Pos
Last
Team
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Total
RD
PpRD
Proj
1
1
Specialized
270
451
521
419
164
1825
86
21,22
3459
2
8
DK Zalgiris
228
117
536
286
482
1649
71
23,23
3786
3
13
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
236
28
438
391
553
1646
102
16,14
2631
4
2
Ekoi - Le Creuset
313
200
686
295
146
1640
80
20,5
3342
5
3
Bolt - Eesti
321
110
682
300
223
1636
88
18,59
3030
6
4
Assa Abloy
443
307
327
237
171
1485
82
18,11
2952
7
7
MOL Cycling Team
558
5
504
160
252
1479
92
16,08
2621
8
5
Hunter Valley Cycling
234
170
245
610
203
1462
82
17,83
2906
9
9
Minions
321
94
235
516
230
1396
90
15,51
2528
10
12
Lotto-Caloi
398
264
271
171
291
1395
90
15,5
2527
11
14
McCormick Pro Cycling
242
27
604
179
272
1324
98
13,51
2202
12
6
Tryg - Eni
475
61
363
329
92
1320
79
16,71
2724
13
10
Trans Looney Tunes
241
275
416
202
140
1274
78
16,33
2662
14
16
Spark Team NZ
600
7
52
113
438
1210
85
14,24
2321
15
11
Bralirwa - Cegeka
131
359
456
178
72
1196
86
13,91
2267
16
15
Duvel-Tsingtao
209
193
250
380
71
1103
90
12,26
1998
17
19
Zwift - Newton Foundation
124
113
338
133
326
1034
83
12,46
2031
18
17
JEWA TIROL
125
157
238
228
200
948
78
12,15
1980
19
18
Everesting
396
130
174
28
173
901
88
10,24
1669
20
21
Sauber Petronas Racing
343
53
123
38
268
825
91
9,07
1478
21
22
Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh
74
54
117
221
263
729
75
9,72
1584
22
20
Colombini Kometa
37
21
403
147
103
711
73
9,74
1588
23
23
IESE ProCycling Team
51
43
44
158
272
568
96
5,92
965
24
24
DeNA Roadstars
5
11
82
54
3
155
75
2,07
337
TEAM RANKINGS: May
Pos
Last
Team
Total
Tropicale Bongo
Balkans International
ToME
ToAm
ToLux
Isle of Man
Paris Tours
Rheden
ToBat
1
1
Specialized
1825
73
0
0
0
0
0
15
76
0
2
8
DK Zalgiris
1649
0
219
0
0
7
0
140
9
107
3
13
Gjensidige PCT
1646
54
0
0
431
0
0
50
18
0
4
2
Ekoi - Le Creuset
1640
20
20
0
0
0
0
10
96
0
5
3
Bolt - Eesti
1636
15
69
0
0
0
0
87
0
52
6
4
Assa Abloy
1485
51
78
0
22
0
0
5
0
15
7
7
MOL CT
1479
58
59
0
0
0
0
135
0
0
8
5
Hunter Valley Cycling
1462
82
0
0
0
0
0
107
0
14
9
9
Minions
1396
206
0
0
0
0
0
0
10
14
10
12
Lotto-Caloi
1395
7
87
0
161
0
0
36
0
0
11
14
McCormick PC
1324
2
73
0
187
0
0
10
0
0
12
6
Tryg - Eni
1320
5
63
0
0
24
0
0
0
0
13
10
Trans Looney Tunes
1274
0
51
6
0
3
0
38
42
0
14
16
Spark Team NZ
1210
239
0
39
139
0
0
11
0
10
15
11
Bralirwa - Cegeka
1196
0
0
0
0
0
0
18
54
0
16
15
Duvel-Tsingtao
1103
0
55
0
0
0
0
0
0
16
17
19
Zwift - Newton Foundation
1034
66
0
23
221
0
0
0
7
9
18
17
JEWA TIROL
948
70
68
0
0
0
4
12
0
46
19
18
Everesting
901
0
23
0
47
0
0
103
0
0
20
21
Sauber Petronas Racing
825
18
131
0
112
0
0
7
0
0
21
22
Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh
729
0
54
0
199
0
0
10
0
0
22
20
Colombini Kometa
711
86
0
0
0
0
0
10
7
0
23
23
IESE PCT
568
0
79
0
177
0
0
0
14
2
24
24
DeNA Roadstars
155
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
After a great Tropicale Amissa BongoCoquard took the first spot from Benoot who didn't perform this month. Jorgenson and Lunke both had an amazing Tour of America and went up significantly in the rankings.
INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
Pos
Last
Rider
Nat
Team
Total
Tropicale Bongo
Balkans International
ToME
ToAm
ToLux
Isle of Man
Paris Tours
Rheden
ToBat
1
4
Bryan Coquard
FRA
Spark Team NZ
577
109
0
0
0
0
0
11
0
0
2
2
Elie Gesbert
FRA
Assa Abloy
542
0
68
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
5
Neilson Powless
USA
Colombini Kometa
538
86
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
1
Tiesj Benoot
BEL
MOL
529
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
3
Biniam Girmay
ERI
Bralirwa - Cegeka
522
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
50
0
6
14
Matteo Jorgenson
USA
Zwift - Newton
501
0
0
0
203
0
0
0
0
0
7
8
Caleb Ewan
AUS
MOL
493
52
0
0
0
0
0
82
0
0
8
6
Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz
POL
Specialized
471
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
60
0
9
7
Ruben Zepuntke
GER
Ekoi - Le Creuset
452
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
90
0
10
21
Alexey Lutsenko
KAZ
DK Zalgiris
428
0
198
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
11
11
Barnabas Peak
HUN
Bolt - Eesti
385
0
0
0
0
0
0
61
0
0
12
28
Sondre Holst Enger
NOR
Gjensidige
363
49
0
0
61
0
0
45
0
0
13
9
Rokas Kmieliauskas
LTU
DK Zalgiris
358
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
14
10
Lucas Manuel Gaday
ARG
Hunter Valley
357
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
12
15
12
Mathieu Van der Poel
NED
Bolt - Eesti
354
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
37
16
50
Sindre Skjostad Lunke
NOR
Gjensidige
341
0
0
0
195
0
0
0
0
0
17
29
Marc Hirschi
SWI
Sauber Petronas
323
0
116
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
18
13
Odd Christian Eiking
NOR
Gjensidige
315
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
19
25
Giorgi Tediashvili
GEO
DK Zalgiris
314
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
100
20
15
Aidan Van Niekerk
RSA
Minions
284
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Under the spoiler you can find all the other individual rankings for the cyclists who have any amount of points!
We did have quite a strong May but we are still sat in the drop zone, but as long as we just keep dreaming then little by little we can end up on the edge, just got to hope we don't fall apart.
Although not our best scoring month in total, we had a solid PPRD which projects us on the brink of the Top 5. Time to lock in for the months ahead!
Gaday 14th as our best suggests that Storer (42nd), Conci (44th), Jakobsen (48th) and Shikai (243rd!!!) have their best behind them still. Especially Shikai who has only raced twice for 8 RDs so far.
Having started the season being concerned about relegation, I definitely didn't expect safety to be almost assured by the end of May
Not a brilliant month for us, but not a terrible one either. I suspect our scoring won't improve much from here barring some surprise performances, as with the exception of Benelux there aren't really any races I'd hope for more than a top 10 from between now and the end of the season. That being said, if Peak can continue to perform as he has then we may pick up a good amount of points in his PTHC races to come.
I would expect that Assa Abloy, MOL and Hunter Valley will overtake us from here, but would hope we can overtake Gjensidige. Can't see us catching Specialized or Zalgiris, so I guess 6th or 7th is the aim, depending on how Ekoi do. Given our roster construction with a quarter of our cap spent on a Level 1 talent, that would feel like a great result even if it didn't result in promotion.
Hard to look at the individual standings knowing that in an alternate universe I could of had #3 and #5 alongside #6. Hurts. But hopefully we can avoid relegation this season and keep building toward that.
Thanks for the update, Ula! I can't say I get all the references even though they've been highlighted (mainly because I'm old ), but it's always cool to see new people getting more involved and bring in new approaches!
In the end the month hasn't been as bad for us as it has felt, mainly due to Ruben getting us some nice points in Rheden. We'll see if he's able to make it a nice 500 in the end, although he probably only has Benelux as a real scoring opportunity left. Apart from that it's good to still sit in this tight bunch from 2nd to 5th, especially with still having among the fewest RDs already used. And while we still need some nice performances and favourable startlists to stay up there, it does look like this should be possible. On the other side it's a bit worrying that all four relegated teams are right behind us and well within reach.
But in general it's like jph stated for his team: just being in the mix with a major lvl. 1 talent in the roster is already a great result.
Thanks for the update! One very good, two expected low-points and one shocker is enough to keep our position as is, so there's still room and time to climb up the rankings. Equally with how close things are we could tumble down again
Still very open without any teams really pounding away at the top. Still really happy to see Specialized at the top, and with a realistic chance of promotion. Would be fun :-)
