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Continental Rankings 2014: Meiji retain Asia title
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 01-03-2015 22:58
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Africa
The first continent to complete racing is Africa and there was a change of lead at the final race. Gazelle moves past Kenya Airways to top the rankings, denying the African squad their sponsor goal after the Kenyans did not turn up in Faso to fight for the title. Tour of South Africa was the key race for both teams. Ben Nasser won GC, but Gazelle scored more ranking points thanks to Monfort and Oss.
Oz and Meiji move into the Top 5 thanks to Tour du Faso, while La Vie Claire are 5th after winning Tropicale Amissa Bongo. Euskaltel are the sole CT team in the Top 10, thanks to victory in the C2HC Tour d'Algerie.
Jaguar-Eritel and Project:Africa finished 10th and 20th, with African races not having been the key focus of their seasons, despite their nationality.
| 1 |  | Gazelle | PCT | 610 | | 2 |  | Team Kenya Airways | PCT | 534 | | 3 |  | Oz Cycling Project | PCT | 516 | | 4 |  | Meiji - Cannondale | PCT | 471 | | 5 |  | La Vie Claire | PCT | 467 | | 6 |  | Quickstep | PCT | 447 | | 7 |  | Bacardi Limited | PCT | 395 | | 8 |  | Team Puma - SAP | PCT | 375 | | 9 |  | Euskaltel - Bavaria | CT | 343 | | 10 |  | Jaguar - Eritel | PCT | 320 | | 11 |  | Repsol-Cativen | PCT | 320 | | 12 |  | Team Hornbach | PCT | 308 | | 13 |  | Team CSC - Orbea | PCT | 307 | | 14 |  | ONCE-Eroski Cycling Team | CT | 301 | | 15 |  | Venchi - Ferranti | PCT | 279 | | 16 |  | RBC Pro Cycling | PCT | 273 | | 17 |  | Magna-Ryanair | PCT | 270 | | 18 |  | Karcher-Adira Racing | PCT | 225 | | 19 |  | Swedbank-PEAB | PCT | 223 | | 20 |  | Project: Africa | PCT | 219 |
America
American squads dominate the America Tour standings with all of the Top 7 registered somewhere on the American continent (plus Bermuda). Heineken take these rankings in emphatic fashion.
But how about the 3 CT squads in the Top 5? Benefiting the points scoring system of C2HC and that over half of American races were C2 or C2HC, Bonsurco, Nutresa and Azteca can all be very satisfied with their performance here.
| 1 | Heineken-Cal Giant | PCT | 1363 | | 2 | Repsol-Cativen | PCT | 841 | | 3 | Bonsucro | CT | 817 | | 4 | Grupo Nutresa | CT | 707 | | 5 | Azteca-NBCSN | CT | 603 | | 6 | Bacardi Limited | PCT | 541 | | 7 | AMEXpc | PCT | 539 | | 8 | ONCE-Eroski Cycling Team | CT | 536 | | 9 | Kazzinc Procycling | PCT | 534 | | 10 | Team CSC - Orbea | PCT | 530 | | 11 | Siam Cement - Lenovo | CT | 503 | | 12 | Risa - Ergon | CT | 499 | | 13 | Kappa - ENI | PCT | 470 | | 14 | Gazelle | PCT | 450 | | 15 | In-n-Out Racing p/b Auchan | CT | 442 | | 16 | Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling | CT | 417 | | 17 | Wounded Warrior | CT | 416 | | 18 | Jaguar - Eritel | PCT | 414 | | 19 | Oz Cycling Project | PCT | 413 | | 20 | Team Chiquita-Universal | CT | 402 |
Spoiler | 21 | Boeing-Bulgaria Bicycling | PCT | 383 | | 22 | Magna-Ryanair | PCT | 369 | | 23 | Mobil - Aeropostal Ciclismo | PCT | 364 | | 24 | La Vie Claire | PCT | 349 | | 25 | Team Puma - SAP | PCT | 343 | | 26 | FCB - Polska | PCT | 320 | | 27 | Privatbank - Nemiroff | PCT | 287 | | 28 | Karcher-Adira Racing | PCT | 281 | | 29 | Quickstep | PCT | 280 | | 30 | Team Carlsberg - Danske Bank | CT | 279 | | 31 | Evonik - Signal Iduna | CT | 275 | | 32 | Dell - 361° Racing | CT | 272 | | 33 | Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo Cycling Team | CT | 265 | | 34 | Euskaltel - Bavaria | CT | 258 | | 35 | Venchi - Ferranti | PCT | 256 | | 36 | Metinvest-Emirates | PCT | 250 | | 37 | BelarusBank Pro Cycling | PCT | 245 | | 38 | Team Ameriabank-Novatek | CT | 244 | | 39 | Sauber Petronas | CT | 226 | | 40 | Team TomTom | CT | 215 | | 41 | Team Vontobel | CT | 213 | | 42 | Maloja Mountain Nomads | CT | 212 | | 43 | Team Hornbach | PCT | 207 | | 44 | Swedbank-PEAB | PCT | 206 | | 45 | Team ASDA-Savers | CT | 190 | | 46 | Eddie Stobart Pro Cycling | CT | 185 | | 47 | Meiji - Cannondale | PCT | 181 | | 48 | Project: Africa | PCT | 174 | | 49 | RBC Pro Cycling | PCT | 169 | | 50 | Alpina - Avianca | CT | 161 | | 51 | Team Kenya Airways | PCT | 127 | | 52 | Fletcher-Garneau | CT | 127 | | 53 | Team Live Nation | CT | 123 | | 54 | Allianz-BMW | PCT | 81 | | 55 | Team Nordeus | CT | 37 | | 56 | Compal-Merida | PCT | 23 |
Asia
The Asia tour ended with two key races in Beijing and Japan and these had a big effect on the final shape up of the standings, including at the very top. Quickstep had held the lead but Meiji - Cannondale did enough in Beijing to take the lead, and held on in Japan, to win the Asia tour rankings for the 2nd year running.
The rest of the Top 6 all did well in the final two races - most notably FCB Polska with Betancourt. They take 3rd, ahead of promoting teams Bacardi, Oz and Venchi.
There's quite a PCT dominance at the top, so Asian sponsored CT squads Sauber and Siam Cement faced a tough battle, despite being best of their division. They take 13th and 15th positions. Not that it was easy for all Asian PCT squads either, with Compal down in 21st.
| | Team | Total | Division | AS | | 1 | | Meiji - Cannondale | 2661 | PCT | 1014 | | 2 | | Quickstep | 5210 | PCT | 939 | | 3 |  | FCB - Polska | 2464 | PCT | 804 | | 4 | | Bacardi Limited | 4087 | PCT | 802 | | 5 | | Oz Cycling Project | 4731 | PCT | 740 | | 6 | | Venchi - Ferranti | 4152 | PCT | 721 | | 7 | | Karcher-Adira Racing | 2100 | PCT | 647 | | 8 | | Team CSC - Orbea | 3560 | PCT | 606 | | 9 | | RBC Pro Cycling | 2127 | PCT | 589 | | 10 | | Magna-Ryanair | 2480 | PCT | 558 | | 11 | | Team Puma - SAP | 2478 | PCT | 552 | | 12 | | Jaguar - Eritel | 3093 | PCT | 539 | | 13 |  | Sauber Petronas | 1289 | CT | 490 | | 14 |  | Heineken-Cal Giant | 4745 | PCT | 460 | | 15 |  | Siam Cement - Lenovo | 1538 | CT | 452 | | 16 | | La Vie Claire | 2715 | PCT | 429 | | 17 | | Gazelle | 3270 | PCT | 398 | | 18 |  | Fletcher-Garneau | 1008 | CT | 397 | | 19 | | Swedbank-PEAB | 2345 | PCT | 354 | | 20 |  | Bonsucro | 1793 | CT | 347 |
Edited by SportingNonsense on 08-03-2015 00:07
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 02-03-2015 06:34
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Directeur Sportif
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Gratz DD 
We had a pretty good year in Africa. Obviously Faso and ToSA as the keys here.
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 02-03-2015 06:37
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Congratulations to Gazelle, though it would have been great to see an African team take this one.
Also it's always nice to see a rankings update that haven't got Live Nation as worst team
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 02-03-2015 06:59
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Grand Tour Champion
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Yay, last  
Congratulations to Gazelle
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| Heine |
Posted on 02-03-2015 07:42
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Gazelle has had an amazing season. I would never have guessed before the season started that they would get the amount of points they have been getting. Pretty much been doing what I call a "Smowz". Amazing PCT depth. Iirc it seems like Gazelle is promoting. Really looking forward to seeing what you are able to do in the PT. I guess you have to do a complete overhaul of the squad.
PS: I'm kinda dissapointed that Jaguar and Project have done that bad in Africa... But as you write, they have focused racing elsewhere
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 23-11-2024 03:23
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| jph27 |
Posted on 02-03-2015 07:46
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Congrats to Gazelle! DD has proved his planning genius once again this season.
I'll happily take 5th in Africa despite not entering all the races - Faso would have been great for us with our TTT squad, but you can't predict the future, so I'm still very happy. |
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| CountArach |
Posted on 02-03-2015 08:28
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Congrats to Gazelle.
In the last few years the key to promotion has been to do well in Africa as races tend to be undersubscribed and thus profitable. It is thus interesting to see that while Gazelle are well up the division and may promote, it is a team on the cusp of relegation who are in second place. That reflects how much stronger the African teams are than they have been in the past.
Edited by CountArach on 02-03-2015 08:30
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 02-03-2015 10:08
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Thanks guys! The African calendar suited the team, featuring plenty of hills and cobblestones. Apparently our riders also enjoy riding there, because their performance has been great. Gazelles are African animals after all.
I do, however, feel bad for denying Kenya Airways the win. That such a significant portion of their points has been scored in Africa shows their impressive dedication to the region and this award would've been very well deserved. I hope to see them lift the trophy next year.
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| Scorchio |
Posted on 02-03-2015 14:13
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Impressive showing by Gazelle, congrats to DD. Good to see Team Kenya being so competitive on home soil, sure they will be back fighting for this title again next year.
Manager of ISA - Hexacta in the MG |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 02-03-2015 14:27
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Congratulations to Gazelle, at second glance the roster indeed resembles Jayco's incredible promotion squad as some pointed out.
Smowz managed to convert that into a successful PT team, I'm excited to see what DD will be able to do with this foundation.
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| Smowz |
Posted on 02-03-2015 14:39
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Feeling a lot of love here 
To be fair in some aspects DD's squad is better than my squad - my squad was built with a bunch of aging veterens that I had to get rid of - I was also lucky it was back in the day when you could pick and choose less populra races. I pwned the Asian calender in my year, I certainly think though a great squad depth is nice for PCT.
Nobody really walloped the standings though and that the team in second on the cusp of relegation underlines how much harder it is in the calender these days.
Great work DD either one of the favs for PCT title next year or surprisers in PT (eerily similar progressions to Alakagom - sure thats not you Alak?)
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 02-03-2015 15:59
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World Champion
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Well done Gazelle!
Also, Lierse - Pizza Ullo did not race in Africa, so it is a bit unfair to place them tied last in the ranking. We asked to be removed from the ranking.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 02-03-2015 16:58
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Congrats Gazelle, they have been really consistent this year and deserve this and I don't mind losing to them as another promoting team.
We really did go all-out to try and win this, and it would have been nice to take the title. However, I don't regret not going to Faso, as we probably wouldn't have got many points and could have been relegated as a result. I'll take 3 goals completed and 2 near misses though and we'll be back next year to try and win this.
Edited by FroomeDog99 on 02-03-2015 16:58
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| Margh Norway |
Posted on 03-03-2015 14:43
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Gratz to Gazelle!
...and gratz to Euskaltel for being victorious in the internal CT-battle. Remember well the cheeky way they won the key race in Algeria.
Very satisfied with our Africa Tour campaign. We'll never forget this years Tour d'Rwanda were Marcel Wyss secured Vontobels first stage wins and mastered the race in a dominant fashion.
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 03-03-2015 15:54
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Tour de France Champion
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Congratulations to all at Team Gazelle |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 03-03-2015 16:06
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Tour de France Champion
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22nd for B3B. The African Tour has been very kind to us (we don't mention Faso!) this year with excellent performances in Stage Races, Cobbles and Classics.
Gazelle desereve winners of this one. Great team, bit o luck and a title is yours. Kenya so close, but at least they can have another strong tilt next season
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 06-03-2015 18:09
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America Tour added
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 06-03-2015 18:11
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We raced as many American races as possible and still finished outside the Top20.... ughh...
Dominant from Heineken, no-one even close. Amazing win for them that lays the strong foundations to their promotion season. Congrats are due ofcourse
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 06-03-2015 18:11
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World Champion
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>Puts goal as to win the America Tour
>Finishes 23rd
Sounds about right. |
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 06-03-2015 18:13
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Grand Tour Champion
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Wait, we're nowhere near the bottom 
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![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
