Not a great result for us. Not that the expectations were high, but Adomaitis missing both sprints and Latour fading on the final kms of this final climb feels a bit underwhelming. Plus Riccitello 10min+ down on the U25 rank isnt ideal.
MAL crushing the field as it was to be expected. Congrats knockout!
Disappointing race from Peak, and slightly concerning to see him opting not to use his leadout - it isn't as strong as it could be, but not really much weaker than last season's. Still, not too far off what I would have hoped for in terms of scoring from him here even if he only really performed on one stage.
On the other hand, Ardila met expectations completely, and with some good depth scoring from Ndayisenga in particular this race was a definite success. This and Colombia are the best chances on our calendar for Ardila to pull out a good GC, but seeing him perform on both mountain stages and being beaten only by MAL gives me some hope going forward that he can compete elsewhere. Particularly looking forward to seeing how he does in the first fortnight of the Vuelta where there are a number of similar stages to the ones here.
Congratulations to knockout on an expected, but nonetheless impressive, win, and thanks Abhi for the reports!
... and with some good depth scoring from Ndayisenga in particular this race was a definite success.
Awesome to see Ndayisenga do so well. This was better than anything he ever did for us at this level, it suits him well to be the lieutenant to one of the top favourites, it seems. Never got that chance with us.
Would've loved to see something at least somewhat similar from Wellens this race, but that's a minor gripe. 5th overall for Amezawa is really nice. I was quite afraid when he missed the crucial selection on the final stage, but apparently he was just strong enough to compensate for that on his own.
Thank you very much for the reports, and congrats to knockout for the expected but still hard-fought win!
