The PCT is the only division with promotion and relegations and this way having 10 highly interesting spots to either grab or avoid and then a large middle area.
First of all, ISA - Hexacta was able to remain in the top spot winning the PCT crown in 2019. Congrats on this huge performance.
Just a bit behind Volvo and Rakuten. Both had a good Japan Cup and closed the gap but the 1-2-3 remained in the same order and all of them really had a great season being quite a bit ahead of the rest.
To make it short. UBS and cycleYorkshire remain in the next spots and will promote to the PT. The gap though was a lot closer and it all could have changed with a single race.
The unlucky 6th spot, which doesn`t lead to automatic promotion goes to Team Pluchkin or as Japan Cup showed, it`s more than a one-rider-team. Popo4ever with a better season as the last but still Pluchkin couldn`t carry them into the promotion area.
This late score by Prevar in Japan moves them up 2 spots, we`ll see how much this is worth. This also means that both Delvaux and Campari drop a spot.
Duolingo and Valio as final teams in the top10 closely beating Desigual to 11th.
The relegation fight was maybe the closest in couple years with several teams still involved in the final race and we even got a last minute swap with a big decision.
Sauber, Philips and Europcar basically had no more chance to change the outcome. Carlsberg would have needed a much bigger race. So those 4 teams are going down into the CT to regroup.
Then it was a super closer decision between Kulczyk, ENI-MOL, Andorra and Carrefour. In the end only 28 points seperate those 4 with Carrefour losing out on the final safe spot as Andorra`s top10 in Japan made them pass the team to safety.
So Carrefour joins the mentioned 4 down to the CT division while the others are lucky to be safe. Swisslion with Beltran the team, that was expected to save themselves in Japan while all the middle teams were safe beforehead but with some teams clearly a bit disappointed not to make it towards the promotion spots.
1
1
ISA - Hexacta
3987
174
22,91
4009
2
2
Volvo acc. by Spotify
3832
175
21,9
3833
3
3
Rakuten Pro Cycling
3769
175
21,54
3770
4
4
Team UBS
3281
175
18,75
3281
5
5
cycleYorkshire
3258
175
18,62
3259
6
8
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
3167
175
18,1
3168
7
6
Delvaux
3124
175
17,85
3124
8
7
Campari/Asahi development
3119
175
17,82
3119
9
9
Duolingo
3015
175
17,23
3015
10
10
Valio - Viking Genetics
2948
175
16,85
2949
11
11
Desigual
2932
175
16,75
2931
12
12
Xero Racing
2800
174
16,09
2816
13
13
Kraftwerk Man Machine
2765
175
15,8
2765
14
14
Minions
2759
175
15,77
2760
15
15
Iberia - Team Degenkolb
2722
175
15,55
2721
16
16
Berg Cycles
2627
175
15,01
2627
17
17
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
2621
175
14,98
2622
18
20
Swisslion Cycling Team
2310
175
13,2
2310
19
19
Kulczyk - Alitalia
2256
175
12,89
2256
20
18
ENI - MOL
2247
175
12,84
2247
21
22
Andorra Cycling Project
2233
175
12,76
2233
22
21
Carrefour - ESPN
2228
175
12,73
2228
23
23
Carlsberg - Danske Bank
2170
175
12,4
2170
24
24
Team Europcar
2093
175
11,96
2093
25
25
Philips
1874
175
10,71
1874
26
26
Sauber Petronas Racing
1639
175
9,37
1640
Individual Ranking
Pluchkin takes the individual crown as expected with Beltran being best of the rest.
Late Ahlstrand moves up to 3rd being the best sprinter with Martin and Izagirre following.
Kinoshita the best pure puncheur without climbing or time trial skills while Tenorio as 7th dropped a bit more in the end.
Degenkolb and Guarnieri as next best sprinter followed by Uran and Coppel as best time trialist.
Who would've guessed that, great job by ISA-Hexacta. Perfect season really, with overperformances left and right hinting towards great planning and perfect team compositions. Depth really paid off.
Congrats also to Volvo, Rakuten, UBS and cycleYorkshire for promoting, fantastic work!
Heartbreak for Carrefour on the bottom, they've really been unlucky. Maybe they get the Lierse-treatment for one more year.
Awesome to see my guys from Swisslion saving themselves, Beltran has been on a rampage all season and they richly deserved to stay up. Outstanding work!
Thank you for all the rankings throughout the season, roturn!
Croatia14 wrote:
Heartbreak for Carrefour on the bottom, they've really been unlucky. Maybe they get the Lierse-treatment for one more year.
Would really appreciate the opportunity to stay up considering it was only a 5 point difference compared to Lierse's 60 point or so difference that year, but also I can't say we don't deserve to go down honestly considering how much my mess-ups in renewals last off-season tanked our season. CT or PCT, lot of changes have to be made here.
Also, shoutout ISA for an unreal season. Obviously winning is great but it's even more impressive when you consider they had no one in the individual top 20 and only 2 guys in the top 50. Really exemplifying the all-around nature that seems to thrive in the PCT with great race planning. Congrats!
Never in my worst nightmares did I think we'd relegate but here we are
Congrats to ISA on a great season. Absolutely top class performances throughout! Congrats to all the promoting teams as well
For those joining us in going down to the CT, I guess all I can say is see you again next season, and I'm sure all of us will be pushing hard to get back to the PCT at the first attempt.
For us, this pushes back our team's targets by a couple of seasons at least. Need to regroup and come back with a better gameplan than this season.
It’s been a productive season. Seventh is slighly better than I expected following race planning, so I’m fairly happy even though we narrowly miss out on promotion. Very happy with Guarnieri, Gallopin, Hermans and van der Haar in particular, whereas Schreurs, Breen and Kreder have done alright. Ignatiev really the only big disappointment for me, but I think he has potential to do a job for us next year if we utilize him a little differently.
Congrats to all the promoting teams and ISA in particular! They’ve been performing consistently at a high level and really deserve the win. Should have a good base to build upon for PT as well, with their impressive depth.
Commiserations to the relegating teams and thank you to everyone who’s helped out with reports and other tasks behind the scenes throughout this season. Special thanks to jph who’s really driven the season forwards with his many and fast paced reports!
Guess I can only call this season a huge success, and we're surely more than a 1-man team with 5 guys winning stuff this year. Obviously Pluchkin and Prever, but also Lutsyshyn, Riabushenko and our cult-hero Krasnoperov.
Surely something we can build on with some riders that improve this season, most notably Padun who joins the 80+MO guys gang, and also Kanepejs, Budyak, Rikunov and Pronskiy. Pluchkin will somewhat decline though, as will Polivoda, Krasnoperov and Kononenko. Perhaps that gives us room to negotiate a better wage, and allow us to bring in another top class rider in PCT next season?
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
Newly promoted teams did well, only one going straight back. Sadly our Popo friends barely missed out, but its a small negative when looking at the big picture that screams Philips has been relegated. CT will be fun next year
Before the season, I hoped to challenge from promotion. When it became clear it wasn't going to happen, I resorted to finishing in the top ten, as that was our season goal. Even failing that is a huge disappointment in my eyes. From the new riders, Claeys was decent but not spectacular, but it was Vantomme which has really cost me a lot of points. We even finished a position down on previous season despite scoring more points. Once again, Uran was the most important rider with another individual top ten, though his decline will now set in. For next season, it is either a complete rebuild or the hope that elder riders are still good.
Congratulations to Scorchio for winning the division! I think few saw it coming but the team has been a consistent points scorer in all races, which is the way to go apparently. Also congratulations to the other teams guaranteed of promotion! My commisserations to the relegating team, hoping they can bounce back next season!
Thanks roturn for keeping the game going, all reporters, everyone else helping out behind the scenes and all other managers for keeping the game fun, even though some frustrations regarding AI this season.
Thank you to all the reporters/support team who made this year possible and huge congrats to ISA on the win. I'm excited to be able to rejoin the PT and there will have to be some major changes in the squad to not immediately relegate, since we are pretty much built to be competitive in the PCT as it stands.
Such a close relegation battle between Andorra and Carrefour, really could have gone either way. Also bummed to see Sauber going down after just a year in the PCT, hopefully sammy is able to build on his squad and bounce back up.
Lost a lot near the end, so hard not to be just a little disappointed, that said survival was the intention starting the season and did that with a margin.
Some good over performances, Bellis and Koren spring to mind as well as Tennant. The only disappointment was the significant under performance from Enger really was a bummer to be fair, lucky it was only really limited to him.
Finishing solidly in the mid table was the aim, but to enjoy our first "legit" promotion is something I will enjoy quite a bit! Thanks to Roturn and the reporters for their efforts this season, it was really appreciated!
Congrats to the fellow promoting teams, especially ISA - delivering an unexpected title win with good squad building and team management, well done!
Also hope the relegating teams can rebuild well, its not fun but it can be an opportunity to refocus your team!
John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25
Holy shit! I can't believe, last couple months I lost track of MG time and I was from the start confident I wouldn't have an issue staying in PCT with Summerhill and Machado performing well. My god when I realized I was so close to relegating all world came to reality of how fucked up my transfers were regarding Puncheurs (I think Dowsett didnt get me a single point).
I was so shocked and relieved yet so sad that a fellow team went into the relegation spot just for 5 points, I'm hoping that maxime can stay afloat in PCT but at the same time I wish for no-one to disband.
Congratulations for all of the teams promoting specially Volvo, gotta say I won't miss Stallaert challenging Summerhill in the cobbles, and I can't wait to see what new competition is coming over to challenge next season
Pretty wild to see some of the promoted teams, massive congrats all around! Looking ath the teams coming down I am quite happy with the fact that we're going up. Gotta really feel for Maxime with that 5 point diff tho
Pretty good season for us, looked awful then brilliant and ended up about where we expected before those huge mood swings Just missed out on the Top 10 goal which is a bit of a shame but a constructive season it feels like even though we only rose one spot. Core still building and with only a slight decline for Venter, early planning looks like it might just be booting Dyrnes and one or two stags and keeping the rest then seeing what we have to play with.
Bennett's training seems to have been a good choice, doubling his points almost. Can't wait for him to play off of 77/77 Areruya next season. Houle didn't always fire but a decent addition who can hopefully improve next season, but sadly might not have the best job security if he doesn't take a wage cut and/or see an improved calendar for his skillset. Rowe and Debesay underfired all year on the cobbles but did decently elsewhere. Areruya and Grmay both decent enough in the 100-150 point range. Dyrnes and Bazhkou both very unfortunate underachievers, Bazhkou can be justified on his wage even if he should be so much better, Dyrnes can't and I feel he might be off. Looking forward to the return of a maxed out Jams after his 115th place in the PT, as well as Schleck and Schreurs as solid lieutenants (or at least solid memes in the case of the former), MVN maxing out possibly good enough for some TT results, and Areruya to start netting some decent GC and U25 points after getting enough XP to not need a PT loan.
What a brilliant season for ISA - Hexacta, congrats Scorchio. Very cool to see two more of our promoting class heading up with cycleYorkshire as well - my team will be very glad to see the back of Bellis Happy to see Rakuten going up as well after a while, and Volvo and UBS making a speedy return too, congrats everyone!
Obviously really gutted about Philips relegating, as with Netia last time out I trust them to bounce back quick and rejoin us here ASAP.
Thanks to every single reporter, admin or other helper for keeping the game running and all the other managers for a great season!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
Three years in a row, I failed in transfers. Most teams don't get that many chances. I did. I got 3 chances to get a real stage racer and solidify my place in the division. And I failed every time.
Six years in, and now I've got to blow it all up. It's not what I imagined, or planned for. Honestly, it's devastating - way more than it should be, or I thought it would be. No matter how much I expected it, it never really suck in. It was never real. And now it is.
I took a big risk signing so many talents last year (even if it was my only option), and I've paid the price. Now most of them will get to go to greener pastures after milking a high salary training year off me. But I created that problem myself.
I'd say this season had its ups and downs, and it did. There was the Warbasse ToA, and some great races for VSB, who had a consistent year. Plus some fun breakaways. But ultimately, PCM 18 (and my planning) just hit too many of my riders square in the head with a baseball bat. The downs were constant.
These point decreases from last year just couldn't be made up elsewhere on my team.
In total that's 676 fewer points from my non-cobbled leaders compared to last year. Obviously, I can't blame anyone or anything for that but myself. Everyone knows JJ and Appo overperformed in previous seasons. But they didn't drop off the top tier, they dropped off the face of the earth. And even adding Warbasse's overperformance couldn't make up for it. Meanwhile, Nolf tripling his point totals this year might be the even more frustrating thought in hindsight.
So that's it. We're a CT team. Everything I built that last 6 and a half years was for naught. It's back to the drawing board for a reboot. My sentimentality has always hurt me in renewals and transfers, but this will require a new level of resilience.
I loved racing on the PCT circuit. I loved the amount of races. I loved how much planning there was with multiple leaders. I loved the diversity of the fields. I loved the huge transfers and talent battles. Even if I did them all poorly, I loved them. But I blew it, and they're gone.
Damn.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
I haven't been active for the last month, but I know we've been tightrope walking on that relegation line for a while. So to finish 4 places above the relegation spots is fantastic It also feels great to outperform predictions again, I'm looking at you Conglomerate fools (just kidding )
Luckily the races in the last month were always going to suit our leaders. Beltran put in 2 monster performances to win Milano - Torino and Emelia which made his slight Japan underperformance nonconsequential. Ciolek again had a really solid sprinters stage race in South Africa, while Bilbao and the rest provided the small trickle of points necessary.
As some other managers, our transfer season was hectic and full of mistakes, but we got the 2 most important deals right. Bilbao got hit hard by the game change and our lack of depth was always frowned upon. Through some luck and bidding drama we were able to get Ciolek and with all his faults, he still managed to score almost 500 pts, which was our hope.
But it was the signing of Beltran for 1050k that was the difference between relegation and survival. 2 GC victories, 2 classics wins and 3 stage wins. The man scored 1368 pts, 59% of our total points #PCTMVP
Congrats to ISA - Hexacta and all the other promoting teams, and commiserations to all the teams relegating teams.
It also feels great to outperform predictions again, I'm looking at you Conglomerate fools (just kidding 
