@redordead - And it's only August. I'm so ahead of schedule this year

@kandesbunzler - Have you ever read one of my posts? The relegation fear will continue until mathematical safety

baseballlover312 wrote:
I guess will January just over there's a long season ahead to see where you end up!

February is a huge month for every Pro Tour team, with the triple header providing a large amount of points on offer and forcing nearly every rider in the division into action, while later in the month we get the first monument of the year in Italy. There's also apparently a TTT event, but we're pretty sure that's an exhibition parade and doesn't giev any actual rankings points.


The triple-header began with Tirreno-Adriatico, this year the mountainous option of the two February stage races as per the rotation. As such it provides the Xero debut of Daan Olivier, though if you watched the race you may not have been aware of this occurrence. A very quiet and slightly underwhelming (though it was a quality startlist) 11th for our Dutch Champion who didn't really get to show off the jersey - a true "best of the rest" performance as he was four minutes adrift of 10th place, and didn't achieve a stage Top 10 either. Roman Lutsyshyn was the highlight, continuing his streak of always doing something with a 2nd place on Stage 2.


Paris-Nice was a chance for Thomas Pidcock to shine in what has unexpectedly sort of become his specialty - the one-week stage race. He wasn't happy with his 14th place in Portugal, having finished on the Top 3 last year, and was hoping to return to the podium in the triple header, having done so in Italy last season. It was a quiet first half of the race for him and the rest of the team, but we leapt into life on Stage 5, as Mateo Frankovic took the KoM lead from the breakaway. Pidcock tried a couple of attacks but nothing was on and it would be a sprint finish he was too tired to truly compete in.


We were slightly worried at this point with many opportunities to gain time or stage victories in the first half of the race were left wanting, but Pidcock put the reserved energy to great use on Stage 6's hilly circuit. We thought of showing a screenshot of all of his four or five attacks, but one at the bottom of the final climb from a select group of escapees was the one which proved decisive, giving him the stage win and a small GC lead with an ITT and a final hilly stage to go. We feared it wouldn't be enough work done going into the ITT, but while you're in yellow you're never truly out.


In the end it was an average showing from Tommy P, losing 1'45 to stage and new race leader Dunbar, putting him 7th on GC heading into the final stage.


However it was, in the words of the commentator, "a rather lame last stage", which resulted in a sprint finish. The team got a 2-3 behind winner Guerreiro, however it was once again Pidcock's leadout who finished ahead of our leader - this time team legend Hugo Houle proving he still has it. We really must work on Pidcock overtaking his leadouts. Luckily here it didn't cost him any GC placings, as his bonus seconds lifted him from 7th to 5th on GC. Not what we or he wanted, but given everybody from 1st to 11th was a time triallist, a pretty good showing. We won't say where his rival Vansevenant finished, for reasons that will become clear soon.

Meanwhile Mateo Frankovic had held on to his KoM lead (not through any actual effort or further scoring), for our first KoM jersey win since 2021! A pretty poor stat but a streak we're happy to break - just our seventh ever and only our third from breakaways since 2017. What can we say, when our team-building tactic for many years was "have a leader in every race", we haven't always had room to chase breakaway points!


Last but certainly not least for us in the triple header was the Classique du Grand-Duché, the first race of the year for our main man Joseph Areruya, and a first chance for the puncheurs to step into the ring together. Last year Areruya beat Lopez to the prestigious title of coming 2nd behind Herklotz - on paper that's a result we should be happy to take again, but in reality none of those three ever leave happy with less than the top step of the podium.


However, none of them would get that honour, as perhaps not for the first time they were more concerned with each other than a credible threat up the road - in this case, our former rider (and winner of that most recent previous KoM) Sergio Higuita, who we did enjoy seeing taking the biggest win of his career so far. In the sprint for second Herklotz was a clear winner, however the final step of the podium went to Champoussin, with a photo finish required to separate Areruya and Lopez, eventually ruling in the Rwandan's favour by a tire's width. It doesn't quite make up for the World Championships, but every bit counts.


[INSERT COMMENT ABOUT THE TTT BEFORE PUBLISHING]


The month finished with Milano - Sanremo, a huge race for us and for all the cycling world, as Thomas Pidcock looked to defend his crown on the Italian Riviera. It's no secret we at Xero have a special affinity for Italian racing, and our first-ever monument victory is a huge part of that.

Unlike last year, no opportunity for a move came on the Poggio, and so it was on the descent that Pidcock, possibly the best in the peloton going downhill, decided to do anything possible to avoid a sprint. Tesfaye Herin used his knowledge of the local roads to also make the selection of 10, while the aforementioned Vansevenant lurked, also with a teammate. Our sprint leader Vermeersch waited near the front of the peloton, ready if a catch was made.


No catch was made and Pidcock put in a herculean effort to sprint after failing to shake any of his companions in the final kilometres, forced to lead out. And benefitting from that leadout was none other than Mauri Vansevenant, taking his first ever monument victory at Pidcock's expense, while the Brit settled for fourth - an unsettling trend of narrowly missing the podium this month taken to its ultimate conclusion.

Tesfaye was a career-highlight in seventh, while Vermeersch was sixth among the sprinters for 16th on the day - all together combining for a fantastic race for us, despite our disappointment in missing the victory. We must congratulate Vansevenant - while it is developing into one of the Pro Tour's most sumptuous and competitive rivalries on the bike, it's a cordial one off it and much like Areruya and Lopez there's few riders we'd rather see win, especially given Mauri's positive and aggressive racing. Chapeau - and here's to many more Sanremo wins between them!

We just passed on the trophy to his parents, because we're not sure how happy he was with the missed podiums, but it's hard to deny...

1		Rabobank	1655
2		King Power	1433
3		EA Vesuvio	1379
4		Aker - MOT	1312
5		Indosat Ooredoo	1309
...
9		Xero Racing	1159

Still not where we want to be after 18 days of Pidcock in three of his biggest races of the year as well as season starts for Areruya and Olivier, but far from disastrous yet as we rise from 19th to 9th.

March's schedule was a little lighter, beginning with another huge race for Pidcock in the Netherlands before three cobbled races where Florian Vermeersch would make his leadership debut for the team.


Stage 1 of the Ronde van Nederland saw us narrowly lose to a Yates brother. Add it to the ever-growing list.


Stage 2 saw a big attack from Lopez in the closing kilometres, but Pidcock weathered the storm and comfortably took the stage win with a huge acceleration inside the final kilometre, nobody else having his combination of freshness after the hills and pure speed in a sprint. Our man took the GC lead into the final day, and was in pole position for the victory.


The team, in particular local lads De Kleijn and Tesfaye Heuvel, did good work controlling the peloton on the final stage, but it was not an attack but poor sprint positioning that cost Pidcock the GC win. Yates would reclaim the yellow and green jerseys and Pidcock would have to settle for 2nd in both.


Over the border in Flanders for the E3 Prijs Novardianto got to enjoy a rare return to his true self, driving the morning breakaway clear. Behind, Vermeersch's first true test of leadership was a quiet and slightly disappointing 20th, missing out on the last major split among the favourites.


A similarly tough time followed in Gabon, finishing 23rd in the two-day Franceville Classique.


Pidcock and Vermeersch shared leadership in the second monument of the season, the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Two quite different races, with Vermeersch constantly dropped and rejoining while Pidcock was only dropped once but dropped for good. In the end the Brit was slightly better finishing, 17th to the Belgian's 21st, finishing together once again in the second major group, and once again a slight disappointment.

Only two riders really got the chance to shine here, and while neither came out with what they wanted one had a bit more to show for it...

10. Team legend Hugo Houle returns to Xero and puts in a fine shift at age 35, with 150 points and two memorable stage podiums at Paris-Nice and the Balkans International.

9. Joseph Areruya finishes third at the Giro di Lombardia, pipping rivals Fastned to the final spot in the Top 10 (the manager thought this accomplished the team’s Rankings Goal - it later turned out to be a Top 5 Goal) and Miguel Angel Lopez to 4th in the rankings.

8. New signing Dylan Redy takes his maiden career victory, leading out Thomas Pidcock at the Volta a Portugal too well and beating future teammate Rune Herregodts to the line. Honorable mention to Roman Lutsyshyn taking his first Xero victory and our first of the season the day before.

7. Jamalidin Novardianto animates and so nearly wins the B World Road Race, launching the winning move and finishing third in a heartbreaking sprint finish. Echoes of a similar day in the U23 race in Krakow 2016.

6. TIED - Daniel Paulus and James Fouche take breakaway victories at the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France respectively - the former went a second away from pink, the latter began an outside KoM campaign where he ended 4th. With all love to former Xero GT stage winner Sergio Higuita, it was also very impressive that Fouche beat his former teammate to get this victory!

5. Joseph Areruya changes the narrative on a largely disappointing Vuelta a Espana with a heroic Stage 20 victory, vaulting onto the GC podium with a multi-minute raid - the first GT podium in team history (beating Bennett’s 4th at the 2023 Giro d’Italia). With the context of the three minutes needed at the start of the day, and the dominance of the solo ride away on the penultimate climb, a sure contender for the best ride in Xero history. A signature moment?

4. Daan Olivier wins on Mont Ventoux to get back into the GC fight at the Tour de France, moving from a lowly 21st back into the Top 10 with a fantastic win on one of cycling's greatest stages. A lovely day in the sun for the Dutch champion.

3. Florian Vermeersch takes his maiden career victory with a stunning solo ride to upset the favourites at the Tour of the Battenkill. A disappointing classics season outside of this in his first year of true leadership, but nobody can deny the way he rode away from Mads Pedersen purely off of his own strength, beating the Dane by two and a half minutes by the finish. For that day, he looked like the world-beater we know he can become.

2. Xero Racing win the first Team Classification in team history… at the Tour de France! Olivier (7th GC, Stage Win), Blums (19th GC), Fouche (32nd GC, 4th KoM, Stage Win), Martin (41st GC), Martinez (48th GC), Dzhus (64th GC), Novardianto (Many transitional where he stopped us losing time...), and Lutsyshyn (2nd on a Stage) all contributed on multiple days with stage hunting and breakaways galore, in addition to supporting Olivier’s GC ambitions.

1. Joseph Areruya takes his second Monument victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. That's our man. Enough said.

@Croatia - A lot of season to pack into one post after I made full posts for the months without our biggest highlights

@redordead - "Fashionably late" - I like your way of putting it Definitely time to celebrate a memorable season and a wonderful first 10 years - but work on the next 10 starts soon...

@knockout - Glad you enjoyed him, glad to have him arrive with title experience! Given the amount I saw him beat us when reviewing our season, probably good we're going to get those points now