We ended last month on a down, dropping places in the rankings and edging closer to the relegation zone instead of the promotion zone. We have a lot of races this month over a wide range of levels, but mostly contained to either a hilly race where Van Niekerk can for once not disappoint us, and our most trusted source of points for now: C2 cobbles.

GP Herning

We start the month with a similar race to where we concluded the last, one of those C2 cobble races that seem to be our main source of points so far. With Boros fresh off his win in Belgium, expectations were high, but given the lack of uphill cobbles in Denmark we instead focused on De Witte. That paid off, as after a breakaway from Predatsch and a smokescreen attack from Boros, De Witte sprinted himself to third place. The Czech also managed to sneak inside the top ten after his efforts.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Nipuna Shira Manamalage	Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh	4h15'01
3	Mathias De Witte	Minions	+ 31
10	Michael Boros	Minions	+ 1'42
41	Luca Dressler	Minions	+ 8'41
79	Kevin Predatsch	Minions	+ 17'35
82	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	+ 18'25
86	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	+ 19'47
123	Enzo Paleni	Minions	+ 31'57
127	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	+ 37'30

Rating:

Badaling International

The Bananaling International contains a lot of climbing, but not truly delving into the mountainous, an ideal race for Van Niekerk it would seem. After a lot of unconvincing performances, the South African was determined to make the most of this race and initiated the race winning move with his attack 20 to go. The race winning move for Johannessen that was, whom rode away at the same time. Eiking was the other rider part of that attack and despite people caching up later, these three would make the podium, with Van Niekerk behind the Scandinavians. Still, a podium is a very good result and definitely his best of the season, hopefully leading to an upward trajectory.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Tobias Halland Johannessen	Tryg - Eni	5h14'29
3	Aidan Van Niekerk	Minions	s.t.
48	Einer Augusto Rubio	Minions	+ 3'32
53	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Minions	+ 4'48
81	Andris Vosekalns	Minions	+ 6'58
96	Salim Kipkemboi	Minions	+ 8'37
130	Dayer Quintana	Minions	+ 12'41
161	Luca Dressler	Minions	+ 19'30
165	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	+ 22'15

Rating:

Tour de Pologne

A prologue, two flat stages and four hilly stages define the race in Poland. Faith in Van Niekerk has been restored since the previous race, and Kalaba is also due a good result. Our prologue specialist Jiang opened the race with a tenth place, which three riders manage to better in the uphill finish of stage two: Cepeda Hernandez sixth, Kipkemboi fourth and Van Niekerk third. Kalaba just missed the top ten on the next stage, but we were still celebrating with alumni Major winning the stage for our friends over at Podium Ambition. The Serbian bounced back with a fourth place at the next roll call. Contrary to stage two, on stage five it was only Van Niekerk in the front group, and another placing in the front group despite a failed attack on stage six had elevated him to fifth in the GC. On the final stage he once again went into the offensive, was part of the first group heading towards the line and took third place this time, the bonus seconds unfortunately not enough to gain a place in the GC. Overall, Van Niekerk's best stage race of the season and the second sign he is back in form!

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Neilson Powless	Colombini Kometa	26h32'35
5	Aidan Van Niekerk	Minions	+ 42
55	Dusan Kalaba	Minions	+ 26'07
60	Salim Kipkemboi	Minions	+ 32'51
62	Dayer Quintana	Minions	+ 33'11
73	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Minions	+ 39'13
110	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	+ 59'55
129	Zhihui Jiang	Minions	+ 1h08'32
186	Faycal Hamza	Minions	+ 1h46'45

Rating:

Tour of Slovenia

Traditionally Slovenia is a race where we can only target individual stages but not the GC, and this year is no different. Kalaba for the sprint opportunity, Van Niekerk for the slightly tougher stages and Bjerg against the clock, but with a TTT as well there is no way we'll see any of them at the top. The goal of winning a stage was already achieved after one day, with Kalaba edging out Alben on a photo finish! He lost the race lead after the team event the next day, but twelfth wasn't that bad and gave us some hope Bjerg could have a GC if he survived the hillier stages. He ws in the front group on the first one, but was dropped on the second one and losing nine minutes and all hope. Van Niekerk also failed to finish in a points-paying position, rendering his participation in this race unnecessary. But between the both of them we also had Paillot, who lost time on day one but allowed him to get into the breakaway on stage four, and with the break making it to the finish line (him taking seventh) he suddenly had a favorable position heading into the final time trial, fifteenth with a skillset better suited than many ahead of him. Even though 39th on the stage doesn't sound amazing, it was a lot better than many ahead of him and brought him to a final eighth in the GC as well as the "What the hell is a polar bear doing in the Tour de Slovenia GC top ten" award. Where the leaders (but Kalaba) disappointed, the Frenchman stepped up!

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Tom Wirtgen	EA Vesuvio	13h00'43
8	Yoann Paillot	Minions	+ 5'15
32	Mikkel Bjerg	Minions	+ 10'35
38	Aidan Van Niekerk	Minions	+ 11'02
63	Dusan Kalaba	Minions	+ 15'29
86	Jhonatan Casillas	Minions	+ 22'47
183	Faycal Hamza	Minions	+ 48'40
188	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	+ 56'53
189	Kevin Predatsch	Minions	+ 1h00'30

Rating:

Tour du Faso

One of the most difficult races in the world of cycling is the Tour du Faso, and we deliberately participate here for our mandatory C2 races because it contains cobbles, and Boros and De Witte have both shown to be very competent against lesser competition. In the first stage we tried to go for maximum confusion by sending Boros up in the break along with Dressler, but it only ended up sabotaging the Czech's chanches. De Witte was in the front group at the finish line, one of the few with energy to sprint and and the only allowed one to raise his hands when crossing the line. Another opening stage victory! The second stage avoided all the horrible roads and ended in a bunch sprint, but for the third one it was back to back pain and lost teeth. De Witte felt he hadn't recovered amazingly from stage one and like his teammate tried to go for confusion by attacking instead of waiting. It was super uneffective. Rolling over the line in eighteenth, nearly four minutes from winner Richardson, he lost the GC and finished outside the top ten. How much we wished this was just a one-day classic like all the other C2 outings. Boros was nowhere to be found near the top of the GC, and Gomez and Paleni where not found at all as they never crossed the line on the final stage. They might still be stuck in the jungle somewhere.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Chequan Richardson	Podium Ambition	9h02'49
13	Mathias De Witte	Minions	+ 3'46
27	Michael Boros	Minions	+ 14'43
57	Luca Dressler	Minions	+ 32'22
60	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	+ 37'07
70	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	+ 43'58
87	Kevin Predatsch	Minions	+ 53'53
	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	DNF
	Enzo Paleni	Minions	DNF

Rating:

GP Wallonie

The Citadelle de Namur is by no means easy, but peanuts compared to the roads in Faso. In this hilly C1 race, Casillas was part of the unsuccessful breakaway, Kipkemboi had an unsuccessful attack and Van Niekerk was unsuccessful in general. The South African never placed an attack or played a part in the final sprint, rolling over the line in fourteenth behind the favorites who did partake in the dash to the line. We had hoped to see the Van Niekerk of China or Poland but instead we got the Van Niekerk of Slovenia.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Aurelien Paret-Peintre	Ekoi - Le Creuset	4h23'35
14	Aidan Van Niekerk	Minions	+ 33
26	Andris Vosekalns	Minions	+ 2'02
45	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Minions	+ 2'54
79	Salim Kipkemboi	Minions	+ 5'05
128	Dayer Quintana	Minions	+ 10'06
155	Jhonatan Casillas	Minions	+ 11'33
156	Zhihui Jiang	Minions	s.t.
169	Faycal Hamza	Minions	+ 12'11

Rating:

Lincoln GP

The third of four C2 cobblestone races this month, and after a good one and a mixed one we sure want another good one, and after paying some NGOs to recover Gomez and Paleni we immediately trigger the PTSS again by selecting them for another cobblestone race. For once we shook up the tactics once more with no one in the break, Ndungu attacking mid race to create some spice and De Witte sacrificing himself to get back a bunch of escapees. This all lead to Boros being part of the cobbled uphill sprint, using all his experience from Geraardsbergen and the other teams once again having no answer. Win number two in the C2, win number two for Boros!

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Michael Boros	Minions	3h43'37
15	Mathias De Witte	Minions	+ 2'11
53	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	+ 7'03
65	Luca Dressler	Minions	+ 8'28
68	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	s.t.
138	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	+ 14'04
147	Kevin Predatsch	Minions	+ 16'53
157	Enzo Paleni	Minions	+ 26'42

Rating:

Lisbon Classic

Normally this race clashes with the most important race in the world: Veenendaal - Veenendaal. This year we snubbed the organizers and only go to Portugal to bring our lead sprinter for the first time, which happens to be the secondary sprinter from last year and the same guy who went here before anyway: Kalaba. We decided Ndungu should be a late addition to the break, which was doomed to begin with anyway. The change in title for the Serbian did not yield a better result, as he failed to improve on his ninth from last year. Instead, he could only achieve twentieth place, the only point of light that it was sixth amongst the sprinters who were not awake to the attacks happening in the finale. We'll just go back to Veenendaal next season.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Sergey Medvedev	Specialized	4h47'13
20	Dusan Kalaba	Minions	s.t.
101	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Minions	+ 2'24
119	Salim Kipkemboi	Minions	s.t.
135	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	s.t.
139	Luca Dressler	Minions	s.t.
147	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	s.t.
150	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	s.t.
179	Enzo Paleni	Minions	+ 7'00

Rating:

Dwars door Vlaanderen

The final race of the month is also our final C2 race of the season, and takes us back to Flanders. A lack of major hills meant we once again played the De Witte card over the Boros card. An attack with Scotson twelve kilometer out was quickly thwarted, unlike a later attack by Richardson who once again achieved the ambition of a podium and defended the pride of C2 teams by winning in their own division. Behind him it was De Witte who had not wasted all his energy in the attack and sprinted to the runner-up position, concluding a very successful C2 campaign from our two cobblestone enthusiasts. We scored a lot of points which might eventually be the difference between promoting or not promotion, or not relegating instead of relegating.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Chequan Richardson	Podium Ambition	4h30'39
2	Mathias De Witte	Minions	+ 17
16	Michael Boros	Minions	+ 1'22
45	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	+ 3'03
53	Luca Dressler	Minions	+ 3'38
119	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	+ 10'45
135	Kevin Predatsch	Minions	+ 12'55
146	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	+ 16'09
148	Enzo Paleni	Minions	s.t.

Rating:

Rankings

It was a good month for us. We scored a relatively huge amount in C2 races, and Van Niekerk was the tied second-highest scorer of the month despite two weaker races. Unsurprisingly it causes us to rise some places, but rising seven places back into the top at ninth is a welcome sight. We know that in PPRD some teams behind us have a better forecast, but hypothetical points are not real points. Individually Van Niekerk remains our highest scorer to no ones surprise, but also enters the top of the individual classification in fifteenth. De Witte is now our second-best scorer just outside the top thirty, and also the leader when it comes to points per wage. Boros is fifth in that classification and third amongst ours, once again showing how profitable our C2 campaign has been. Also some applause for Kalaba and Paillot entering the individual top 100 with some good results this month. Finally, we want to express our disappointment in Bjerg's current position and demand improvements in the coming month.

Pos	Last		Team	Total	RD	PpRD	Proj
1	1		Specialized	1661	77	21,57	3516
2	2		Ekoi - Le Creuset	1494	65	22,98	3746
3	3		Bolt - Eesti	1413	73	19,36	3156
4	4		Assa Abloy	1314	53	24,79	4041
5	17		Hunter Valley Cycling	1259	73	17,25	2812
6	9		Tryg - Eni	1228	64	19,19	3128
7	5		MOL Cycling Team	1227	79	15,53	2531
8	10		DK Zalgiris	1167	55	21,22	3459
9	16		Minions	1166	79	14,76	2406
10	8		Trans Looney Tunes	1134	60	18,9	3081
11	6		Bralirwa - Cegeka	1124	82	13,71	2235
12	7		Lotto-Caloi	1104	63	17,52	2856
13	12		Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	1093	77	14,19	2313
14	11		McCormick Pro Cycling	1052	71	14,82	2416
15	15		Duvel-Tsingtao	1032	80	12,9	2103
16	14		Spark Team NZ	772	58	13,31	2170
17	19		JEWA TIROL	748	61	12,26	1998
18	13		Everesting	728	66	11,03	1798
19	18		Zwift - Newton Foundation	708	54	13,11	2137
20	21		Colombini Kometa	608	60	10,13	1651
21	20		Sauber Petronas Racing	557	64	8,7	1418
22	22		Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh	466	53	8,79	1433
23	23		IESE ProCycling Team	296	70	4,23	689
24	24		DeNA Roadstars	152	66	2,3	375

Pos	Last	Rider	Nat		Team	Total Points
1	3	Tiesj Benoot	BEL		MOL Cycling Team	529
15	44	Aidan Van Niekerk	RSA		Minions	284
32	56	Mathias De Witte	BEL		Minions	203
62	89	Michael Boros	CZE		Minions	121
68	47	Xhuliano Kamberaj	ALB		Minions	110
77	152	Dusan Kalaba	SER		Minions	98
82	193	Yoann Paillot	FRA		Minions	95
90	65	Rafael Reis	POR		Minions	88
117	88	Salim Kipkemboi	KEN		Minions	62
153	153	Mikkel Bjerg	DEN		Minions	37
179	140	Einer Augusto Rubio	COL		Minions	29
216	216	Andris Vosekalns	LAT		Minions	17
219	199	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	ECU		Minions	16
343	363	Jhonatan Casillas	MEX		Minions	3
371	336	Luca Dressler	GER		Minions	2
397	364	Zhihui Jiang	CHN		Minions	1

The last months contained a lot of races, but in the month of May we only partake in eight racedays spread over four races. Our traditional non-participation in the Tour of America is causing this discrepancy, but we'll make the most of the races we are in.

La Tropicale Amissa Bongo

Two short time trials and three flat stages, plenty for us to be happy about. Bjerg is good against the clock regardless, Paillot is on form after Slovenia and the distances might be favorable to Jiang, and besides sprinting Kalaba ain't too shabby over short distances either. All of them finished in the top twenty on the prologue, with Bjerg fastest amongst them and everyone else. His GC lead would be gone after day two as the sprinters amassed bonus seconds, of which we hoped Kalaba could benefit. The contrary happened though as the Serbian could not finish higher than tenth. The Dane needed to overcome a 35 second deficit to Coquard on the final day which seemed like a tough ask, but a weaker ride from the Frenchman compared to Bjerg's second place was enough to overtake him, but Howson managed to win the stage by six seconds which was the exact inverse of the loss he had on the first stage. After some millisecond calculation and jury deliberation the GC victory was awarded to: Mikkel Bjerg! His first ever GC victory in his young career and our first GC victory of the season. Paillot concluded the race in eighth, and combined with the others it also gave us the win in the teams classification. What an amazing start of the month!

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Mikkel Bjerg	Minions	9h10'53
8	Yoann Paillot	Minions	+ 11
32	Faycal Hamza	Minions	+ 39
35	Zhihui Jiang	Minions	+ 43
38	[b]Dusan Kalaba	Minions	+ 46
47	Enzo Paleni	Minions	+ 55
109	Luca Dressler	Minions	+ 2'01
167	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	+ 3'12

Rating:

Paris Tours

The second race of the month is the last one where we expect (a reasonable amount of) points. It's the flat Paris - Tours, aiming for a good result from Kamberaj in the sprint. We had Ndungu in the break to get out of chasing duties, but we had no answer for the attacks by the flat specialists ruining the sprint. Varga won this way, with the sprinters left to battle for second. Some sprinters that is, because in all the attacking Kamberaj managed to get left behind and finished in 62nd, over a minute behind the front group. Suddenly we are looking at three zero-pointers this month.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Peter Varga	DK Zalgiris	5h14'04
62	Xhuliano Kamberaj	Minions	+ 1'17
64	Zhihui Jiang	Minions	s.t.
80	Mathias De Witte	Minions	s.t.
96	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	+ 1'58
97	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	s.t.
98	Enzo Paleni	Minions	s.t.
142	Luca Dressler	Minions	s.t.
172	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	+ 4'33

Rating:

Tour of the Battenkill

The first of two clashing cobblestone races, and since this seems to be tougher of the two we send Boros to the States with Dressler as young apprentice number two for the breakaway. The former was never really in the picture, but with the other teams also split over two races a lesser amount of big favorites meant riding his own pace resulted in a eighteenth place, scoring fourteen points equivalent to an eighth place in C2. If it was C2 it would be disappointing, but in PTHC it is amazing.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Florian Vermeersch	Xero Racing	5h20'40
18	Michael Boros	Minions	+ 6'11
68	Luca Dressler	Minions	+ 16'06
99	Einer Augusto Rubio	Minions	+ 21'21
134	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	+ 29'48
152	Salim Kipkemboi	Minions	+ 35'42
162	Dayer Quintana	Minions	+ 42'44
173	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	+ 47'05
180	Enzo Paleni	Minions	+ 51'11

Rating:

Rheden GP

Over in the Netherlands we have De Witte with Ndungu. Similarly the younger one went into the breakaway, but the Belgian could not resist his traditional mid-stage attack which like always led nowhere. It even went as far as making him finish behind the Kenyan, which might seem like a bad thing, but when the Kenyan finishes 24th and the Belgian 34th, for a combined ten points, it doesn't sound that bad.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Patrick Gamper	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	4h10'18
24	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	+ 45
34	Mathias De Witte	Minions	+ 2'06
111	Zhihui Jiang	Minions	+ 8'17
122	Kevin Predatsch	Minions	+ 10'40
140	Yoann Paillot	Minions	+ 13'12
150	Jhonatan Casillas	Minions	+ 14'43
153	Faycal Hamza	Minions	+ 21'03
154	Andris Vosekalns	Minions	s.t.

Rating:

Rankings

One superb race of the month, two slightly above expectations low scoring races and a disappointing nil points, is enough to hold put in ninth place. We take that as a win, because it keeps us far away from relegation, in with a shot of promotion and with some high-expectation months still to come, we feel like we have a sprint in our legs (unlike Kamberaj in Paris - Tours). Individually Van Niekerk didn't race but keeps his individual lead, though De Witte and Bjerg have closed in a bit and a lot. Paillot also moves ahead of some riders who have not had a great season so far or are still to race a lot. Shoutout to Ndungu scoring the first points of his career. Here's to plenty more to come!

Pos	Last		Team	Total	RD	PpRD	Proj
1	1		Specialized	1825	86	21,22	3459
2	8		DK Zalgiris	1649	71	23,23	3786
3	13		Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	1646	102	16,14	2631
4	2		Ekoi - Le Creuset	1640	80	20,5	3342
5	3		Bolt - Eesti	1636	88	18,59	3030
6	4		Assa Abloy	1485	82	18,11	2952
7	7		MOL Cycling Team	1479	92	16,08	2621
8	5		Hunter Valley Cycling	1462	82	17,83	2906
9	9		Minions	1396	90	15,51	2528
10	12		Lotto-Caloi	1395	90	15,5	2527
11	14		McCormick Pro Cycling	1324	98	13,51	2202
12	6		Tryg - Eni	1320	79	16,71	2724
13	10		Trans Looney Tunes	1274	78	16,33	2662
14	16		Spark Team NZ	1210	85	14,24	2321
15	11		Bralirwa - Cegeka	1196	86	13,91	2267
16	15		Duvel-Tsingtao	1103	90	12,26	1998
17	19		Zwift - Newton Foundation	1034	83	12,46	2031
18	17		JEWA TIROL	948	78	12,15	1980
19	18		Everesting	901	88	10,24	1669
20	21		Sauber Petronas Racing	825	91	9,07	1478
21	22		Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh	729	75	9,72	1584
22	20		Colombini Kometa	711	73	9,74	1588
23	23		IESE ProCycling Team	568	96	5,92	965
24	24		DeNA Roadstars	155	75	2,07	337

Pos	Last	Rider	Nat		Team	Total Points
1	4	Bryan Coquard	FRA		Spark Team NZ	577
20	15	Aidan Van Niekerk	RSA		Minions	284
36	32	Mathias De Witte	BEL		Minions	205
39	153	Mikkel Bjerg	DEN		Minions	196
68	62	Michael Boros	CZE		Minions	135
72	82	Yoann Paillot	FRA		Minions	132
87	68	Xhuliano Kamberaj	ALB		Minions	110
93	77	Dusan Kalaba	SER		Minions	101
104	90	Rafael Reis	POR		Minions	88
139	117	Salim Kipkemboi	KEN		Minions	62
201	179	Einer Augusto Rubio	COL		Minions	29
245	216	Andris Vosekalns	LAT		Minions	17
251	219	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	ECU		Minions	16
303	492	Bernard Ndungu	KEN		Minions	8
364	397	Zhihui Jiang	CHN		Minions	4
374	497	Faycal Hamza	ALG		Minions	3
375	343	Jhonatan Casillas	MEX		Minions	3

With five months behind us we are now officially past the midway point of the season. The month of June brings us a total of seven races in America and Europe, with something for everyone but the cobblestone specialists, but they had their time to shine in the months before.

Tour of California

The month starts in the US of A, with Reis returning for only his second race of the season after a few months of hibernation. The race in California also contains short time trials and flat stages to be contended by Bjerg and Kalaba. The prologue was a tad disappointing with and eighth place for the Dane and fifteenth for the Serbian, the latter struck back by winning the second stage and with bonus seconds took the race lead. He kept the lead for one more day but in the hiller stages it was over and it was up to Reis and Rubio. In the only mountain stage of stage six we send Jiang and Vosekalns up ahead, the Latvian collecting some minor points. At the finish line the Portuguese was in the first big group of favorites and the Colombian just behind, placing them fourth and fourteenth heading into the final time trial. Reis with his skill gained one place to end on the podium, while Rubio with his lesser skills only losing one place in a stage where Bjerg sought revenge by finishing fourth. Overall a race with a lot of success, and some good motivation to carry on into the rest of the month.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Neilson Powless	Colombini Kometa	20h04'59
3	Rafael Reis	Minions	+ 41
15	Einer Augusto Rubio	Minions	+ 3'42
37	Dusan Kalaba	Minions	+ 14'07
43	Andris Vosekalns	Minions	+ 19'05
86	Yoann Paillot	Minions	+ 43'47
96	Mikkel Bjerg	Minions	+ 47'21
141	Zhihui Jiang	Minions	+ 1h05'49
177	Faycal Hamza	Minions	+ 1h26'10

Rating:

GP Moscow

From Russia with a Wildcard, no stress for no points. Unlike some of the other flat classics the attackers did not get the upper edge, and despite not being placed that greatly, Kamberaj sprinted to a decent tenth place. We wish we could get credited points for that.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Stylianos Farantakis	ELCO - ABEA	4h33'22
10	Xhuliano Kamberaj	Minions	s.t.
139	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	s.t.
158	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	s.t.
168	Aidan Van Niekerk	Minions	s.t.
172	Mathias De Witte	Minions	s.t.
179	Michael Boros	Minions	s.t.
182	Enzo Paleni	Minions	s.t.
185	Luca Dressler	Minions	s.t.

Rating:

Hanko Classic

A flat PTHC classic, we will do everything in our power to have it finish in a sprint for Kamberaj. We elected to send Ndungu in the break to gain experience, defer chasing duties and maybe hope for a shock breakaway win (spoiler: no). Like Moscow the attackers failed in their mission, Kamberaj was slightly better positioned but the end result was the same: tenth place. Not too bad, could have been better, could also have been worse.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Fernando Gaviria	Indosat Ooredoo	4h09'07
10	Xhuliano Kamberaj	Minions	s.t.
119	Mathias De Witte	Minions	s.t.
145	Jhonatan Casillas	Minions	s.t.
151	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	s.t.
153	Enzo Paleni	Minions	s.t.
155	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	s.t.
156	Luca Dressler	Minions	s.t.
178	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	s.t.

Rating:

Chrono des Herbiers

Another wildcard, this time for three of our stars against the clock to battle against the best of the best. However, with a clash in California Bjerg and Paillot are unavailable, so the trio of choice is Predatsch, Casillas and Ndungu. They finished 51st, 52nd and 72nd out of 72, with the Kenyan over 16 minutes behind winner Wirtgen and five minutes behind 71st placed Canal, but he got some valuable time trial practice under his belt and a lot of new fans.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Tom Wirtgen	EA Vesuvio	57'15
51	Kevin Predatsch	Minions	+ 3'26
52	Jhonatan Casillas	Minions	+ 3'29
72	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	+ 16'05

Rating:

Tour de Suisse

Tour de Suisse can be considered the Grand Tour of our season. it's only 1/3rd of the length, and is only classified as PTHC, but contains a lot of climbing. With Reis coming off a good California expectations were medium, given the strength of the race but we were hoping for a top ten. The race started with two flat stages in which lead sprinter Kamberaj finished seventh and eleventh, but on the fifth stage he took a podium place for a promising result. In the first tougher stage Reis stuck with the front group, but on the first mountain top finish he lost a considerable amount of time, which he couldn't recover in the time trial. The final mountain stage also resulted in more time loss. 26th place is not why we came here, and it's sad the highlights of the race were instead Kamberaj's aforementioned third place, and Paillot's eighth on the time trial.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Taylor Phinney	Fastned	27h14'56
26	Rafael Reis	Minions	+ 3'44
42	Einer Augusto Rubio	Minions	+ 7'11
49	Dayer Quintana	Minions	+ 9'20
52	Andris Vosekalns	Minions	+ 10'25
91	Yoann Paillot	Minions	+ 43'39
100	Jhonatan Casillas	Minions	+ 48'24
105	Xhuliano Kamberaj	Minions	+ 50'27
133	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	+ 1h10'59

Rating:

Berlin ProRace

After two tenth places in flat classics, we expect Kamberaj to place higher when the only competition is in our own division. He made it onto the Lotto train, which fell apart before the end so started sprinting from a very disadvantageous position. Seventeenth place is worse than what he achieved in PT and PTHC this month, and simply unacceptable if we want to push for promotion,

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Alberto Dainese	Assa Abloy	4h01'58
17	Xhuliano Kamberaj	Minions	s.t.
80	Luca Dressler	Minions	s.t.
91	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	s.t.
141	Enzo Paleni	Minions	+ 2'01
143	Zhihui Jiang	Minions	s.t.
145	Mathias De Witte	Minions	s.t.
148	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	s.t.
178	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	+ 3'46

Rating:

USA Pro Cycling Challenge

The month concludes in the same place we started, in the US of A, with three hilly stages contended by Van Niekerk with his trusty lieutenants Cepeda Hernandez and Kipkemboi. All three of them were in the first group on the opening stage but played no part in the dash to the line. On the second stage all three of them were near the front helping each other out, with the South African coming close to victory but had to concede to Gesbert in the final meters. The Ecuadrian finished in fifth and the Kenyan in seventh to complete a great stage result. On the final stage only Van Niekerk managed to mix amongst the front, without support fifth is the best he could sprint. In the GC this also combined to fifth place, with a great secondary showing from Cepeda Hernandez in sixteenth for a great closer of the month.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Robert Stannard	Everesting	12h19'20
5	Aidan Van Niekerk	Minions	+ 27
16	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Minions	+ 1'52
31	Salim Kipkemboi	Minions	+ 2'48
150	Michael Boros	Minions	+ 33'11
157	Luca Dressler[/b]	Minions	+ 35'55
158	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	+ 36'29
169	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	+ 40'31
177	Enzo Paleni	Minions	+ 46'17

Rating:

Rankings

We started and finished off strongly, but the middle part of the month was not very fruitful though we picked up some points along the way. We have lost one place to be exactly tenth, but with promotion positions still somewhat in sight and the relegation line far behind us. July only has two races, so maintaining our position seems difficult at first. Van Niekerk defends his position as best scoring rider after his performance in USAPCC, while Reis gains some ground after his performance in California.

Pos	Last		Team	Total	RD	PpRD	Proj
1	1		Specialized	2055	112	18,35	2991
2	4		Ekoi - Le Creuset	1979	92	21,51	3506
3	3		Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	1933	114	16,96	2764
4	2		DK Zalgiris	1897	92	20,62	3361
5	10		Lotto-Caloi	1863	110	16,94	2761
6	5		Bolt - Eesti	1861	102	18,25	2975
7	6		Assa Abloy	1782	96	18,56	3025
8	7		MOL Cycling Team	1770	101	17,52	2856
9	8		Hunter Valley Cycling	1732	104	16,65	2714
10	9		Minions	1696	111	15,28	2491
11	13		Trans Looney Tunes	1688	101	16,71	2724
12	14		Spark Team NZ	1519	105	14,47	2359
13	11		McCormick Pro Cycling	1437	104	13,82	2253
14	12		Tryg - Eni	1424	85	16,75	2730
15	17		Zwift - Newton Foundation	1404	110	12,76	2080
16	16		Duvel-Tsingtao	1339	108	12,4	2021
17	15		Bralirwa - Cegeka	1306	105	12,44	2028
18	19		Everesting	1284	107	12	1956
19	22		Colombini Kometa	1173	98	11,97	1951
20	18		JEWA TIROL	1126	89	12,65	2062
21	20		Sauber Petronas Racing	1038	103	10,08	1643
22	21		Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh	872	93	9,38	1529
23	23		IESE ProCycling Team	681	112	6,08	991
24	24		DeNA Roadstars	321	99	3,24	528

Pos	Last	Rider	Nat		Team	Total Points
1	3	Neilson Powless	USA		Colombini Kometa	827
21	20	Aidan Van Niekerk	RSA		Minions	351
48	36	Mathias De Witte	BEL		Minions	205
50	39	Mikkel Bjerg	DEN		Minions	202
64	104	Rafael Reis	POR		Minions	170
68	87	Xhuliano Kamberaj	ALB		Minions	167
77	93	Dusan Kalaba	SER		Minions	141
80	72	Yoann Paillot	FRA		Minions	136
84	68	Michael Boros	CZE		Minions	135
157	139	Salim Kipkemboi	KEN		Minions	63
177	201	Einer Augusto Rubio	COL		Minions	48
228	251	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	ECU		Minions	28
256	245	Andris Vosekalns	LAT		Minions	21
333	303	Bernard Ndungu	KEN		Minions	8
361	508	Dayer Quintana	COL		Minions	6
375	375	Jhonatan Casillas	MEX		Minions	5
396	364	Zhihui Jiang	CHN		Minions	4
409	374	Faycal Hamza	ALG		Minions	3
433	398	Luca Dressler	GER		Minions	2
452	423	Enzo Paleni	FRA		Minions	1

The summer approaches, and many riders and staff take their holiday to go away with their family. Hence we only race six days in this month, spread over a classic and a five-day stage race in the same general area of the world. All incentive then to maximize our performance and not give our rivals an easy ticket to overtake us in the rankings.

Clasica San Sebastian

Race one is a PTHC hilly classic in Spain. Van Niekerk has tough competition but we expect a good result. The South African missed out on the battle for the win, but kept his head up in the battle for the minor placements, finishing just outside the top ten in twelfth. Cepeda Hernandez and Kipkemboi pick up some minor points as well.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Miguel Angel Lopez	Evonik - ELKO	5h22'41
12	Aidan Van Niekerk	Minions	+ 37
38	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	Minions	+ 3'18
50	Salim Kipkemboi	Minions	s.t.
137	Luca Dressler	Minions	+ 11'43
164	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	+ 15'13
175	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	+ 18'25
176	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	+ 20'15
187	Enzo Paleni	Minions	+ 26'13

Rating:

Tour d'Andorra

Race two is a HC mountain race in Andorra. Reis has not set the world light for us so far but he enters the race as reigning and defending champion, and with all stages including mountains and his specialty, a mountain time trial. On the first time, we realized that last year's results mean jack shit because the Portuguese finished twentieth and lost nearly five minutes. The tactics could go overboard, we only focused on breakaways. Guavita gained experience on the second stage but the breakaway was unsuccessful. Vosekalns' attempt on stage three fared much better, taking some KoM points for a polka dot assault and finishing seventh on the stage, but could have been on the podium had he not collapsed in the final kilometer. Reis did have a decent MTT with the sixth best time, but with further time losses the day before and after, nineteenth overall is simply shockingly bad.

Pos	Rider	Team	Time
1	Joao Almeida	MOL Cycling Team	18h25'00
19	Rafael Reis	Minions	+ 14'52
37	Einer Augusto Rubio	Minions	+ 25'53
42	Andris Vosekalns	Minions	+ 29'46
92	Dayer Quintana	Minions	+ 1h26'00
142	Cesar David Guavita	Minions	+ 1h59'06
158	Fausto Agustin Gomez	Minions	+ 2h09'17
178	Bernard Ndungu	Minions	+ 2h28'05
190	Enzo Paleni	Minions	+ 3h09'05

Rating:

Rankings

One acceptable race, one unacceptable race. The fact we only lost two places in the rankings might even be considered good news. The goal of promotion seems to be getting out of reach, the immediate focus should be getting back into the top ten, so the next few months we need to give it everything. Vosekalns being the only rider to gain places in the individual rankings should say enough, Van Niekerk is still at the top and does not deserve any of the bad mood we're writing this in, but the fact De Witte is our second best rider (again no offense) is also surprising to put it unoffensive.

Pos	Last		Team	Total	RD	PpRD	Proj
1	2		Ekoi - Le Creuset	2418	111	21,78	3550
2	5		Lotto-Caloi	2393	127	18,84	3071
3	1		Specialized	2350	127	18,5	3016
4	6		Bolt - Eesti	2346	119	19,71	3213
5	8		MOL Cycling Team	2306	124	18,6	3032
6	4		DK Zalgiris	2149	106	20,27	3304
7	13		McCormick Pro Cycling	2098	125	16,78	2735
8	11		Trans Looney Tunes	2014	122	16,51	2691
9	3		Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team	1990	121	16,45	2681
10	7		Assa Abloy	1971	113	17,44	2843
11	17		Bralirwa - Cegeka	1824	118	15,46	2520
12	10		Minions	1761	118	14,92	2432
13	9		Hunter Valley Cycling	1759	109	16,14	2631
14	14		Tryg - Eni	1671	104	16,07	2619
15	12		Spark Team NZ	1654	118	14,02	2285
16	16		Duvel-Tsingtao	1630	127	12,83	2091
17	18		Everesting	1540	124	12,42	2024
18	15		Zwift - Newton Foundation	1485	115	12,91	2104
19	19		Colombini Kometa	1475	115	12,83	2091
20	21		Sauber Petronas Racing	1205	116	10,39	1694
21	20		JEWA TIROL	1174	100	11,74	1914
22	22		Simba Cement - Tanga Fresh	1078	112	9,63	1570
23	23		IESE ProCycling Team	797	121	6,59	1074
24	24		DeNA Roadstars	469	116	4,04	659

Pos	Last	Rider	Nat		Team	Total Points
1	1	Neilson Powless	USA		Colombini Kometa	827
26	21	Aidan Van Niekerk	RSA		Minions	379
60	48	Mathias De Witte	BEL		Minions	205
61	50	Mikkel Bjerg	DEN		Minions	202
69	64	Rafael Reis	POR		Minions	191
78	68	Xhuliano Kamberaj	ALB		Minions	167
95	77	Dusan Kalaba	SER		Minions	141
97	80	Yoann Paillot	FRA		Minions	136
100	84	Michael Boros	CZE		Minions	135
169	157	Salim Kipkemboi	KEN		Minions	65
187	177	Einer Augusto Rubio	COL		Minions	53
248	228	Jefferson Cepeda Hernandez	ECU		Minions	30
255	256	Andris Vosekalns	LAT		Minions	28
352	333	Bernard Ndungu	KEN		Minions	8
374	361	Dayer Quintana	COL		Minions	6
391	375	Jhonatan Casillas	MEX		Minions	5
408	396	Zhihui Jiang	CHN		Minions	4
421	409	Faycal Hamza	ALG		Minions	3
441	433	Luca Dressler	GER		Minions	2
461	452	Enzo Paleni	FRA		Minions	1